mentor (2026) is an original film written and directed by Keisuke Yoshida, starring Hayato Isomura (Ryunosuke) and Seiya Suezawa (Takumi), with Go Ayano as Nomoto, a man with burn scars.
A solid film, well worth seeing.
Warning: spoilers ahead, including the ending.
Go Ayano changes the air of a scene just by standing in it. As Nomoto, burn scars and all, that presence becomes even more unsettling.
There are comic moments too. The karaoke scene in a run-down bar, sung genuinely off-key, made me laugh out loud. But the “mentor-ish” lines Nomoto keeps delivering sound like things I might say myself, and I cringed on my own behalf.
Haruka Kinami, as Nomoto’s wife, is wonderful. With a partner like that, you could honestly feel you need nothing else in life. That is exactly why Nomoto’s pain after losing her lands so hard.
What each man leans on
Fifteen years ago, a fire took Nomoto’s wife. Takumi and Ryunosuke have lived ever since believing they caused it. Each of the three holds himself up with something: Takumi with Nomoto’s words, Nomoto by imitating how his late wife acted, Ryunosuke with his archery training.
Takumi’s emptiness shows in one moment: after an apology goes well, he smiles where the other person can’t see. Calculation — he moved them — sits next to satisfaction at having repented so admirably. What he wants is approval. He replays Nomoto’s talks and types them into his phone, learning how words move people. In the last scene, when he becomes a mentor himself, it looks like he has found his calling. That is what makes it creepy.
Nomoto learned too — from his wife. Before they married, they were coworkers and lost their jobs together. She was struggling herself, yet she took him in gently. Her hopeful words and her embrace carried a warmth meant to hold up the person in front of her.
When that embrace overlapped with Nomoto hugging Takumi and Ryunosuke, his kindness looked different to me. By tracing her words and gestures, maybe he was shielding himself from the pain of losing her.
The real cause of the fire was an old man’s carelessly tossed cigarette. At the end, Nomoto is about to kill him — and the old man hugs him. Nomoto feels the warmth of his wife’s embrace. From the man who took her, the feeling of being accepted by her comes back. So he can’t kill him. There is relief in that, and also cruelty: he is denied even revenge.
Ryunosuke was held up by archery. But once Nomoto hugs him and the guilt lifts, he can’t focus on the sport anymore. That focus was partly a way to keep the guilt sealed. Still, the training he built up doesn’t vanish with it. When he draws the bow again at the end, I think it is that accumulated work holding him up.
What lies beneath
I don’t want to feel safe by laughing down at these men. Everyone needs something to lean on to face their life. Sometimes another person’s words really do save us.
From the wife to Nomoto, from Nomoto to Takumi and Ryunosuke — the same words get handed down, but what they do changes with the pain and wants inside each person. What lies beneath the borrowed words can’t be read from how fine the words sound.
I also repeat other people’s words in a way that sounds right. When I do, are they borrowed, or have they really become mine?
That’s why the film is funny and still leaves me uneasy.