One day in 2011, a hurried figure walked into a cigarette store in Tokyo, Japan.
"Boss, please give me two boxes of substitute cigarettes", there is no hesitation in the choice, the man comes up and goes straight to the subject.
The so-called "substitute cigarettes" contain only a very small amount of nicotine compared to real cigarettes.
It resembled a placebo that was popular among Japanese smokers at the time.
At the moment when he was ready to pay, the man swept to the sign in the corner, which had the words "substitute cigarettes are not limited to purchase".
His eyes lit up and he excitedly said to his boss, "Please get me another ten boxes."
Out of the cigarette shop and back to where I work.
The man took open one of the boxes, took a deep breath, and spat it out contentedly.
With the smoke around him and recalling the scene in the store, he suddenly developed a "sense of disgust" in his heart.
I thought I had quit smoking for four years, and now I don't have the courage to re-smoke real cigarettes.
But lately, there have been petty crimes, such as stealing substitute cigarettes.
Who would have thought that this almost nicotine-free placebo would also make him addicted?
Just when he was halfway abandoned for himself, when he was incompetent, and felt sad—
"Sakai-san, it's up to you, come and shoot it."
Hearing the reminder from the staff, the man named Masato Sakai stood up.
On the way to the shooting scene, he was still annoyed by the "substitute cigarette", and suddenly found:
Isn't he the same as the cowardly and sneaky character Sakurai in the script?
With this "weak resonance", he quickly adjusted his state and threw himself into the shooting.
A year later, the movie "The Method of Stealing Keys" was released in Japan.
This year, the 39-year-old Masato Sakai not only received a nomination for the Japanese Oscar (Academy Award) male lead;
He was also invited by the Shanghai Film Festival to step onto the red carpet for the first time in a celebration of Chinese art.
Although at that time, the domestic media still did not know much about this small Japanese actor.
This also makes most of the shots of the day not stay on him too much.
But in the near future, with the appearance of The Ancient Beauty Gate and the Great God of Hanzawa one after another——
Together with more and more Chinese audiences, they will see this man's unique style.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right">01.</h1>
In 2012, when the first part of the Japanese drama "Winner is Justice" was broadcast-
Due to reasons such as the low broadcast time period, it has not become a local hit.
The situation of "word of mouth without ratings" was not reversed until a year later.
The sequel's hits and out-of-the-loop made Chinese and Japanese audiences have a belated look at Gu Meimen.
A lawyer who should be serious and rigorous, but always funny painting style.
Hair is combed into two or eight minutes, and the hairspray is polished;
When walking, the movement is very windy, and the shape of laughter is not flat.
For the actor Masato Sakai, the incarnation of Gumimon shows an interesting and professional side:
He can grasp all kinds of twisted and convulsive expressions;
And can control a large number of lines without lower limits.
The ultimate exaggeration will not make the audience disgusted, but will stretch the body and mind.
The unique role experience made countless middle school youths at that time shout "kawaii" to Gu Meimen.
On the other hand, the social animals who had left work changed their channels and saw the same face.
The hairstyle was changed to three or seven points, and the suit had a neat feeling.
Coupled with the occasional angry eyes, shouting for tat, double the offering.
In 2013, still starring Masato Sakai, "Naoki Hanzawa" set a record for the sky in Japan.
In the finale, he plays The Great God of Hanzawa and forces his boss, Yamada, to kneel down and apologize.
If the old drama bone Kagawa Teruyuki, in this scene released humiliation and unwillingness.
Sakai, then, gritted his teeth and output a collection of hatred, anger, and sadness.
The master moves, the seven emotions on the face, and the sparks splash around.
"Special performance" is the commonality of Gumimon and Hanzawa in their acting style.
In fact, many of the characters presented through Sakai's physical body are made strong by this force.
But unlike in the play, it is full of overwhelming momentum -
Privately, Sakai Masato always talks with infatuation, and is indifferent to everything.
