Ever since his major debut in 2006, singer Kousuke Atari — known for his masterful fusion of shima-uta (folk songs native to Amami Oshima island in Kagoshima Prefecture) with J-pop — has done remarkably well outside Japan, particularly in mainland China and Taiwan.
After a successful concert in Shanghai in 2006, he released an album in Taiwan that November. A compilation of Atari's singles plus a cover of a song by Taiwanese singer/actor Wang Lee-hom, "Chu Dong Xin Xian" hit the No. 4 spot on Taiwan's G-Music Billboard Chart, as well as ranking No. 1 on the Yahoo! Music Taiwan Chart. Its title refers to "touching one's heartstrings."
It is through such a unique twist of events that the Amami native was offered an acting role in the Taiwanese movie "Taipei Exchanges," to be released in Japan this weekend. In the 82-minute film starring popular Taiwanese actresses Kwai Lun-mei and Lin Zai-zai, Atari makes a short but memorable appearance as a Japanese tourist visiting a Taipei cafe.