Actress Shim Eun-kyung and Japanese actor Sakura Ando are set to star in director Junji Sakamoto’s upcoming film Tamako, marking the first time the two performers will appear together on screen.
The Real-History Roots of Tamako
Director Junji Sakamoto’s film centers on a historical and personal tragedy spanning decades. The story begins in 1945, when a young boy loses his parents in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Left with no family, the boy accompanies a familiar Zainichi Korean resident to South Korea, only to face further turmoil during the Korean War. Living as a liminal figure caught between Japanese and Korean identities, the boy eventually returns to Japan in his later years to search for his identity.
Sakamoto blends these real historical elements with fiction. In the narrative, the young boy falls in unrequited love while living in South Korea. Decades later, as an aging man facing death in Japan, he expresses a final wish to see his first love’s face once more. This prompts his 60-year-old daughter to travel to South Korea, where she meets the grandson of her father’s first love.
Star-Studded Cast and Cross-Border Crew
Principal photography for Tamako is scheduled to kick off in Japan in November, with the majority of scenes to be filmed on location in South Korea. The project brings together a prominent international cast. Shim Eun-kyung plays a Korean interpreter, while Sakura Ando stars as the protagonist’s late wife from his youth. Ando previously made her first appearance in a Korean film through Jeong Ju-ri’s Dora, which was selected for the Directors’ Fortnight at the 79th Cannes Film Festival in May.
Veteran Japanese actors Renji Ishibashi and Naomi Fujiyama portray the aging survivor of wartime hardship and his daughter, respectively. Musician Woodz has also been cast to play the grandson of the protagonist’s first love.
Production Shift and International Financing
Ahn Young-jin, representative of movie company Younghwajasin, initially spearheaded the domestic casting of Shim Eun-kyung and Woodz. Following Sakamoto’s high regard for South Korean production standards, the director scouted domestic filming locations with Younghwajasin last summer under a planned South Korean-Japanese co-production framework, which included exploring partial Korean financing.
However, major Japanese film studio Toei stepped in late in the process to fund the project, shifting Younghwajasin’s role to production support.
A Broader Wave of International Co-Productions
Tamako arrives amid a sharp increase in creative partnerships between South Korean and overseas production entities. Following the four-Academy Award sweep of Parasite in 2019, international interest in collaborating with South Korean talent has steadily intensified. At the same time, domestic theater attendance in South Korea has dropped significantly since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, compelling the local film industry to seek new avenues for investment and distribution.
These partnerships have evolved beyond simple financial transactions or isolated talent swaps into deeply integrated creative ventures.
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