Advanced search
- TITLES
- NAMES
- COLLABORATIONS
Search filters
Enter full date
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
Only includes names with the selected topics
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
1-50 of 2,085
- Writer
- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
After training as a painter (he storyboards his films as full-scale paintings), Kurosawa entered the film industry in 1936 as an assistant director, eventually making his directorial debut with Sanshiro Sugata (1943). Within a few years, Kurosawa had achieved sufficient stature to allow him greater creative freedom. Drunken Angel (1948) was the first film he made without extensive studio interference, and marked his first collaboration with Toshirô Mifune. In the coming decades, the two would make 16 movies together, and Mifune became as closely associated with Kurosawa's films as was John Wayne with the films of Kurosawa's idol, John Ford. After working in a wide range of genres, Kurosawa made his international breakthrough film Rashomon (1950) in 1950. It won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival, and first revealed the richness of Japanese cinema to the West. The next few years saw the low-key, touching Ikiru (1952) (Living), the epic Seven Samurai (1954), the barbaric, riveting Shakespeare adaptation Throne of Blood (1957), and a fun pair of samurai comedies Yojimbo (1961) and Sanjuro (1962). After a lean period in the late 1960s and early 1970s, though, Kurosawa attempted suicide. He survived, and made a small, personal, low-budget picture with Dodes'ka-den (1970), a larger-scale Russian co-production Dersu Uzala (1975) and, with the help of admirers Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas, the samurai tale Kagemusha: The Shadow Warrior (1980), which Kurosawa described as a dry run for Ran (1985), an epic adaptation of Shakespeare's "King Lear." He continued to work into his eighties with the more personal Dreams (1990), Rhapsody in August (1991) and Madadayo (1993). Kurosawa's films have always been more popular in the West than in his native Japan, where critics have viewed his adaptations of Western genres and authors (William Shakespeare, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Maxim Gorky and Evan Hunter) with suspicion - but he's revered by American and European film-makers, who remade Rashomon (1950) as The Outrage (1964), Seven Samurai (1954), as The Magnificent Seven (1960), Yojimbo (1961), as A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and The Hidden Fortress (1958), as Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977).- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Toshiro Mifune achieved more worldwide fame than any other Japanese actor of his century. He was born in Tsingtao, China, to Japanese parents and grew up in Dalian. He did not set foot in Japan until he was 21. His father was an importer and a commercial photographer, and young Toshiro worked in his father's studio for a time after graduating from Dalian Middle School. He was automatically drafted into the Japanese army when he turned 20, and enlisted in the Air Force where he was attached to the Aerial Photography Unit for the duration of the World War II. In 1947 he took a test for Kajirô Yamamoto, who recommended him to director Senkichi Taniguchi, thus leading to Mifune's first film role in These Foolish Times II (1947). Mifune then met and bonded with director Akira Kurosawa, and the two joined to become the most prominent actor-director pairing in all Japanese cinema. Beginning with Drunken Angel (1948), Mifune appeared in 16 of Kurosawa's films, most of which have become world-renowned classics. In Kurosawa's pictures, especially Rashomon (1950), Mifune would become the most famous Japanese actor in the world. A dynamic and ferocious actor, he excelled in action roles, but also had the depth to plumb intricate and subtle dramatic parts. A personal rift during the filming of Red Beard (1965) ended the Mifune-Kurosawa collaboration, but Mifune continued to perform leading roles in major films both in Japan and in foreign countries. He was twice named Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival (for Yojimbo (1961) and Red Beard (1965)). In 1963 he formed his own production company, directing one film and producing several others. In his later years he gained new fame in the title role of the American TV miniseries Shogun (1980), and appeared infrequently in cameo roles after that. His last years were plagued with Alzheimer's Syndrome and he died of organ failure in 1997, a few months before the death of the director with whose name he will forever be linked, Akira Kurosawa.- Actress
- Editor
