The magnetic, versatile and award-winning actor Koji Yakusho has worked with some of Japan's most celebrated directors. Well-known both at home and abroad, he has lent his charismatic persona to many unforgettable roles, such as the salary man in Masayuki Suo's Shall We Dance?; the betrayed husband and ex-convict in Shohei Imamura's The Eel;and the father of a hearing-impaired teenager in Alejandro González Iñárritu's Babel. With Toad's Oil,he puts his talent to work behind the camera, directing newcomers, rising stars, established performers and himself in an original and fascinating debut. Inspired by Japanese folk tales and memories from Yakusho's own childhood, the film is an unusual human drama as well as an offbeat meditation on loss and death.
At the boundary between this world and the afterlife live the toad oil salesman and his wife. They are shabby angels peddling a powerful ointment that can cure all illness and pain, and they inhabit a magical space of timeless memories. Their world is far removed from the materialistic sphere of wealth and trade occupied by Takuro (Yakusho), whose days seem to revolve around the many computer screens scattered about the sumptuous mansion where he resides with his family. His life is regulated by a myriad of incoming emails announcing the loss or gain of huge sums of money. But his untidy daily routine is one day unexpectedly subverted when his son, Takuya (Eita), is seriously injured in a car accident.
Based on an original idea by Yakusho and Hideko Nakada, Toad's Oil has a unique personality that mirrors the creative energy of its director and cast. Particularly fresh and compelling are the model Fumi Nikaido and champion K-1 fighter Junichi Sawayashiki, who both make their onscreen debuts. An affectionate portrait of ordinary lives during difficult times, the film has a contemporary fantastical aspect and novel visual appeal that mark the solid beginning of a new career path for Yakusho.
Giovanna Fulvi
Koji Yakusho was born in Nagasaki and began his career as an actor for television and film. He has performed in numerous features, including Masayuki Suo's
Shall We Dance? (96), Shohei Imamura's
The Eel (97), which won the Palme d'Or Ex-aequo at the Cannes Film Festival, and the Academy Award®-winning
Memoirs of a Geisha (05). He has also recently appeared in Alejandro González Iñárritu's
Babel (06), François Girard's
Silk (07) and Kiyoshi Kurosawa's
Tokyo Sonata (08), all of which screened at the Festival.
Toad's Oil (09) is his directorial debut.