As a film critic, I occasionally come across something on the screen that sets off fireworks in my brain. It happened with Sakura Ando¡¯s explosive performance as a desperate boxer in ¡°100 Yen Love¡± and with the funny, surprising and moving zombie comedy ¡°One Cut of the Dead.¡± And last year it also happened with Mayu Matsuoka
When I saw her play a nerdy 24-year-old obsessed with a junior-high crush in Akiko Ooku¡¯s ¡°Tremble All You Want,¡± the words ¡°brilliant comic talent¡± appeared in my head framed by sparklers and pinwheels. In my four-star review of the film, I called her performance a ¡°star-making turn¡± ¡ª it feels good to be right.
Following its premiere at the 2017 Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF), where it won the Audience Award, ¡°Tremble All You Want¡± became a hit in Japan and screened at festivals overseas. Now Matsuoka is back as TIFF ambassador (which is essentially a glorified PR person), but in the past year she solidified her acting credentials with a role as a sex worker in ¡°Shoplifters,¡± the Hirokazu Kore-eda drama about an ersatz ¡°family¡± of petty criminals that won the Palme d¡¯Or at Cannes.
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