The Actor
Screen actor Takuji Kameoka (Ken Yasuda) built a career from his masterful performances, and he would be a household name if it weren’t for the fact that his filmography consists entirely of bit parts. As the prospect of a breakout role in a foreign arthouse director’s newest work appears, so too does the possibility of winning the heart of a charming izakaya owner (Kumiko Aso) who seems to understand Kameoka’s hidden loneliness. A long-awaited follow-up to her breakout indie feature Bare Essence of Life (2009), director Satoko Yokohama’s fantastical tribute to the film industry spotlights the workaday human magic underlying the gleam of cinema.
“Yokohama’s little salute to the Japanese film industry.” —The Japan Times
Streaming in the U.S. from February 5-25 as part of 21st Century Japan: Films from 2001-2020