Yesterday, reiko just informed me about an interesting discussion going on about Kichijiro's role in Martin Scorsese's new "Silence" movie. There are so many Japanese actors names taken up in IMDb board.
I threw in Joe Odagiri's name just for the heck of it, but I still think, if judging from purely acting point of view (not considering box office draw etc.), Teruyuki Kagawa would be the perfect fit for this role.
He comes from a Kabuki actor father and an actress mother, but he is not that good looking. Instead, he is SO GOOD in playing a complex supporting role. In 2006-7, he was in lots of the Japanese movies that were involved in Japan Academy - "Sway (Yureru)", "Memories of Matsuko", and "Memories of Tomorrow". Particularly in "Sway", he played an ugly and unfortunate brother of the leading man Joe Odagiri, and his depiction of this dark, deep, complex mixture of love, hate, jealousy was almost horrifying - it drew so much praise both by critics and fans. I can just picture him playing this ugly, miserable, weak, canning peasant sooooo perfectly.
I think Ken Watanabe and Tadanobu Asano may be too strongly built and tall for such a role. Particularly Ken - his good-fit roles are samurai, yakuza, military man or detective... tho he got a breakthrough in "Memories of Tomorrow" last year, as an ailing businessman who suffers from Alzeheimer desease.
If they want to pick someone that can draw audience in Japan, Takuya Kimura and Joe Odagiri would be the top choices, but I think KimuTaku is almost impossible. His work is based on TV, and he has weekly regular program, so he cannot be away from Tokyo for more than a few days. That schedule limitation was a big problem in filming "Love and Honor" and as a result, they shot almost everything in studios, instead of locations as Yoji Yamada did in "The Twilight Samurai". Although Scorsese says he will film "Silence" partly in Japan, I think most of the filming will be done in Canada or something, so it is practically impossible. His face is just too pretty for such a miserable role, anyways.
I think Joe can hide his pretty face better than KimuTaku (and my sister always teases me as Joe being strange and ugly), and definitely has more acting skill and more versatile, plus he speaks good English (see my previous post "Big River"), but still may give too strong an impression for this role. There is a rumor on Japanese rumor board on Joe that he was reading the original "Silence" novel while he was shooting "Shinsengumi" (see my previous post with "joe's samurai performance"), but it was already 3 years ago. Duhh.
Now for Sanada-san - I have a bit of the same concern as Joe. His physique is not as imposing as Ken, and he can be very versatile, but still may be too "shiny" for this role. And by the way, although he is still considered a big star in Japan, his audience-gathering power is not as strong as KimuTaku or Joe, since he is not exposed in Japan as much these days.
Anyway. I am SO CURIOUS who would be chosen for this role!
***Addition 5/29***
I noticed by Reiko's comment that I did not explain about Kichijiro role itself. He is a Christian peasant hired by the priest Rodrigo in Manila to sneak into Japan, but he eventually betrays him and tips the authority about Rodrigo. After Rodrigo is arrested, Kichijiro regrets so much and try to beg forgiveness from Rodrigo with weeping tears. I think this role is assumed a symbol of Jesus in the author's unique point of view - "weak God". It may sound odd if you have not read the original novel....
And by the way - Teppei is also my younger son's name.
I like him not just because he is cool, sexy and great at acting, but I also believe that he has a potential to be "next big star" from Japan in international scene, after Hiro and Ken Watanabe.
He studied acting in CSUF (see photo above) as the start of his career. He went back to Japan and started professional acting after that, so he is relatively a late starter / late bloomer. I saw his film "Big River", all English-line movie filmed in the U.S., and I was REALLY impressed by his natural and powerful acting even with English lines. His strength is his face/body expressions rather than the speaking itself, so he has an advantage. For example, Koji Yakusho, another big Japanese actor, shines in his conversations, so when he speaks English lines in "Memoirs of a Geisha", not only his poor accent, but also lack of his original "speaking" power really really bothers me. Joe is different. His English pronounciation is VERY good to start with (sorry for my honesty, but I think Joe is even better than Hiro in English lines), and he handles the lines VERY naturally.
He certainly has a strong charisma. He is a self-made man, not a manufactured product of a large agency. He has a rare talent of "expressing" something. Many of recent big Japanese stars (Takuya Kimuras of the world) are "TV personalities", but in an essence, Joe is a very rare "Japanese movie star", that shines in big screens, although he does some TV dramas also. And movies are more international in nature. He is a regular in Cannes and Venezia, with all kinds of art/avant-garde/extraordinary/strange/funny - whatever films.
I really wish Sanada-san had this environment like Joe in his younger days. He was not allowed to express himself as he liked, was pigeon-holed in B-class action movies and was not allowed to act in more art-type films that had more chance to be shown in international film festivals. He was forced to sing in cheezy TV shows, was forced to keep his "idol" status. He would have been much happier and probably accomplished more if he were allowed more free hands.
When I read Hiro's recent interviews, I can feel he is SOOOO HAPPY that he is finally free from all these limitations. That is why he lives in the US. Some people say he is now out of star-status in Japan because of his absense on Japanese TV, but he does not care an inch about it. He is too happy to care about it. And so am I.
ANYWAY. So far, Joe Odagiri is too busy doing all these domestic works, and has not shown interest in international activities, but some day, I hope my prediction come true!!
ちょっと日本語でも。。。
ついに私は最近、オダギリジョーに浮気していることを告白してしまいました。なんで気になるかというと、まーとにかくカッコイイ、セクシーということのほかに、真田さんに続く国際俳優になる可能性があると思っているからです。「Big River」での英語での演技はたいしたものだと思いました。悪いけど、真田さんより英語のセリフは上手いと思う。
自分の好きなように自分を表現したり、実験的な作品に出たりすることが許されていて、なんか自分をしっかり持ってる感じもします。「テレビタレント」ではない、日本では珍しい本格的な「映画スター」だと思います。で、映画はテレビよりも国際的。下地はあるんです。
真田さんが若い頃、今のオダギリさんのような環境にあったら、どんなによかったか、と思います。真田さんは、特にお若い頃、ありとあらゆる制約に囲まれて苦しんでいたように思うのです。もっと、若い頃から芸術映画に出ることができれば、カンヌとかの国際映画祭にも行く機会が多かっただろうし、そういう監督との仕事ももっとできただろうし、国内でのステータスも「アイドル」じゃなくて「映画俳優」に早くなれたと思うし、もっと幅広く活躍できたと思うのです。最近のアメリカでのインタビューを読むと、ようやくそういう制約から解き放たれて、毎日が楽しくてしょうがないように聞こえます。
まーとにかくですね。今のところオダギリさんは、海外の作品に出る気はないようですが、そのうちやってくれないものか、と思っています。
もう一つ蛇足。こういう妄想は、他の方の掲示板とかに書くのは気が引けるので。オダギリさんは、女性関係の噂とか皆無な方なのですが、もし結婚するなら、そのへんの女優とかアタリマエの相手とはしないでほしいと思うのです。私の妄想理想の相手は、ズバリ「女性映画監督」。「ゆれる」の西川美和さんとかね。男性の監督と女優というのはよくある組み合わせだけど、女性の監督と男優というのは、すっごく新しくてcoolで、オダギリさんらしいと思いません？
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