MOMOYA TV-Ads060-1968-Chinese Legends

Time: 30 sec.

Product Name: ZA-SAI

Description of Product: ZA-SAI, or Zha-cai, is a Chinese pickled vegetable which is often called Sichuan vegetable or Szechwan vegetable in English. It is very popular as a side dish of Chinese cuisine, and also suitable to eat with Chinese rice porridge.

Year: 1968

Advertiser: Momoya Co., Ltd.

Advertising Agency: YOMIKO Advertising Inc.

Production Company: Television Corporation of Japan

This piece is one of the first 4 pieces of Momoya’s color TV ads, and also a burlesque pastiche of 4 China’s historical characters. The first of them is a mother of a philosopher Moshi, or Mencius, who is famous for an episode of “Mou bo san sen,” literally “Mencius’s mother, three moves.” Introducing Kanshin, or Han Xin, a military commander of the Qin and the Former Han dynasty, the following scene illustrates his well-known story about a crawl between hoodlum’s legs. Then, the scene changes into the huge battleground, and the shot frames the Mongol founder Genghis Khan riding on the horse furiously. Finally, in a Chinese-style room is an old man who is conceived to be Koshi, or Confucius, a philosopher of the Spring and Autumn period, renowned for Confucianism. As for the transition between the parody sequences, it employs a page turn effectfrom left corner.