Takashi Yamazaki was known primarily as a computer-graphics whiz when he directed the ensemble drama "Always Sanchome no Yuhi" ("Always: Sunset on Third Street," 2005). True to form, the recreation of 1950s Tokyo by Yamazaki's team at the Shirogumi effects house was hyper-realistically detailed, while suffused with a golden-glow nostalgia for a simpler time.
The real discovery for me, though, were the performances Yamazaki drew from his young actors, particularly star Kenta Suga. As Junnosuke, a street kid who becomes the ward of failed novelist Chagawa (Hidetaka Yoshioka), Suga did not try to charm the audience into submission — the favored strategy of nearly every local child actor. Instead he played his dirt-smudged character with a combination of raw innocence and true grit that made him simultaneously a throwback and a standout.
In his new samurai period film, "Ballad Namonaki Koi no Uta" ("Ballad: A Song Without Love"), Takahashi again focuses on a child character, this time a modern-day boy named Shinichi (Akashi Takei), with a story inspired by the 2002 entry in the long-running "Crayon Shin-Chan" feature animation series. Average-kid Shinichi, however, is little like the anime Shin-Chan — a mischief-making, dirty-minded kindergartner who is Bart Simpson's Japanese cousin.