Taipei Golden Horse Movie Pageant to Honor Koji Yakusho as 2023 Filmmaker in Focus

Japanese actor Koji Yakusho, winner of Cannes’ greatest actor prize this yr for his universally acclaimed efficiency in Wim Wenders’ Good Days, has been chosen 2023 Taipei Golden Horse Movie Pageant’s filmmaker in focus.

Yakusho will attend the Taiwanese competition in particular person and current a collection of seven of his movies in the course of the occasion’s 17-day length. The titles proven will embody Good Days and the erotic basic Misplaced Paradise (1997), in addition to 5 titles chosen by Yakusho himself, together with Kamikaze Taxi (1995), Shall We Dance (1996), Remedy (1997), Eureka (2000) and The Woodsman and the Rain (2011).

“With these seven movies, cinephiles will be capable to witness the allure and versatile performing of a legendary actor,” Taipei’s organizers stated in an announcement.

Throughout his four-decade profession, Yakusho has been nominated for the Japan Academy of Movie Prize 23 occasions, together with seven consecutive nominations in one of the best main actor class, which he has received 3 times, in addition to one greatest supporting actor win.

Yakusho first made a reputation for himself in Japan by way of a collection of performances in taiga drama (Japanese historic dramas set in the course of the age of the samurai), together with a breakout movie function in Juzo Itami’s basic comedy Tampopo. He first attracted widespread crucial acclaim from director Masato Harda’s Kamikaze Taxi with an excellent portrayal of a taxi driver trapped between politicians and mafia gangs, which received him one of the best actor trophy at Japan’s Mainichi Movie Awards.

He first got here to the eye of worldwide audiences in 1996 with Shall We Dance? — Richard Gere reprised his function in a 2004 U.S. remake — which he adopted by starring within the 1997 Palme d’Or winner The Eel, directed by the late, nice Shohei Imamura. Within the mid-2000s he memorably appeared in two Hollywood productions: Rob Marshall’s Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) and Babel (2006), directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.

Good Days appears poised to be one other breakout second for Yakusho. The Hollywood Reporter‘s critic summed the movie up at Cannes as “ineffably beautiful,” writing Wim Wenders ends his eloquent and emotionally wealthy Japanese drama, Good Days, with [a shot] held tight on the terribly expressive face of Koji Yakusho as his character drives by Tokyo reflecting on the rewards and maybe additionally the regrets of his life with the identical spirit of openness and acceptance, embracing the disappointment as a lot as the enjoyment.”

The movie was acquired for North American launch at Cannes by specialty distributor Neon, which can launch it someday this fall. It’s Japan’s submission to the Oscars for one of the best worldwide movie class.

The 2023 Taipei Golden Horse Movie Pageant runs Nov. 9-26 and can open with the world premiere of two native Taiwanese titles: Snow in Midsummer, directed by Chong Keat-aun, a former greatest new director prize winner on the occasion; and Be With Me, by Hwarng Wern-ying, who beforehand took residence prizes on the competition for greatest artwork route, costume and make-up. The occasion will shut with Tales of Taipei, an omnibus movie comprised of ten tales by administrators from throughout East Asia.