Uzumasa Limelight (2014)

Kamiyama is an ageing kirareyaku, a bit-part actor whose job is to be killed dramatically by a film's lead, to exist just outside the limelight. The waning popularity of jidaigeki films in his native Japan means Kamiyama's usefulness in the industry to which he's devoted his life is destined to soon end.
Having a real life kirareyaku in the role (Seizô Fukumoto, who's died onscreen over 50,000 times in a very long career) gives the Kamiyama character an authenticity that cinema rarely manages to capture. Likewise, Chihiro Yamamoto, who's starring in her first film, brings the same as a fresh-faced actress who fits into the new, more profitable template.
The sadness in the story is nicely offset by a genuine underlying warmth, a feeling of love for an era that deserves to live on.

3½ prawn bends out of 5