Satoshi Tsumabuki, the lead actor of the film, Villain, arrived in Taipei today. Before his plane landed at the Taipei Sonshan Airport around three this afternoon, thousands of fans and the media had already been waiting for him there. When Tsumabuki was finally seen at the airport, he was greeted with excited cheer and screams of his fans and swarmed by photographers. He went straight to the hotel to get ready to meet the audiences in the cinema at seven this evening. When he appeared in the cinema, he was once again greeted with huge cheer from the audiences. Some of the fans were so excited that as they tried to get closer to him, they caused little chaos in the cinema. Tsumabuki had a 20-minute Q&A session with the audiences and then rushed back to the hotel to attend the only official press conference scheduled during this visit.


Tsumabuki’s one-day visit to Taiwan was squeezed out of his tight shooting schedule. As a result, he hadn’t had any sleep for 24 hours by the time he arrived in Taipei . Despite being exhausted, when Tsumabuki met the fans and the media, he smiled so warmly and greed everyone in Chinese. He said, ‘Hello everyone. I’m Satoshi Tsumabuki. It’s very nice to meet you.’ Later he expressed that he was so happy and relieved to see so many fans and media here to greet him as he was worried that no one might have heard of him. In fact, Tsumabuki had a secret visit to Taiwan in March with his Japanese fans. He had the famous ‘xiaolongbao’ (steamed buns) and went to Jiufen, where the film, A City of Sadness, (directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien) was set. He was deeply impressed by what he had experienced during his last visit therefore he was determined to come again despite his incredibly busy schedule. On the one hand, he would like to meet his fans in Taiwan and on the other hand, he longed to meet the Taiwanese master, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, who he greatly admired. The Golden Horse Chair, Director Hou Hsiao-Hsien was there at the press conference. He praised Tsumabuki’s brilliance performances as an actor. He told the media that actually he and Tsumabuki met each other in Japan last month and they shot a test sequence for Hou’s new project, The Assassin, in which Tsumabuki would participate. Hou said he heard that Tsumabuki loved and appreciated wine therefore he presented a bottle of the renowned ‘Kinmen Kaoliang’ (strong Taiwanese liquor) as a present to Tsumabuki. Tsumabuki happily accepted the present and claimed that he would be absolutely fine drinking the 58-proof liquor. He went on saying that he would invite Director Hou to drink it with him should Hou lose his temper during their future collaboration.


Since his career began in 2001, Tsumabuki has starred in more than 30 films and 20 mini television series. He is not only a prolific but hugely popular actor that his films are box-office hits and won many awards. Tsumabuki is undoubtedly one of the top Japanese actors today. When talking about Villain, Tsumabuki expressed that he was ‘destined’ to participate in this film. He loved the novel and longed for a challenge to play a completely different character from his previous roles. He approached the director, Lee Sang-li and began to work as a construction worker preparing for the role. He also moved and lived in Nagasaki for quite a while before the shooting. Tsumabuki said that this character was so different from any roles he had played and if it wasn’t for playing such a character, he would never dye his hair blonde or drive a modified car. As the character was someone who suppressed all his emotions, it was very painful for him to do so. Instead of ‘acting’, he was trying to become someone like the character. As a result of the method acting he adopted, it took him several months to become himself again after the shooting.



As for the collaboration with Director Hou, Tsumabuki said that when his agent told him about the news, he couldn’t believe that he would work with a director whom he admired so much. At first, he thought Director Hou would be a very strict and serious person, but his surprise, he found Hou very warm and amiable after the test sequence and he greatly enjoyed their first work experience together.

Yi Chen fest21.com filmfestivals.com contributor
http://www.fest21.com/en/blog/yi_chen