On September 14, the Japanese healing fantasy film "Kamakura Monogatari" landed in Chinese mainland theaters, directed by Takashi Yamazaki and starring Masato Sakai, Mitsuki Takahata, Shinichi Toshi, and Sakura Ando, telling the strange stories that happened in Kamakura, the ancient capital of the two worlds, and a heart-warming love story between the male and female protagonists that span life and death. When the film was released in Japan last year, it grossed 3 billion yen and was nominated for three Japan Academy Awards.
Poster of Kamakura Monogatari
Masato Sakai plays Masakazu Ichise, a mystery novelist who graduated from the Faculty of Literature of Todai University, excels at solving strange events, loves to wear kimonos and yukatas, has a wide range of hobbies, is a railway fan and kendo master, and also likes to raise tropical fish, paint, enjoy music, and collect antiques. Such a persona seems to be completely based on the personal qualities of Sakai Masato, and only a servant like him with his own literary atmosphere can bring the audience a proper persuasiveness.
Speaking of which, in addition to the limited screenings of various film festivals, this is the first time that I have seen Masato Sakai's performances up close on the big screen in Japan. As a movie fan, I naturally want to take the opportunity to "Amway".
The late "fool" of the big instrument
Compared with those youthful idol actors in Japan, Sakai Masato definitely belongs to the type of late bloomer, and it seems that from the time he first entered the public eye, he has been crowned with the title of "uncle". However, this now recognized "drama idiot" did not intend to enter the show business circle at the beginning.
Masato Sakai Photo
He was born into an ordinary Japanese family and was the eldest of three brothers. When he was young, Sakai's future was very ordinary, and he hoped that he could become a civil servant, and only then did he feel that he had done something meaningful to society. It wasn't until junior high school that he read a magazine related to acting that he had a yearning for the profession of actor. In high school, he chose to join the drama club. Since then, he has been out of control and began to hone his acting skills on the stage.
Stills from the Sakai Company era
Judging from Sakai's face, he always felt that he was a gentle gentleman, but in fact, his youth was full of "rebellion". If others are admitted to Waseda University, they must be cherished, but Sakai Masato said, "I just went to the exam with the mentality of leaving a memorial, who knows if I was really admitted", and he still studied in an unexpected and intimate field - the Middle Chinese Chinese Literature Major, which is a proper Chinese high-quality student in China.
But after being admitted to a prestigious school, Sakai Masato became naughty again. He single-mindedly rooted himself in the university's acting club "Tokyo Orange", and his studies became a complete side business. In fact, he has long been eyeing this famous acting club, and many professional actors have come out of this community. On the stage, he was sharp and quickly became the main celebrity in the community. There was a rumor that sakai was popular in the community at that time, and when the elementary school sister came to chase the stars, there were students who played a small calculation, borrowed his used ballpoint pen and resold it, and a 120 yen pen could be fried for 300 yen.
Stills from the stage play "Barbarian Ghost", left by Masato Sakai
Although at the beginning of college, he still thought that acting was just a hobby, after graduation, he would still return to his hometown to be a teacher. But the stage was too tempting for him. In his junior year, Masato Sakai made the most rebellious decision of his life— dropping out of school and embarking on the path of professional acting.
When Sakai Masato made this choice, he did not consult with his parents at all, and he took care of himself to go through the withdrawal procedures. In anger, his parents severed their parent-child relationship with him for 8 years. Not only that, but it also cut off his financial resources. In order to continue to practice the unfinished path of actors, Sakai Hades had to work part-time to earn money. He worked as a donut clerk, convenience store cashier, mover, and more.
For a liberal arts student who is not good at math and often miscalculates accounts, it is common to find money for customers to be dismissed by the store manager, and later even poor enough to paste sushi takeaway flyers on the wall to relieve hunger, and swear to the flyers: "I must become a big person in the future!" ”
Hungry enough to post sushi ads to fill the hunger
Moreover, you can never imagine that he even made a nude model in order to survive...