Kumamoto City-born Shimada Yoko is best known in the west as Mariko from the 1980 mini-series Shogun. The lady-in-waiting role created an interest in Japan and its culture overseas and introduced Japanese history to foreign audiences. She won the Golden Globe For Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series - Drama category and was nominated for a Prime-time Emmy Award for her work on the serial in 1981. Shimada, who spoke some English for the serial, had been acting for years prior to Shogun however. She began learning ballet since age three and wanted to become a ballerina until her high high school days. Her family had moved to Tokyo when she was eight. She obtained an agent and began acting while in junior high school. The TV serial Zoku Hyouten made her famous beginning 1970. She released a nude photo book, called Kir Royal, in 1992. She was 39 and the photo book became a bestseller shifting half a million copies. At 57 she starred in an 'AV' pornography video called Mikkai in 2011. This was a tribute to her body even at that age. Shimada has a reservation for a space burial.- Writer
- Director
- Animation Department
Satoshi Kon was born in 1963. He studied at the Musashino College of the Arts. He began his career as a Manga artist. He then moved to animation and worked as a background artist on many films (including Roujin Z (1991) by 'Katsuhiro Otomo'). Then, in 1995, he wrote an episode of the anthology film Memories (1995) (this Episode was "Magnetic Rose"). In 1997, he directed his first feature film: the excellent Perfect Blue (1997). In 2001, he finished work on his second feature film, Millennium Actress (2001) (aka Millennium Actress).- Director
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Influential Japanese film director born May 7th, 1911, often credited as being the father of Godzilla. His name is a combination of "I" (or Ino), meaning "boar", and "shirô," meaning fourth son in the family. Originally, the young Honda had aspirations of becoming an artist; however, as he entered into his teens, it was cinema that became his number 1 interest.
He attended Nippon University studying art, but was drafted by the Japanese military and spent nearly eight years in uniform. After a period of imprisonment in China as a P.O.W., he returned to Japan to join Toho Studios, where, soon afterward, he became acquainted with its special effects director, Eiji Tsuburaya. The two worked on a handful of films before collaborating on the ground-breaking epic monster film Godzilla (1954). Honda was also at the director's helm for such films as Rodan (1956), The Mysterians (1957) and its loose sequel Battle in Outer Space (1959), Mothra (1961), Matango (1963), and Destroy All Monsters (1968). Although the Japanese monster films had been derided by some U.S. critics, Honda was especially proud of his contribution to this rather unique aspect of the fantasy and science fiction genres.
Honda was a life-long friend of fellow Japanese director Akira Kurosawa and worked on several of his landmark films, including Stray Dog (1949), Kagemusha: The Shadow Warrior (1980) (a.k.a. "Kagemusha the Shadow Warrior"), and Ran (1985).
Honda died at the age of 81 on February 28th, 1993, with Kurosawa delivering the eulogy at his funeral.- Actor
- Stunts
- Additional Crew
Sonny Chiba was born as Sadao Maeda in Fukuoka, Japan on January 22, 1939. His father was a military test pilot. During his youth, he had an interest in both theater & gymnastics. He was talented enough to make the Japanese Olympic Team until a chronic back injury ended his career. However, he took a strong interest in karate under the guidance of the Mas Oyama during college & soon earned his first black belt. However, his life changed again when he was discovered during a talent search by Toei Studios in 1960. He soon began his screen career under the name Shinichi Chiba, appearing as the space chief in Uchu Kaisoku-ken. Over the next decade, he busied himself w/ appearances in Japanese crime thrillers, steadily building a reputation for playing hard men of few words & direct actions.
With his proficiency in karate, judo & kenpo, he took advantage of the early 1970s martial arts boom sparked by Bruce Lee. He starred in The Street Fighter (1974), playing a mercenary style street thug who would do anything for a price & take on anyone, even the yakuza. The approach of the film was quite different from the Bruce Lee films in that Lee only eliminated his enemies when he was defending his friends or his honor. Instead, he was only aiming for a fistful of dollars for his deadly services & would engage in mortal combat for the highest bidder, although this often clouded his judgement to his own detriment. The only person the Street Fighter respects is his martial arts teacher, karate master Masaoko who manages to easily out smart & out fight him. Upon its release, the film was criticized for its excessive violence.
