YO
OIZUMI

Yo Oizumi (大泉洋) was born in Ebetsu, Hokkaido, on 3 April 1973. He is a member of the theatre unit TEAM NACS and became familiar to television audiences through HTB’s Suiyō Dōdeshō, the Hokkaido variety programme that began in 1996. That television background sits alongside a substantial career in theatre and film. For FLM.RED, it offers a useful way to approach his screen presence: watch what happens between an invitation to speak and his reply. A response can become a performance through its timing, its changes of emphasis and the person to whom it is addressed.

Asakusa Kid (2021) places Oizumi inside a story about learning to perform. In the Netflix film written and directed by Gekidan Hitori, he plays Fukami Senzaburō, the comedian who mentors the young Takeshi, played by Yuya Yagira. The film draws on Beat Takeshi’s autobiographical work and song. FLM.RED finds the pairing rewarding because a teacher’s authority has to be performed, too: a lesson can carry affection, impatience and pride within the same exchange. Oizumi’s role gives viewers a way to consider the labour of comedy, including what a performer passes on to someone who may develop a different future.

The stage is also a place where Oizumi has worked beyond acting. His official profile credits him with writing and directing TEAM NACS’s 2009 production Shimoarai Kyōdai no Spring, Has, Come. That work adds another perspective to a career often introduced through his appearances on camera. A performer answering another person on stage is also part of a structure made by writers, directors and the rest of the company. In FLM.RED’s reading, keeping those relationships in view helps a comic personality remain a participant in an ensemble, rather than reducing every scene to a familiar mannerism.

His animation credits include Bandai-gaeru, the bathhouse attendant in Spirited Away (2001), and the scarecrow Kabu, also known as Turnip Head, in Howl’s Moving Castle (2004). These are original Japanese voice credits, distinct from the casts of other language versions. A brief voice part can offer a different scale of performance from a central live-action role, with the image and surrounding voices determining what each line needs to do. The linked films below show titles currently associated with Oizumi in FLM.RED; they are not a complete record of his theatre, television and film work.