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Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda’s latest Netflix series, Asura, has been received very well – thanks to the brilliant storytelling, masterful direction, and fantastic acting performances by the cast. In this article, we’re going to look into who is playing what in the show and talk about the character for a bit.

Jun Kunimura as Kotaro

Veteran actor Jun Kunimura — whose most famous work is playing the Japanese priest in Korean director Na Hong-Jin’s The Wailing (2016), which I considered to be the greatest horror movie of this generation — plays Kotaro in Asura. The show begins with Takako discovering her seventy-something father – Kotaro – being unfaithful to her mother for a long time and even having a child. Kunimura is quite fantastic in the role, where most of the acting is done by expression and not words.

Keiko Matsuzaka as Fuji

Keiko Matsuzaka, who has a sprawling career and was also...

“Doesn’t everyone have something they’re not proud of?” This question, asked by the eldest sister Tsunako in the new trailer for Asura, sets the tone for a series that dives into family secrets and personal struggles. The Japanese drama remake, directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, will premiere on January 9 and promises to engage audiences with its powerful story and talented cast.

The main cast includes Jun Kunimura as the sisters’ father Kotaro, Keiko Matsuzaka as their mother Fuji, and Masahiro Motoki as Makiko’s (Machiko Ono) husband Takao. Ryuhei Matsuda plays Katsumata, a private investigator who has feelings for Takiko (Yu Aoi).

Kisetsu Fujiwara appears as Sakiko’s (Suzu Hirose) boxer boyfriend Hide, while Seiyo Uchino portrays Sadaharu, a restaurant owner secretly involved with Tsunako (Rie Miyazawa). These supporting characters shine alongside the four sisters, building excitement for their on-screen dynamics.

Other notable roles include Yui Natsukawa as the wife of Tsunako’s lover,...

When we look back on your youth and our time in school, every one of us might think of a certain person in their circle of friends, or one classmate, who managed to turn even the most boring lesson into something quite exciting. Episodes of these people, their antics or just their strange behavior, hold a certain place in our memories, and probably will be one of the first topics we address during a class reunion after the talk about jobs and families have subsided. Actor Gaku Hosokawa also had one of these friends in his life, a person who fascinated him, but whose story also had a tragic element to it. As he told director Takuya Uchiyama about the character and the story behind it, the latter asked him whether they should make a film about this person, with Hosokawa playing him, which ultimately resulted in “Sasaki in My Mind...

Erroneously romanticised has been the transition into adulthood, a rite of passage taking on no one form across the vastness of cultures and sociologies seen the world over; by design this serialised levelling up involves the paths of career, wealth, and family, usually all interlocking under the banners of manhood and womanhood, presenting themselves as milestones while seldom considering the exponentially prominent requirement of contingencies to take effect should said transition meet bumps along the road. The privileged pinnacle of youth manifests in the decisions taken towards these heavily trivialised stepping stones; more often than not life, it would seem, has other ideas in mind not as some predestined twist of fate but as cruel twists of the blade pushing ever deeper into an already open wound. Innocence, and naivete, become abandoned, and the vessels they were once attached to are assaulted daily by the grim realities of the world outside of the classroom.

For many media outlets, sensationalism has been the driving force which keeps their publications alive and their readers interested, even though, at times, it comes at the expense of those people their stories are about. With formats such as scripted reality and true crime, there is a certain interest in the obscure and the scandalous, you might say, which surely is served by many reporters, journalists and other people willing to go the extra mile to exploit the misery of others without going into too much detail what is behind the story. In his 2020 feature “Intolerance” Japanese director Keisuke Yoshida blends family drama with a look at the machinations of modern media, especially its more exploitative sides. The feature already screened at Tokyo International Film Festival, where it was part of a focus section dedicated to the recent and past works of the filmmaker.

Intolerance is screening at Nippon Connection...

When we look back on your youth and our time in school, every one of us might think of a certain person in their circle of friends, or one classmate, who managed to turn even the most boring lesson into something quite exciting. Episodes of these people, their antics or just their strange behavior, hold a certain place in our memories, and probably will be one of the first topics we address during a class reunion after the talk about jobs and families have subsided. Actor Gaku Hosokawa also had one of these friends in his life, a person who fascinated him, but whose story also had a tragic element to it. As he told director Takuya Uchiyama about the character and the story behind it, the latter asked him whether they should make a film about this person, with Hosokawa playing him, which ultimately resulted in “Sasaki in My...

In comparison to other Asian countries, Japan is relatively progressive when it comes to the recognition of LGBT rights, with the March 2021 district court ruling in favor of same-sex marriage being one of the latest developments in that regard. At the same time, as in many other countries and cultures, theory is one thing, but practice is something entirely different, and it might take quite a while before a society which traditionally favors conformism realizes that a same-sex couple not only has the same right, but can be parents just as much. In the past, Japanese director Rikiya Imaizumi has repeatedly discussed the theme of love and social traditions within his home country, for example in his aptly named feature “What is Love?” which talks about how love can possibly bridge prejudices and norms. In “his” the director tackles the issue of same-sex couples, about parenthood and images of gender within his home country.

Haruhiko Arai (recently portrayed by Kisetsu Fujiwara in “Dare to Stop Us“) has always been a somewhat controversial personality in his more than 40 years in the movie industry, although his prowess in script writing is undeniable. One of the elements that make his work stand out, is that he is one of the few Japanese artists who uses explicit sex in organic fashion in his movies, not mainly to titillate, but as part of the overall narrative, with films like “Vibrator” and “Kabukicho Love Hotel” highlighting this trait in the best fashion. This approach is also obvious in his third (fourth if you count a co-director credit in “Gushing Prayer“) directorial effort which netted him awards from Kinema Junpo and Yokohama Film Festival.

It Feels so Good is screening at Camera Japan

Akita and Naoko are cousins but also used to be lovers some time ago. Since then, however, their...