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James Marsh

At October’s Busan International Film Festival in South Korea, Netflix dominated the headlines as it premiered a number of upcoming films and TV shows.
Among the offerings was Beyond Goodbye, a Japanese drama series starring Kasumi Arimura and Kentaro Sakaguchi, which launches on the streaming platform this week. It tells the story of a young woman reunited with her lost love in the most bizarre and fantastical of circumstances.
“I want to believe that someone important to me could be reincarnated after they pass away,” Arimura tells the Post in an interview during the festival.
Born in 1993, the actress has become one of the most ubiquitous and recognisable female stars in the Japanese entertainment industry. She has already won two Japanese Academy Prizes, as well as numerous accolades for her work on the small screen.


In 2016, Arimura was named best newcomer by the Japanese Film Academy for her performance in Flying Colours, in which she plays a rebellious high school girl who is sent to a cram school.
In 2022, she won the best actress prize for her role in the hit romance We Made A Beautiful Bouquet, which charts the deterioration of a relationship over a five-year period.
Genre film fans should recognise Arimura as Hiromi, the infected schoolgirl sidekick in zombie comedy I Am a Hero. She also appears in the fourth and fifth instalments of the Rurouni Kenshin franchise, as Tomoe, the deceased sister of vengeful antagonist Enishi (Mackenyu Arata).
The role of Saeko in Beyond Goodbye appears tailor-made for the actress’ unique talents, as she plays a grieving young woman presented with an almost impossible truth.

Speaking in Busan, the 31-year-old actress appears not wholly dissimilar to her character: timid, softly spoken and thoughtful to the point of cautiousness when considering her responses.
“When I first read the script, I thought it was a fantasy,” she says. “But the more I considered it, the more I started to believe that this could happen in real life. I wanted to portray it as realistically as possible.”
The action is divided between Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost island, and Hawaii. The Hawaii scenes were actually shot in New Zealand because of issues pertaining to the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes – by actors and other movie-industry workers seeking better conditions – that were in full swing at the time of filming.
The drama opens as Saeko (Arimura) loses her fiancé Yusuke (played by Toma Ikuta) in a freak bus accident, just moments after he has proposed. Sometime later, she travels to Hawaii for a work trip, where she meets Kazumasa (Sakaguchi), a young man who, unbeknown to her, is the recipient of her dead partner’s donated heart.
The central hook in Beyond Goodbye is that in Kazumasa, aspects of Yusuke’s personality continue to live on after his death. Not only does Kazumasa enjoy a new lease of life thanks to his new heart, but over time notices he has acquired new tastes and skills.

“It was really challenging trying to portray two different consciousnesses, especially when each one is in love with someone else,” says Sakaguchi, who was also in Busan for the show’s premiere. The 33-year-old actor was most recently seen in the Korean drama series What Comes After Love.
“When you read it on the page it might seem unbelievable, but when you see our performances, hopefully it is more convincing,” he adds. “We tried our best to make a beautiful love story.”
In the story, Kazumasa used to hate coffee, but now he cannot get enough of the stuff – which is convenient, as Saeko works for a coffee company.
“I learned a lot about coffee and how to roast it properly,” Arimura says. In fact, coffee plays a surprisingly significant part in the show, and seems to wield some kind of almost magical power that Kazumasa comes to appreciate after his surgery.

“I read somewhere that smell has a strong connection with memory,” Sakaguchi says. “I believe that the flavour of coffee can remind you of past memories. My character’s girlfriend, Miki, says at one point, ‘It’s OK to like new things, but I hate it when you stop liking the things you used to enjoy.’ That line left a big impression on me.”
Kazumasa also appears to have inherited Yusuke’s ability to play the piano, and it is that skill specifically that first attracts the attention of Saeko, when she hears him playing the same tune Yusuke used to play, on the same piano at Hawaii’s Honolulu airport.
“I learnt to play the whole piece,” Sakaguchi says, referring to the splashy jazz rendition of The Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back” that connects all three characters. “It was really challenging. Also, they left that sequence till the very end of the shoot, so I was nervous about it the whole time we were in New Zealand!”

The central premise of Beyond Goodbye is certainly a little high concept but it is well-worn territory in the modern realm of melodrama, broached in everything from romantic comedies (Return to Me) to horror films (The Eye).
The premise begs the question: which part of their own body would Arimura or Sakaguchi like to see live on, albeit in another body, should they be unfortunate enough to suffer a similar fate to Yusuke?
“My eyes!” Sakaguchi declares, although his reasoning is not down to vanity.
“I heard that memories reside in the heart and the brain. But when I speak to someone, I look at them, and at my surroundings, so I believe that if I see something, it is easier for me to remember it – so I choose eyes.”

