In the vast landscape of Japanese cinema, names like Setsuko Hara (Ozu) or Kirin Kiki (Kore-eda) are revered as national treasures. However, tucked within the raw, intimate, and often haunting world of independent Japanese filmmaking lies a performer who operates almost like a secret: Kana Tsuruta .
Tsuruta perfectly embodies this trope because she blurs the line between performance and raw exposure. In It’s Only Talk , she plays a manic-depressive woman living with her cousin. She walks through the film in a daze, engaging in casual sex with strangers not out of joy, but out of a frantic need to feel anything . kana tsuruta
Rei suffers from bulimia and auditory hallucinations—a voice that constantly berates her. She lives in a sterile Tokyo apartment, disconnected from society. The plot ignites when she meets a truck driver (played by Nao Omori) at a convenience store. In a moment of desperate impulse, she climbs into his truck, and they drive through the snowy landscapes of Tohoku. In the vast landscape of Japanese cinema, names
But ghosts are precisely what cinema needs. In an age of digital noise, Tsuruta offers silence. She offers the sound of a refrigerator humming in an empty apartment. She offers the touch of a hand on a cold truck window. In It’s Only Talk , she plays a