A sequel quickly followed w/ him back in Return of the Street Fighter (1974), which was then followed by a third Street Fighter movie starring Etsuko Shihomi in the gritty Sister Street Fighter (1974). There was a fourth & final film in the series Gyakushu Satsujin ken.
He had firmly established himself as a key anti-hero of Asian martial arts cinema who said little & used his fists to sort out his troubles. With the demand high from fans, he remained busy on screen for the next 20 years, starring in numerous Japanese film & TV productions w/ an emphasis on bruising fights, samurai swords, yakuza gangsters & beautiful girls in trouble.
Outside of Japan, the Street Fighter film series has achieved enduring popularity through many midnight cult screenings. Their style heavily influenced Quentin Tarantino. He has used strong references & imagery from the Street Fighter movies in several of his films including True Romance (1993) and Pulp Fiction (1994). When he came around to casting for Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003), he was eager to have Chiba accept the key role of the hot headed & sometimes humorous Okinawan sword maker Hanzo Hattori. He continued to be a major figure & influence in the world-wide passion in martial arts movies for over 3 decades, contributing to the genre by encouraging & training young hopefuls seeking to make their mark on screen.
He passed away on August 19, 2021.- Writer
- Director
- Additional Crew
Tokyo-born Yasujiro Ozu was a movie buff from childhood, often playing hooky from school in order to see Hollywood movies in his local theatre. In 1923 he landed a job as a camera assistant at Shochiku Studios in Tokyo. Three years later, he was made an assistant director and directed his first film the next year, Zange no yaiba (1927). Ozu made thirty-five silent films, and a trilogy of youth comedies with serious overtones he turned out in the late 1920s and early 1930s placed him in the front ranks of Japanese directors. He made his first sound film in 1936, The Only Son (1936), but was drafted into the Japanese Army the next year, being posted to China for two years and then to Singapore when World War II started. Shortly before the war ended he was captured by British forces and spent six months in a P.O.W. facility. At war's end he went back to Shochiku, and his experiences during the war resulted in his making more serious, thoughtful films at a much slower pace than he had previously. His most famous film, Tokyo Story (1953), is generally considered by critics and film buffs alike to be his "masterpiece" and is regarded by many as not only one of Ozu's best films but one of the best films ever made. He also turned out such classics of Japanese film as The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice (1952), Floating Weeds (1959) and An Autumn Afternoon (1962).
Ozu, who never married and lived with his mother all his life, died of cancer in 1963, two years after she passed.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Sessue Hayakawa was born in Chiba, Japan. His father was the provincial governor and his mother a member of an aristocratic family of the "samurai" class. The young Hayakawa wanted to follow in his father's footsteps and become a career officer in the Japanese navy, but he was turned down due to problems with his hearing. The disappointed Hayakawa decided to make his career on the stage. He joined a Japanese theatrical company that eventually toured the United States in 1913. Pioneering film producer Thomas H. Ince spotted him and offered him a movie contract. Roles in The Wrath of the Gods (1914) and The Typhoon (1914) turned Hayakawa into an overnight success. The first Asian-American star of the American screen was born.
He married actress Tsuru Aoki on May 1, 1914. The next year his appearance in Cecil B. DeMille's sexploitation picture The Cheat (1915) made Hayakawa a silent-screen superstar. He played an ivory merchant who has an affair with the Caucasian Fannie Ward, and audiences were "scandalized" when he branded her as a symbol of her submission to their passion. The movie was a blockbuster for Famous Players-Lasky (later Paramount), turning Hayakawa into a romantic idol for millions of American women, regardless of their race. However, there were objections and outrage from racists of all stripes, especially those who were opposed to miscegenation (sexual contact between those of different races). Also outraged was the Japanese-American community, which was dismayed by DeMille's unsympathetic portrayal of a member of their race. The Japanese-American community protested the film and attempted to have it banned when it was re-released in 1918.
