[TBS Black Pean Website] Vol. 32 - Afterword
[I will never forget Spring, 2018.]The offer of becoming the medical supervisor of Black Pean appeared around the end of last year. The drama staff visited the hospital, I listened to their discussion of the project, we made arrangements to allow them to observe surgery and before I realised, I was constantly contacted ever since, attended meetings around three times a week, joined rehearsals and commuted to the shooting location more than twice a week after filming started.
12 years have passed since I became a doctor. My skills have matured and I have become able to operate on patients alone. I have built both self-confidence and at the same time, an understanding of the terror that I face during surgery. This is a story during a time when I spent my days in the hospital reflecting on how I could perform the best possible operation and strove to achieve it.
Before this, I had never been involved in jobs related to television, much less the medical supervisor of a drama. I practically had no time to consider whether I would be able to handle the role or not and instead persuaded by the convincing words of the staff, “You’re similar in age to Tokai-sensei and you’re also proficient in surgery, Doctor. We would like to request your assistance.” I felt pretty positive about it; I was off to a good start. But it was honestly much more tiring than what I could possibly have imagined. To begin with, I learned that a drama production was a strenuous task in itself and after realising that it additionally carried so many people’s hopes together with it, I couldn’t stand involving myself half-heartedly. I contemplated on the development of the medical cases, the stream of events related to the illnesses and the operations involved. I gathered documents, checked the script, attended meetings, rehearsals and filming, set up the surgery scenes, checked the footage… I’ve even gone to the studio after an all-night emergency operation. I’ve also bowed my head to the hospital director for permission to attend a surgery scene filming.
That was the sense of responsibility I felt.
As embarrassing as it sounds, I hadn’t read the original novel when I first received the offer, so I obtained a copy of Black Pean 1988 and read it. Tokai was a gastroenterologist and his father was a physician who was falsely accused of a medical malpractice and passed away soon after he was chased out of the hospital. In the drama, Tokai’s role was changed from a gastroenterologist to a cardiothoracic surgeon and so was his father. To avenge his falsely accused father, Tokai acquired prodigious skills in surgery through a combination of tenacity and extraordinary effort.
My father was a cardiothoracic surgeon as well.
When I was five years old, my father returned home early for the first time in a while only to inform my mother that he had accidentally pricked his finger with a needle during an operation. It was a medical accident. The patient who underwent the surgery had been infected with the Hepatitis B virus. My father died a few weeks later from an acute Hepatitis B infection. He was gone in a blink of an eye. He had devoted his days to his patients, from morning to evening without a break in between. My robust father, who was 31 years old, had suddenly died. At the age of 5, I was made to realise the transience of life.
After that, partly to dispel my father’s regrets, who had lost his life through this profession, I became a cardiothoracic surgeon and operated at an age that was older than 31 years. I transcended an age which my father failed to reach. It was when I had been working my hardest to save lives he ought to have saved that I received this offer on Black Pean.
“Sometimes it feels like someone is pulling my life’s strings from behind the shadows.” There were multiple times in my life when I felt that way. My entire life is comprised of miraculous meetings and fateful encounters. The reason why I became able to perform surgical operations is also thanks to my encounters with numerous doctors and the teachings I received from my seniors. There are currently over 4000 doctors who are members of the Japanese Society for Cardiovascular Surgery. It shouldn’t have been a surprise if any of the other doctors were chosen for this drama’s medical supervisor instead. However, it was perhaps due to fate that I was the one who received the offer. I couldn’t brush it off as a mere coincidence.
If it was merely a medical drama which portrays a genius surgeon who saved the lives of patients that nearly lost their lives in a failed operation, I doubt that I would have dedicated myself to the role I had been entrusted with to this extent. Behind the drama’s setup that portrays the clash between the raw skills of a surgeon and the newest medical technology, there is Tokai, the feelings he harbours towards his father, which mysteriously resembles my personal circumstances, and his discord with Professor Saeki. These components intricately mix within the drama to produce the features resembling a human drama. What is a doctor, what is life; those who have been involved in this production grappled with these “propositions” that were inserted countless times as the drama’s themes once more… If I had not strongly empathised with their efforts as they worked on the drama; if I was not moved from the sight of it, I wouldn’t be completely absorbed as I had been.
