Japan actor in Scorsese's 'Silence' drawn to recurring theme

Japan actor in Scorsese's 'Silence' drawn to recurring theme

The film, which had an Oscar nomination for the cinematography by Rodrigo Prieto, is based on a novel by Shusaku Endo, inspired by the true history of torture used by the shogunate on European missionaries and their Japanese followers, purposely to degrade and discredit them.

Some scenes of the crucifixion were shot on a beach, but close-ups of the drowning were shot in a pool with computer graphics for the landscape, and it required near-drowning exertion by Tsukamoto.

Over the decades, his scenes have abounded with squirming maggots, metallic rock-inspired banging, blood-sputtering beatings, dizzyingly jagged camerawork and masochistic but titillating erotica.

His Kafka-esque characters inhabit sterile concrete apartments, lost in winding alleys, escalators and stairways, all seemingly on the verge of collapsing, like a stage set, into another darker reality.

Maggie Lee, film critic for Variety, calls Tsukamoto "an eccentrically versatile and sometimes visionary director, who expanded international fandom for Japanese horror before they'd even heard of Sion Sono," referring to the director of "Himizu" and "Cold Fish," who also has a reputation as subversive and fiercely independent.

Tsukamoto shot to stardom with "Tetsuo," which launched a prize-amassing career in what he dubs "cult entertainment," meaning that he strives for fun, along with the experimental.

Tsukamoto said the March 11, 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters in northeastern Japan gave special meaning to "Kotoko," as he witnessed how many mothers worried for the safety of their children.