The popularity of Hayakawa rivaled that of Caucasian male movie stars in the decade of the 1910s, and he became one of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood. He made his career in melodramas, playing romantic heroes and charismatic heavies. He co-starred with the biggest female stars in Hollywood, all of whom were, of course, Caucasian. His pictures often co-starred Jack Holt as his Caucasian rival for the love of the white heroine (Holt would later become a top action star in the 1920s),
Hayakawa left Famous Players-Lasky to go independent, setting up his own production company, Haworth Pictures Corp. Through the end of the decade Haworth produced Asian-themed films starring Hayakawa and wife Tsuru Aoki that proved very popular. These movies elucidated the immigrant's desire to "cross over" or assimilate into society at large and pursue the "American Dream" in a society free of racial intolerance. Sadly, most of these films are now lost.
With the dawn of a new decade came a rise in anti-Asian sentiment, particularly over the issue of immigration due to the post-World War I economic slump. Hayakawa's films began to perform poorly at the box office, bringing his first American movie career to an end in 1922. He moved to Japan but was unable to get a career going. Relocating to France, he starred in La bataille (1923), a popular melodrama spiced with martial arts. He made Sen Yan's Devotion (1924) and The Great Prince Shan (1924) in the UK.
In 1931 Hayakawa returned to Hollywood to make his talking-picture debut in support of Anna May Wong in Daughter of the Dragon (1931). Sound revealed that he had a heavy accent, and his acting got poor reviews. He returned to Japan before once again going to France, where he made the geisha melodrama Yoshiwara (1937) for director Max Ophüls. He also appeared in a remake of "The Cheat" called Forfaiture (1937), playing the same role that over 20 year earlier had made him one of the biggest stars in the world.
After the Second World War he took a third stab at Hollywood. In 1949 he relaunched g himself as a character actor with Tokyo Joe (1949) in support of Humphrey Bogart, and Three Came Home (1950) with Claudette Colbert. Hayakawa reached the apex of this, his third career, with his role as the martinet POW camp commandant in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), which brought him an Academy Award nomination for Best Suporting Actor. His performance as Col. Saito was essential to the success of David Lean's film, built as it was around the battle of wills between Hayakawa's commandant and Alec Guinness' Col. Nicholson, head of the Allied POWs. The film won the Best Picture Academy Award, while Lean and Guiness also were rewarded with Oscars.
Hayakawa continued to act in movies regularly until his retirement in 1966. He returned to Japan, becoming a Zen Buddhist priest while remaining involved in his craft by giving private acting lessons.
Ninety years after achieving stardom, he remains one of the few Asians to assume superstar status in American motion pictures.- Japanese character actor Takashi Shimura was one of the finest film actors of the 20th century and a leading member of the "stock company" of master director Akira Kurosawa. A native of southern Japan, Shimura was a descendant of the samurai warrior class. Following university training, he founded a theatre company, Shichigatsu-za ("July Theatre"). In 1930 he joined a professional company, Kindai-za ("Modern Theatre"). Four years later he signed with the Kinema Shinko film studio. He found a niche playing samurai roles for various studios, then signed a long-term contract with Toho Studios in 1943. He appeared in an average of six films a year for Toho over the next four decades. His greatest critical acclaim came in more than 20 roles for Kurosawa, though he is almost as well recognized outside Japan for his kindly doctor role in the original "Godzilla" (Godzilla (1954)). Shimura's triumph was his unforgettable performance as a dying bureaucrat in Kurosawa's Ikiru (1952). He continued to act steadily, in good films and bad, almost until his death, culminating with Kurosawa's Kagemusha: The Shadow Warrior (1980). He is often described as filling the spot for Kurosawa that Ward Bond filled for John Ford--an ever-present and reliable character player who consistently supplied a solidity and strength to whatever film he appeared in. Shimura was definitely a finer actor than Bond, of the most versatile "chameleons" in the world cinema, a great artist with enormous range in sublime interpretations, from Ikiru (1952)'s diffident clerk to the leader of the Seven Samurai in Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (1954). He died in 1982, a reluctant icon of Japanese cinema.
