“Intimate Stranger” represents something of a comeback for its star, Asuka Kurosawa, and a return for its director, Mayu Nakamura. Though long in demand as a supporting actor in TV dramas and films, Kurosawa is playing her first leading role in two decades, following her breakout star turn in Shinya Tsukamoto’s 2002 cult hit “A Snake of June.”

Meanwhile, Nakamura, who made her feature debut with the 2006 youth drama “The Summer of Stickleback,” has spent much of her time since making documentaries, including her 2019 film about political activist Kunio Suzuki.

“Intimate Stranger,” which premiered in the Nippon Cinema Now section at last year’s Tokyo International Film Festival and is showing in select theaters throughout Japan, tells the story of Megumi (Kurosawa), a middle-aged woman whose search for her missing teenage son leads her into a strangely close relationship with a young con artist, Yuji (Fuju Kamio), who claims to know the lost boy.