In Black Pean, not one patient lost their life. The only one who died was Doctor Tokai Ichiro. Tokai Seishiro’s genius skills as a surgeon originated from his father’s death and his desire for revenge towards Saeki Seigo. Professor Saeki inherited Doctor Tokai Ichiro’s will and is guided by his duty to “demonstrate the will [he] was entrusted with, above all else.” The only person who lost their life in this story happens to be the one who holds the most influence over the others and the instigator for all of the scenarios that happen.
The desire to dispel the dead’s regrets forces people to grow tremendously and it greatly changes people’s lives. It’s the same for me. If my father, who was a cardiothoracic surgeon hadn’t died, I have no idea what I would be doing now. I may have chosen another path in life instead. Those who have passed away hugely influence people’s lives, more so than those who are still living.
There is a saying that goes, “the spirits of the dead continue to live on in people’s hearts.” That is the reality of things. Despite the present time; where I have learned at a university hospital that researches organisms at the molecular level, utilised science to the fullest, conducted cardiopulmonary bypasses and performed surgeries with a stopped heart, I have no doubt towards this unscientific notion.
I naturally teared up at the scene where Tokai Seishiro and Tokai Ichiro smoked together. My father also smoked Seven Stars cigarettes.
The tremendous dedication of all the staff who have worked on this drama, the cast members and Kaidou-sensei’s thoughts could be felt on site. Their enthusiasm for portraying the contemplations of those who face life and death in their everyday lives exceeded our own. I was personally inspired by their devotion too, so that I was able to give it my all in the end. I was able to use up all my resources.
Amidst the assembly of outstanding members, their collaboration in hopes of creating the greatest production, their showcase of talents and efforts to ultimately create a form of art - to have contributed even the slightest to this project is sure to become my lifetime treasure. I am nothing but grateful towards my deceased father for this fateful encounter. “This is impossible, there must be realistic elements”: there may be health care workers who feel discomfited towards these kinds of medical dramas with impractical cases. However, if we were to pursue reality in our production, we’d end up with a one hour footage of a heart surgery and ultimately fail to convey the souls of the medical staff in each thread we sew. It will simply be grotesque and void of any significance. Likewise, it is the case for the famous Michelangelo tale - the model for his David statue was in fact a young man that was all skin and bones. The artist projected his ideal image of men in his sculpture and moved people’s hearts through his portrayal of a symmetrical, muscular beauty. The feelings of attachment which doctors, nurses and medical workers have with life: the ones who depict it more visibly through film are none other than those who work in the entertainment industry. I spend my days in the operating theatre and personally conduct operations myself; regardless, I have never been moved by an operation before. However, my spirit was strongly shaken by the sight of everyone’s desperation to save Professor Saeki in the operation. The scene of doctors’ backs in their white gowns is one that I am extremely familiar with - to a detestable extent, which I do not feel anything for. Yet, my tears would not stop the moment I watched Tokai depart the hospital with his back turned to the screen, uttering the words, “See you. Become a good doctor.”
Lastly, in the numerous hours it takes to film a scene that lasts merely for a few minutes and the time sacrificed whilst filming surgical scenes from early in the morning to late in the evening, there is an unimaginable amount of preparation, sophisticated techniques and the refusal to compromise. Behind one scene, there is an extensive amount of discarded footage and sound. As a human drama, it is constantly a mix between maintaining consistency with medical concepts by inserting a medical term in each second of a scene and conveying the characters’ subtle emotions through the actors’ facial expressions. Thus, providing further explanation for the drama would be more effective to resonate with people’s hearts.
I wrote medical explanations in hopes of explaining any medical inconsistencies that may have risen with time constraint, albeit a little long winded at times (in fact there were areas where I should have explained further, but it would have resulted in a ridiculously long article… I’m sorry). To the staff who have provided a heart surgeon like me with this opportunity, I have no words which will express my gratitude.
For around half a year, I was able to work together with wonderful people after encountering a magnificent production. Looking back on it now, the exhausting days seem like a dream. It makes me sad to think that I won’t be able to reexperience those days. Starting from tomorrow, I will start living as a “normal doctor” and steadily give it my all once more. If things get difficult and I am discouraged, I will watch Black Pean and recall the days I gave it my best with everyone who worked on the drama as a form of encouragement.
To those who have read this post: I am sure there were areas which were difficult to read through due to my lack of words and convoluted expressions. Nevertheless, nothing would make me happier if I was able to convey the daily thoughts of a cardiothoracic surgeon, the feelings I face as I operate on patients and share the emotional impact of my experience at the filming location.