- Director
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Masaki Kobayashi was born on 14 February 1916 in Hokkaido, Japan. He was a director and writer, known for Harakiri (1962), Samurai Rebellion (1967) and The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer (1961). He died on 4 October 1996 in Tokyo, Japan.- Director
- Editor
- Writer
Nobuhiko Ôbayashi was born on 9 January 1938 in Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. He was a director and editor, known for House (1977), Turning Point (1994) and The Discarnates (1988). He was married to Kyôko Ôbayashi. He died on 10 April 2020 in Tokyo, Japan.- Writer
- Animation Department
- Costume Designer
Akira Toriyama is a Japanese manga writer, manga artist, and character designer for video games. He has been a working artist since 1978. In manga, he is better known for creating the science fiction comedy series "Dr. Slump" (1980-1984) and the martial-arts-themed series "Dragon Ball" (1984-1995). "Dragon Ball" has been adapted into four animated series: "Dragon Ball" (1986-1989), "Dragon Ball Z" (1989-1996), "Dragon Ball GT" (1996-1997), and "Dragon Ball Super" (2015-2018). Toriyama has provided character designs for several of the adaptations. As a video game designer, Toriyama is primarily known for co-creating the long-running series "Dragon Quest" (1986-). He has continued to work in most of the series' games. Toriyama's works are credited with boosting the popularity of Japanese animation in the Western world. In 2019, Toriyama was named as a Chevalier (knight) of the "Ordre des Arts et des Lettres" ("Order of the Arts and the Letters") by France. It is a French order of merit, awarded to writers and artists.
During the 20th century, Nagoya became a center for automotive, Several manufacturing companies of the industry have their headquarters in Nagoya. By 1961, Toriyama started drawing pictures of animals and vehicles as a hobby. He was reportedly inspired by the animated film "One Hundred and One Dalmatians"(1961), as he was impressed by the film's art style.
During his elementary school years, Toriyama has access to the manga collection owned by the older brother of a friend. He was fascinated by the science fiction series "Astro Boy" (1952-1968), which featured the adventures of a sentient android with superpowers. During his middle school years, Toriyama was increasingly fascinated with live-action film and television. He was a fan of the tokusatsu series (science fantasy series, using special effects) "Ultraman" (1966-1967). The series focused on the adventures of a gigantic superhero, who regularly defended the Earth from aliens and monsters. He also enjoyed kaiju films (films about giant monsters). His favorite film series was "Gamera" (1965-2006), which featured the adventures of a fire-breathing turtle.
Toriyama attended a high school which focused on teaching creative design to its students. Against the wishes of his parents, he decided to not pursue a college education. Shortly after graduating high school, Toriyama used his art skills to get hired at an advertising agency in Nagoya. He spend several years in designing posters, but was increasingly fed up with his job. He was repeatedly reprimanded for dressing casually at work. He quit his job at age 23, and started considering a professional career as a manga artist.
Trying to get an entry into the manga industry, Toriyama created a manga story which parodied the recent film "Star Wars" (1977). He submitted the story to a contest organized by the magazine "Weekly Shonen Jump", hoping to win the magazine's "Newcomer Award". The story was rejected because it was a derivative work, and the contest was for original works. But magazine editor Kazuhiko Torishima (1952-) liked Toriyama's art style. He encouraged him to send more original material to the magazine.
