Some actors are an acquired taste. There are clearly many people out there who appreciate the talents of Sadawo Abe, but I’ve always found him utterly resistible, like a precocious child actor trapped in the body of a middle-aged man.
When Kazuya Shiraishi cast him as a serial killer in “Lesson in Murder” earlier this year, I thought, “Finally, someone gets it.” Too bad the film itself was an unintentionally camp misfire; I guess you can’t have everything.
Abe is the main attraction in “I Am Makimoto,” his third outing with director Nobuo Mizuta, following “Maiko haaaan!!!” (2007) and “The Apology King” (2013). While those were straightforwardly comic affairs, the duo attempts something more serious in their remake of Uberto Pasolini’s British drama “Still Life” (2013).