The next Monday, June 29 at 7:30 PM, the Fundación Japón of Madrid co-organizes with the Círculo de Bellas Artes de Madrid the screening and subsequent discussion around the short Kokuhaku, at the Cine Estudio of the Círculo de Bellas Artes (Marqués de Casa Riera Street 4).
In the subsequent discussion, a vision of the queer experience in Japan and the Asian diaspora will be explored through the original experience of an onnagata actor.
This meeting will feature Kuni Tomita, the lead actor, creator, and co-screenwriter of the short, and Ivan González, a professor at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and specialist in foreign policy and Japanese society, who will explain the creation and meaning of the short, as well as the context and history of the queer collective in Japan.
Kokuhaku is a short film directed by Adrià Guxens (2024) and starring Kuni Tomita and Zhihan Chen. It tells the original story of Tadashi, an actor of female roles in a discipline similar to kabuki theater, through a journey of his life in interview format, showing conflicts about identity and orientation, gender expression, the Asian diaspora, as well as references to Japanese popular culture.
Kuni Tomita trained at the Corazza Studio and Método Madrid, completing his training with Bernard Hiller in Los Angeles. He also received dance training at the ARS School. His first steps were in the world of fashion and advertising. Throughout his career, he has participated in several television projects, such as Respira, Silent Witness, Three of Hearts, Mariliendre. In theater, he has been part of productions such as Camino al aserradero (A hikikomori space), RAZAS by the Young Company or the Dramatized Readings of Benavente at the Teatro Español. He has been awarded thirteen “Best Actor” awards for his performance in the short Your Scissors in My Ear. In recent years, in addition to his work as an actor, Kuni has focused on producing his own fiction projects, such as Tomita Brand and Kokuhaku. He has presented several shows at festivals and cabarets, including The Last Samurai, KuniXi and The Geisha of Madrid, presented in Madrid, Barcelona, Warsaw, Paris, and London. In 2024, he premieres Kokuhaku at the Sitges Festival and participates in TEDx Vienna, where he premiered his monologue One Boy’s Dream of Becoming a Geisha.
For his part, Ivan González Pujol holds a PhD in Information and Knowledge Society from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya and is a professor of East Asian Studies at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, where he specializes in Japanese politics and society. Before joining UAM, he was a professor at the Japanese universities of Senshu, Sophia, and Nihon. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Japanese Studies Association in Spain and collaborates with national media as an analyst of politics and society in East Asia. His works have been published in high-impact academic journals and in specialized collective volumes.
