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