He portrayed protagonist Daigo Kobayashi in Departures, which won the 81st Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.
His first main role in a film was as a Zen monk in the comedy Fancy Dance (ファンシイダンス, Fanshii Dansu) directed by Masayuki Suo.
He then worked with directors such as Takashi Miike (The Bird People in China (中国の鳥人, Chūgoku no Chōjin)) and Shinya Tsukamoto (Gemini (双生児, Sōseiji)).
Motoki's breakthrough to international fame came with the 2008 film Departures (おくりびと, Okuribito) directed by Yōjirō Takita, in which he plays a cellist turned mortician.
The film project started from an idea of Motoki's after he read a book written by a professional mortician.