May 14, 2026 7:58am PT

Megumi on ‘Fujiko,’ Japan’s Cannes Moment and Being Actor-Producer

Naman Ramachandran

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Naman Ramachandran

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“Fujiko,” the Kimura Taichi drama that Japanese actor-producer Megumi spent four years producing and starring in, departed the 28th Far East Film Festival in Udine with two prizes: the Golden Mulberry Audience Award and a shared Black Dragon press jury citation alongside Korean documentary “The Seoul Guardians.” It was a double recognition that validated a career pivot Megumi began out of necessity during the pandemic and has since turned into a personal mission.

“I wanted to empower Japanese women through film,” Megumi tells Variety, citing a news report she encountered ranking Japan last globally in female self-esteem. That statistic became the animating impulse behind “Fujiko,” which follows a single mother navigating personal freedom amid the social upheaval of 1970s and ’80s Shizuoka, and draws on Taichi’s own family history. The film assembled an ensemble anchored by Yuki Katayama alongside Lily Franky, You, Issey Ogata, Kayoko Kishimoto and Tsuyoshi Ujiki, with SC Films Intl. handling worldwide sales. It opened Nippon Connection in Germany before heading to Udine.

The pivot represents a significant evolution for an actor with more than two decades of screen work behind her. She claimed the Blue Ribbon Award for best supporting actress in 2020 for her performances in “The Stormy Family” and “One Night,” and her credits span crime drama “The Blood of Wolves,” Netflix’s “The Naked Director” Season 2 and the period series “Ōoku: The Inner Chambers.” On the unscripted side, her Netflix series “Badly in Love” broke records on the platform and led to a multi-year deal to develop new content.

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The pandemic, however, reshaped her relationship to the industry. Having spent years dependent on offers from others, she decided the time had come to generate her own material. A subsequent trip to Cannes, where she witnessed the appetite for Japanese cinema building internationally, confirmed that direction.

With Japan named Country of Honor at this year’s Cannes Film Market, she reads the designation as recognition of something durable in the country’s creative culture. “The unique discipline of Japanese people, like a mille-feuille, where you layer practice and training — that accumulation conveys a quiet heat to others,” she says. “I feel like that kind of thing is being re-evaluated now.” Japan has three films in contention for the Palme d’Or this year.

Megumi describes herself as a rare figure within Japan’s film industry — an actor who also produces. She says nobody in Japan occupies quite the same position, and she intends to leverage that dual identity internationally as Japan’s global profile rises.

Sustaining “Fujiko” across its four-year development was its own test. “Over those four years, waving the flag for everyone saying, ‘This way, let’s make it interesting,’ and keeping that heat up – I think that was more important and difficult than anything,” she says.

On the acting side, her schedule is packed. “Nameless,” directed by Jojo Hideo, opens in Japan in May. She is also attached to “This Is I,” a drama series for Netflix, and is due to begin shooting an untitled Japan-U.K. co-production — a performing role only — next month.

As a producer, she is developing two untitled projects: one built around a distinctive middle-aged man and his relationship with his daughter, and a second drawn from the most painful experience of her own life, but is keeping details under wraps.

She points to directors Nagahisa Makoto and Kimura Taichi — both with roots in advertising — as exemplars of a generation reshaping Japan’s international standing. “Works in that genre — with a unique tempo, a hint of music and being iconic — are uniquely Japanese,” she says. “I think they have the power to be accepted.”

As a performer, her guiding touchstone is the late Kirin Kiki (“Shoplifters”). “I want to properly express the nuances of ordinary people,” she says.

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Megumi on 'Fujiko,' Japan's Cannes Moment and Being Actor-Producer