People who secretly fear they are phonies when in actuality they aren't are said to suffer from "imposter syndrome." The title heroine of Akiyo Fujimura's debut feature "Eriko, Pretended" has the opposite problem: She calls herself an actress but in 10 years has only landed one paying gig in her chosen profession, playing a costumed rabbit in a beer commercial.
But the film, which premiered at the 2016 Osaka Asian Film Festival and has since screened on the international festival circuit, takes Eriko's dilemma seriously, despite the risible lies she tells all and sundry about her nonexistent contacts and accomplishments. This creates a dilemma for the film itself since 28-year-old Eriko (Haruka Kubo) seems destined for an uninteresting fate: return to her countryside home and the dull life she once tried to flee.
But Fujimura, who also wrote the script, creates an interesting, if unusual, new job for Eriko as a nakiya, a professional mourner at funerals. This recalls the set-up of "Departures," the 2008 Yojiro Takita film whose unemployed cellist hero finds his true calling as a nōkanshi, one who prepares the deceased for funerals. Instead of the earlier film's uplifting arc, however, "Eriko, Pretended" opts for a quieter, formula-defying realism.