Jun 24 2008
The Face of Another
In a real “once in a lifetime” opportunity, I had the chance to meet legendary actor Tatsuya Nakadai today at a New York press conference. It was being held to promote the re-release of his devastating nine-hour-plus anti-war epic The Human Condition (1959-1961). The screening kicks off a retrospective series/festival at the Film Forum rep theater celebrating his awe-inspiring body of work, and he’s totally deserving of the attention and accolades.
Nakadai’s been involved with some of movie-dom’s all-time greatest films and filmmakers: director Akira Kurosawa, with Yojimbo, Sanjuro and Ran; director Masaki Kobayashi, in movies like Kwaidan, Harakiri and the aforementioned The Human Condition; director Mikio Naruse, and When a Woman Ascends the Stairs. He’s headlined heart-rending dramas, unsettling horror films, searing war movies, action-packed samurai pics…you name it, he’s probably done it. He’s not as well-known in the U.S. as his contemporary, Toshiro Mifune, but in a certain way Nakadai’s an even more amazing actor simply because he’s such a chameleon. He’s genuinely slipped into his roles, made them his own, yet allowed the characters to shine more than his own persona.
The conference was, admittedly, a bit of a drag at times, because journalists can ask some pretty ridiculous questions (like prodding Nakadai to somehow discuss U.S. involvement in Iraq), but he offered a lot of memories (like rehearsing from 9:00am to 3:00pm for a two second cameo in Seven Samurai just because Kurosawa wanted his samurai-style walk to be credible) that were pure gold.
All in all, it was an amazing experience, a meeting with real movie royalty, the kind of charming, effortless, genuine stardom that’s often missing from cinema these days.
If you want to see the masterful Nakadai at work, take a look at this trailer for Harakiri. It unfortunately isn’t subtitled, but all you need to see is Nakadai’s hollowed face and wounded eyes to sense the shattering tragedy within the film.
