FILMMAKER.
ACTOR.
ARTIST.

George the Monkey has been a fixture on the Tokyo scene for years.

George has long admired The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. After seeing it, he knew it would be the springboard for the cultural phenomenon that the Fast & Furious films became.

He has mentioned this regularly ever since.

George considers himself a filmmaker first and an actor second.

He regards Takeshi Kitano — Beat Takeshi — as a contemporary and himself as Kitano's natural successor.

This view is not universally shared.

In Ueno Park, George plays Joe Macaque, a former private detective and long-time resident of the park.

I met George in Ueno Park.

He asked me for a light.

I told him I didn't smoke.

“Why?”

I wasn't quite sure how to answer.

George lit one for himself.

“You have to burn brightly,” he said. “Even if it means you burn out.”

He took a drag and looked across the park.

“That's why I smoke.”

“All stars burn out in the end.”

“It does take a long time, though.”

George looked at me.

He offered me the cigarette again.

I declined.

We talked for a while. At some point, George asked me what I would really like to be doing with my life.

I told him that for years I'd been messing around with music demos. I'd never really done anything with them.

George asked if he could hear some.

I hesitated, then played him a few.

He listened without saying anything.

Then his eyes lit up.

“This is music for the masses.”

He offered me another cigarette.

This time I took it.

George nodded.

“Let me help you feed the masses.”

That was the beginning of the Ueno Park soundtrack.

We have still not discussed payment.