Masami Nagasawa’s Marriage Fuels Hopes for Iconic Director Collaborations

The Flagbearers of Shochiku Nouvelle Vague

Masami Nagasawa (38) announced on January 1 that she had married film director Soshi Fukunaga (43). The sudden marriage between Japan’s top actress and a rising international film director topped the entertainment news on New Year’s Day.

Nagasawa reported the marriage on her agency’s official website, saying:

〈While supporting each other and valuing our daily lives, we hope to walk through the rest of our lives step by step, carefully. We are still inexperienced, but we would be grateful if you could continue to watch over us warmly.〉

When it comes to marriages between actresses and film directors, there have been numerous couples in the Japanese film industry.

Director Kaneto Shindo and Nobuko Otowa, director Kinji Fukasaku and Sanae Nakahara, director Sion Sono and Megumi Kagurazaka, director Banmei Takahashi and Keiko Takahashi, and in more unusual cases, Keiko Kishi and French director Yves Ciampi, among many others.

Among them, what has become legendary in the film world is the marriages of three popular Shochiku actresses to emerging directors in the 1960s.

Director Nagisa Oshima married Akiko Koyama, who had also left Shochiku, in 1960. In 1964, Yoshishige Yoshida, director of the masterpiece Akitsu Onsen (released 1962), married lead actress Mariko Okada. Director Masahiro Shinoda married Shima Iwashita in 1967. These three directors were called flagbearers of the Shochiku Nouvelle Vague for their innovative works.

After their marriages, Koyama appeared in Oshima’s series of films including The Ceremony (1968). Yoshida and Okada collaborated on numerous ambitious works after their marriage, including A Story Written in Water (1965), Woman in the Dunes (1966), and Eros + Massacre (1970).

Possibility of Tag-Team Works After Marriage

Also, Director Masahiro Shinoda and Shima Iwashita collaborated on Akane-gumo (1967), Shinjū Tenmōjima (1969), Himiko (1974), Sakura no Mori no Mankai no Shita (1975), Hanare Goze Orin (1977), among others. Each couple became known for jointly creating masterpieces and hit works.

Given such a tradition in the film world, although Masami Nagasawa and Director Sōshi Fukunaga have never worked together on a film before, there is anticipation for the possibility of a tag-team work after their marriage.

Director Fukunaga graduated from the Department of Film at Brooklyn College, City University of New York. His feature debut, White Blood of Liberia (2015), drew attention after winning the top U.S. Best Fiction Award at the Los Angeles Film Festival. His film Yama Onna (2022), starring Anna Yamada and Mirai Moriyama, was officially selected for the competition section of the 35th Tokyo International Film Festival that same year.

The film, inspired by folk tales from Tono Monogatari, focused on a girl named Rin (played by Anna Yamada) surviving resiliently in a Tohoku village suffering from famine in the late 18th century, despite being scorned by the villagers, alongside her father (Masatoshi Nagase) and a mysterious mountain man living in a sacred forest (Mirai Moriyama). The film drew attention as an ambitious work addressing societal insularity and issues of faith.

If the highly auteur-driven Director Fukunaga were to collaborate with Masami Nagasawa—who has won numerous awards, including Best Supporting Actress and Popularity Award at the 28th Japan Academy Prize for Crying Out Love in the Center of the World (2004), Best Actress at the 44th Japan Academy Prize for MOTHER (2020), and Outstanding Lead Actress for Confidence Man JP: Princess Edition (same year), among many other films and dramas—it will be exciting to see what kind of work could emerge.

Additionally, Director Fukunaga directed episode 7 of the U.S. drama series SHOGUN (season 1, 10 episodes), starring and produced by Hiroyuki Sanada, which won a record 18 Emmy Awards last year.

Following the huge success of season 1, production of seasons 2 and 3 has been announced, and Fukunaga’s continuation as director has been confirmed. Season 2 filming will take place in Vancouver, Canada, starting in January, just like the previous season. Whether Masami Nagasawa will appear in season 2 or season 3 is also a point of interest.

In any case, with her marriage to Director Fukunaga, there is much anticipation for Masami Nagasawa to reach new horizons as an actress.