Meeting up with Akiko

  His latest appearance comes in a Japanese short, “Home Away From Home”, in which he stars alongside Japanese actress Junko Abe, French actress Irene Jacob and American actor Hershel Peppers.

“Home Away” tells the story of people from different corners of the world ranging from a taxi driver, a young girl and backpackers from Africa, Europe and Southeast Asia who all happen to be in Tokyo and run into a Japanese woman named Akiko.

The film is part of the Tokyo Cine-magic project designed to encourage people from inside and outside of the country to visit Tokyo. The short film has been produced for a special screening in the Cinematic Tokyo competition of the Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia, which will be held from June 1 to 25 and features some 250 titles around the world. The Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia (SSFF & ASIA) is one of Asia’s largest international short film festivals.

The film is directed by Yukinori Makabe and inspired by an original story by Alfonso Torre. His first feature film “I Am a Monk”, was released in 2015. The film won the Audience Award at the Chicago Asian Pop-up Cinema and also the Platinum Award at the WorldFest Houston International Film Festival.

Peppers is best known for his role in 2015’s “Equals”. Abe starred in Naomi Kawase’s “Still The Water”, which was in competition at the 67th Cannes International Film Festival, while Jacob played the piano teacher in Louis Malle’s hit “Au revoir les Enfants” and won the Best Actress Award from the Cannes Film Festival for her role in Krzysztof Kieslowski's “The Double Life of Veronique” in 1991.