Share your experience as a nude model on the show
With this perseverance, Sakai has been playing soy sauce in troupes large and small. In 2000, at the age of 27, he participated in a morning drama "Audrey", which allowed his parents to see the results of his efforts and eased his relationship with his parents. However, it was not until four years later that he participated in "New Selection Group!" In the role of "Smiling Tiger" Yamanan Keisuke, Sakai Masato began to become an actor who could be called by Japanese audiences.
Masato Sakai plays Keisuke Yamanan, the new head of the selection team
When "LEGAL HIGH" came out in 2012 to win major acting and popularity awards, Masato Sakai was already 39 years old. After entering the year of confusion, he finally stood on the top list of Popular Japanese Actors with the popularity of masterpieces such as "Naoki Hanzawa", and achieved a belated gorgeous counterattack.
Interpret a thousand-faced life with a "smile"
Sakai Masato once starred in a stage play "Legendary Man" ("噂の男"), which has a line that says that he "expresses all feelings of joy and sorrow only with a smile", which although absurd, unexpectedly highly summarizes the acting characteristics of Sakai. If you look at any of the characters he plays, you can't ignore the personality differences that the various "smiles" he designs bring to the characters.
Stills from the stage play "The Legendary Man"
He can show you a warm and healing smile.
From top to bottom: "Antarctic Cooker", "7 Days of Sunflowers and Puppies", "Kamakura Monogatari" stills
Originally, Sakai Masato had a gentle face of a humble gentleman, and the elegant atmosphere on his body was even cleaner and clearer in the healing works. Like the 2008 food comedy movie "Antarctic Chef Man" and the animal protection "7 Days of Sunflowers and Puppies", it is a heart-warming tone that brings strength to ordinary people, coupled with sakai's soft and gentle smile, it will always make the character more convincing.
Moreover, like the latest "Kamakura Story" and the previous Ōkawa drama "Tokuhime", Sakai Masato plays the role of having infinite affection for his lover, at this time, his smile is in addition to gentleness, with the flow of eyes, there is an extra layer of affectionate meaning, so that people are unconsciously attracted by this warm and jade temperament.
Stills from "Du Ji"
He can also interpret the bitter bitter smile of the little man.
Stills from "Husband With Depression"
Among the many characters of Masato Sakai, his personal favorite is the small characters he plays, such as the down-and-out small theater actor Takeshi Sakurai in the nonsense comedy "The Way to Steal the Key", who was originally nothing, even hanging himself to kill himself, he could touch the rope and break such a mess, but he was accidentally opposed to the identity of Kondo played by Teruyuki Kagawa, and was forced to be reborn as a killer.
"The Method of Stealing Keys"
Such an absurd little person, Sakai Masato makes extensive use of the "laughter" technique in his interpretation, and he will show a bitter bitter smile in the face of a bad life, and show Sakurai's cowardice with cringing body language. However, after being forced to become a killer, he has to pretend to laugh and not smile, and imitates the killer's posture with the self-cultivation of an actor, and the awkward "smile is like crying" face allows the audience to easily appreciate Sakurai's inner entanglement and fear. There are bitter smiles, fake laughs and smirks, and Sakai Masato's restrained expression in it complements Uncle Kagawa's passionate extravagant performance, which makes people addicted.
The film "Golden Dreams", adapted from Kotaro Isaka's novel of the same name, is a masterpiece of Sakai's work of showing the journey of the little people. He vividly expressed the bitterness and helplessness of an ordinary young man who was originally kind and docile, who was wrapped in fate and embarked on the road to escape, and the bitter smile at the beginning was because he lamented the unexpected changes brought about by fate, but the smile of relief shown at the end of the film is also a little relief for the trust between people.
Golden Dreams
He can also transform into a crazy laughing "Yan Yi" emoji.
A collection of legal high emoticons made by Japanese netizens
If it is not a die-hard fan of Japanese dramas, probably many people think that the three words of Sakai Masato are equal to "emojis", many domestic audiences know him through the "LEGAL HIGH" series, Anda Sakai played by Gu Meimen not only provides legal practitioners with a wealth of anti-routine bloody lines, but also presents a considerable number of "Yanyi sand sculptures" to the broad masses of the people.
