‘Ghost of Ueno’: A human drama about the invisible among us

Non-Japanese filmmakers who use Japan as a setting typically cast non-Japanese as their protagonists. That is now changing, as evidenced by Wim Wenders’ 2023 hit “Perfect Days,” which starred Koji Yakusho as a Zen-like toilet cleaner, and now Chinese director Qi Wang’s “Ghost of Ueno,” a drama based on an original script co-written by Asian American filmmaker Wayne Wang. 

The latter Wang previously helmed the 2016 drama “While the Women Are Sleeping,” which featured Hidetoshi Nishijima as a novelist who stalks Takeshi Kitano’s elderly sybarite at an Izu resort.

Instead of the genre chills suggested by its title, “Ghost of Ueno” is a surprisingly warmhearted drama. Its focus is on the unconventional friendship between Satsuki (Mugi Kadowaki), a gloomy social worker, and Toshi (Naoto Takenaka), a chipper homeless man, as they try to uncover the identity of one Gojo, who died in a blue tarp tent in Ueno Park, leaving behind a diary that offers clues to his existence.