Toriyama's first published work was the story "Wonder Island" (1978). It featured a kamikaze pilot who had been stranded on an island for 35 years, and was trying to find a way to escape. The story came last in a popularity contest, disappointing Toriyama. The sequel "Wonder Island 2" (1979) focused on the police searching for a missing criminal. It parodied elements from the film "Dirty Harry" (1971). This story was also considered a flop. Most of Toriyama's early stories failed to impress his readers. He had more success with "Tomato the Cutesy Gumshoe" (1979), a story about a rookie detective. It was his first work featuring a female lead, and was well-liked by the readers.
Toriyama decided to use a female lead in next major effort. The result was the best-selling series "Dr. Slump". (1980-1984) It focused on Arale Norimaki, a sentient robot in the form of a little girl. She had superhuman strength, but her naivety and inexperience landed her in trouble. The series also featured a cast of eccentric supporting characters. Among them was the shape-shifting superhero Suppaman, a parody version of Superman who was depicted as a pompous buffoon. The series became one of the most popular manga of its era, and received an animated adaption (which lasted from 1981 to 1986). Toriyama wanted to end the series after its first six months, but his publisher insisted that the story should be continued. In 1981, Toriyama won a "Shogakukan Manga Award" for his work on "Dr. Slump".
Despite his success with a long-term series in the early 1980s, Toriyama continued to regularly submit one-shot stories for publication. He was frustrated when several of these stories met with lukewarm response by his readers. At about this point in his career, he created his own artist's studio, under the name "Bird Studio". The name was a pun on his own last name, as "tori" means "bird". He started employing assistants to work on the background details of his stories.
Kazuhiko Torishima (Toriyama's editor) noted that Toriyama enjoyed viewing kung fu films, but had never used martial arts elements in his stories. He suggested that Toriyama should try creating a kung-fu manga. Toriyama responded by creating the two-part story "Dragon Boy" (1983). It depicted a young martial artist who escorts a princess on a return journey to her home country. The story was warmly received, and Toriyama would later incorporate aspects of this story in "Dragon Ball".
In 1984, Toriyama finally concluded the "Dr. Slump". He had to promise his editor and publisher that he would soon start work on a replacement series. This new series was "Dragon Ball", which lasted for 11 years. Toriyama produced 519 chapters of the manga, which were collected into 42 volumes. The story focused on the life of martial artist Son Goku from childhood to adulthood, and gradually introduced the character's wife and descendants. The series gained in popularity due to its large cast of colorful characters, and its exciting use of combat scenes. Toriyama reportedly used Jackie Chan's films as the main inspiration for the fighting scenes.
Despite a busy working schedule due to long-term commitment to "Dragon Ball", Toriyama continued submitting one-shot stories for publication. In 1986, he was recruited as a character designer for the role-playing video game "Dragon Quest". He later admitted that he had never even heard of role-playing games before being offered the job, and he was not certain what the demands of the job were. He was created as the co-creator of the game, and the initial game launched a long-running franchise. Based on this success, Toriyama was later hired as a character designer on the role-playing game "Chrono Trigger" (1995) and on the fighting games "Tobal No. 1" (1996) and "Tobal 2" (1997).
Until the late 1980s, Toriyama had never worked in animation. His first substantial effort in the field was the animated film "Kosuke & Rikimaru: The Dragon of Konpei Island" (1988). He wrote the initial concept for the film, he co-wrote its screenplay, and designed all of its characters.
In 1995, Toriyama decided to conclude the "Dragon Ball" manga with a low-key ending. Son Goku left the planet Earth to serve as the mentor to a reincarnated former foe, leaving room for a new generation of heroes. Toriyama wanted to imply that the story would continue, though he had no actual intention to write a sequel at that point. When the animated series "Dragon Ball GT" (1996-1997) was conceived as a sequel, Toriyama was hired as a character designer. For the following few years, Toriyama primarily produced short-lived manga series. Among them were "Cowa!"(1997-1998), "Kajika" (1998), and "Sand Land" (2000). In 2002, Toriyama made a promotional visit to the United States, as a number of his works were about to be reprinted in the American magazine "Shonen Jump".
