A moving and nostalgic drama about the actors behind the golden age of chanbara cinema (the distinctive samurai sword-fighting genre for which Japan is famous), this award-winning film tells the admirable story of Seiichi, a veteran kirareyaku (or sliced-up) actor whose main job is to be dramatically and convincingly killed-off by the lead star.

When Uzumasa film studios (Japan’s equivalent to Hollywood) - where 71 year actor Seiichi (Seizô Fukmoto) has spent his entire career - decides to discontinue its samurai epics, Seiichi finds himself at a loss. A master of the art, he lives to die - or more exactly ‘to be cut’ - in order to show a beautiful, spectacular death on screen. But as work for his skill-set begins to dry up and his own professional and physical decline starts to set in, hope arrives in the form of a young girl named Satsuki (Chihiro Yamamoto), who soon becomes Seiichi ‘s disciple as her star begins to rise. Will the art of dying by the sword live on?

Using Charlie Chaplin’s Limelight as its underlying theme and with a beautifully elegiac and touching central performance from Fukumoto (who is said to have acted out 50,000 on-screen deaths during his 50 year career and who deservedly picked up numerous awards for his work here), this real-life veteran of hack ‘n’ slash features gets his richly deserved moment in the limelight. And along the way demonstrates that it's not just the sword but the acting skills on show from these fine, yet often over-looked performers, that can also cut deep.

---