The supporting actor of “Partners” has won many awards at international film festivals in France and Thailand! Fumiko Otoguro tells us “The other side of the story”.

The man who played a recruiter for a part-time job in “Partners” is a great actor.

The ultimate in self-made acting, isn’t it?

Fumitaka Otoguro, 48, gazed at his “spoils of war” and muttered to himself. Although this year marks his 27th year as an actor, he is not well known to the public.

He has appeared in a number of splendid dramas, including the nationally popular “Partners” (TV Asahi), “Ikebukuro West Gate Park” and “Beautiful Life” (both on TBS), but all have been in supporting roles. However, all of them are supporting roles. In the 17th episode of “Partners 23” broadcast in February this year, he played the role of Kuwamura, a recruiter for a black market job.

The feature film “A Voice Calling Me: TOKYO STRANGE TALE” (directed by Koichi Ueno), which Otoguro planned, produced, and starred in, is receiving worldwide acclaim.

The film has been selected for 34 international film festivals in 18 countries around the world and received good news in March of this year. The film won the Horror & Science Fiction Feature Film Award at the Bangkok Movie Awards 2025, a film festival in Bangkok, Thailand.

In addition, at the Alternative Film Festival 2025 (Canada), a film festival officially recognized by IMDb (the world’s largest film database), he won two awards in the Feature Film (Mystery/Suspense/Thriller) category: Best Actor and Best Picture. He was selected as an official selection of ÉCU, an independent film festival in Paris, France.

ÉCU is a gateway to success for European filmmakers. This year was the 20th anniversary of the festival, and we received thousands of entries from all over the world. It is an honor that this film was selected out of 43 entries, and that it was the only Japanese film selected.

Otoguro’s film was still highly acclaimed and was recently selected as a finalist in the “Luleå International Film Festival (Sweden) 2025 Official Selection. Although he did not win the award, his film made it to the final selection and won the Best Feature Film Director Award at the Cinepalis Film Festival 2025.

Although Otoguro is in the spotlight around the world for his “self-made” films in which he plays the lead roles, his everyday life is anything but simple. While working as an actor, he also works from morning to night at a car rental company, and holds down part-time jobs at restaurants and event companies to raise money for film production and living expenses.

It would be smart to call it a modern “two-faced” style, but in reality Otoguro is almost a one-man operation, from publicity to business contact while starring in a movie.

When we visited the park he often visits to practice his lines, we found a man who has won many awards at international film festivals. We interviewed him directly after the rehearsal.

–This is Friday. Congratulations! You were “called” as the title of the film “The Voice Calling Me” suggests.

Thank you very much!

–How do you feel about it?

I was so surprised that I jumped up and down! I was so surprised that I jumped up and down!

–What was the reaction of your family and the director?

Of course, my wife and son were overjoyed. It was midnight when I received the award, but I immediately reported it to the director, Mr. Ueno, on line, and we both shared our excitement out loud.

–How did you go about planning and even producing the film?

I lost many opportunities because of the COVID-19 crisis, and I was hospitalized for the first time in my life because of an illness. …… I had a black mood and thought, “This is the end of me. I wanted to get rid of it, so I took a walk around the hospital with an IV in my hand.

I was taking pictures of various sceneries with my cell phone in hand and sending them to Mr. Ueno, and the idea of a story about a man who begins to encounter strange phenomena in the hospital flashed in my mind, and this film was born (laughs).

–Laughs] – you won an award for the first film in which you and your son acted together.

I’m just so grateful. I’m sorry for being a dreamy father. I even dragged my son into this ……. I needed an actor to play the childhood of the character I was playing, but it’s hard to find a child actor who looks like him, right? Then, I thought, why not have my son play the role, since they have the same DNA, so it’s only natural that they should look alike (laughs).”

–What are your goals for the future?

I want to raise my game as an actor. I want to work with overseas production companies. That is my dream. As for film production, I will start my own production company and continue to produce films. I have already started planning my second film.

I also want to screen “Let Me Be” in Japan by the end of this year. I would like Mr. Yutaka Mizutani (72) and Mr. Yasufumi Terawaki (63) to see it. We had a lot of fun talking about film production on the set of “Partners. I would be happy if I could convey the excitement and joy of being able to reach the theatrical release of the film as a co-star.

Otoguro says that he and his son will visit Paris from May 9 for the first theatrical screening of the film in France. The current problems are raising money for travel and costume costs for both father and son, and making a speech in English.

After the screening, I realized that my passport had expired, so I applied for it in a hurry! (Laughter).”

The 27th year of the project has just begun.