In 2005, Toriyama served as the main designer of an electric car for CQ Motors. It was not a commercial success, with only 9 vehicles being produced. In 2006, Toriyama and Eiichiro Oda created the crossover story "Cross Epoch". It featured characters from "Dragon Ball" co-existing with fantasy characters from the series "One Piece" (1997-). Also in 2006, Toriyama served as a character designer for the video game "Blue Dragon". The story featured a small group of heroes trying to stop the villain Nene's efforts to massacre villagers.
In 2009, Toriyama was credited as both a creative consultant and an executive producer for the live-action film "Dragonball Evolution". He reportedly cautioned the film's producers that the film's script was "bland" and uninteresting, but his suggestions to alter the script were ignored. The film was a commercial flop. Also in 2009, Toriyama created a promotional manga for the environmental organization "Rural Society Project". In 2011, Toriyama helped raise awareness for the victims of the Tohoku earthquake and the subsequent tsunami.
From 2012 to 2013, Toriyama was part of the film crew for the animated feature film "Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods" (2013). It was the first theatrical animated film based on "Dragon Ball" since 1996. In the film, the god Beerus threatens to destroy the planet Earth. He only backs down when one of the heroes achieves godhood. Also in 2013, a touring exhibition displayed Toriyama's manga manuscripts from "Dragon Ball".
Toriyama served as the main screenwriter for the animated film "Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection F" (2015). The film featured the resurrection of the long-dead villain Frieza, who tries to improve his skills before seeking revenge. Toriyama continued to work on the film's sequels until 2022. He also provided the scripts for the sequel manga "Dragon Ball Super" (2015-), though the artwork was provided by the younger artist Toyotarou (1978-). There were 18 volumes of the manga published between 2016 and 2022.
By 2022, Toriyama was 67-years-old. He has been married to the retired manga artist Yoshimi Kato since 1982, and they have two adult children. He works from his home studio in Kiyosu, and reportedly lives a reclusive life. He rarely appears in public or offers interviews. He has never retired, and seems to have no intention to do so.
Akira Toriyama died at the age of 68 on march 1, 2024.- Composer
- Music Department
- Actor
Ryuichi Sakamoto was born on 17 January 1952 in Tokyo, Japan. He was a composer and actor, known for The Last Emperor (1987), The Revenant (2015) and Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983). He was married to Akiko Yano. He died on 28 March 2023 in Tokyo, Japan.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Tall, distinguished, aristocratic Louis Calhern seemed to be the poster boy for old-money, upper-crust urban society, but he was actually born Carl Vogt, to middle-class parents in New York City. His family moved to St. Louis when he was a child, and it was while playing football in high school there that he was spotted by a representative of a touring acting troupe and hired as an actor. He returned to New York to work in the theater, but his career was interrupted by military service in France in World War I. He returned to the stage after the war, and eventually broke into films. Although his regal bearing would seem to pigeonhole him in aristocratic parts in serious drama, he proved to be a very versatile actor, as much at home playing a comic foil to The Marx Brothers in Duck Soup (1933) as he was as Buffalo Bill to Betty Hutton's Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun (1950) or, most memorably, the lawyer involved with the criminal gang in The Asphalt Jungle (1950). Married four times, he was in Tokyo, Japan, filming The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956) when he suffered a fatal heart attack.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Ken Takakura was a Japanese actor best known for his brooding style and the stoic, honorable presence he brought to his roles.
Known as the "Clint Eastwood" of Japan, 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, Brutal Tales of Chivalry (1965) in which he played an honorable old-school yakuza among the violent post-war gurentai.
A graduate of the prestigious 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 Denkô karate uchi (1956) (Lightning Karate Blow) in 1956. As luck would have it, 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 in trade. His breakout role came in 1965 playing a ex-con antihero in Abashiri Prison (1965). By the time he left Toei in 1976, he had appeared in over 180 films.
