Marcel Winatschek

Eriko Nakao

Eriko Nakao moves through a frame like someone who has thought about exactly where the camera is and decided not to let it matter. Japanese cinema produces this quality occasionally—a performer whose still face says more than the dialogue asks for—and she has it. The word "superstar" implies distance, a persona maintained across the gap between stage and audience; what she actually produces is something closer to unnerving intimacy. You watch closely not because she’s doing a lot but because you’re afraid of missing something if you don’t.