Ken Takakura
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.
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Known for
SMAP×SMAP
Bistro Guest
Older brother
Eiji
Korekara: Umibe no Tabibitotachi
The Bullet Train
Tetsuo Okita
Black Rain
Masahiro
An Elegy of Tyrole
Tateishi Jiro
47 Ronin
Kuranosuke Oishi
Antarctica
Ushioda
Railroad Man
Otomatsu Sato
Red Peony Gambler: Flower Cards Game
Shogo Hanaoka
Never Give Up
Takeshi Ajisawa
Manhunt
Morioka
Red Peony Gambler: Second Generation Ceremony
Koji Yashiro
Mount Hakkoda
Captain Tokushima
A Distant Cry from Spring
Kosaku Tajima
The Yellow Handkerchief
Yusaku Shima
Memoir of Japanese Assassinations
Saburo Aizawa
A Fugitive from the Past
Ajimura
An Outlaw
Minami
The International Gang of Kobe
Masato Dan
Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles
Gou-ichi Takata
The Yakuza
Tanaka Ken
Miyamoto Musashi: Birth of Two Sword Style
Sasaki Kojiro
The Revolt
Keisuke Miyagi
Choji Snack Bar
Eiji
Ken San
Self
Miyamoto Musashi V: Musashi vs Kojiro
Sasaki Kojiro
Gambler Biography
Brutal Tales of Chivalry
Seiji Terajima
House of Gamblers
Winter's Flower
Hidetsugu Kano
Demon
Shuji
Dearest
Eiji Shimakura
The Kanto Scarlet Cherry Gang
Kuramoto
The Homeless
Jokichi Anabuki
With Songs in My Heart
Wolves, Pigs & Men
Jiro Kuroki, the second brother
Mr. Baseball
Uchiyama
A Hoodlum At The Risk Of His Life
Buddies
Kadokura
The Last Kamikaze
Koji Yashiro
The World's Most Noble Guy: Taro's Eternity
The Boss
Contemporary Tales of Chivalry 2
Hell's Companion
Miyamoto Musashi: The Duel at Ichijo Temple
Sasaki Kojiro
Classmates
First Lieutenant Kenmochi
The Domain: The Naniwa Story
New Prison Walls of Abashiri
Katsuji Suehiro
The Firefly
Yamaoka Shuji
Gang Loyalty and Vengeance
Asano
Karate Cop
Detective Mikami
Third Generation Boss
The Domain: Flower and Dragon
Kingoro Tamai
The Domain: Kanda Festival Showdown
The Man
Japan's Top Gangster
Kazuo Taoka
Brave Red Flower of the North
Beyond the Seasonal Wind
The Great Road
Yakuza of the Present
Ryoichi Shimaya
Tokyo Gang vs. Hong Kong Gang
Brutal Tales of Chivalry 6
Lady Sen and Hideyori
Naomori
The Sand City in Manchuria
Hari
Eleven Gangsters
Sawagami
The Domain: Where The Blade Enters
The Japan Derby Race
Samurai Geisha
Shimada Seikichi
Prison Walls of Abashiri 3
Shinichi Tachibana
The Deep Blue Sea
The Kamikaze Guy
Fumio Kuroki
The Outsiders
Ichitaro Kazamori
Golgo 13
Duke Togo / Golgo 13
Prison Walls of Abashiri, Part 2
Shinichi Tachibana
Outlaw Under a Blue Canopy
Contemporary Tales of Chivalry 4
Contemporary Tales of Chivalry: The Lone Wolf
365 Nights
New Prison Walls of Abashiri: High Stakes at Abashiri
The Escape
Life of Hishakaku
Patience Has An End
Isamu Tekada
Tales of President Mito
Sukesaburo Sasa
Great Jailbreak
Ichiro Kozue
Brutal Tales of Chivalry 5: Man With The Karajishi Tattoo
Hanada Hidejiro
Feisty Edo Girl Nakanori-san
Kenichi Oka
New Prison Walls of Abashiri: The Vagrant Comes to a Port Town
A Story from Abashiri Prison—Duel in Snow Storm
Shin-ichi Tachibana
Romance Freestyle
Lullaby for a Tough Guy
