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James Marsh

It is no exaggeration to say that Sakura Ando is one of the most important actresses of contemporary Japanese cinema. A winner of numerous accolades, including five Japan Academy Film Prize awards, the hugely popular performer has had an eclectic career since she started acting in 2006.
Over those two decades, Ando has navigated deftly between indie hits from cult directors like Sion Sono and Takashi Miike, to award-winning dramas from celebrated auteurs such as Hirokazu Koreeda, to appearing in mainstream blockbusters like 2023’s Oscar-winning kaiju spectacular Godzilla Minus One.
Right now, however, the 39-year-old is enjoying a much-deserved hiatus to concentrate on raising her young daughter.
“Parenting and shooting together are really difficult for me. Especially in Japan, it’s really, really difficult,” she tells the Post while in town for the 49th Hong Kong International Film Festival, which opened on April 10.

Four of Sakura’s films were selected by the festival for its Focus programme entitled “Ando Sakura: A Beautiful Metamorphosis”, offering a respectable cross-section of the actress’ dramatic power and versatility.
0.5mm (2014), directed by her older sister Momoko Ando, gave the actress one of her earliest lead roles, in a shrewdly observed social drama about a young female carer who gets through life by conning her elderly patients.
That same year, in Take Masaharu’s 100 Yen Love, Ando gave the best performance of her career up to that point, undergoing a remarkable physical transformation to play a slobbish shut-in who trains to become a boxer.
She won a Japan Academy Film Prize best actress award for the movie, which has since been remade in China as the box-office smash Yolo.

Ando bagged her second Japan Academy Film Prize best actress award for her role in Hirokazu Koreeda’s 2018 film Shoplifters, which was awarded the prestigious Palme d’Or award at the Cannes Film Festival. In it, she played the matriarch of a struggling family of impoverished thieves.
The fourth film in the festival’s selection, Masato Harada’s Bad Lands, places Ando at the centre of a breathlessly tense crime drama, in which she stars as a street-smart phone scammer who becomes embroiled in her estranged brother’s wayward antics.
When asked why these particular films were selected, Ando confesses that she “wasn’t in the conversation, but I’m really happy with the choices. All four of these films were very important in my career.”
Speaking ahead of a number of public appearances she made at the festival over the course of the weekend, she continues: “I am really excited to learn what Hong Kong audiences think of these films, especially here at the festival, where everyone can exchange their ideas with me face to face.”

Ando’s chameleonic versatility has become something of a calling card for the performer, who has defied the traditional route of cultivating a single definitive on-screen persona followed by so many of her Japanese contemporaries.
Never afraid to take on flawed or unglamorous roles, Ando has remained a fascinating screen presence, but she says there is no grand plan behind her decision-making.
“When I make movies, I never expect the audience to view me in a specific way,” she says as she kicks off her shoes and climbs cross-legged into an oversized armchair.
“I’m eager to learn what people think of me. But actually, nobody has to think anything. It would be great if audiences feel certain things, but they don’t necessarily have to have any thoughts about me or my performances.
“I don’t really have those expectations, to leave an unforgettable performance in front of people. I’m not aiming for that.”

Ando was born into a prestigious and highly artistic family. Her father is acclaimed actor Eiji Okuda, while her mother is the writer and television personality Kazu Ando.
She held off making her screen debut until she was 20 years old, appearing opposite her father in 2006’s A Long Walk, which he also directed, but she concedes that performing was always in her bones.
“When I was really, really young, I already knew I wanted to express myself with my body and perform in front of people,” she says. “Even before I knew how to talk, I already had that thought.”
Since her debut, Ando has continued to work steadily, collaborating with many of Japan’s most high-profile directors.

She has delivered eye-catching supporting turns, one of which was in Sion Sono’s four-hour epic Love Exposure, as a scheming recruiter for a religious cult.
In Takashi Miike’s high-school gang musical For Love’s Sake, Ando, as a fearsome girl-gang leader with a secret crush on the film’s bad boy hero played by Satoshi Tsumabuki, proved that she could also sing.
Ando’s international profile has been given a notable boost in recent years, thanks to her turns in Shoplifters, which secured an Academy Award nomination for best foreign language film in 2019, and Monster, which won best screenplay at Cannes in 2023.
She went on to win another Japan Academy Film Prize best actress award for Monster; she then won best supporting actress at the same ceremony for her role in Godzilla Minus One.

