One of the most celebrated actors of her generation, Mariko Tsutsui began her film and television career in the mid-1990s and has since accumulated hundreds of credits to her name.
Her international breakthrough, however, was in Koji Fukada’s 2016 dysfunctional family drama “Harmonium,” in which she played a fervently religious woman in a troubled marriage who becomes dangerously attracted to her husband’s ex-con friend, portrayed with queasy menace by Tadanobu Asano. The film won the jury prize in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival, while Tsutsui received a best actress prize at the Mainichi Film Awards among other acting accolades.
Tsutsui, 65, has accumulated more honors in the years since, including an Asian Film Awards best actress nomination for her portrayal of a woman subjected to trial by media after allegedly aiding a kidnapper in Fukada’s 2019 drama “A Girl Missing.”
