Japanese TV blockbuster “Hau cung” (The harem),  which is broadcast to mark Vietnam – Japan’s 40th anniversary of diplomatic ties, is set to air on HTV9 starting September 20.

The series will be broadcast on HTV9 at 5:30pm from Friday to Sunday every week starting tonight. More Japanese series will also be aired to further promote Japanese culture to Vietnamese viewers.

The 48-episode “Hau cung” in three parts, which is produced by Fuji Television Network, Inc. in 2003-2005 and casts several famed Japanese actors including Matsushita Yuki and Yamada Natsumi, depicts the anguishing, emotionally turbulent life of the wives, concubines and maids of a local general. The young women tried in vain to integrate into the stagnant family life.

The film also vividly highlights the drastic changes Japan underwent during the late Edo era (1603-1868).

Produced by Fuji Television Network, Inc., one of Japan’s major television stations, which produced heavily-invested films including “Norwegian wood”, the film has always enjoyed the highest rating since debuting in Japan.

Compared to the boom of Chinese and South Korean TV series and most recently of Filipino and Thai ones, Japanese films seem less popular to the world. Local TV viewers have only watched a handful of Japanese series, including “Osin” and the deeply moving drama “1 Litre Of Tears”, which is based on a real story of a girl suffering and dying from a rare, debilitating brain illness.

According to Pham Tu Liem, director of MCV Co., which purchases copyrights to the Japanese series which are broadcast on HTV, the scarcity of Japanese films on local TV is due to their exorbitant copyright fees and Japan’s failure to promote their films as widely as other countries.