By ATSUSHI OHARA/ Staff Writer
March 25, 2024 at 08:00 JST
Pierre Taki (Photo taken by Ken Murakami)
Musician Pierre Taki decided to tackle his first solo starring role in 13 years in “Horizon” because he was attracted to playing a man who is unattractive and insignificant.
Taki plays Shingo, who provides an ashes-scattering service in a port town in Fukushima Prefecture.
He lives with his daughter, Nao, who works at a fishery product processing company, while his wife has gone missing after being swept away in the 2011 tsunami spawned by the Great East Japan Earthquake.
One day, Shingo meets a young man who asks him to scatter the cremated remains of a mass murderer.
A journalist and a bereaved family member of one of the victims accuse Shingo of planning to scatter the ashes of the killer into the same sea where the missing tsunami victims rest in peace.
A video of the accusation goes viral, upsetting Nao and putting Shingo in a quandary.
The father and the daughter have kept their feelings to themselves after the earthquake, but they spill their hearts out to each other.
Taki was approached by Katsuya Kobayashi, with whom he appeared in Kazuya Shiraishi’s “The Devil’s Path,” to play the lead role for Kobayashi's directorial debut.
Shingo scatters cremated ashes at cheaper rates for impoverished customers. He also enjoys drinking and is sloppy.
“He is burdened with many issues that just happened along the way, and he is neither able to resolve them nor he is a respectable father,” Taki said. “That is to say, he is nobody. If that’s the case, I thought there should be a footing for me to play the character.”
Although Shingo and Nao let out their true feelings, that doesn’t mean they understand each other. It is also unclear whether they move on with their lives.
“I think this is a kind of movie that makes you leave the theater with a question (about the ending) and wonder and think about it before you fall asleep at night,” he said.
The film is also Taki’s first solo starring role after he was found guilty of violating the Narcotics Control Law in 2019.
The musician and actor is best known as part of the techno-pop duo Denki Groove with Takkyu Ishino.
Taki has appeared in many films, including “Miyamoto,” “Mari's Story” and “September 1923.”
“Horizon” is currently showing on screens across Japan.
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