Gu meimen emoji
If the character of Gu Meimen is put into other scripts, he is definitely a typical villain who is "oily and slippery, snarky and mean, and ignorant of righteousness", but Sakai Masato has made the role of Gu Meimen three-dimensional and cute through a series of exaggerated body movements and amazing line skills designed by himself. He often had to laugh exaggeratedly while constantly saying super long lines in one breath.
Looking at Shu's body language, it is said that this is all his own thoughts.
Manga-style Gumimon
This "LEGAL HIGH" and 2013's "Naoki Hanzawa" are both dramas with explosive lines, so in addition to designing their own emoticons, Sakai Masato has to spend a lot of time to memorize lines. When he was on the show, he revealed that in order to memorize lines, he often found a noisy café, ordered a cup of coffee and sat there for an afternoon, attracting the attention of everyone. And when performing "LEGAL HIGH", in order to find the feeling of being a lawyer in advance, he also went to the court with his assistant to observe many civil trials, which is definitely an experiential player.
Other than that, he even smiles when he's fierce...
"Naoki Hanzawa"
Sakai's "laughing skills" are actually more special among the cold and mysterious types of characters. In the Triangle Mystery in the soy sauce period, he played a mysterious and cold rich and handsome president, and in Ice Flower, he was a husband with a black and sinister belly, and when watching Naoki Hanzawa, you will find that even if he shouted out the classic for tat, double the return, the corners of his mouth were slightly raised, and now when he thinks of this line, the sneering smile that Sakai Masato reveals from between his teeth can still appear in his mind.
Stills from "Triangle Mystery"
There are many actors in Japan whose limbs and expressions are exaggerated when acting, which is more or less a performance method with "Japanese characteristics", but a servant like Masato Sakai who has studied the "laughing technique" for many years and wants to show the personality of different characters through subtle expression changes is really unique.
Half a literati
For Sakai, acting has become a daily routine of life, and it can be put on the set for several months in a row. But after the play, he became a standard "otaku", in his own words, "I don't like to move", usually like to sleep at home and empty.
An interview clip from Masato Sakai's "Sprinkling Doctrine"
At first glance, it may seem like a person who has no interest, but Sakai has two biggest hobbies in life: books and wine. Books, in particular, accompany him for almost most of his daily life. Many actors who have co-starred have revealed that when he was on the set, others were reading the script and memorizing the lines, but he could take a book and read it carefully. During the filming of a documentary, the reporter also filmed the scene of Masato Sakai walking into a bookstore after finishing work and buying seven books in one go.
Sakai buys books
Students who have seen the anime "Aoi Literature" should remember that this work also has the participation of Masato Sakai. It is adapted from several Japanese short and medium-length literary works, and uses animation to restore the stories in famous works, including Osamu Dazai's "Human Disqualification" and "Run, Mellors", Ryunosuke Wasagawa's "Hell Change", Sakaguchi Ango's "Blooming Cherry Blossom Tree", and so on.
Poster of the anime "Literature of Aoki"
This literary work, at the beginning of each chapter, will be dictated by Masato Sakai, he even served as the voice actor of this animation, as an actor, his performance in the animation work is not only not prominent, but highlights the sincerity and quality of the producer.
Introduction to the anime "Aoi No Literature" by Masato Sakai
Of course, Sakai not only likes to read, but also has set up a column in the magazine to write some prose miscellaneous notes to record his feelings and experiences when filming. It is said that he still insists on handwriting, and he can write a few strokes in the café.
Masato Sakai Manuscript
His writing style is fresh and elegant, and he is good at pushing the big view from small places, and interested friends can turn to the essay collection "Wen Sakai Masato" introduced by the People's Literature Publishing House to see how Sakai Masahito's writing is.
It is precisely because of this elegant literati atmosphere that Sakai Masato brings with him that the character of the "mystery writer" in "Kamakura Monogatari" has a little more convincing, although Sakai Masato has not been as active as before in recent years, and after forming a family with Miho Kanno, who is also an actor, his family and children have become his new entanglements. But fortunately, every few years, we can still see his gentle figure on the screen. I also hope that in the near future, he can interpret more beautiful characters with a unique signature "smile".