Audiences at the opening of the Tokyo Intercontinental Movie Festival had a possibility to glimpse Nakajima Kento stretching his performing array in “Fragments of the Final Will” (aka “From Siberia With Love”), Takahisa Zeze’s melodrama about coming property from the entrance following WWII.
Nakajima, a J-Pop star with a important enthusiast following, is committing himself to producing acting a increased element of his job going ahead. With youthful appears and superior English-language competencies he stands a potent prospect of attracting worldwide interest next.
His apprenticeship in amusement was, typical of the Japanese industry, long and arduous. It included a stint at Johnny’s Jr music act B.I. Shadow and 4 several years of multi-disciplinary schooling within just the all-potent Johnny & Associates expertise company, before currently being unleashed as portion the of the idol group Pretty Zone.
The company teaching obstacle study course is designed to weed out the weak although also establishing a array of music, dance, language and performing skills. “Many times we had to get up at 5am,” claims Nakajima. He also wryly seems to be back again at the misdirected encouragement. “I continue to recall Mr. Johnny made use of to praise my parents for sending me to piano college. He was praising them. Not me,” claimed Nakajima.
“We trained in quite a few expertise. But a thing I uncovered from my teaching was to reply to the rhythm of items,” mentioned Nakajima. That intended discovering the rhythm of the functionality, but also likely with the expanding circulation into acting.
“I hope that in my performances people today can see the devotion to my craft. I definitely love to accomplish as an actor, to give everyday living to a function. And I adore to develop pretty various types of characters,” Nakajima reported.
Within just Japan, Nakajima has accrued more and more notable roles in Television set motion pictures (“Castle of Sand”), theatrical videos (“Teen Bride” and “Nisekoi: False Love”) and drama collection (NTV’s “Detective Beginner,” Fuji TV’s “She Was Pretty”). Just lately he was the star of doomed appreciate unique movie “My Dearest, Like a Cherry Blossom,” produced by Toho Studios for Netflix.
Nakajima invested the middle of this year in Europe, operating on his debut worldwide series function in “Game of Thrones” government producer Frank Doelger’s surveillance drama “Concordia.” The premise is a culture managed in the fascination of fairness by synthetic intelligence, but soon after 20 yrs the top secret behind its creation threatens to ruin the procedure. Participating in reverse Christiane Paul, Steven Sowah and Ruth Bradley (“Ted Lasso”), Nakajima portrays AJ, the youthful whizz child who retains the technological innovation working.
“AJ is the Asian tech male. He’s a quite sensible and amazing person, who gets to be far more arrogant about time, but is even now somebody worthy of regard,” stated Nakajima. “We had a very international crew British, American, French, German and Italians who were being all incredibly inclusive. Immediately after a several initial issues that arrived from not working in my indigenous language, I grew to become a great deal much more relaxed and learned some of the several matters that [moviemaking the world over] has in prevalent.”
After “Concordia,” which counts ZDF, MBC, France Televisions and Hulu Japan as companions, Nakajima states he is looking for other international roles. His tastes are decidedly mainstream, citing “Top Gun: Maverick” and “50 Shades of Grey” as latest favorites. And he sees himself a person day going into a imaginative government part. “I’ve frequently been associated in a production capacity for Alluring Zone and am intrigued in making a 360-degree working experience for enthusiasts,” Nakajima stated. But efficiency – new music and performing – will continue to be his priorities in the close to to medium time period.
Presented the regular initiatives to cultivate fandom, especially via his “Kenty Time” blog, it would be a shock if he had been to give that up in a hurry. Lovers in Japan are absolutely nothing if not focused. “I generate a hashtag and in just a small whilst, they’ve made it a development. They’re wonderful. They are by no means failed me,” Nakajima mentioned.
The next trick will be to replicate that loyalty abroad.
Nakajima Kento as AJ in “Concordia”
