Special Actors

  • 109'
  • Japan
  • 2019

Goody two shoes Kazuto wants to be an actor, yet an annoying affliction prevents this – he faints when he gets nervous. Every time things get tense, he squeezes his boob-shaped stress relief ball, usually to no avail.

Just as Kazuto seems condemned to sad mundanity, he encounters his brother for the first time in years. Hiroki works for an agency with actors who are hired to act as a friend or family member and he thinks Kazuto would be perfect. They get the tricky assignment of saving a family-run inn from a fraudulent sect. On the day the sect celebrates the 8,396,825,800th birthday of its god, everything reaches a crazed, confusing apotheosis with apparitions and litres of fake blood.

The personal mission of Ueda, director of the unexpected cult hit One Cut of the Dead, is "making films which will still be fun after 100 years", and he has more than succeeded with this charming loser epic. The fun is as blatant as the fake blood spurting from the fake actors. From the maker of the unexpected cult hit One Cut of the Dead.

Director
Ueda Shinichiro
Premiere
European premiere
Country of production
Japan
Year
2019
Festival Edition
IFFR 2020
Length
109'
Medium
DCP
Original title
Supesharu akutâzu
Language
Japanese
Producers
Satoshi Hashidate, Hitoshi Ono
Production Company
Lamp
Sales
Shochiku
Screenplay
Ueda Shinichiro
Cinematography
Sone Takeshi
Editor
Ueda Shinichiro
Production Design
Akimoto Hiroshi
Music
Suzuki Nobuhiro
Cast
Osawa Kazuto, Kono Hiroki, Fuji Takuya, Kitaura Ayu, Ueda Yosuke
Director
Ueda Shinichiro
Premiere
European premiere
Country of production
Japan
Year
2019
Festival Edition
IFFR 2020
Length
109'
Medium
DCP
Original title
Supesharu akutâzu
Language
Japanese
Producers
Satoshi Hashidate, Hitoshi Ono
Production Company
Lamp
Sales
Shochiku
Screenplay
Ueda Shinichiro
Cinematography
Sone Takeshi
Editor
Ueda Shinichiro
Production Design
Akimoto Hiroshi
Music
Suzuki Nobuhiro
Cast
Osawa Kazuto, Kono Hiroki, Fuji Takuya, Kitaura Ayu, Ueda Yosuke