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Live-Action Uzumasa Limelight Film Opens in Los Angeles on November 24

Film distribution company Eleven Arts announced that the U.S. premiere of Ken Ochiai's live-action Uzumasa Limelight film will be held in Beverly Hills on November 24. The film will then have a limited theatrical run in Los Angeles; Irvine, California; New York City; Honolulu; and Aiea, Hawaii starting on December 5. Eleven Arts describes the story:

Uzumasa has been called the Hollywood of Japan. Located in the historical Kyoto Prefecture, known as the cultural center of the nation, it has produced many “jidaigeki,” Japanese period films which are set in or before the Edo period (up to 1868 AD). These films are loved by the Japanese people and praised all over the world, but would not be what they were if it weren't for the “kirareyaku,” actors whose job it is to be killed by the lead star, without ever being in the limelight.

Uzumasa Limelight is about those men, the unsung heroes of classic jidaigeki films; Actors who loved and respected the art, even when the production of classic jidaigeki films began to dwindle. Staring the legendary Seizo Fukumoto, Japan's most famous kirareyaku who appeared as the “Silent Samurai” in the 2003 Hollywood film The Last Samurai, and using Charlie Chaplin's Limelight as an underlying theme, the admirable story of these men dealing with a new generation and fading craftsmanship is told with melancholy and soul.

Seizo Fukumoto won the Best Actor Award for his role in Uzumasa Limelight at the 18th annual Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal in August. The film also received the Audience Award at the 13th New York Asian Film Festival and the Cheval Noir Award for Best Film at the Fantasia International Film Festival.