Yakusho Koji: Perfect Roles | Out Of Competition
Japan, 2020, 126’, Japanese
Directed by: Nishikawa Miwa
Screenplay: Nishikawa Miwa
Cinematography (color): Kasamatsu Norimichi
Editing: Kikuchi Tomomi, Miyajima Ryuji
Music: Hayashi Masaki
Cast: Yakusho Koji, Hashizume Isao, Kaji Meiko, Nagasawa Masami, Rokkaku Seiji, Hakuryu
Date of First Release in Territory: February 11th, 2021
Nishikawa Miwa’s professional association with Kore-eda Hirokazu, one of Japan’s most internationally acclaimed directors, goes back a quarter of a century, when she served as a crew member on films. Her 2020 film
Under the Open Sky was made with his Bun-buku production company. Based on a 1990 novel by Saki Ryuzo, it was Nishikawa’s first adaptation from another’s work: She had previously directed only from her own original scripts.
Interestingly, her ex-con protagonist resembles that of Kore-eda’s 2017 courtroom drama,
The Third Murder. Both have been in prison for murder and both are played by the superbly versatile Yakusho Koji.
But Nishikawa is no Kore-eda clone. More so than her mentor, she has a populist streak that shows itself in the film’s moments of broad humor and tearful emotionality.
The film also digs deep into the difficult realities of life for ex-convicts in Japan, beginning with the social barriers the middle-aged hero, Mikami Masao (Yakusho), faces after serving a 13-year stretch for killing a rival yakuza.
Vowing to quit the gangster life, Mikami struggles to fit into the regular world. A potential employer goes silent after hearing about his criminal record. A stiff-necked city hall bureaucrat tells him that former yakuza are ineligible for welfare benefits. He replies that he was a lone wolf who worked as gang muscle but never joined a gang.
Luckily, Mikami finds support from a kindly lawyer (Hashizume Isao) and his down-to-earth wife (Kaji Meiko), as well as from an eager young filmmaker (Nakano Taiga) and tough-minded producer (Nagasawa Masami) who want to feature him in a TV documentary.
In Yakusho’s riveting high-voltage performance (which is leagues different from his tamped-down turn in
The Third Murder), we see that Mikami’s real problem is himself. Volatile and high-strung, he flies into a rage at any slight, jumps into two-fisted battle at any injustice. Even a sympathetic supermarket manager (Rokkaku Seiji) who tries to get him a job as a driver feels the sharp end of his temper.
He’s not entirely wrong in his actions (in fact, he is something of a righteous action hero), but after 28 years beyond bars for six different convictions, Mikami also has little sense of how the world outside of prison works, though he needs to learn in order to survive. His hypertension is an apt expression of this dilemma: He must control his anger or his soaring blood pressure might kill him, but he doesn’t know how. So we get scene after disturbing scene of Masao clutching his chest and gobbling pills.
Anyone who has seen some of the many films about Japanese gangsters trying to go straight, can imagine how Mikami’s story will end, since the heroes of said films seldom manage to escape the gang life – alive at least. Nishikawa, who also wrote the script, doesn’t completely toss this formula – Masao does meet an old gang associate (the single-named Hakuryu), now a diabetic boss – but she also rejects the macho romanticism of the yakuza genre.
More than anything, Masao longs to reunite with his mother, who abandoned him when he was 4 years old. That plot strand is a first of sorts, but like so much else in this masterful portrait of a lifelong outsider trying to find a place in a society that hands out few second chances, it rings true and hits hard.
Nishikawa Miwa
Nata nel 1974, Nishikawa Miwa ha lavorato nella troupe del regista Kore-eda Hirokazu per il fantasy After Life (1998). Ha debuttato come regista nel 2003 con la black comedy Wild Berries, vincitore del premio per la migliore sceneggiatura al Mainichi Film Competition. Il suo film Sway (2006), presentato alla Quinzaine del festival di Cannes, ha ottenuto il plauso internazionale. I film successivi, tra cui Dear Doctor (2009) e The Long Excuse (2016), tratto dal suo romanzo candidato al Naoki Prize, hanno consolidato la sua reputazione come acuta osservatrice della duplicità umana. Under the Open Sky (2020) ha come protagonista Yakusho Koji nel ruolo di un ex detenuto che fatica a reintegrarsi nella vita civile.
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY
2003 – Wild Berries
2006 – Sway
2009 – Dear Doctor
2016 – The Long Excuse
2020 – Under the Open Sky