''Tokyo Trial'' is a Japanese four-part

historical drama A historical drama (also period drama, costume drama, and period piece) is a work set in a past time period, usually used in the context of film and television. Historical drama includes historical fiction and romances, adventure films, and s ...

miniseries A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format ...

that depicts the

International Military Tribunal for the Far East The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), also known as the Tokyo Trial or the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, was a military trial convened on April 29, 1946 to try leaders of the Empire of Japan for crimes against peace, conv ...

. The series was co-directed by Pieter Verhoeff and Rob W. King, and produced by Japanese public broadcaster

NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestr ...

in a co-production with FATT Productions of the Netherlands and Don Carmody Television of Canada. The series stars

Marcel Hensema Marcel Hensema (born 16 April 1970) is a Dutch film actor. He appeared in more than seventy films since 1993. In 2007 he won the Golden Calf for Best Actor for his role in the movie '' Wild Romance''. Selected filmography References Ext ...

, Jonathan Hyde, Paul Freeman,

Stephen McHattie Stephen McHattie Smith (born February 3, 1946)Other sources cite 1945, 1947, and 1948. is a Canadian actor. Since beginning his professional career in 1970, he has amassed over 200 film and television credits. He won the Genie Award for Best Sup ...

, Julian Wadham,

Irrfan Khan Irrfan Khan () (born Sahabzade Irfan Ali Khan; 7 January 196729 April 2020), also known simply as Irrfan, was an Indian actor who worked in Indian cinema as well as British and American films. Widely regarded as one of the finest actors in In ...

, and

Michael Ironside Frederick Reginald Ironside (born February 12, 1950), known as Michael Ironside, is a Canadian actor, producer, director, and screenwriter. He is known for playing villains and "tough guy" heroes, and has also portrayed sympathetic characters. E ...

. ''Tokyo Trial'' premiered on

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

on 12 December 2016. Thereafter, it was made available on the NHK On-Demand VoD service and subsequently by

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...

. Overseas, the series premiered in 190 countries on Netflix in December 2016. The Netflix broadcast of the series includes subtitles in 20 languages.

Premise

Following the end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

with the

surrender of Japan The surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally signed on 2 September 1945, bringing the war's hostilities to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Na ...

, an international tribunal of judges from the victorious powers are tasked with determining the fate of Japanese war criminals.

Cast

Judges * Tim Ahern as Major General Myron C. Cramer (Representing the United States of America) * Paul Freeman as The Honourable Lord William D. Patrick (Representing the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) *

Serge Hazanavicius Serge Hazanavicius ( lt, Hazanavičius), was born 11 September 1963, in Paris. He is an actor and director, working primarily in France. Personal life and family His brother is Michel Hazanavicius. Their family is primarily of Jewish ances ...

as Henri Bernard (Representing the French Republic) *

as Professor Bert V.A. Röling (Representing the Kingdom of Netherlands) * Jonathan Hyde as President Sir William Webb (Representing the Commonwealth of Australia) *

as Radhabinod Pal (Representing British India) *

as Edward Stuart McDougall (Representing the Dominion of Canada) * David Tse as

Mei Ju-ao Mei Ju-ao (; 7 November 1904 – 23 April 1973) was a Chinese jurist, professor, politician and author. Education Mei was born in Nanchang, in eastern China's Jiangxi province. At the age of 12, Ju-ao was admitted into a school on the site of wh ...

(Representing the Republic of China) * Julian Wadham as Sir Erima H. Northcroft (Representing New Zealand) * Bert Matias as Colonel and former Supreme Court Associate Justice of the Philippine Commonwealth

Delfín Jaranilla Delfín Jebución Jaranilla (December 24, 1883 – June 4, 1980) was a Filipino judge. He served as the Attorney General of the Philippines from 1927 to 1932, as part of the American colonial Insular Government. He was named Judge Advocate Gene ...

(Representing the United States Commonwealth of the Philippine Islands) * Kestutis Stasys Jakstas as Major General I.M. Zaryanov (Representing the Soviet Union) * William Hope as

John P. Higgins John Patrick Higgins (February 19, 1893 – August 2, 1955) was an officer in the United States Navy, chemist, attorney, and U.S. Representative from Massachusetts. Higgins was born in Boston, Massachusetts, where he attended the public ...

(Representing the United States of America) Other cast *

Stacy Keach Walter Stacy Keach Jr. (born June 2, 1941) is an American actor and narrator. He has played mainly dramatic roles throughout his career, often in law enforcement or as a private detective. His most prominent role was as Mickey Spillane's fiction ...

as the narrator *

as General

Douglas MacArthur Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American military leader who served as General of the Army for the United States, as well as a field marshal to the Philippine Army. He had served with distinction in World War I, was ...

Hadewych Minis Hadewych Minis (born 5 January 1977) is a Dutch actress. She won the 2013 Golden Calf for Best Actress award for her performance as Marina in '' Borgman'' and was awarded the prestigious ''Theo d'Or'' prize for her solo performance in the Dutch ...

Eta Harich-Schneider Eta (Margarete) Harich-Schneider (''née'' Schneider; 16 November 1894 – 10 January 1986) was a German harpsichordist, musicologist, Japanologist and writer. Life Born in Oranienburg, Harich-Schneider later gave her year of birth as 1897, w ...

* Shinya Tsukamoto as

Michio Takeyama was a Japanese writer, literary critic and scholar of German literature, active in Shōwa period Japan. Early life Takeyama was born in Osaka, but moved frequently as his father, a bank employee, was often transferred. From 1907-1913, he lived ...

Production

The miniseries was proposed by Japanese public broadcaster NHK. The company signed a co-production deal with FATT Productions. At the OMDC’s International Financing Forum at TIFF 2013, NHK and FATT officials discussed co-producing the series with Don Carmody Television. Netflix gained streaming rights for the series by providing financing through Don Carmody Television.

Filming

The series was filmed in Japan and

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

in 2015.

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 4040530 Japanese television miniseries Pacific War films World War II television drama series International Military Tribunal for the Far East Television shows set in Tokyo English-language television shows 2016 Japanese television series debuts 2016 Japanese television series endings NHK television dramas Films directed by Pieter Verhoeff Films directed by Rob W. King Films about capital punishment