Non-Japanese filmmakers who use Japan as a setting typically cast non-Japanese as their protagonists. That is now changing, as evidenced by Wim Wenders¡¯ 2023 hit ¡°Perfect Days,¡± which starred Koji Yakusho as a Zen-like toilet cleaner, and now Chinese director Qi Wang¡¯s ¡°Ghost of Ueno,¡± a drama based on an original script co-written by Asian American filmmaker Wayne Wang.?
The latter Wang previously helmed the 2016 drama ¡°While the Women Are Sleeping,¡± which featured Hidetoshi Nishijima as a novelist who stalks Takeshi Kitano¡¯s elderly sybarite at an Izu resort.
Instead of the genre chills suggested by its title, ¡°Ghost of Ueno¡± is a surprisingly warmhearted drama. Its focus is on the unconventional friendship between Satsuki (Mugi Kadowaki), a gloomy social worker, and Toshi (Naoto Takenaka), a chipper homeless man, as they try to uncover the identity of one Gojo, who died in a blue tarp tent in Ueno Park, leaving behind a diary that offers clues to his existence.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.