Uzumasa Limelight

太秦ライムライト (Uzumasa Limelight)

An award-wining film telling the admirable story of Seiichi, a ‘kirareyaku’ actor whose main job in samurai movies is simply to be killed-off by the lead star. When the studio where Seiichi works decides to discontinue its samurai epics, Seiichi finds himself at a loss but hope arrives in the form of a young woman named Satsuki, who soon becomes his disciple.

Using Charlie Chaplin’s Limelight as an underlying theme, this film pays homage to the unsung heroes of Japanese movies filmed in Uzumasa film studios (Kyoto), Japan’s Hollywood. The semi-autobiographical performance by real-life kirareyaku, 71-year-old Seizo Fukumoto, who is said to have acted out 50,000 on-screen deaths, earned him the best actor prize at the Fantasia International Film Festival, Montreal, in 2014, with the film also winning the festival’s Cheval Noir for best film.

物語の舞台は、かつて多くの映画会社が時代劇の撮影所を設置していた京都市の太秦。テレビの時代劇番組が次々と打ち切られていく中で、いわゆる斬られ役の需要も減った。そんな状況下で、経験豊かな斬られ役と、殺陣の指導を請う駆け出し女優が師弟関係を結ぶ。50年以上にわたって斬られ役を務めてきたことから「5万回斬られた男」との異名を持つ福本清三が初主演。

監督: 落合賢
出演: 福本清三、山本千尋、萬田久子

Distributor: Third Window Films