Cult director Shinya Tsukamoto made a name for himself and put Japanese independent film on the map in 1989 with his low-budget urban fantasy Tetsuo: The Iron Man, which he followed up with a number of gory thrillers. So it came as a surprise last year when he directed a musical video filled with gentle imagery for folk-pop singer Cocco, shot on the calm beaches of her native Okinawa. The two creators, known for working outside of the mainstream, enjoyed their collaboration so much they extended it to the feature-length film Kotoko. The story of a psychologically fragile single mother struggling to keep custody of her son, the film marks a return to Tsukamoto’s high-impact visual style to represent her state of mind. The director has been a fan of Cocco’s music for over a decade and when queried on what it was like to finally work with her as an actress, he replied simply, “She’s a genius.” Indeed, when the film picked up the top award in the Horizons sections of the 2011 Venice Film Festival, Tsukamoto commented that it was actually a recognition of the lead performance by Cocco, who appears in every scene of the film. The singer remarked that acting was quite a departure from her usual stage appearances, explaining, “99% of my energy in a stage performance goes to singing, while 99% of making a movie is preparation, including the decorations for the character’s apartment, which I made myself.”
Kotoko opens at Cinema Rise in Shibuya this spring.
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