“Of course, I’ve received a lot of offers from different countries,” Ando admits, as a result of her global success. “But to me, it’s not about like, ‘Oh, this is Hollywood. Oh, my God, I want to be in it.’ Everything is about timing. Or do I have something to give to that work, do I feel connected to it at all.”
For now, Ando is focused on raising her daughter with her husband, actor Tasuku Emoto, but it is only a matter of time before she will come back to work – and the time off seems to have given her the opportunity to reflect on her career possibilities going forward.
“I know that I’m not really an intellectual person, I didn’t really use my mind to learn much in the past,” Ando says.
“I’m a far more instinctive person, I learn from body language and how I feel … in the past I would be hesitant to work with people who had different opinions and values, but now I’m actually more open to work with people with different thoughts.
“It would be such a waste to die without learning about the world, the Earth, other people. Even though I don’t agree with something or someone, I would still want to dive into it and try it out before just saying ‘no’ and shutting the door.”

Ando is clearly more cautious about her career than she might be willing to discuss. Indeed, she is even hesitant to name someone she would be eager to work with. As we wrap up, though, she offers one intriguing final thought.
“Through this trip, I actually just realised how much I really like Hong Kong cinema,” she says. “I’d love to be in a Stephen Chow movie!”
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How top Japanese actress Sakura Ando defied traditions and never had a ‘grand plan’

Sakura Ando is photographed in Hong Kong during her visit to attend the 2025 Hong Kong International Film Festival, which opened on April 10. The acclaimed Japanese actress reflects on her eclectic career, from indie films to Godzilla Minus One, and her future aspirations. Photo: Dickson Lee

Sakura Ando gave one of her first lead performances in 0.5mm, directed by her sister Momoko Ando.

Ando in a still from 100 Yen Love.

Ando (second right) in a still from Shoplifters.

Ryosuke Yamada (left) and Ando in a still from Bad Lands.

Ando (centre) in Love Exposure (2008).

Soya Kurokawa (left) and Ando in a still from Monster.

Ando in Hong Kong in 2025. Photo: Dickson Lee

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Anthony Wong Chau-sang in a still from Valley of the Shadow of Death.

Lam Suet in a still from PTU (2003), one of four newly restored classic films screening in the Pan-Chinese Cinema programme at the Hong Kong International Film Festival 2025.

Hidetoshi Nishijima in a still from The Brightest Sun.

Natalie Hsu (left) and Fish Liew in a still from Pavane for an Infant.

Fernanda Torres in a still from I’m Still Here.

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A still from Cadet.

A still from Chain Reactions.

Adam Driver and Nathalie Emmanuel in a still from Megalopolis.

A still from Kneecap.

A still from Seven Samurai (1954).

Tony Leung Chiu-wai in a still from My Heart Is That Eternal Rose (1989).

Sakura Ando (front) in a still from 100 Yen Love (2014).

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Sanada in a still from Shogun. Photo: Disney+

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Sanada in a still from Bullet Train (2022).

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Kentaro Sakaguchi and Kasumi Arimura in a still from Beyond Goodbye. Photo: Netflix

Kasumi Arimura (right) and Kentaro Sakaguchi in a still from Beyond Goodbye. Award-winning Japanese actress Arimura says she wanted to tell the Netflix drama’s fantastical story about a woman reunited with her dead lover “as realistically as possible”. Photo: Netflix

Kasumi Arimura in a still from Beyond Goodbye. Photo: Netflix

(From left) Kentaro Sakaguchi, Kasumi Arimura and Beyond Goodbye director Hiroshi Kurosaki at the Busan International Film Festival on October 2, 2024. Photo: Busan International Film Festival

Kentaro Sakaguchi in a still from Beyond Goodbye. Photo: Netflix

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Shin Min-a as Lee Ju-yeon in a still from Karma. Photo: Jihyeong Seo/Netflix

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The Godzilla Minus One and Shoplifters actress reflects on her career, juggling parenting, and future aspirations as she visits Hong Kong


The Godzilla Minus One and Shoplifters actress reflects on her career, juggling parenting, and future aspirations as she visits Hong Kong.


How top Japanese actress Sakura Ando defied traditions and never had a ‘grand plan’

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The Godzilla Minus One and Shoplifters actress reflects on her career, juggling parenting, and future aspirations as she visits Hong Kong

The Godzilla Minus One and Shoplifters actress reflects on her career, juggling parenting, and future aspirations as she visits Hong Kong