Since 1994, he voluntarily dropped out of Waseda University, a top institution of learning in Japan;
By 2013, because of starring in two hot dramas in a row, he really turned around.
This actor, Masato Sakai, has been walking uphill for 19 years.
Compared with the two roles that made him extremely popular in the future, the long years -
It is not as bloody as the comedy Gumimon, and it is far less inspirational than the Hanzawa Junshuang drama.
All he shows is a pure, "literary madman" paranoia.
Without a natural artifact, how can an actor be crazy and become a late bloomer?
Shouting the slogan "I want to be an artist", self-esteem?
Most of the time, it's just crazy, not seeing talent, let alone mentioning it.
In the case of mid-level actor Masato Sakai, you will find that the answer is actually very simple.
As simple as three words, it can be summarized: "Luck, blunt, root." ”
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right">02.</h1>
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > shipping</h1>
In "The Winner is Justice", the cute Gu Meimen revealed an experience to the audience:
As a young man, he broke with his father, who was a domestic tyrant, because he insisted that Santa Claus was a fictional character.
Later, through self-taught talent, he was able to enter the legal profession.
This plot is hard not to be reminiscent of sakai's youth.
Born in 1973, he is the eldest son of three brothers.
Different from other people's families, the eldest man showed maturity and stability early on because he wanted to inherit the family business.
In the memories of Masato Sakai's two younger brothers—
Their eldest brother is firmly bound to the word "willful".
This impression mainly stems from Sakai's junior year.
Not long after the start of school, one day he did not say hello to anyone, and suddenly returned from school to Miyazaki's hometown.
In front of his parents and brothers, he covered his face with a single sentence and almost did not overturn the roof of the house:
"I have submitted a withdrawal application."
Sakai's dropout meant that he gave up his diploma from Waseda University.
Just like abandoning Peking University, in 1994, any normal person could not understand.
In his father's rage, he had already beheaded first and played later, and naturally did not explain too much.
Just before leaving home, left a sentence "I'm sorry, I've decided to concentrate on the drama".
In fact, three years ago, Masato Sakai, who was in high school, would not have decided like this.
At that time, although he also participated in the drama club, he also wrote and directed his own stage plays.
But it's all just fun, and there's "no desire to be an actor."
His original ambition was to enter a national university and become an official.
However, all the national universities failed the list, and with the mentality of "leaving a souvenir", they were admitted to the private Waseda University.
The amazing record of zero points in the plus math test collided with the policy adjustment that year.
With this good fortune, coupled with a ride on the dust of liberal arts results, Sakai Masato was admitted to the Chinese department.
After more than two years of college, everyone around me is still enjoying a full entertainment life.
Masato Sakai, who was busy rehearsing and homework at the drama club, experienced the contradictions and uneasiness of the future early on.
On the one hand, Chinese study, graduate with a high probability of becoming a company employee, or a teacher;
On the one hand, it is early drama, doing professional things with a group of professionals, and then becoming professional actors.
Going left or going right became a philosophical question that constantly plagued him.
Sakai masato only knows in his heart that he is the kind of person who is "particularly afraid of boredom."
Chinese can learn on their own, and teachers and staff are not interested.
After thinking about it, he felt that the actor was "more attractive".
Although for him, it was not a problem to do both academics and drama at that time;
But in the spirit of the "since you decided, why force yourself to go to class" brain circuit -
He still took a breath and killed the retreat for himself.
At the beginning of the stage play, there were indeed a lot of flowers and applause.
This made Sakai feel motivated for a while.
"I am a man who can easily mobilize the emotions of five thousand people", standing on the stage, full of pride.
However, after getting off the stage and returning to reality, he had to face such a dilemma:
Stage plays do not make money, and the most basic meals will become a big problem.
At that time, he had already cut off contact with his family, and there was no one to help him when his wallet reached the bottom.
When I was the poorest, I ran to pick dandelions on the side of the road to eat;
A leaflet for sushi was posted on the wall, with the words "I want to eat sushi."
