Rei Kitajima

To understand the range of Rei Kitajima, one must look at three pivotal performances that define his career arc.

This was Kitajima’s entry into mainstream commercial cinema. Playing a disgraced runner who joins an illegal street relay team, he performed 90% of his own stunts and sprinting sequences. The chemistry between him and co-star Hana Sugisaki was lauded, but it was Kitajima’s monologue in the rain—confessing his father’s suicide—that earned him a Japan Academy Prize nomination for Best Supporting Actor. rei kitajima