Adaptation of the famous manga Kami no Shizuku by Tadashi Directed by Quoc Dang Tran (Paral//èles) in collaboration with Clémence Madeleine-Perdrillat (En Thérapie) and Alice Vial (Loulou) Les Gouttes de Dieu explores the arena of French haute cuisine through the journey of Camille Léger. A young woman decided to return the legacy of her father, an iconic figure in oenology, after his death. For this, he will have to meet the young prodigy of wine, Tomine Isse, who became his father’s protégé and whom the latter named in his will…
Heroic and romantic drama around wine
The 26 volumes of the manga published between 2004 and 2014 presented a real challenge for the writers who collected them into 8 x 52 minute miniseries. “In manga, we often have access to the interior of characters like in novels, and that’s something we can’t do in a scripted TV series. We understand how a character feels through their actions or inactions, and that’s one of the main difficulties of adaptation.Quoc Dang Tran explains.
In the initial manga, the passion for wine is obvious, but he says there is also a didactic part: the authors wanted to educate potential readers about what the world of wine is all about. The ultra-documentary aspect that the showrunner has willingly toned down in order to promote the manga characters’ initiative quest, which he describes as “Heroic and romantic drama“However, the wine arena remains very relevant.”He is almost a character in himself; But we must always be close to the characters and follow them to guess the fiction.“
By adapting the manga, the screenwriters are careful to give it an element of modernity. According to Quoc Dang Tran, the choice to feminize the character of Shizuku Kanzaki, the original protagonist of the manga set in Japan and whose plot was transferred to France, gave her a deeper dimension. “We find ourselves with a woman in the world of wine and oenology, traditionally very masculine. Everything that was normal for a male character in the world of wine takes on an extra density when you transition to a woman.“
Filial love and transmission
After writing fiction that he describes as “dark“Throughout his career, like the thriller Nox (Canal+) or the horror series Marianne (Netflix), the screenwriter wanted to tell a brighter and more caring story.”With fundamentally positive characters, strong values.”
In comparison, he cites the Netflix series The Queen’s Game and The Way It Shows Chess. “You can watch the series knowing how to play chess and just as easily knowing nothing about the rules. I tried to play on it so everyone can relate to it.“
When the producers of the series asked him to adapt the manga, Quoc Dang Tran, who calls himself a big fan of Japanese cinema inspired by Kore Eda or Naomi Kawase, found the training difficult, if not impossible. “I worked from there, trying to respect the authors’ vision and add my own touch to the drama side. This is a series that, if we do our job well, will satisfy manga lovers, wine connoisseurs, and those who know nothing about it.“
For him, Les Gouttes de Dieu is first and foremost a story of filial love and transmission—things he holds dear. “VSSome topics immediately struck me. What are our roots? What do parents leave us? What do we take from what they have given us and what do we become in relation to them?“
Excellence, tradition and modernity
The title of the series refers to the final test, which the screenwriter prefers to maintain suspense, while revealing that he went in a slightly different direction from the manga. “It took me a long time to find the ending. It is a series that has poetry, sometimes with dreamlike and fantastical moments, because it is the story of a character who has a special relationship with wine, almost a form of synesthesia (a mixture of feelings associated with a single element). others, editor’s note).“
If this representation in the manga was too imaginative, the screenwriter should have found other ways to connect the audience through common references to understand the hero’s journey. “Something along the lines of an investigation, but one that makes sense to everyone.“
In order not to make any mistakes on a cultural level, the authors of the manga have read and confirmed all the scripts of the episodes of this adaptation, which are not the first on the screen, because it is a nine-episode drama on Japanese television in 2009.
Wine expert Sébastien Pradal, sommelier and restaurateur from Aveyron was also consulted for the needs of the series. “All the finesse and precision of the chosen wines, the vocabulary comes not from me, but from him.“The wine selection has been updated for the occasion as the original manga was published in the previous decade.
The co-production requires the screenwriters to craft the story in such a way that the two French and Japanese cultures intersect. “It was not an express requirement to have French characters. The most obvious move when you ask a French screenwriter to adapt this is to bring everything back to France. But I think it’s a shame that we don’t have Japanese culture with Japanese characters, because it’s about wine that the Japanese and the French meet: excellence, tradition and work to achieve perfection.“
Source: Allocine
Rose James is a Gossipify movie and series reviewer known for her in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the latest releases. With a background in film studies, she provides engaging and informative reviews, and keeps readers up to date with industry trends and emerging talents.