Before dropping out of school early, Sakai always believed that if he became an actor, it must be "a person with a will to do something".
But the facts now tell him:
Life, often hard enough is only a prerequisite, you must also be lucky enough.
Watching the former classmates successively move towards a stable workplace, in order to survive, but also to prove themselves:
After the turn of the millennium, Masato Sakai switched from stage drama to TV drama and began to export dragon set characters like crazy.
However, in addition to the brief appearance of the morning drama "Audrey", let the family know that they are not mixing -
Masato Sakai has never been able to really get the audience to care.
At that time, although there were different dramas, the young and handsome him did not have a low return rate;
But the vase-style handsomeness allows him to be replaced by other people with a high return rate at any time.
Nearly a decade of dormancy, finally in exchange for a role that the audience remembers.
I don't know if this is lucky or unfortunate for an actor.
In 2008, the historical drama "Tokuhime" found Masato Sakai.
Playing the heroine's husband, the general's family determined that he was a nobleman who was "passionate but elegant in character" according to the setting.
Although before in "New Selection Group", he played the passionate Tsukiyo head samurai.
But the question is, how to behave gracefully?
Born as a civilian through and through, he has no experience in the life of a high-gate family.
Just when Sakai Masato was at a loss, the shooting scene accidentally looked up.
He found three words hanging on the entrance, thinking innocently.
Because he had studied Chinese literature, he knew that this sentence came from Confucius:
"Three hundred poems, in a word, are innocent."
Frankness is the most appreciated place.
The hint in the darkness made Sakai Find the Pulse Gate at once.
Since the later episode was broadcast, the audience has regarded him and Jiading as white moonlight to see ——
This time, it was more or less the right answer.
"I'm still lucky," Sakai, who was 36 years old at the time, thought to himself.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right">03.</h1>
< h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > blunt</h1>
In his early years, Masato Sakai, who was unknown, would often be called to drink by his fellow actors.
After the end of the drinking room, every time it lasts until late at night, someone always stands up and proposes:
"Anyway, I have to work very early tomorrow, so I might as well drink it until morning."
However, the next day, when masato Sakai after the hangover was shaking, he rushed to the scene and looked at the same shaky drinker:
As soon as he shouted to start the machine, he acted incredibly wonderfully, "acting skills do not drag mud and water."
He could only hold his forehead and envy him.
I "can't walk between reality and character like them."
Seeing this, he rarely went to such a liquor board again.
Masato Sakai, who had a long dragon set, once thought that the so-called good acting skills were all due to the luck of "the care of the gods".
This kind of luck often comes inadvertently, "and all that remains is to commit to that impulse."
However, after the hangover incident, his thinking changed a lot:
He's not the kind of actor who can be at ease at all times.
Just by relying on the flash of inspiration alone, it is really difficult to make up for the lack of acting skills.
So even today, when he interprets a lot of characters —
We still need to do a lot of homework and fully understand in order to integrate.
That's why, looking back, you'll find a lot of his bewildering deeds:
In order to practice the acting skills of Japanese drama running, go to animal documentaries and learn the posture of an antelope jumping from the rock.
As a result, it was later said that "it is not at all a reference".
In order to shoot "Izumo's A-Kuni", I specially ran to Izumo to collect the wind and conceive what the character should feel like.
But the character of the performance is a Kyoto native, and "it has nothing to do with Izumo.".
In order to perfectly present the bed scene of "The Secret Garden", he signed up for the gym for the first time.
When I finished all the enrollment procedures, on the way back from the first exercise, I received a phone notification:
"Nude play is canceled."
I have been working hard, but my heart has always been counterproductive.
Young Sakai always has a dull feeling of "ingenuity".
The Japanese media commented on him, saying that he was an actor who "expressed his joys and sorrows with a smile".
And this performance style of "responding to changes with no change" -
It was Sakai Masato who later figured it out on his own, a blunt protective color.
After the career turning point "Du Ji", the first movie he starred in was "Antarctic Chef".
