“Special Actors” Theatrical Poster
Director: Shinichiro Ueda
Cast: Kazuto Osawa, Hiroki Kono, Miyu Ogawa, Hayate Masao, Nozomi de Lencquesaing
Running Time: 110 min.
By Paul Bramhall
In 2017 Shinichiro Ueda’s micro-budget zombie movie One Cut of the Dead burst onto the scene fuelled almost purely by word of mouth, a production which cleverly subverted the type of movie audiences thought they were watching to entertaining and hilarious effect. His sophomore feature, following up such a unique slice of cinema like One Cut of the Dead was always going to be a tough ask. In 2019 Ueda handed over the reigns to assistant director Yuya Nakaizumi for the spin-off One Cut of the Dead: In Hollywood, which basically rehashed the original with international cast members and little else. So it was the news that Ueda and Nakaizumi would be teaming up with Naoya Asanuma to co-direct Aesop’s Game, based on Ueda’s script, which generated the most excitement.
Also released in 2019, Aesop’s Game was a joyless attempt to incorporate the cleverness of One Cut of the Dead into a more serious storyline. The problem was, so much time had obviously been spent on making it clever, that such details like engaging characters, a compelling story, and fundamental basics like pacing and tone all fell by the wayside. In short, the magic that made One Cut of the Dead such a pleasure was nowhere to be found. Undeterred, Ueda ditched the co-director approach for his next production, and returned to both solo director and writer duty for Special Actors, which came out at the tail end of 2019 (the advantage of working in low budget cinema – it’s possible to crank out multiple productions within one year!).
Newcomer Kazuto Osawa plays a wannabe actor whose aversion to fainting when feeling even the slightest onset of stress makes getting gigs nearly impossible. That, and his acting kind of sucks. Wearing a perpetually concerned expression and obsessed with an old superhero movie called Rescue Man, Osawa’s nervous disposition is a constant hinderance to him enjoying life. It’s when working part time as a department store guard that he witnesses a couple fend off a molester, leaving the unsavoury low life in a beat-up heap on the ground. After gathering the courage to go and check on him, Osawa is shocked to find out that the molester is his brother, played by Hiroki Kono (Demekin). However even more shock lies in store when he learns that Kono is being paid for the attack by one of the victims – the guy who was on the date.
It turns out Kono is part of an agency called ‘Special Actors’, the speciality being they can be hired to act in every day situations – if you want to impress your date by courageously fighting off a molester, or need the safety net of an audience that riotously laughs at all of your jokes when doing a stand-up routine – give them a call. However the agency doesn’t just do simple “rent an audience/friend/family member” gigs, they also take on more complex requests, the kind that require full on storyboarding, rehearsals, and even a script to pull off successfully. When a client played by Miyu Ogawa (She’s Gone) pays a visit to explain that her sisters joined a cult, and has promised to give away their family inn so they can make it their HQ, Kono ropes Osawa into also joining the agency. Armed with nothing more than a nervous disposition and a squeezy stress ball that never leaves his grip, he and the other actors set about infiltrating the cult.
There are shades of both Korea’s Cyrano Agency from 2010 and Hollywood’s The Game from 1997 running through Ueda’s latest, and it’s to his credit that he still puts his own stamp on it. Gone is the overly serious tone that put a dampener on much of Aesop’s Game, and back is the lightness of touch and underlying warmth that made One Cut of the Dead such a success outside of its rug pull moments. Osawa’s facial expressions are locked in an almost permanent state of fraught worry, and his brother’s decision to keep his fainting condition a secret from the other actors leads to some genuine laugh out loud scenarios.
The cult, called ‘Musubiri’, comes across as a satire of many similar organisations found in modern day Japan. With an origin story that involves the founder being abducted by aliens and robbed of his voice, he’s able to communicate what the great alien leader wants to say to its followers via a telepathic connection with his father, who then vocalises it to the audience. The setup is as ridiculous as it sounds (even more so when you take into consideration their emblem is the musubi – a rice ball snack), and there’s never any question they’re a bunch of scammers, complete with overpriced holy charms such as random rocks in a jar, or posed headshots of the mute leader, played with an amusing blankness by Tanri.
With Musubiri’s ulterior motives providing the narrative thrust of Special Actors, the loose nature of the initial scenes gives way to a more plot driven structure that comes at just the right time. Once the cult is infiltrated it becomes an amusing game of who’s going to out-scam who, as the actors come up with increasingly risky ways to expose the truth without revealing themselves, and the cult move in to close the deal on the inn with an increased sense of urgency. Creating a welcome undercurrent of tension is the way both sides have a weak link – the actors have to deal with the fact Osawa could faint at literally any time (and frequently does), while in the cult Tanri is revealed to highly superstitious, which often sees him breaking character at inopportune moments.
If any criticism could be levelled towards Special Actors it’s that, at 110 minutes, it’s a little on the long side for a comedy. The result sees an occasional lag in the pacing, however as Ueda’s most ambitious production so far it’s easy to forgive. The extended runtime also allows us to get to know the other actors who are a part of the agency, from the amusing power struggles between the manager and the chief scenario planner, to a timid actress who reveals her love of bondage when the scenario calls for her to be tied up.
Ueda brings everyone together for the finale that takes place during one of the cults gatherings, resulting in one of the most hilarious showdowns of recent years as Osawa embraces his inner Rescue Man, and proceeds to single handedly take on a room full of the cults dedicated followers. Performing the entire sequence in a cold sweat while attempting to stay conscious and not faint, the sheer bizarreness of the scene should be enough to win anyone who’s not already having a good time by this point. Watching Osawa stumble around and fall over people ranks as possibly one of the most aesthetically unheroic heroic sequences ever committed to film, however it delivers its intended comedic beats with aplomb, and proves watching the underdog rise to the occasion is something audiences will never get tired of.
Perhaps an indicator that Ueda now feels the need to incorporate some kind of twist or narrative rug pull in all of his movies since the success of One Cut of the Dead (although let’s resist the temptation to start calling him the Japanese M. Night Shyamalan for now), Special Actors also throws in a final scene reveal that places a different spin on everything we’ve just seen. Thankfully it works well within the context of the narrative, playing into an important character motivation within the plot, and ending things on a satisfying high note. While Ueda is clearly a strong creative force and enjoys stories where not everything is as it seems, he also has an understanding of how to create characters that the audience care about, and here’s hoping his future features will continue to focus just as much on the latter as the former.
Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 8/10
