Advanced search
- TITLES
- NAMES
- COLLABORATIONS
1-50 of 53
- Shun Sugata was born on 17 February 1955 in Yamanashi, Japan. He is an actor, known for Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003), The Last Samurai (2003) and Pulse (2001).
- Director
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Born in Yamanashi, Japan, Yasuzô Masumura would become known as a maverick director whose main legacy was films portraying and promoting individualism, which was the opposite of the norm in Japanese society. He earned a law degree towards the end of World War II from Tokyo University, yet joined Daiei Studio as an assistant director in 1950. He pursued a second degree at Tokyo University as a literature and philosophy double major. He was the first Japanese to study at Rome, Italy's Centro Sperimentale Di Cinematografia. He returned to Japan in 1953 and worked as assistant to Kenji Mizoguchi and Kon Ichikawa. Masumura's own lead directorial debut came in 1957 with Kuchizuke, which was a commercial success and also won praise from director Oshima Nagisa. Masumura went on to become a prolific director who also continued writing on Japanese cinema. A 1996 ten-day retrospective on Masumura in Rome was attended by Michaelangelo Antonioni who was an admirer.- Actor
- Music Department
Sôma Saitô was born on 22 April 1991 in Kôfu, Yamanashi, Japan. He is an actor, known for Aldnoah.Zero (2014), Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-san (2018) and Rurouni Kenshin (2023).- Actor
- Writer
Tomokazu Miura was born on 28 January 1952 in Enzan, Yamanashi, Japan. He is an actor and writer, known for Shiosai (1975), M/Other (1999) and Typhoon Club (1985). He has been married to Momoe Yamaguchi since 19 November 1980. They have two children.- Actor
Yoshio Tsuchiya grew up in his ancestral home in the countryside of Japan--the very grounds where Akira Kurosawa would later film KAGEMUSHA (1980). Tsuchiya's father was a professor of literature at the prestigious Waseda University in Tokyo, and Tsuchiya grew up hearing as bedtime stories the works of William Shakespeare, of which Tsuchiya's father was the Japanese translator. Such a theatrical childhood no doubt stayed with Tsuchiya, who studied to be a doctor, and did indeed complete medical school. But he still felt drawn to acting, and so joined the highly regarded Hayuza theater group. He intended to do stage work entirely at first, until Akira Kurosawa persuaded him to audition for SHICHININ NO SAMURAI in 1952. Though reluctant at first, Tsuchiya acted his audition with such vigor that Kurosawa was bowled over. So was the public at large when Tsuchiya's fiery Rikichi, the most passionate of all the farmers in SEVEN SAMURAI, made his mark upon the film's release in 1954. Toho began to groom Tsuchiya as a star in the making, but he was less interested in fame than in the quality of roles he played. Kurosawa, too, was intensely protective of his discovery, counseling the young actor to work only with directors of quality. Early in 1957, Kurosawa introduced Tsuchiya to one such director, his close friend Ishiro Honda, whose classic GOJIRA had made its mark in the same year as SEVEN SAMURAI. Tsuchiya and Honda took to each other immediately--in later years he would call Kurosawa and Honda "my other two fathers"--and the actor, an avid UFO buff, impressed the director by insisting on the role of the Mysterian commander in their first science fiction collaboration, EARTH DEFENSE FORCE (1957). Since the Commander's face was never to be seen, Honda had had no illusions of getting a first-rate actor to play the part, and actually tried to talk Tsuchiya out of it. Toho, too, wanted him to play a role with a face the audience would get to see. But the iconoclastic Tsuchiya prevailed, and Honda was very touched by his persistence. He acted in numerous pictures for Honda through 1970, when he largely retired from movies in favor of the stage. After appearing in nearly every Kurosawa film after 1954, their collaboration came to an end with RED BEARD in 1965. (The two-year shoot had cost Tsuchiya a role in Honda's popular monster picture EARTH'S GREATEST BATTLE, 1964.) Kurosawa attempted to cast Tsuchiya in both KAGEMUSHA and RAN, but Tsuchiya's stage schedules would not permit. He did, however, narrate as well as appear in a 1991 TV documentary on the making of SEVEN SAMURAI. That same year, he made his first appearance in a monster film in over 20 years, playing the self-important magnate Shindo in GOJIRA VS. KING GHIDORA, which became one of his very favorite acting jobs. Tsuchiya's fierce but controlled persona has not dulled with age, and he remains more in demand than his schedule can handle. He still prefers the stage to films or TV, and usually does at least one stage tour a year. He is also a noted essayist, on subjects ranging from his work with Kurosawa to his interest in UFOs; several books of his work have been published.- Actress
Born and raised in Japan, Yukari moved to Canada in 2002 and enrolled in a community theatre class. Acting started as a hobby, but she quickly fell in love with the stage. When she started facing hardships at her job, she decided to take a chance and pursue acting as a career. Yukari now has over 10 years of professional acting experience; her portfolio includes several theatre shows and musicals in Vancouver, voice acting for video games and phone apps, and feature films and series on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, and FX. She also worked for a major TV series as a Japanese Dialect Coach.- Jun'ichi Kanemaru was born on 27 October 1963 in Kofu, Yamanashi, Japan. He is an actor, known for Shadow the Hedgehog (2005), Sonic Heroes (2003) and Sonic Adventure 2 (2001).
- Actress
Mariko Tsutsui was born on 13 October 1960 in Kofu, Yamanashi, Japan. She is an actress, known for A Girl Missing (2019), Harmonium (2016) and Roommate (2013).- Actor
Jinpachi Nezu was born on 1 December 1947 in Yamanashi, Japan. He was an actor, known for Ran (1985), Kagemusha: The Shadow Warrior (1980) and Farewell to the Land (1982). He was married to ? ?. He died on 29 December 2016 in Tokyo, Japan.- Makio Inoue was born on 30 November 1938 in Yamanashi, Japan. He was an actor, known for Arcadia of My Youth (1982), Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro (1979) and Lupin the 3rd: The Mystery of Mamo (1978). He died on 29 November 2019 in Chiba, Japan.
