Kochi Yamato is the man of the hour, and the next hour, and the hour after that…

Although the latest Demon Slayer film has been dominating the box office in Japan for the past nine weeks in a row, one movie that came very close to dethroning it several times was the live-action adaptation of the indie game The Exit 8.

In the film, Arashi’s Kazunari Ninomiya takes on the player’s role of Lost Man, who frequently runs into Walking Man, played by Kochi Yamato, as he attempts to escape an endless subway corridor. The rules of the game and film both require Lost Man to watch out for any anomalies in the seemingly bland corridors, and Walking Man may also exhibit some of those anomalies, so he must be watched closely. Failure to spot an anomaly means Lost Man is looped back to the beginning and must start again.

While you’d expect that the star power of Ninomiya to do a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of promoting the movie, it looks like his co-star Yamato is making a pretty big splash himself and showing up at a number of appearances.

▼ “At Nino Nanoni’s Sports Autumn 2-Hour Special. Thank you very much for watching!”

▼ “I took part in the Busan International Film Festival.”

▼ “I’ll be appearing on ZIP! tomorrow, 18 September (Thursday)! They interviewed me! Please be sure to check it out!”

I’m afraid if you didn’t spot the anomaly just now, you’ll have to go back to the beginning of this article now…

The rest of you, congratulations on noticing that Yamato was dressed as Walking Man at the Busan International Film Festival. He even walked the red carpet entirely in character to a large applause from spectators and smiles from members of the press.

▼ Full video of the red carpet, cued at Yamato’s appearance

This is all impressive, considering it’s the 46-year-old actor’s first role in a feature film, having only made a handful of TV appearances dating back only two years. That’s because Yamato spent most of his career as a Shakespearean actor in Japan and even founded an entire company dedicated to the works of The Bard.

▼ He still gives lessons on what he calls “Shakespeare-do” (the way of Shakespeare), which focuses more on preserving the spirit of the play while making it accessible to other cultures and generations. In the photo, he’s in character as Richard II, stylized in traditional Japanese attire.

In The Exit 8, the role of Walking Man is deceptively difficult as the character must be completely blank, and even the slightest inconsistency in his performances would be mistaken for an anomaly. He credits his ability to pull that off to his stage work as a background player, who has to be as understated as possible so as not to draw any attention away from the main actors.

Comments from social media users heaped praise on Yamato, complimenting both his looks and acting chops.

“Now, whenever I pass by someone dressed like him, I get a bad feeling.”
“Oh, it’s that guy! That guy was so good!”
“He has such a nice smile.”
“I’m sure I’m not the first to say this, but I would love to see him do something with the Aphex Twin guy.”
“He really did nail that role.”
“Without a doubt, the coolest bald Japanese guy.”
“I had no idea the old guy from The Exit 8 was so handsome in real life.”
“It was a really bizarre performance, I can’t say enough good things about it.”

Yamato said in an interview that at age 27 he lost faith in his chances of having an acting career and gave up completely for about a year and a half, doing part-time work and odd jobs instead. It was a hard road for him to re-enter the entertainment business from scratch all over again, but he managed it, and now his future in Japanese film and TV looks brighter than the fluorescent lighting of The Exit 8.

Source: Twitter/@k_h3021, Otaku.com, Box Office Mojo, Encount, An An Web
Featured image: YouTube/Umbrella Entertainment
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