Kirk here with something for movie fans. This little post of mine is prompted by an interview I read in the Asahi Shimbun (Japanese version) with Nobel Prize laureate Kazuo Ishiguro. Mr. Ishiguro (who was born in Nagasaki) was discussing how his love of the Kurosawa Akira film “Ikiru” led him to write the script for “Living” with Bill Nighy in the leading roll. The Japanese actor in the original film was Takashi Shimura but Mr. Ishiruro said he found himself imagining what the film might have felt like if the lead had been played by the more subdued Chishu Ryu, who made many movies with Ozu Yasujiro – the most famous being Tokyo Story (Tokyo monogatari). Then, he said that he though of casting Bill Nighy in the lead roll – an artist he views as a Brittish Chishu Ryu.
The references to Chishu Ryu reminded me that he is from Kumamoto:
— start quote — Ryū retained the rural Kumamoto accent of his childhood throughout his life. It may have held him back early in his career, but became part of his screen persona, denoting reliability and simple honesty. When the columnist Natsuhiko Yamamoto published a deliberately provocative piece called “I Can’t Stand Chishū Ryū”, in which he derided Ryū’s accent, there was a furious reaction, and his magazine Shūkan Shinchō (週刊新潮) was inundated with letters of protest. – end quote —- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chish%C5%AB_Ry%C5%AB
The photo of Chishu Ryu is from the following English-language YouTube video about him:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiAWJKgrAko
The photo of Bill Nighy was taken from the following article:
https://airmail.news/issues/2022-12-17/bill-nighy
Reading the Asahi article and preparing this post have made me that much more eager to see the film. :)