Midori Sawato knows how to act, from princess to samurai to thief — but only with her voice.

For the past 36 years, she has been performing as a "benshi," or live narrator, for monochrome silent movies.

Today, she is one of only about 10 still performing the art from the silent movie days of the 1910s to the 1930s. At the peak, about 7,000 narrators worked in cinemas nationwide.