The COVID-19 pandemic scuppered countless film projects, but it also spawned others that might never have happened without the forced downtime. That’s true of debutant director Toshihiko Tanaka’s “Rei.” The stage actor found himself suddenly underemployed after theaters in Japan went on temporary hiatus. Rather than pivot to working as an Uber Eats driver, he teamed up with fellow thespian Akio Ikeda to make a feature and, in his own words, “submit it to international film festivals, and aim to win awards.”
That mission statement might smack of hubris if the novice moviemakers hadn’t made good on their goal, winning the top prize Tiger Award at Rotterdam film festival earlier this year.
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