Okay, good? Good, good? Ready. I'm pretty nervous. It's pretty scary.
Why?
You're a very scary, intimidating character
No, no, I'm a gentleman.
A gentleman, of course.
Along Japan's rural Pacific coastline, 400 kilometers north of Tokyo lies the bustling
fishing town of Kesennuma and it's here in this beautiful but remote region where you
might find an icon of japanese cinema casually wandering along the seafront at first it might
seem confusing as Ken Watanabe isn't from Kesennuma or even Tohoku region at all but in the last
decade his fate has become intertwined with that of the town and its people in 2011 a devastating
earthquake and tsunami destroyed much of Japan's east coastline and after getting involved with
the recovery efforts Ken never truly stopped building lasting friendships with the local community
hosting major events and even opening a popular cafe in the reconstructed harbour
I was recently incredibly lucky to spend a week with Ken Watanabe to uncover the remarkable story
of what led one of japan's best-loved actors to adopt Kesennuma and make it such a big part of
his life and to discuss his groundbreaking career as the first japanese actor to be nominated for
both a Tony award and an Oscar with enviable Hollywood success in movies such as
The Last Samurai, Letters from Iwo Jima and Inception. In what may be one of the most inspiring and
undeniably surreal weeks of my life, this was my week with Japan's biggest movie star.
You know I always joked the day that I met Ken Watanabe would be the day that I would
leave japan because after that you know you've completed Japan you've done everything
So this is pretty awkward I didn't expect it to happen ever. But we are on our way to the town of Kesennuma
it's about two hours north of Sendai it's a pretty remote place and we're going to the K-Port cafe
Ken's cafe that he's owned and run for eight years now because of everything that's been going on he
hasn't actually been able to get back to the town in a while now so today is his first day back and
later on this week Ken is actually putting on an event where he'll be performing and singing
with some famous Japanese artists.
Am I nervous? - Absurdly. But above all I'm kind of
excited and curious as this is a side of Ken's life we don't really get to see much
off the big screen. I just hope I don't make a fool of myself along the way, god forbid.
This is it, the K-Port in Kesennuma. I haven't been here in maybe three or four years.
The last time I came up here, there was no Ken Watanabe, today hopefully we'll get a bit more lucky.
Good god.
Good morning Ken san.
Nice to meet you Chris.
Welcome to my cafe, K-Port
Thank you so much, it's a bit of a shock seeing you just coming out of the K-Port
It's a bit surreal but thank you so much
It's a beautiful blue sky.
Yes a beautiful day to come to Kesennuma. How does it feel to be back?
Shall we go inside? - Yeah come in
Walking into the K-Port you're greeted with the tantalising scent of pizzas in the oven
cakes being baked and coffee being served, it's a dangerous place to be
if you're on a diet and as it's Ken's first day back in the cafe for a while
there's official business to be taken care of like eating this delicious cake.
As the owner, Ken's pretty involved in the menu and after giving his feedback on the new dessert
he sets about signing autographs for the lucky customers that have caught him in the restaurant this afternoon.
On less hectic days he even gets stuck in and serves the unsuspecting diners, I mean
Imagine having Ken Watanabe just randomly bringing over your pasta, you'd probably fall off your chair.
When customers come here for some lunch and then Ken Watanabe is just walking around serving customers
You must have had some really surprised responses from customers when they're
like "Oh my god what what's going on there's Ken Watanabe look!" it's not a normal situation.
K-Port is clearly a big part of ken's life even on the days he's not physically present he hand
writes a message sharing his thoughts which are faxed through and left at the entrance
of the cafe to welcome customers. With K-Port recently passing its eight year anniversary
I wanted to find out why he'd chosen to build a cafe in particular given his vastly different
background as a performer.
So when you started K-Port it would have been November 2013 right?
- 2013 yeah
Around that time I was in Osaka for my first time and I remember I was on Ebisu Bridge
and I saw your face on a big billboard and I thought "Oh it's Ken Watanabe!"
I wonder what Ken is doing right now and you were here in Kesennuma opening the K-Port. To go from an
actor to a Restauranteur, was that a difficult thing? Was it scary to open a cafe?
I mean we're sitting here drinking Ken's favorite coffee brand and we've had a lot
of food that you've personally been involved in. I watched you eat a cake earlier
and give a careful analysis on the cream and the content of the cake.
Every aspect of this cafe is very much a piece of you isn't it?
I'm not going to pretend that this is a normal day, that was so surreal getting out the car
the door opens and it's just Ken Watanabe right there. To go from seeing him on the
screen over the last 20 years to just standing in front of me is pretty trippy and i'm not going
to pretend like that didn't blow my mind, but I'm looking forward to getting to know Ken and
to hear his story and what he's been up to in Kesennuma over the last sort of ten years
But yeah it's very trippy it's very weird and I'm not going to get used to that.
In the evening I'm lucky to be invited to a dinner celebrating Ken's return amongst his
closest local friends with a delicious meal of freshly grilled seafood and sake it's a great
chance to experience the warm hospitality and atmosphere that Kesennuma's locals are known for.