In the snow and ice, a cook watched everyone gobble up their own dishes.
The affirmation of the diners' actions allows him to show a warm and healing smile.
Coupled with a rounded face that deliberately fattens up twenty pounds, it can always make the character more convincing.
And in "Golden Dreams", the man he played was framed for assassinating the prime minister and fled everywhere.
Chased by anonymous malicious chases, several times desperate.
Running through the streets of Sendai 36 times, he can also interpret the laughter of the persecution of small people.
Even in "The Husband Suffers from Depression", Sakai Still does not show too much skill.
He just accompanies the character, from pain to calm, from darkness to sunshine.
In the process, many bitternesses have chosen to be expressed with "laughter".
In today's Japan, actors still have nicknames called "Haiyou".
The term originated in ancient China and refers to those who "make people laugh or grieve for others."
Sakai, on the other hand, performed two functions with just one expression.
A mind to study the "technique of laughter" to show the personalities of different characters with subtle expression changes.
Such a jianghu move is indeed a big cold door, unique.
However, many people feel that his presentation is too hot:
"It seems that there is a kind of exaggeration of the occupational disease of stage drama, contrived."
For similar doubts, Sakai Masato was certainly panicked at first.
But when he turned his head, he saw the regular actors and formal works around him.
And, with him, the joys and sorrows of the regular audience.
"Between so many formal things, I am more or less formal."
Only by thinking like this did he feel a little at ease.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right">04.</h1>
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > root</h1>
Masato Sakai on the screen always stands in the center of the fictional Vanity Fair.
The capable and exquisite Japanese elite, the shogun who is wrapped up in desire, the human desire for material fame...
In more than three decades of acting career, such roles have appeared repeatedly.
But over the years, the real him has lived a simple life.
Go out on the street every day, wear glasses, step on foot and drag, and wear a T-shirt that you have fished.
He has rarely appeared in gossip magazines, and he has been hung up because of his simple dress.
At that time, the caption given by the magazine was too earthy, not like a popular actor.
He must also know this, otherwise he would not have smiled and said, "In his heart, he is still a liberal arts man."
From the time when the newcomers were still not highly prolific, Masato Sakai, who did not play, was accustomed to disappearing.
And in the 13 years of the fire, followed by marriage and children, it was a long time completely invisible.
There have also been paparazzi who have secretly followed him before, trying to dig up some news from him.
It turned out to be just a coffee shop in Tokyo, where he read the script for an afternoon.
Sakai likes noisy environments, which makes it easier for him to recite his lines.
In "The Winner is Justice", When Gu Meimen faces the villagers, he has a line that can be called "the longest in the history of Japanese drama".
You can see that in the crowded shooting scene, if no one is around him, he repeatedly silently recites.
Compared with brain power, in the end he already relies on "muscle memory".
In addition, another secret to opening the status of Sakai's actor is contact lenses.
After many years of debut, he rarely appeared on the screen as an image wearing glasses.
In 2011, he partnered with Takuya Kimura to shoot "Antarctica".
At that time, he found that when playing against popular actors, there were always people watching, and there was simply "no way to concentrate."
Later, Sakai began to stagger the contact lenses slightly.
When the obstructive vista is hazy, attention returns to the actor.
After many years in the industry, he has a lot of "little cleverness" that he has groped out on his own like this.
About life, career, but also about ideals —
Choose one thing, "loyal" thing, not for the prosperity of easy ingenuity.
This is the root of the Sakai Masato, which was planted very early.
Although looking at it now, in the former Japanese showbiz, Sakai Masato is definitely not a dominant player.
He is not like takuya Kimura, a beautiful teenager of the same level, "debut is legend";
Nor is it like the old partner Kagawa Teruyuki, the method is old and pedantic, and one person with a thousand faces is all drama.
But he had sharpened himself for a long time, and after waiting, he finally stole the key that did not belong to him.
Who's to say, it's not a crazy, cool thing?
- END -