Yuuya Yagira
For this teen titan, acting is child's play

JAMES WHITLOW DELANO/REDUX PICTURES FOR TIME

By Richard Corliss
Posted Monday, October 4, 2004; 21:00 HKT
He's your typical all-Japanese boy, which means he loves all things Western: Will Smith and Avril Lavigne, baseball and soccer. His favorite school subject is English. "I will definitely try hard to be able to speak it," the 14-year-old says. But he's not proud of his grades. He calls them "bad."

If Yuuya Yagira has been distracted at his suburban Tokyo junior high school, he can be forgiven. He spent two weeks of each season last year making his film debut in Hirokazu Kore-eda's Nobody Knows. In May he took more time off to visit France—and to walk up the legendary red-carpeted steps at the Cannes Film Festival. He had to be back home for midterm exams, so he wasn't on the Riviera when jury president Quentin Tarantino jubilantly announced that the festival's best actor was "Yagiraaaa Yuuyaaaa!"

Back in Japan Yagira was instantly on magazine covers and talk shows. He was the youngest-ever winner of a commendation certificate from the Culture Ministry for his contribution to the arts. When Real Madrid paid a visit, the soccer-mad kid was invited to meet David Beckham and other stars. But Yagira is one too: on Tokyo's streets people elbow in to shake his hand or take a photo.

In Nobody Knows, as Akira, the eldest of four children abandoned by their irresponsible mother, Yagira shows amazing poise and gravity. It doesn't hurt that he's beautiful; the camera practically licks his face. "It was 'casting at first sight,'" Kore-eda recalls. The director didn't give his child actors a script; he whispered the dialogue to them. He was impressed that Yagira "took on the role of a leader of the other kids even in his free time." The film was a maturing experience for the boy: he grew 20 centimeters, and his voice changed. He also acted maturely: "I thought I had to take things seriously and not cause any trouble to other people."

Kore-eda says of Nobody Knows: "I wanted to show that, like in the real world, neither heroes nor demons exist." But Yagira thinks Akira is a hero. And how does he define it? "My image of a hero is that when a girlfriend is surrounded with bad guys, he protects her. But before I can become a hero, I have to have a girlfriend. An old-fashioned girl—a girl who doesn't dye her hair blonde. So, I will get a girlfriend soon, and I will definitely protect her."

Yagira is sounding less like a kid and more like a man with a plan.

Reported by Michiko Toyama/Tokyo