Third Act
“Third Act drifts out to sea, hinting at a wide range of topics without drilling down into any.”
Title: Third Act (2025)
Director: Tadashi Nakamura 👨🏻🇺🇸
Writers: Victoria Chalk 👩🏻 and Tadashi Nakamura 👨🏻🇺🇸
Reviewed by Li 👩🏻🇺🇸
Technical: 2.5/5
In Third Act, which premiered this afternoon at Sundance Film Festival, Tadashi Nakamura sets out to capture the legacy of his father: Robert A. Nakamura, “The Godfather of Asian American Cinema.” But this straightforward premise quickly becomes beholden to reality. During the documentary’s seven-year production, Robert was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, and per the film’s logline, “What begins as a documentary about [Robert’s] career … evolves into an exploration on art, activism, grief, and fatherhood.”
The best storytelling stays flexible and swims with the current, and Tadashi tries to do just that in this reflective film. But without a firmer hand, the movie drifts out to sea, hinting at a wide range of topics without drilling down into any. Whether it’s about Robert’s childhood at a Japanese concentration camp, to lasting trauma from living in a racist society, to meditations on aging and grappling with the fear of looming cognitive impairment—any one of these threads would be enough to warrant an entire film. But Tadashi and co-writer Victoria Chalk can’t seem to pick a direction.
At one point, Robert explains to Tadashi that he’d always wanted to make a film about his own father, Harukichi Nakamura. It would be “less history, more soul,” and Tadashi muses in voiceover that he can't help thinking that's what Robert wants for Third Act. Unfortunately, without the formal rigor of more abstract films, such as the poetic Hale County This Morning, This Evening (2018), or black-and-white fever dream Faya Dayi (2021), Third Act splits the difference and becomes neither engagingly informative, nor enough of a vibe. The final movie trots along just fine, but doesn’t ever become more than a serviceable watch.
Gender: 2.5/5
Does it pass the Bechdel Test? YES, but barely
Behind the camera, producers, writers, and other crew members are gender balanced. But on screen, this is very much a patrilineal project, spanning four generations of Nakamura men (and a boy—Tadashi’s son, Prince). Tadashi's mom, Karen Ishizuka, does have several interviews, but she’s there to bring color to Robert’s story. Other female family members, like Tadashi’s daughter Malaya or sister Thai, pop up on occasion, but they mostly keep to themselves.
Race: 5/5
This wouldn’t be a film about a key figure in Asian American cinema if it didn’t explore race. But rather than walking us through Robert’s groundbreaking career as a Japanese American artist working in post-war America, Tadashi presents slice-of-life conversations with his dad. The quotidian scenes at home, or in the car, are peppered with Tadashi’s voiceovers and archival footage, which give context around Asian American subjects such as the significance of Manzanar, the Japanese concentration camp Robert was interned at; the joy of blending into a crowd in Hawai‘i with its large Asian population; the activism of the Third World Liberation Front; and so many others. But historical facts recede, and in the foreground remain Tadashi’s interesting, albeit wandering ruminations.
Ultimately, this isn’t the film you watch if you want a record of the past. That would be better suited for Chalk’s other project, PBS’ Asian Americans. But Third Act does successfully blend that culturally specific past with present-day reflections, making for some poignant scenes.
Bonus for Age: +0.75
Bonus for Disability: +0.50
Among the film’s many themes, Tadashi devotes plenty of time pondering Robert’s twilight years, the “third act” of his life. The father-son duo holds several discussions related to age, such as the legacies they’ll leave behind for their sons, analyses of their lives and childhoods, as well as the day-to-day management of Robert’s Parkinson’s disease. Whether it’s seeing the elder Nakamura go through physical therapy, to hearing his moving admissions of how he dreads the inevitable decline of his creativity, Third Act presents age and disability with thoughtfulness. But like the rest of the film’s topics, the material is handled with a fleeting touch, and viewers are left with a surface-level consideration of mortality rather than any purposeful excavations.
Mediaversity Grade: B- 3.75/5
It’s clear that this project is a deeply personal one, and viewers dutifully follow the filmmaker as he processes his feelings through the art of making. But without taking a step back from the details of Robert’s life, and pausing to cull the movie’s many narratives, Third Act comes off as hazy and undercooked.
Like Third Act? Try these other deeply personal documentaries.
Omoiyari: A Song Film by Kishi Bashi (2023)
Love Boat: Taiwan (2019)
Bye Bye Tiberius (2023)