Special Actors

Kazuto is not your typical amateur thespian. He’s nerdy, worships at the altar of campy superhero show “Rescuman” and, most importantly, suffers from a nervous condition that makes him faint at the slightest sign of stress! The laughing stock of auditions, he is a very unlikely candidate for success. But one day, he run into his estranged brother Hiroki, who has a job to offer him… at a most peculiar company called Special Actors, an agency employing actors to stage everyday, mundane situations. Being a stand-in at weddings or funerals – low-stress acting jobs perfect for Kazuto’s skillset. That is, until a new client named Yumi walks in, whose sister Rina has been indoctrinated by a cult! Tasked with infiltrating the bizarre, rice-ball worshipping organization to get the young woman out, Hiroki, Kazuto, and their merry band of banal actors concoct an intricate script and an even wilder rescue production…during which all hell inevitably breaks loose!

Shinichiro Ueda (of instant cult classic and Fantasia Audience Award winner ONE CUT OF THE DEAD) is back with his highly anticipated follow-up, SPECIAL ACTORS! Doubling down on the meta-antics of his previous zom-com (which took us behind the scene of an elaborate, single-take zombie film… and subsequent “real” zombie outbreak), this latest film ups the ante, and turns the entire world into a stage. Ueda confirms his ONE CUT was far from a one-hit wonder, crafting here an elaborate slapstick farce out of layer upon layer of artifice – and the delirious humour that emerges when actors try their best to keep a straight face in the most ridiculous of situations! The must-see-comedy of the year! – Ariel Esteban Cayer