The memory of Charlie Chaplin’s 1952 film Limelight is revived in this interesting if sugary cinephile homage – a kind of remake-adaptation transplanted to the Japanese movie industry. Seizô Fukumoto plays Kamiyama, an ageing actor who specialises in samurai films, always being the guy who gets killed. No one can die in a swordfight as acrobatically or dramatically as him: Fukumoto himself has had a similar career. But at 70, Kamiyama is getting too old for the job, and is poignantly reduced to playing the samurai in studio theme-park shows. At the same time, however, he finds himself mentoring a young extra and would-be actress Satsuki Iga (Chihiro Yamamoto), whose own career begins to take off.
It certainly is a melancholy drama – after all, Chaplin’s character in Limelight was a famous stage clown before he got to be washed up, not just a bit-part player whose strong suit was dying on camera. And the final moments of this film are perhaps a little predictable. But it’s also a heartfelt tribute, both to Chaplin and to the samurai movie tradition.
