映画とミュージカルの舞台裏の走る俳優たち

What does 裏 (ura) mean in Japanese, as in 舞台裏?

裏 (ura) means the hidden, reverse side of something — the back of a piece of paper, the underside of a leaf, or, combined with 舞台 (stage), the parts of a performance the audience never sees: 舞台裏 (butai-ura), backstage. It’s one of the most productive kanji in Japanese for talking about anything concealed or behind the surface, well beyond its literal physical sense.

This clip explains how actors filmed a viral escape-room-style movie: for a scene needing a long dash across the set, they actually biked to the far end off-camera before resuming the performance — described as what happens 舞台裏で, “behind the scenes.” The same kanji builds 裏話 (ura-banashi, “the untold story”), 裏切る (uragiru, “to betray,” literally “to turn to the hidden side”), and 裏技 (ura-waza, a secret trick or life hack) — in each case 裏 points at whatever’s deliberately kept out of view.