Jude Law Plays a Legendary Demon in Fantasy-Themed Japanese Pepsi Ad
Japan is responsible for some of the most entertaining commercials ever made. I enjoy how epic and over-the-top they are. Pepsi has released an awesome series of commercials in Japan that features Jude Law playing a legendary demon!
There are five commercials total, and the story follows a mythical hero named Momotarō, a.k.a Peach Boy, who is a great warrior that was literally born out of peach. The first three commercials tell the origins of Momotarō and his talking animal accomplice. They are preparing to battle a demon named Onigashima, who is played by Law. That character is introduced the fourth episode embedded below.
This is probably one of the most epic commercials I’ve seen. The production value is incredible, and the special effects are awesome! This looks like feature film quality work. I’ve included episode four directly below, and under that you’ll find a video featuring the three previously released episodes. The fifth ad has yet to be released.
If you can’t read Japanese, Here a the gist of the story in episode four thanks to RocketNews:
Episode Four brings us close to the climax of the story, as the Peach Boy, Momotaro, arrives on the island and prepares to go head-head with the feared demon. Despite being labelled a villain in the original story, this clip fleshes out the character of the demon, with the British actor bringing a sense of humanity to its back story, which has us empathising with the beast’s sad origins.
As the clip begins, the subtitles explain that the demon once lived among the people, who hailed him as their bravest hero for his strength, until one day, someone who envied his popularity sent a fearful opponent to fight him.
In order to defeat the dangerous beast and protect the people, the man gave up his mortal life, drawing upon a bottomless reserve of power that actually frightened the people. Fearing for themselves, they locked him away in a cave on the island.
The anger and sorrow he felt after being betrayed welled up and released itself in flames from inside his body, transforming him into a frightening demon, giving birth to the name “Demon Island”.