New Prison Walls of Abashiri: Stormy Cape
Glorious Fights
Ichiro Takita
The Domain: Duel at Thunder Gate
Man of Thirteen Eyes
The Prickly Mouthed Geisha, Part 3
The Prickly Mouthed Geisha, Part 4
Kenichi Hanamura
Yukyo-retsuden
The Second Bullet is Marked
Too Late the Hero
Major Yamaguchi
The Prickly-Mouthed Geisha Goes to Sado
New Prison Walls of Abashiri: Stray Wolf in Snow
Rogue
Isamu Oba
The Bullet and the Horse
Dagger
The Happy Family
Detective Duel
The Chivalrous Life
Ryuma Ibuki
Contemporary Tales of Chivalry: Forbidden Love
Hidejiro Hanada
Uragirimono wa jigoku daze
Abashiri Prison
Shinichi Tachibana
Contemporary Tales of Chivalry: The Traitor Shall Die
Showdown in Blood
A Dead Drifter
Sister with Sister
Hiroshi Ishioka
The Drifting Avenger
Ken Kato
Abashiri Prison: Duel in the Snow Country
The detective whose path was crossed by a snake
The Domain: Kanto Legends of Chivalry
Manchurian Sunset
Shintaro
Blackmail
A Fishwife's Tale
The Domain: Severed Relations
The Prickly Mouthed Geisha and the Girl of Osaka
Employee Full of Fight
Tani
Flower, Storm and Gangster
'Smiley' Ken
Abashiri Prison: Challenge to the Evil
Shin-ichi Tachibana
The Domain: White Blade
Red Peony Gambler
Naoki Katagiri
Mother Peacock
Brutal Tales of Chivalry 7: Hell Is a Man's Destiny
No Advice Taken
The World's Most Noble Guy: Taro's Rush
New Abashiri Prison Story: Honor and Humanity, Ammunition That Attracts the Storm
Devil's Nursery Rhyme
Kosuke Kindaichi
Men Fighting Whales
Yosuke Yamagami
G-men of Japan 4: Special Armed Unit Mobilization
Station
Eiji Mikami
Midair Circus
The Domain
Song of Kagoshima
Shuhei Tategami
Abashiri Prison: Duel in Hokkaido
The Day the Sun Rose
South Pacific Waves Are High
Abashiri Prison: Duel in the South
The Domain: Rising Dragon
べらんめぇ藝者罷り通る
Monsoon Son Pt.2
Mannen Taro and His Feminine Colleagues
Tarô Mannen
Showdown of Men
Tokyo Untouchable: Escape
Yoshio Harada
Histories of the Chivalrous
The Pledge
Path of Japanese Chivalry: Story of All-Out Attack
New Prison Walls of Abashiri: Snowbound Deserter
Lightning Karate Blow
Four Hours of Terror
Captain Yamamoto
Monsoon Son
Delinquent Angel
Meteor Karate Strike
Tokyo Untouchable
Yoshio Harada
続べらんめぇ芸者
The Longest Tunnel
Go Akutsu
Robert Mitchum: The Reluctant Star
Self (archive footage)
The Counterfeiters
Hishakaku and Kiratsune: A Tale of Two Yakuza
A Man's Dark Finger
If You're Man Enough
Bloodiest Flower
The Chop Professor
The Prickly Mouthed Geisha Part 2
The World's Most Noble Guy: Taro's Whirlwind
Tarō Senpū
Jet Air Base 101
Jiro Nakata
To the Sea, See You
Eiji Honma
Prison Walls of Abashiri 4
Shin'ichi Tachibana
Prison Boss
Jakoman and Tetsu
Tetsu
Hell's Kitchen
Duel of the Underworld
The Path of the King
Ryutaro Fudo
Gambler's Legacy
Tsukuda Ginjiro
Black Rain: Making The Film
Self (archive footage)
Men in a Rough Town
Fumio Sone
The Biggest Gamble
Shuzo Honjo
Brothers Serving Time
All Rascals
Hell's Juggler
New Prison Walls of Abashiri 2
Storm Party
The Big Boss
Main Street in the Underworld
Tokyo's Business District
Operation Diamond
A Portrait of the Author
Self