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

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

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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

Published: 12:15pm, 17 Apr 2025

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.

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

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.