Actor Nenji Kobayashi has finally achieved a milestone in his more than 50-year career: playing the lead role in a film.
Kobayashi plays a scrupulous tofu maker in "Hoshimeguri no Machi," an onscreen reflection of both his career as an actor and his life as a 76-year-old man. The title means "The town of the circling stars," while the film's English title is "Tofu." The film opened last week.
A Wakayama Prefecture native, Kobayashi headed for Tokyo after finishing high school. He was hired by Toei Co. and made his acting debut in the 1960s. For such a seasoned actor, starring in a film must have been a long-awaited dream.
"It was impossible for me to have such an ambition from the beginning," he said. "I went into acting to earn enough to eat."
When visiting the film company's Oizumi studio in Tokyo for the first time, the young Kobayashi stood in front of the gate for a while, believing he'd come across a festival with many people running around.
"I wondered if I'd be able to survive in Tokyo, in showbiz, and this was how I started," he recalled. "However, coming from the countryside, I was certain I couldn't give up. I also wanted to give my parents an easier life."
Kobayashi has starred in many TV dramas and appeared in many supporting film roles.
"It may sound cool to say I've piled up [roles in my career], but I've just been dependent on other people all my life," he said shyly.
Kobayashi stars as Yusaku, who lives with his daughter, Shiho (played by Mitsu Dan). He makes delicious tofu, going to great pains and dedicating much time to its creation. One day, a boy named Masami (Haruta Arai) is brought to Yusaku's house -- he is a distant relative who lost his entire family in the tsunami that followed the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011.
Yusaku is a reticent artisan who appears somewhat unfriendly. When selling tofu, however, he jokes around with the customers. The protagonist is also tolerant and never raises his voice even when Masami becomes defiant.
The film is directed by Mitsuo Kurotsuchi, who also wrote the script and shot the film entirely in Toyota, Aichi Prefecture. Kobayashi quoted the director as telling him when the project started: "I believe the film will fit you like a glove."
"The director knows many sides of me, including the negative aspects," the actor said. "I think this work is something you could never write unless you have really warm feelings toward me."
To show his thanks to Kurotsuchi, Kobayashi made sure he spoke all the lines word for word. "I thought that was my salute to the director," he said.
Whenever he thinks about acting, Kobayashi remembers the final stage of screening before he was employed by Toei. He went to the interview wearing his high school uniform, and Hiroshi Okawa, the company's president at the time, asked him if he was going to take the university entrance exam.
The moment he heard the question, Kobayashi's mind went blank, and he just said: "It's like a dream for me to be able to come to the final interview of a film company."
He was dismissed from the room after a minute or so, and the young Kobayashi thought he had failed. Eventually, however, he found he had made it.
"Even in an important play, people tend to praise me when I'm like: 'I just spent the whole time playing around. I was just passing through,'" the actor said. "It's better to be honest in what you have to show."
Since his days as a fledgling actor, Kobayashi said he has looked up to the late Ken Takakura.
"If I compared us to the roles in this film, I'd be the boy and Takakura-san would be the tofu shop master," Kobayashi said. What would Takakura say if he heard that he was starring in a film for the first time?
"He wouldn't say anything special," the actor said. "He'd try to conceal his embarrassment and just say, 'Hey, Nenji, let's go out tonight to eat something nice.' I like the way he was awkward."
The film's original title reminds many of a poem by Kenji Miyazawa: "Hoshimeguri no Uta" (The song of the circling stars), which is used as a motif in the film.
"The theme is encounters between people. I think the story is about the circling of people," Kobayashi said. "You can find dreams only in encounters."
The film, in Japanese, is showing at Marunouchi Toei and other cinemas. Visit hoshimachi.jp for more information.
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