Hiroyuki Sanada has been honing his acting skills for over fifty years, having started when he was six years old. He landed his first role opposite the celebrated Japanese actor and martial artist Sonny Chiba in Game of Chance. Since then, the Tokyo-born actor, 63, has barely decelerated.
Hiroyuki Sanada in Shōgun (Credit: FX)
That being said, we cannot overlook the brilliant performance he gave in Rachel Kondo & Justin Marks’ Shōgun. As Lord Yoshii Toranaga, he practically steals every scene of the FX series. Unfortunately, the 10-episode series is over, but he has starred in a number of similar flicks that are well worth your time.
Nevertheless, Sanada’s résumé includes a number of stellar but lesser-known roles. Rest assured, if you enjoy his portrayal of Lord Toranaga, here are three must-see films starring the talented actor that will satisfy your craving for more of his compelling performances.
1. The Twilight Samurai...
Hiroyuki Sanada in Shōgun (Credit: FX)
That being said, we cannot overlook the brilliant performance he gave in Rachel Kondo & Justin Marks’ Shōgun. As Lord Yoshii Toranaga, he practically steals every scene of the FX series. Unfortunately, the 10-episode series is over, but he has starred in a number of similar flicks that are well worth your time.
Nevertheless, Sanada’s résumé includes a number of stellar but lesser-known roles. Rest assured, if you enjoy his portrayal of Lord Toranaga, here are three must-see films starring the talented actor that will satisfy your craving for more of his compelling performances.
1. The Twilight Samurai...
- 5/11/2024
- by Siddhika Prajapati
- FandomWire
“Goyokin,” which translates to “Official God,” is perhaps Hideo Gosha's finest film. Written by Gosha and Kei Tasaka, many of the director's regular players, including Tatsuya Nakadai and Tetsuro Tamba, star here. Toshiro Mifune was initially cast as the character Samon Fujimaki. However, production difficulties resulted in him being replaced by Kinnosuke Nakamura. “Goyokin” was a critical and financial hit upon release and remains a highly regarded piece of Japanese cinema.
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
In snowy feudal Japan, Sado Island is home to gold mines that provide riches offered to the Tokugawa clan via ship delivery, which can be jeopardized due to poor weather on the waters. Meanwhile, a reclusive samurai named Magobei Wakizaka wanders, clearly troubled by something. The ronin finds himself the target of an assassination attempt, which he survives. He learns this attack was orchestrated by his former clan master,...
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
In snowy feudal Japan, Sado Island is home to gold mines that provide riches offered to the Tokugawa clan via ship delivery, which can be jeopardized due to poor weather on the waters. Meanwhile, a reclusive samurai named Magobei Wakizaka wanders, clearly troubled by something. The ronin finds himself the target of an assassination attempt, which he survives. He learns this attack was orchestrated by his former clan master,...
- 1/17/2024
- by Sean Barry
- AsianMoviePulse
In the 1960s, a new wave of jidaigeki flicks came into the fray that cast a dark shadow over the brave samurai heroes of old. So-called zankoku (cruel) jidaigeki offers a more cynical view of the samurai, critiquing the hierarchical society of Japan's past and presenting more realistic violence. This subgenre can, to a degree, be compared to the spaghetti western in how it blurs the lines between right and wrong, introducing more brutal anti-heroes to contrast traditional honour-bound warriors clad in white. Tadashi Imai's 1963 film “Bushido” fits nicely into this niche subgenre, as it delivers a scathing critique of its titular moral code.
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
A tale told across generations, the film follows the lineage of the Iikura family, each member played by Kinnosuke Nakamura. The tale begins at the end, in the modern day, with salaryman Susumu Iikura whose fiancé has attempted suicide.
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
A tale told across generations, the film follows the lineage of the Iikura family, each member played by Kinnosuke Nakamura. The tale begins at the end, in the modern day, with salaryman Susumu Iikura whose fiancé has attempted suicide.
