Mariko Tsutsui already had many stage, TV and film credits when she appeared in Koji Fukada's 2016 drama "Harmonium." But her performance as a woman whose life is destroyed by Tadanobu Asano's seductive ex-con was a revelation. She made the leap from the naive and sexually starved wife of the film's first half to the hardened and guilt-ridden survivor of the second while maintaining her laser focus on the character's inner core.
The role won her a shelf of local awards and made her an in-demand film actor, albeit still mostly in supporting parts. Now she has reunited with Fukada in "A Girl Missing," which again gives full play to her formidable talents, but this time as the star.
The Japanese title, "Yokogao" (literally, "side profile") says more about her character, who shows her "good" side to the world, while seething with not-so-good feelings. Similar to the heroine of "Harmonium," she is crushed by events beyond her control — namely, a media feeding frenzy of the sort often seen in recent local films. One notable example is Takaomi Ogata's "The Hungry Lion" (2017), a stark examination of a teenager's online slut-shaming and suicide.
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