Ken Takakura
Biography
Ken Takakura (高倉 健, Takakura Ken), born Gouichi Oda (February 16, 1931, in Kitakyūshū, Fukuoka, Japan), was a Japanese actor best known for his brooding style and the stoic presence he brings to his roles. Takakura gained his streetwise swagger and tough-guy persona watching yakuza turf battles over the lucrative black market and racketeering in postwar Fukuoka. This subject was covered in one of his most famous movies, Showa Zankyo-den (Remnants of Chivalry in the Showa Era), in which he played an honorable old-school yakuza among the violent post-war gurentai.
A graduate of Meiji University in Tokyo Takakura happened by an audition in 1955 at the Toei Film Company, and decided to look in. Toei found a natural in Takakura as he debuted with Denko Karate Uchi (Lightning Karate Blow) in 1956. Japan experienced a boom in gangster films in the 1960s as the Japanese people struggled with the generational differences between those raised in pre-war and post-war Japan and these were Takakura's stock and trade. His breakout role would be in the 1965 film Abashiri Prison, and its sequel Abashiri Bangaichi: Bokyohen (Abashiri Prison: Longing for Home, also 1965), in which he played an ex-con antihero. By the time Takakura would leave Toei in 1976, he had appeared in over 180 films.
Takakura gained international recognition after starring in the 1970 war film Too Late the Hero as the cunning Imperial Japanese Major Yamaguchi, the 1975 Sydney Pollack sleeper hit The Yakuza with Robert Mitchum and is probably best known in the West for his role in Ridley Scott's Black Rain (1989) where he surprises American cops played by Michael Douglas and Andy García with the line, "I do speak fucking English". He again proved himself bankable to Western audiences with the 1992 Fred Schepisi comedy Mr. Baseball starring Tom Selleck.
While he has slowed down a bit in his older years, he is still active. His most recent film was the 2005 Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles by Chinese director Zhang Yimou.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Ken Takakura, licensed under CC-BY-SA,full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Acting (188 movies)
The Longest Tunnel
1982
Black Rain
1989
Operation Diamond
1962
The Yellow Handkerchief
1977
47 Ronin
1994
Tokyo Gang vs. Hong Kong Gang
1964
South Pacific Waves Are High
1962
A Dead Drifter
1959
Never Give Up
1978
Rogue
1968
The Yakuza
1974
Men Fighting Whales
1957
Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles
2005
Tokyo Untouchable
1965
The Kamikaze Guy
1966
Antarctica
1983
The Bullet Train
1975
Mannen Taro and His Feminine Colleagues
1961
Mr. Baseball
1992
The World's Most Noble Guy: Taro's Whirlwind
1961
Railroad Man
1999
Blackmail
1963
Red Peony Gambler
1968
Manhunt
1976
Main Street in the Underworld
1964
An Outlaw
1964
A Distant Cry from Spring
1980
Golgo 13
1973
Hell's Companion
1959
Red Peony Gambler: Flower Cards Game
1969
The Outsiders
1958
Tokyo's Business District
1962
Brave Red Flower of the North
1970
Miyamoto Musashi V: Musashi vs Kojiro
1965
Mount Hakkoda
1977
Buddies
1989
Station
1981
A Fugitive from the Past
1965
Dearest
2012
Contemporary Tales of Chivalry 2
1966
Contemporary Tales of Chivalry: The Lone Wolf
1966
Demon
1985
Manchurian Sunset
1956
Contemporary Tales of Chivalry 4
1967
Brutal Tales of Chivalry 5: Man With The Karajishi Tattoo
1969
Brutal Tales of Chivalry
1965
Showdown in Blood
1957
If You're Man Enough
1960
Abashiri Prison
1965
Wolves, Pigs & Men
1964
All Rascals
1962
The Man
1971
Karate Cop
1982
Tokyo Untouchable: Escape
1963
The Kanto Scarlet Cherry Gang
1972
Uragirimono wa jigoku daze
1962
Winter's Flower
1978
The Firefly
2001
G-men of Japan 4: Special Armed Unit Mobilization
1956
Robert Mitchum: The Reluctant Star
1991
The Domain
1964
The Homeless
1974
A Portrait of the Author
1984
Too Late the Hero
1970
Contemporary Tales of Chivalry: Forbidden Love
1971
Lightning Karate Blow
1956
Prison Boss
1968
Choji Snack Bar
1983
The Path of the King
1971
The Deep Blue Sea
1957
Classmates
1967
The Last Kamikaze
1970
The Revolt
1980
With Songs in My Heart
1958
The Sand City in Manchuria
1960
Prison Walls of Abashiri 4
1965
New Prison Walls of Abashiri
1968
Flower, Storm and Gangster
1961
Four Hours of Terror
1959
Devil's Nursery Rhyme
1961
Jet Air Base 101
1957
Detective Duel
1958
Sister with Sister
1958
A Fishwife's Tale
1961
Glorious Fights
1966
Hishakaku and Kiratsune: A Tale of Two Yakuza
1968
The International Gang of Kobe
1975
The Prickly Mouthed Geisha and the Girl of Osaka
1962
Ken San
2016
365 Nights
1962
Feisty Edo Girl Nakanori-san
1961
Tales of President Mito
1962
The World's Most Noble Guy: Taro's Rush
1960
No Advice Taken
1958
Outlaw Under a Blue Canopy
1960
The Bullet and the Horse
1966
Patience Has An End
1971
House of Gamblers
1970
The Pledge
1972
The Prickly Mouthed Geisha, Part 4
1961
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