SERIES – Season 1 of Drops of God is definitely a very good vintage. The series Apple TV+ on wine and oenology (broadcast on France 2 in spring 2024) received the prize for best drama series at the International Emmy Awards. During this 52nd edition which took place on Monday November 25 in New York, Drops of God won ahead of the Australian series The Newsreaderthe Indian remake of The Night Manager and the Argentinian series Iosi, El Espia Arrepentido.
The series with Fleur Geffrier and Tomohisa Yamashita enters the history of French creations and productions by becoming the fourth series to win this prestigious award. She succeeds Braquo, The Returned And Gears awarded before her.
The Franco-Japanese series is taken from the 44 volumes of the manga of the same name, written by Tadashi Agi (a pseudonym which actually hides a brother and sister, Shin and Yuko Kibayashi) and illustrated by Shu Okimoto, sold more than 15 million copies in the world since 2008. Editions Glénat have sold more than 1.5 million in France which, remember, is the second largest market in world of manga after Japan.
The mini-series follows Camille (Fleur Geffrier), a Parisian whose father, an oenologist and author of a renowned wine guide, has just died in Japan. When her will is read, the one who cannot stand alcohol discovers that she must face Issei Tomine (Tomohisa Yamashita), student and “spiritual son” of the deceased, during three wine-related tests, to inherit his collection of great wines.
Apple TV+
Tomohisa Yamashita and Fleur Geffrier in “Les Gouttes de Dieu”, series available on France.tv since Monday May 27
In the original comic, the main character is a man, must face not 3 but 13 challenges, and the whole story takes place in Japan. But screenwriter Quoc Dang Tran (Don’t do this, don’t do that, Kabul Kitchen) had the good idea of including his French touch. “ I introduced a little French touch and this new notion of a clash between France and Japan. And it works, because there is this French perception of Japan, which sees this country as a land of tradition, adept at a certain meticulousness. This made possible this duality between the characters, one Japanese, the other French, around the theme of wine. ”, he explain.
Tour in Japan, Thailand, Italy and obviously France – notably in Châteauneuf-du-Pape (Vaucluse) – Drops of God goes from English to French to Japanese, and mixes the trajectories of our two heroes. If the Frenchwoman Fleur Geffrier had until then multiplied small roles on television or in the cinema, Tomohisa Yamashita is a superstar in Japan from her beginnings in a J-pop boy band to her role as the “king of clubs” in season 2 ofAlice in Borderland (on Netflix).
Explosion of flavors and colors
Despite the sometimes disparate acting of the actors, the series manages to cope with the very didactic side of the original which recounted the world of wine and oenology in its smallest details. And its success lies above all in the realization and staging of the visual madness of the manga. Like these scenes where Camille goes through her library of olfactory memories to detect the aromas of a wine, and those where, when she dips her lips in it, the colors explode in the image like a Holi day in New Delhi.
“ It’s a form of homage to the manga, but it had to remain universal: when the heroine tastes the wine, it’s an explosion of flavors, symbolized by colors, and that everyone can understand in a blink. eye », Describes Quoc Dang Tran, big fan of the Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda – from which he also borrowed the first name for one of his characters.
The creator assures that he did not know “ not much » to wine and that his series « is not only aimed at wine aficionados, but also at those who know nothing about it. Like those who loved The Queen’s Game without knowing how to play chess, we must be able to appreciate Drops of God without knowing anything about wine. » Like its main actor Tomohisa Yamashita who confided being “ truly fell in love with wine » at the end of filming, thousands of spectators around the world – via Apple TV + and Hulu Japan originally – certainly did the same. Proof of its success, season 2 of the series Drops of God (in original version) was announced on May 21.
And to the French spectators who did not wait to see Drops of God to get off the canons, we guarantee that the series made us want to appreciate all the aromas and flavors with more sensitivity. The eight-episode series is available on France.tv in full (and on Apple TV+). And after seeing it, you will probably also only want to have a drink and play the role of apprentice oenologist.
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