Shota Sometani

Shota Sometani is a Japanese actor known for moving between independent drama, genre cinema, prestige television and voice work. Born in Tokyo in 1992, he began acting as a child and accumulated screen experience before reaching adulthood. That early start gave him an unusually long résumé for an actor still identified with youthful intensity and off-center leading roles.

Sometani's breakthrough came through Japanese films that demanded a mix of vulnerability, volatility and restraint. He received major international attention for Sion Sono's Himizu, adapted from Minoru Furuya's manga and made in the aftermath of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. Sometani and co-star Fumi Nikaidō won the Marcello Mastroianni Award for best young actors at the Venice Film Festival, a rare and important international recognition for young Japanese performers. The role established him as an actor capable of carrying psychologically raw material without reducing it to melodrama.

After Himizu, Sometani continued to choose a wide range of projects. He appeared in Tokyo Park, The Millennial Rapture, Isn't Anyone Alive?, Lesson of the Evil and The Kiyosu Conference, then led or featured in films such as Wood Job!, Kabukicho Love Hotel, Parasyte: Part 1 and Parasyte: Part 2. As Shinichi Izumi in the live-action Parasyte films, he moved into a larger genre franchise while keeping the character's physical and emotional unease central. His later work includes Legend of the Demon Cat, To the Ends of the Earth, First Love, Detective Chinatown 3, The Yin Yang Master Zero and many Japanese theatrical releases.