Many young Japanese film actors start as models or pop stars and then, as they accumulate magazine covers or CD sales, move into TV and films. Many also play versions of themselves again and again on screen, which may suit their fans just fine, but makes for repetitive viewing.

Born in Okinawa in 1994, Fumi Nikaido followed this well-worn path, becoming a model for the teen fashion magazine Nicola before making her acting debut in 2007. Nikaido, however, disappears into her roles, creating characters that are radically different from each other, from the swaggering gangster's daughter in "Jigoku de Naze Warui? (Why Don't You Play in Hell?)" and the bubbly Gothic Lolita girl in "Shijukunichi no Recipe (Mourning Recipe)" to a cool-eyed student in the coming-of-age drama "Hotori no Sakuko (Au Revoir l'Eté)," which is showing now.

Her breakthrough, however, was her role as the much-abused girlfriend of Shota Sometani's violent teen hero in Sion Sono's 3/11-themed drama "Himizu." Screened at the 2011 Venice Film Festival, the film divided critics, but won Sometani and Nikaido a joint Marcello Mastroianni Award for best young actors. Since then she has appeared in a succession of indie films, as well as a scattering of TV dramas, while steadily distancing herself from the button-cute kid of her early fashion stills.