I will never forget Spring, 2018. Thank you very much for this opportunity.
Shunsuke Yamagishi (Cardiothoracic Surgeon)
12 years have passed since I became a doctor. My skills have matured and I have become able to operate on patients alone. I have built both self-confidence and at the same time, an understanding of the terror that I face during surgery. This is a story during a time when I spent my days in the hospital reflecting on how I could perform the best possible operation and strove to achieve it.
Before this, I had never been involved in jobs related to television, much less the medical supervisor of a drama. I practically had no time to consider whether I would be able to handle the role or not and instead persuaded by the convincing words of the staff, “You’re similar in age to Tokai-sensei and you’re also proficient in surgery, Doctor. We would like to request your assistance.” I felt pretty positive about it; I was off to a good start. But it was honestly much more tiring than what I could possibly have imagined. To begin with, I learned that a drama production was a strenuous task in itself and after realising that it additionally carried so many people’s hopes together with it, I couldn’t stand involving myself half-heartedly. I contemplated on the development of the medical cases, the stream of events related to the illnesses and the operations involved. I gathered documents, checked the script, attended meetings, rehearsals and filming, set up the surgery scenes, checked the footage… I’ve even gone to the studio after an all-night emergency operation. I’ve also bowed my head to the hospital director for permission to attend a surgery scene filming.
That was the sense of responsibility I felt.
As embarrassing as it sounds, I hadn’t read the original novel when I first received the offer, so I obtained a copy of Black Pean 1988 and read it. Tokai was a gastroenterologist and his father was a physician who was falsely accused of a medical malpractice and passed away soon after he was chased out of the hospital. In the drama, Tokai’s role was changed from a gastroenterologist to a cardiothoracic surgeon and so was his father. To avenge his falsely accused father, Tokai acquired prodigious skills in surgery through a combination of tenacity and extraordinary effort.
My father was a cardiothoracic surgeon as well.
When I was five years old, my father returned home early for the first time in a while only to inform my mother that he had accidentally pricked his finger with a needle during an operation. It was a medical accident. The patient who underwent the surgery had been infected with the Hepatitis B virus. My father died a few weeks later from an acute Hepatitis B infection. He was gone in a blink of an eye. He had devoted his days to his patients, from morning to evening without a break in between. My robust father, who was 31 years old, had suddenly died. At the age of 5, I was made to realise the transience of life.
After that, partly to dispel my father’s regrets, who had lost his life through this profession, I became a cardiothoracic surgeon and operated at an age that was older than 31 years. I transcended an age which my father failed to reach. It was when I had been working my hardest to save lives he ought to have saved that I received this offer on Black Pean.
“Sometimes it feels like someone is pulling my life’s strings from behind the shadows.” There were multiple times in my life when I felt that way. My entire life is comprised of miraculous meetings and fateful encounters. The reason why I became able to perform surgical operations is also thanks to my encounters with numerous doctors and the teachings I received from my seniors. There are currently over 4000 doctors who are members of the Japanese Society for Cardiovascular Surgery. It shouldn’t have been a surprise if any of the other doctors were chosen for this drama’s medical supervisor instead. However, it was perhaps due to fate that I was the one who received the offer. I couldn’t brush it off as a mere coincidence.
If it was merely a medical drama which portrays a genius surgeon who saved the lives of patients that nearly lost their lives in a failed operation, I doubt that I would have dedicated myself to the role I had been entrusted with to this extent. Behind the drama’s setup that portrays the clash between the raw skills of a surgeon and the newest medical technology, there is Tokai, the feelings he harbours towards his father, which mysteriously resembles my personal circumstances, and his discord with Professor Saeki. These components intricately mix within the drama to produce the features resembling a human drama. What is a doctor, what is life; those who have been involved in this production grappled with these “propositions” that were inserted countless times as the drama’s themes once more… If I had not strongly empathised with their efforts as they worked on the drama; if I was not moved from the sight of it, I wouldn’t be completely absorbed as I had been.
In Black Pean, not one patient lost their life. The only one who died was Doctor Tokai Ichiro. Tokai Seishiro’s genius skills as a surgeon originated from his father’s death and his desire for revenge towards Saeki Seigo. Professor Saeki inherited Doctor Tokai Ichiro’s will and is guided by his duty to “demonstrate the will [he] was entrusted with, above all else.” The only person who lost their life in this story happens to be the one who holds the most influence over the others and the instigator for all of the scenarios that happen.