“I’ve thought about this before,” Arimura says after several moments of careful consideration.
“I would be willing to donate any of my organs. I was trying to decide which part of my body is the best, but if I have the opportunity to save someone’s life and help them live longer, as is the case with [Kazumasa] Naruse in the show, I’d happily give anything that they needed.”
As two of Japan’s most established young actors, Arimura and Sakaguchi have a long-standing professional relationship dating back some 11 years. Their previous collaborations include the 2016 drama series Love That Makes You Cry and the morally questionable 2017 film Narratage, which also debuted at the Busan festival, back in 2017.
“He has a really positive energy,” Arimura says of her co-star, who it should be noted is sitting right beside her as we speak. “He always lightens up the environment and makes everybody laugh.”

Sakaguchi is quick to return the compliment, and reinforce their long-standing relationship.
“She smiles all the time. Literally, she reacts to whatever I say. We have been working together for so long that there is trust and respect between us. I enjoy that very much.”
Beyond Goodbye will start streaming on Netflix on November 14.


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TV shows and streaming video

Netflix’s Beyond Goodbye stars Kasumi Arimura and Kentaro Sakaguchi on the Japanese drama

Kentaro Sakaguchi and Kasumi Arimura in a still from Beyond Goodbye. Photo: Netflix

Kasumi Arimura (right) and Kentaro Sakaguchi in a still from Beyond Goodbye. Award-winning Japanese actress Arimura says she wanted to tell the Netflix drama’s fantastical story about a woman reunited with her dead lover “as realistically as possible”. Photo: Netflix

Kasumi Arimura in a still from Beyond Goodbye. Photo: Netflix

(From left) Kentaro Sakaguchi, Kasumi Arimura and Beyond Goodbye director Hiroshi Kurosaki at the Busan International Film Festival on October 2, 2024. Photo: Busan International Film Festival

Kentaro Sakaguchi in a still from Beyond Goodbye. Photo: Netflix

 Kasumi Arimura and Kentaro Sakaguchi in a still from Narratage (2017). Photo: Toho

K-drama What Comes After Love review: cross-cultural romance is too slow to be special

Lee Se-young as Korean student Choi Hong in a still from What Comes After Love, a romantic K-drama co-starring Kentaro Sakaguchi.

Kentaro Sakaguchi as Japanese writer Aoki Jungo in a still from What Comes After Love.

Hong Jong-hyun as Choi Hong’s fiancé Song Min-joon in a still from What Comes After Love.

Anna Nakamura as book editor Kanna Kobayashi and Kentaro Sakaguchi in a still from What Comes After Love.

Lee Se-young as Korean student Choi Hong in a still from What Comes After Love.

Netflix drama Beyond Goodbye: Kasumi Arimura, Kentaro Sakaguchi lead fantastical romance

Kasumi Arimura as Saeko in a still from Beyond Goodbye. Photo: Netflix

Kasumi Arimura as as Saeko (left) and Kentaro Sakaguchi as Kazumasa in a still from Netflix drama Beyond Goodbye. Photo: Netflix

Kasumi Arimura as Saeko (left) and Kentaro Sakaguchi as Kazumasa in a still from Beyond Goodbye. Photo: Netflix

Kentaro Sakaguchi as Kazumasa in a still from Beyond Goodbye. Photo: Netflix

Kasumi Arimura (left) as Saeko and Kentaro Sakaguchi as Kazumasa in a still from Beyond Goodbye. Photo: Netflix

Phases of the Moon movie review: Japanese reincarnation drama is an unabashedly romantic tear-jerker

Kasumi Arimura in a still from “Phases of the Moon”.

Yo Oizumi in a still from Japanese reincarnation drama Phases of the Moon (category IIA, Japanese), directed by Ryuichi Hiroki. Kasumi Arimura and Ko Shibasaki co-star.

Ko Shibasaki in a still from Phases of the Moon.

Ren Meguro (left) and Kasumi Arimura in a still from Phases of the Moon.

Surveillance in Singapore, Japan and a Trump-led US tackled in films at Venice festival

A still from Happyend.

A still from Stranger Eyes, which looks at the issue of surveillance cameras in Singapore. The film was shown at the 2024 Venice Film Festival, as did Happyend and 2073, which also tackle surveillance concerns. Photo: Akanga Film Asia

Yeo Siew Hua at the 81st Venice Film Festival on September 5, 2024. Photo: Reuters

Neo Sora wears a keffiyeh and a jacket with a Palestinian flag at the Venice Film Festival. Photo: Reuters

A still from Happyend. Photo: Handout

A still from 2073. Photo: Handout

Lifestyle

Entertainment

Culture

Film & TV

Kasumi Arimura and Kentaro Sakaguchi talk coffee, playing the piano and which of their body parts they would like to live on in someone else


Kasumi Arimura and Kentaro Sakaguchi talk coffee, playing the piano and which of their body parts they would like to live on in someone else.