- 5/28/2023
- by Tom Wilmot
- AsianMoviePulse
One-sheet for Death Machines (1976). Artist unknown.Movie-lovers!Welcome back to The Deuce Notebook, a collaboration between Mubi's Notebook and The Deuce Film Series, our monthly event at Nitehawk Williamsburg that excavates the facts and fantasies of cinema's most infamous block in the world: 42nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenues. For each screening, my co-hosts and I pick a title that we think embodies the era of 24-hour theater hopping, and present the venue at which it premiered…Our friend and guest collaborator Chris Poggiali (of Temple of Schlock fame) takes the helm once again; last July, he contributed to our column with an incredible piece about Japanese samurai films and their entry into the US mainstream. This month, Chris introduces us to the world of director Paul Kyriazi.Chris is an authority on genre films and we’re excited to promote his recent book, co-written by Grady Hendrix,...
- 7/25/2022
- MUBI
Only the most hardcore action junkies will have the stamina for what is essentially one marathon sword-fighting scene
The craziness is all in the idea of this singular Japanese action movie: essentially one marathon battle scene, filmed in a single take, in which a master swordsman takes down several hundred assailants. The execution, as it were, is a triumph of stuntwork, strategy and stamina, but in the watching it gets rather repetitive and wearying. Few but the most hardcore action junkies will really be up for it.
The set-up is quickly dealt with: a clan rallies in the forest around its newly anointed leader, a small boy, in anticipation of an attack. Attack there swiftly comes, in the form of Musashi Miyamoto: real-life master swordsman, 17th-century folk hero, and fixture of Japanese pop culture (Toshiro Mifune played him four times; Kinnosuke Nakamura played him seven times). Here, the role...
The craziness is all in the idea of this singular Japanese action movie: essentially one marathon battle scene, filmed in a single take, in which a master swordsman takes down several hundred assailants. The execution, as it were, is a triumph of stuntwork, strategy and stamina, but in the watching it gets rather repetitive and wearying. Few but the most hardcore action junkies will really be up for it.
The set-up is quickly dealt with: a clan rallies in the forest around its newly anointed leader, a small boy, in anticipation of an attack. Attack there swiftly comes, in the form of Musashi Miyamoto: real-life master swordsman, 17th-century folk hero, and fixture of Japanese pop culture (Toshiro Mifune played him four times; Kinnosuke Nakamura played him seven times). Here, the role...
- 6/30/2021
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
Shirô Toyoda's Jigohuken or Portrait of Hell (1969) builds steadily to a shattering penultimate sequence, then peters out in a disappointing denouement. If you cut the climax off, I bet it would haunt people forever, and such is the power of its individual high points that it still commands attention.The great Tatsuya Nakadai (Harakiri, Ran) plays a Korean painter at the court of a nasty lord who fancies his daughter. Both men are tyrants: Nakadai forbids his daughter to marry her lover because he's not Korean, but then has her taken away from him by the corrupt and lascivious ruler. He then conceives the idea of a painting of the inferno: his patron/tormentor, the lord, doubts his ability to render so abstract a concept, but Nakadai says he sees Hell all around him, so it will be no particular challenge.This is all good stuff. Nakadai is superhumanly intense,...
- 1/17/2018
- MUBI
Tadashi Imai's Bushido: The Cruel Code of the Samurai (Bushidô Zankoku Monogatari) was released in 1963. The film won Golden Bears at the Berlinale for Best Film and Best Actor that same year, which makes the February DVD release of the film by AnimEigo somewhat timely (Berlinale is, after all, in February). Whatever the case, Bushido is an exceptional dramatic work with a downbeat tone and hard edge.
The film begin in modern times as Susumu Iikuru (Kinnosuke Nakamura) is called to the hospital to attend his finance Kyoko (Eijiro Tono) after her suicide attempt. The events leading up to Kyoko's suicide cause Susumu to question his behavior and reflect on whether his family history was the source of his woes. As it turns out, Susumu is descended from 7 generations of samurai who lived under the strict code of Bushido ("The Way of the Warrior").
Bushido follows the Iikuru...
The film begin in modern times as Susumu Iikuru (Kinnosuke Nakamura) is called to the hospital to attend his finance Kyoko (Eijiro Tono) after her suicide attempt. The events leading up to Kyoko's suicide cause Susumu to question his behavior and reflect on whether his family history was the source of his woes. As it turns out, Susumu is descended from 7 generations of samurai who lived under the strict code of Bushido ("The Way of the Warrior").
Bushido follows the Iikuru...
- 2/22/2010
- Screen Anarchy
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