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.
Movie | The Firefly | Yamaoka Shuji | 2001-05-01 |
Movie | Mr. Baseball | Uchiyama | 1992-10-01 |
Movie | Robert Mitchum: The Reluctant Star | actor 'The Yakuza' (archive footage) (uncredited) | 1991-03-10 |
Movie | Demon | Shuji | 1985-08-31 |
Movie | Antarctica | Ushioda | 1983-07-23 |
Movie | Station | Eiji Mikami | 1981-11-07 |
Movie | A Distant Cry from Spring | Kosaku Tajima | 1980-03-15 |
Movie | Mount Hakkoda | Captain Tokushima | 1977-06-04 |
Movie | The Yellow Handkerchief | Yusaku Shima | 1977-09-30 |
Movie | The Bullet Train | Tetsuo Okita | 1975-07-05 |
Movie | The International Gang of Kobe | Masato Dan | 1975-10-14 |
Movie | The Yakuza | Tanaka Ken | 1974-12-21 |
Movie | Yakuza of the Present | Ryoichi Shimaya | 1973-10-27 |
Movie | Contemporary Tales of Chivalry: The Traitor Shall Die | 1972-12-30 | |
Movie | The Kanto Scarlet Cherry Gang | Kuramoto | 1972-03-04 |
Movie | The Pledge | 1972-07-30 | |
Movie | New Prison Walls of Abashiri: Snowbound Deserter | 1971-12-29 | |
Movie | Red Peony Gambler: Second Generation Ceremony | 1969-04-10 | |
Movie | Samurai Geisha | Shimada | 1969-07-31 |
Movie | The Day the Sun Rose | 1968-11-23 | |
Movie | Red Peony Gambler | Shogo Hanaoka | 1968-09-14 |
Movie | Classmates | First Lieutenant Kenmochi | 1967-06-03 |
Movie | A Story from Abashiri Prison—Duel in Snow Storm | Shin-ichi Tachibana | 1967-12-23 |
Movie | Contemporary Tales of Chivalry 4 | 1967-07-08 | |
Movie | The Kamikaze Guy | 1966-06-04 | |
Movie | A Fugitive from the Past | Ajimura | 1965-01-15 |
Movie | Prison Walls of Abashiri 3 | Shinichi Tachibana | 1965-10-31 |
Movie | An Outlaw | Minami | 1964-04-05 |
Movie | The Domain | 1964-08-13 | |
Movie | Miyamoto Musashi: Birth of Two Sword Style | Sasaki Kojiro | 1963-08-14 |
Movie | All Rascals | 1962-03-21 | |
Movie | Outlaw Under a Blue Canopy | 1960-05-10 | |
Movie | Four Hours of Terror | Captain Yamamoto | 1959-09-30 |
Movie | Detective Duel | 1958-08-06 | |
Movie | The Deep Blue Sea | 1957-07-30 |
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