ALL it takes is one project to change the life of an artist. If you are a singer, one song can catapult you to instant popularity. If you are an actor, one good role can jump-start an otherwise lackluster career.
For Visayan actress Nats Sitoy, the stars have started to align after she stumbled on this important role in the Japanese film Itoshi No Irene (Come On Irene), currently being screened at the QCinema International Film Festival.
Her director Keisuke Yashida is in the country to grace the festival.
The live action movie is a screen adaptation of a popular manga series created by Hideki Arai during the 1990s. It is about the lonely life of a middle-aged, sexually active Japanese pachinko worker who flew to the Philippines to buy a bride after a major squabble with his parents.
Sitoy was invited by Philippine mega indie film producer Bianca Balbuena-Liew for the initial audition to play the bride. The single mom from Cebu got a callback and proceeded to act in front of the Japanese production crew that flew to Manila.
“When I was shooting in Japan, I was told about my callback. The filmmaker said that when I walked in the audition room, he knew he had found his Irene. He shared that my physical features resembled that of the Irene in the manga series. I vaguely recall what I did during the callback. I knew I was just this bubbly, cheerful lady trying her luck in an international film. I kept my expectations low, but I guess fate stepped in, and destiny unraveled on its own.”
The film first screened in Japan last August to a jampacked crowd in a local Tokyo cinema. Sitoy was there to witness the reactions of the Japanese film audience. “It was my very first international screening experience and I was dumbfounded. During the meet-and-greet outside the cinema, they were asking for my autograph and some fans also gave me gifts. It felt like I was in dreamland.”
Filming overseas was a totally new experience for Sitoy. She spoke only English, Filipino and Cebuano, while most of the production team conversed only in Japanese. “They provided me with an interpreter. His name is Hiro and he served as my link to the others. I’m just too glad that my coactors were all very nice and polite and pleasant, even if most of the time we used a lot of hand signals and gestures to communicate.”
She added that she felt so respected as an actor while filming in Japan. “They are very professional. They go through every single detail with ease and followed the timetable strictly. Unlike the Philippine work conditions during shooting or taping, where everything seems rushed, the Japanese people respect every member of the team—from working hours to food, from rest and standby areas to weather information, they made sure that everyone was comfortable and treated well. No star system at all.”
I met Sitoy again at the recent Busan International Film Festival where Itoshi No Irene also screened. I got to know her more—her dreams, her frustrations, her core as an artist.
Sitoy almost gave up her desire to become an actor. “I admit that I categorized myself as a struggling actor. It was not easy for someone not originally from Manila to compete with more known actors for roles.
“Mainstream Manila productions also do a lot of stereotyping, you know—the popular and the mestizo actors get the lead roles, everyone else scramble for the meaty supporting characters.” Sitoy added that she’s happy because of the many local independent film festivals that have mushroomed in recent years. “These festivals give us actors and production people the opportunities that can open big doors in the future.”
A few years ago, Sitoy was cast in the Keith Deligero Visayan film Lily and she bagged the Cinema One festival best supporting actress award. She was also in the main cast of the recent festival movie Asuang.
I am happy that the hardworking Sitoy is starting to get noticed. She gets a big help from lawyer-producer-turned-filmmaker Joji Alonzo, who handles her promising career.
All it took was a Japanese film project to believe in Nats Sitoy as an actor. And now, she is more than ready to get into the bigger doors that will open for her.