And always remember if you find yourself at a Japanese dinner party the etiquette is to
continuously fill up the glasses of your fellow guests and I'll admit trying not to spill a bottle
of sake over Ken Watanabe was a nerve-wracking highlight of the meal. Two of the key people at
the dinner are Ken's neighbour Yuji san who owns the fish market next door and Sugawara san who's
involved in the local business association and who owns Kesennuma's acclaimed sake brewery
The sake of which i've probably enjoyed a bit too much this evening the next morning i meet with
them both to hear how they initially felt when a famous face arrived in town all those years ago.
If you walk around Kesennuma today, many of the signs of the tsunami have faded with the town's successful reconstruction
it's hard to imagine that just 10 years ago this bustling town had been all but wiped off the map
along with over 500 kilometers of Japan's Pacific coastline,
On March 11th 2011, a massive magnitude 9.1 earthquake triggered a devastating
tsunami that would claim the lives of over 19,000 people, trigger the meltdown of a nuclear reactor
and inflict an estimated 200 billion dollars of damage
Do you remember the day or the moment you decided to
get involved with Kesennuma and get involved with the disaster recovery?
Ken started by launching a video campaign online to raise awareness
with support from fellow Hollywood actors and colleagues, but after realising the scale of the
disaster he decided to head north to help people on the ground visiting 22 shelters
across the region with supplies. He paints a bleak picture of what he found when he arrived.
Nothing.
How has coming here to Kesennuma and getting invovled with the recovery, how's that changed you as a person?
How's that affected your just personality and way of thinking?
Helping a town.
With Kesennuma's concert approaching, tonight Ken's rehearsing with popular
singer songwriter Ami Ozakii who will be performing alongside him on stage.
He's certainly a man of many talents, he can sing, he can dance, hell he can even play the trumpet.
But of course it's the acting career that Ken is best known for.
Ken's career took off in the 1980s when he became a household name for his role playing
the legendary historic figure Date Masamune and in 1985 he appeared in my favourite Japanese movie
Juzo Itami's Tampopo, a comedy delving into Japan's obsession with food. But it wasn't
until 2003 when he rose to international stardom with his universally acclaimed performance as
Lord Katsumoto in The Last Samurai alongside Tom Cruise for which he was nominated an Academy Award
and after a stint on Broadway and in the West End performing in The King and I, Ken was nominated
for a prestigious Tony Award in 2015 and with a starring role in the hotly anticipated HBO series
Tokyo Vice kicking off in April, Ken's certainly not showing any signs of slowing down any time soon.
For a Japanese actor, one of the few actors who's actually left Japan and had a really successful career
What keeps you so motivated, to sort of push and keep going and have this incredible career.
I started working in foreign country films or something in 2003
- The Last Samurai
Yeah I was 42 years old.
From there I did
Inception, Letters from Iwo Jima or something, then I was over 50 years old
I don't have the target, I don't have the goal I don't have the purpose really
Because I had a small target, like a tiny road, but then some Producers and Directors
give me offers for a great Broadway Show or something
And I think "What I can't do it, I cannot do it". I cannot imagine about standing on the Broadway Show
Did you decide straight away when you were asked to do "The King and I" did you say yes?
Or did you say no first?
The first time I heard about that I thought I'd never do that
I mean you've had one hell of a career is there a particular film you look back to that you're
particularly sort of proud of you you really think wow i'm really glad I did that?
I cannot compare.
Maybe being over 40 years old I feel about it like it's one piece of one album
I make the some kind of album then in my whole life, I have so many albums
One of my favourite films, probably my favourite film that you've been in is Itami Juzo's "Tampopo"
I think it's just such a wild film. - I was 23 years old I think
Back then when you were young, it's strange watching you in Tampopo and seeing you now
how far you've come. When you look back at that time in Tampopo do you think you'd
ever have a career like this? Did you think I'll travel the world and I'll be in all these films?
I'm really glad because I always feel like not enough people have seen it.
I think it's such a unique film. Do you watch many films in your free time?
Are you going to watch the new James Bond film?
I've not yet. But maybe next week. And last week...
It's been reassuring hearing that even one of Japan's most acclaimed actors gets nervous on
stage from time to time and the next day with the crowds appearing and Kesennuma's festival underway
Ken's about to find himself performing once again in front of the entire town.
Well here we are guys in beautiful sunny Kesennuma, today the festival's underway
thousands of people here and Ken Watanabe is about to come on stage with his band to perform in front
of a very excited crowd. It's not something you see every day -Ken Watanabe performing. Here he is.
Watching Ken perform in front of the cheering crowd feels like the culmination
of an incredible week spent together in Kesennuma discovering what happens when a celebrity chooses
to become actively involved in rebuilding a community not just for a day or a week but for
an entire decade and with our time together almost up there's just one last thing that needs to be done.
I've said for many years, the day I met Ken Watanabe and had a coffee would be the day I leave japan because that's
the ultimate goal right, I've completed Japan.
Oh my god. - This is my dream.
Inside my dream. - I don't want to see, I don't want to know
Thank you so much - It's still spinning
It's still spinning. Finish the video now.