BEIJING - Chinese media have criticized the hit Japanese spy thriller drama "Vivant," claiming its portrayal of Chinese agents using "ruthless violence" to torture members of a top-secret Japanese unit "deliberately smears" Beijing.
The Global Times, a tabloid affiliated with the ruling Communist Party, and state-run China Central Television have said scenes showing Chinese agents cutting off the fingers of Japanese intelligence operatives and stabbing them in the abdomen are similar to the wartime torture inflicted on Chinese nationals by Japanese troops.
CCTV on Sunday accused the drama of creating conflict and inciting hostility by distorting the truth and attributing these atrocities to modern Chinese characters.
The Global Times said Monday that allegations of "Vivant" smearing China quickly became a trending topic on Chinese social media. It quoted a Chinese social media user as saying the drama's depiction signals that "anti-China narratives in Japanese cultural entertainment have shed their disguise and become open."
The high-budget drama series produced by Tokyo Broadcasting System Television, known as TBS, stars Masato Sakai as a corporate employee drawn into a world of international espionage and centers on the top-secret "beppan" unit of the Japan Self-Defense Forces.
The drama previously avoided sensitive topics by setting its story in a fictional country, but its latest season directly names China, the social media user said, according to the Global Times.
The first season of "Vivant" aired in 2023, while the ongoing second season began airing in July this year. Beijing's criticism of the drama came as bilateral relations have been strained over Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's parliamentary remarks about a Taiwan emergency in November last year.
Takaichi told parliament earlier this month that she had recorded the popular drama but had not yet watched it.
