Bedridden Japanese elderly home residents transformed into stars of the silver screen

Bedridden senior home residents pose for photos like stars of the silver screen.

All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. While residents of a number of Japanese elderly people’s residential care homes may be the stars in their own lives, it’s only now that they’re getting the movie posters to prove it. Thanks to a new concept at Mizuki, a company which runs five care homes across Japan, elderly residents are getting the Hollywood treatment from the comfort of their own beds.

As part of the “Bedridden Silver Screen Debut Project”, care home staff designed and made the elements of the posters after consultation with the residents and their families to choose a treasured memory to recreate as the residents, many of whom are bedridden, relax or slumber.

▼ Rather than computer gimmickry, the text and props in the posters were all made and then held in place by care staff to give the 3-D effect.

▼ The residents are happy to be helped into place, and strike their poses for the camera positioned above.

▼ Preparations finished, it’s time to snap the pictures!

Among the first to receive the poster treatment were residents Misao Awazu (left in the above image) and Taizo Nakao (right), who were chosen to star in the care home company’s press release.

While Awazu’s current hobbies, at age 81, are knitting and chatting, when she was younger she was a member of a tournament-winning volleyball team, a memory which formed the basis for her poster. Meanwhile, Nakao, an 85-year-old former pharmacist and lifelong karate fan, took his love of period dramas into his poster.

The finished posters have been put up on a special website where the residents and their families and friends can see them, and the project is set to be expanded to all of the company’s retirement homes. In a country with one of the world’s longest life expectancies, a growing proportion of the population is set to become bedridden and projects like this are a great idea to put a smile on the faces of elderly people and their families.

Sources: PR Times, Mizuki Okayama
Images: PR Times

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