At first, I was just delighted to see that Nintendo’s iconic second fiddle was getting a live-action commercial in his native Japan. But, after finding out exactly who’s wearing Luigi’s overalls, this clip featuring Mario’s brother feels even more awesome.
The gentleman in the green cap is Junji Inagawa, best known as an actor, producer, and director involved in crafting horror stories for Japanese audiences. (Full disclosure: Kotaku East’s own Toshi Nakamura told me that.) He gained a following for telling ghost stories on the radio—complete with sound effects/onomatopoeia in his narrations—and spun that out into a successful film career.
I think it’s a bit of sly cleverness to have a guy best known for making people scared to pose as Nintendo’s most frightened character. Here in the West, it’d be like having Wes Craven dressed up as Luigi. Just imagine how weird THAT would be.