Actors playing characters far older and more decrepit than their real-life selves are common enough in film history. Yasujiro Ozu¡¯s favored actor Chishu Ryu made a career of it, playing middle-aged fathers from when he was in his 20s.
Still, seeing the 51-year-old Tadanobu Asano as the dementia-afflicted dad of an adult daughter in Toshiyuki Teruya¡¯s heartwarming ¡°Kanasando¡± was a shock. Asano rose to international stardom about two decades ago playing volatile, dangerous characters, a prime example being his psychotic gangster in Takashi Miike¡¯s 2001 horror ¡°Ichi the Killer.¡± His scheming samurai warlord in the hit FX series ¡°Shogun¡± also fits this mold.
In his latest feature, Teruya (whose stage name as a comedian and actor is Gori), is only acknowledging the sad fact that dementia can strike even vital types like Asano¡¯s character. A former construction company boss living on Iejima island in Okinawa Prefecture, Satoru (Asano) was once a heavy drinker, serial philanderer and possessor of a full head of hair. But when his estranged daughter Mika (Ruka Matsuda) sees him after a gap of seven years, he is in a hospital bed on palliative care and mistakes her for his now dead wife Machiko (Keiko Horiuchi).
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