Kenji: The Pinoy behind the Hapon - FUNFARE by Ricky F. Lo

Aside from Totoy Torrente, the character actor who looked intriguingly like Japan’s Emperor Hirohito and who developed playing a Japanese soldier/officer into a personal art form, newcomer Kenji Motoki is the only local actor who is Hapon na Hapon, chinky eyes (different from those of a Chinese) and all.

Those who have seen Crown Seven Venturs, Inc.’s Gatas (Sa Dibdib ng Kaaway), the Gil Portes movie which set the new year on the right "bold" direction," are, I suppose, wondering who the "Japanese in his portrayal of the Japanese officer Hiroshi (complete with Japanese dialogue delivered with amazing fluency) with whom the character of Mylene Dizon falls in love, never mind if she’s already married to an equally virile guy (Jomari Yllana).

As direk Portes himself said, Kenjie acquitted himself well in Gatas even if he’s an acting greenhorn and maybe moviegoers will agree with him. Kenji is, of course, overwhelmed by it all, including his having adequately met the challenge of his movie debut.

"Gatas is my very first acting job," admitted Kenji, now into his early 20s. "I’ve never been in any kindergarten play nor a high-school presentation, so while working on Gatas, I kind of played it by ear. I felt just like a student, watching and observing and learning in the process. I simply followed what the director told me to do and tried to contribute what I thought I knew."

It was a breeze, although in the beginning he was nervous doing the love/kissing scene with Mylene, shot with both of them topless and, in one scene, with him wearing only a Japanese-style underwear ("Mukhang lampin").

"But after only three seconds," Kenji said, "feel ko na. I stopped being conscious of the director, the make-up artist and all the other people on the set. I even just forgot that there was a camera around and concentrated on what Mylene and I were supposed to do."

Standing 5’11," Kenji is Jose Manuel Laurel Marquez in real life, apologizing at first that he’s reluctant to mention his mother’s surname – Ditas Laurel – because some people might think he got the Gatas role "because I’m a Laurel" (Franco is his cousin and, among others, Cocoy is his "second Tito," Cocoy being a nephew of Kenji’s grandfather, Jose Laurel, who once served as the country’s Ambassador to Japan).

In fairness to Kenji, he got the role because he deserved it. Perhaps direk Portes didn’t know that Kenji is a Laurel when Kenji’s manager, Joji Dingcong, almost bodily brought him to direk Portes to audition for the role direk Portes had advertised in movie columns only a few days earlier.

"How did I meet Joji? It’s like this: My cousin, also Japanese-looking, and I, along with another friend, were at Venezia. It turned out that Martin Nievera was also there, seated near the bar. We were standing nearby, looking stupid, when this guy, who turned out to be Joji, approached us and asked, ‘Do you want to meet Martin?’ I asked him, ‘Why? Do you know Martin?’ Joji said he’s the manager of Martin and several other actors and I told him, ‘I saw the recital of his daughter,’ only to find out later that Martin didn’t have a daughter.

"Then Jo asked, ‘Are you guys Japanese?’ I answered him in Tagalog, ‘Hindi; Pinoy kami.’ Joji said that the movie industry needed guys like us, chinky-eyed, and gave me his calling card, just in case..."

To make a long story short, a week later, Kenji was auditioning for the Gatas role, even if at first sight direk Portes was already telling everybody, including Millennium Cinema’s Tatus Aldana (who gave Kenji his screen name) that "I have found my Hiroshi."

Showbiz had never crossed Kenji’s mind until then. At age 7, his parents brought him and his only sister Tinni to Vancouver because they wanted the kids to grow up "in a healthy environment." They stayed in Vancouver for 11 years. Finished with grade school at La Salle Zobel (Alabang), Kenji completed high school at Prince of Wales and tucked up a degree in Economics from the University of British Columbia, also in Vancouver, where he also studied Japanese.

"You see," said Kenji, "when my Mom was 18, she lived in Japan with her Dad; she stayed there for five years, imbibing Japanese culture, learning to speak the language and learning to love the food. That was many years before I was born. After my grandfather’s term as Ambassador was over, nagpupunta pa rin sa Japan ang mom ko and she would bring me Japanese toys as pasalubong – you know, robots and transformers. But I couldn’t read the Japanese characters written on the boxes and the Japanese instructions, so I decided to learn the language."

After college, Kenji passed qualifying exams for a well-paying job in Vancouver but before he could get his certificate, he did some soul-searching and asked himself. "Do I really want to do this? Not for now.’ Just because I have a degree in Economics doesn’t mean that that’s my destiny, di ba? So I thought hard on what I really wanted to do in life."

When his mother came home to assume a job as counter manager of the Canadian Airlines, Kenji tagged along, leaving in Vancouver his father and sister Tinni. Initially, Kenji was aiming for a modeling job and landed in showbiz instead – no regrets.

"I thought I could be a good model," Kenji said in all candor. "I have the height and I take good care of my body by working out regularly. I’ve also been a basketball addict since I was 10."

As a kid, Kenji did dream to be an MTV star, having been an MTV freak. But although he could manage a tune, he admits that he isn’t as good a singer as his Tito Cocoy and cousin Franco (also co-host of Keep on Dancing), so he junked his MTV dream.

"Showbiz is, I guess, my destiny. My Mom saw Gatas and she called up to congratulate me. I was apprehensive at first because she might be schocked by the kissing/love scenes but I felt relieved when she told me that she liked the whole movie, including the sexy scenes."

Given a choice, according to Kenji (who signed a two-picture contract with Crown Seven Ventures), he’d like to try any kind of role, be it drama (like Gatas) action or, why not, comedy ("If my face could carry such a role").

Off-camera, the serious-looking "Hapon" is really a funny guy.

"I’m always the funny guy in the group," said Kenji, "and my friends are always laughing at me; I’m always making them laugh. It’s nice to be able to laugh at yourself you know. It’s good medicine."

Arigato gusaimas, Kenji!