The desire to dispel the dead’s regrets forces people to grow tremendously and it greatly changes people’s lives. It’s the same for me. If my father, who was a cardiothoracic surgeon hadn’t died, I have no idea what I would be doing now. I may have chosen another path in life instead. Those who have passed away hugely influence people’s lives, more so than those who are still living.
There is a saying that goes, “the spirits of the dead continue to live on in people’s hearts.” That is the reality of things. Despite the present time; where I have learned at a university hospital that researches organisms at the molecular level, utilised science to the fullest, conducted cardiopulmonary bypasses and performed surgeries with a stopped heart, I have no doubt towards this unscientific notion.
I naturally teared up at the scene where Tokai Seishiro and Tokai Ichiro smoked together. My father also smoked Seven Stars cigarettes.
The tremendous dedication of all the staff who have worked on this drama, the cast members and Kaidou-sensei’s thoughts could be felt on site. Their enthusiasm for portraying the contemplations of those who face life and death in their everyday lives exceeded our own. I was personally inspired by their devotion too, so that I was able to give it my all in the end. I was able to use up all my resources.
Amidst the assembly of outstanding members, their collaboration in hopes of creating the greatest production, their showcase of talents and efforts to ultimately create a form of art - to have contributed even the slightest to this project is sure to become my lifetime treasure. I am nothing but grateful towards my deceased father for this fateful encounter. “This is impossible, there must be realistic elements”: there may be health care workers who feel discomfited towards these kinds of medical dramas with impractical cases. However, if we were to pursue reality in our production, we’d end up with a one hour footage of a heart surgery and ultimately fail to convey the souls of the medical staff in each thread we sew. It will simply be grotesque and void of any significance. Likewise, it is the case for the famous Michelangelo tale - the model for his David statue was in fact a young man that was all skin and bones. The artist projected his ideal image of men in his sculpture and moved people’s hearts through his portrayal of a symmetrical, muscular beauty. The feelings of attachment which doctors, nurses and medical workers have with life: the ones who depict it more visibly through film are none other than those who work in the entertainment industry. I spend my days in the operating theatre and personally conduct operations myself; regardless, I have never been moved by an operation before. However, my spirit was strongly shaken by the sight of everyone’s desperation to save Professor Saeki in the operation. The scene of doctors’ backs in their white gowns is one that I am extremely familiar with - to a detestable extent, which I do not feel anything for. Yet, my tears would not stop the moment I watched Tokai depart the hospital with his back turned to the screen, uttering the words, “See you. Become a good doctor.”
Lastly, in the numerous hours it takes to film a scene that lasts merely for a few minutes and the time sacrificed whilst filming surgical scenes from early in the morning to late in the evening, there is an unimaginable amount of preparation, sophisticated techniques and the refusal to compromise. Behind one scene, there is an extensive amount of discarded footage and sound. As a human drama, it is constantly a mix between maintaining consistency with medical concepts by inserting a medical term in each second of a scene and conveying the characters’ subtle emotions through the actors’ facial expressions. Thus, providing further explanation for the drama would be more effective to resonate with people’s hearts.
I wrote medical explanations in hopes of explaining any medical inconsistencies that may have risen with time constraint, albeit a little long winded at times (in fact there were areas where I should have explained further, but it would have resulted in a ridiculously long article… I’m sorry). To the staff who have provided a heart surgeon like me with this opportunity, I have no words which will express my gratitude.
For around half a year, I was able to work together with wonderful people after encountering a magnificent production. Looking back on it now, the exhausting days seem like a dream. It makes me sad to think that I won’t be able to reexperience those days. Starting from tomorrow, I will start living as a “normal doctor” and steadily give it my all once more. If things get difficult and I am discouraged, I will watch Black Pean and recall the days I gave it my best with everyone who worked on the drama as a form of encouragement.
To those who have read this post: I am sure there were areas which were difficult to read through due to my lack of words and convoluted expressions. Nevertheless, nothing would make me happier if I was able to convey the daily thoughts of a cardiothoracic surgeon, the feelings I face as I operate on patients and share the emotional impact of my experience at the filming location.
I will never forget Spring, 2018. Thank you very much for this opportunity.
Shunsuke Yamagishi (Cardiothoracic Surgeon)