Takakura gained international recognition after starring in the 1975 Sydney Pollack sleeper hit The Yakuza (1974) with Robert Mitchum and is probably best known in the West for his role in Ridley Scott's Black Rain (1989) in which he surprises American cops played by Michael Douglas and Andy Garcia by showing he can speak English. He again proved himself bankable to Western audiences in the 1992 Fred Schepisi comedy Mr. Baseball (1992) starring Tom Selleck.
While he slowed down a bit in his older years, he remained active. His later films included Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles (2005), by Chinese director Yimou Zhang.- Director
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Isao Takahata was born on 29 October 1935 in Ise, Japan. He was a director and writer, known for Grave of the Fireflies (1988), Pom Poko (1994) and The Tale of The Princess Kaguya (2013). He died on 5 April 2018 in Tokyo, Japan.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Nagisa Oshima's career extends from the initiation of the "Nuberu bagu" (New Wave) movement in Japanese cinema in the late 1950s and early 1960s, to the contemporary use of cinema and television to express paradoxes in modern society. After an early involvement with the student protest movement in Kyoto, Oshima rose rapidly in the Shochiku company from the status of apprentice, in 1954, to that of director. By 1960, he had grown disillusioned with the traditional studio production policies and broke away from Shochiku to form his own independent production company, Sozosha, in 1965. With other Japanese New Wave filmmakers, like Masahiro Shinoda, Shôhei Imamura and Yoshishige Yoshida, Oshima reacted against the humanistic style and subject matter of directors like Yasujirô Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi and Akira Kurosawa, as well as against established left-wing political movements. Oshima has been primarily concerned with depicting the contradictions and tensions of postwar Japanese society. His films tend to expose contemporary Japanese materialism, while also examining what it means to be Japanese in the face of rapid industrialization and Westernization. Many of Oshima's earlier films, such as A Town of Love and Hope (1959) and The Sun's Burial (1960), feature rebellious, underprivileged youths in anti-heroic roles. The film for which he is probably best-known in the West, In the Realm of the Senses (1976), centers on an obsessive sexual relationship. Like several other Oshima works, it gains additional power by being based on an actual incident. Other important Oshima films include Death by Hanging (1968), an examination of the prejudicial treatment of Koreans in Japan; Boy (1969), which deals with the cruel use of a child for extortion purposes, and with the child's subsequent escapist fantasies; The Man Who Left His Will on Film (1970), about another ongoing concern of Oshima's, the art of filmmaking itself; and The Ceremony (1971), which presents a microcosmic view of Japanese postwar history through the lives of one wealthy family. In recent years, Oshima has repeatedly turned to sources outside Japan for the production of his films. This was the case with In the Realm of the Senses (1976) and Max My Love (1986). It is less well-known in the West that Oshima has also been a prolific documentarist, film theorist and television personality. He is the host of a long-running television talk show, "The School for Wives", in which female participants (kept anonymous by a distorting glass) present their personal problems, to which he responds from offscreen.- Actor
- Producer
- Music Department
Tomisaburô Wakayama was born on 1 September 1929 in Tokyo, Japan. He was an actor and producer, known for Black Rain (1989), Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance (1972) and Shogun Assassin (1980). He died on 2 April 1992 in Kyoto, Japan.- Additional Crew
- Director
- Actor
Seijun Suzuki was born in Nihonbashi, Tôkyô, on May 24, 1923. In 1943, he entered the army to fight at the front. In 1946, he enrolled in the film department of the Kamakura Academy and passed the assistant director's exam. For the next few years, he worked as an assistant director at several studios. In 1958, he directed his first film, Victory Is Ours (1956), and from then on he directed three to four films each year. With Branded to Kill (1967), he came into conflict with Hori Kyusaku, who was the president of Nikkatsu Studios at the time. Because of this, he was forced to work in television the next ten years. In 1977, A Tale of Sorrow (1977), his return to theatrically-released films, was released.- Director
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Coming from a lower class family Mizoguchi entered the production company Nikkatsu as an actor specialized in female roles. Later he became an assistant director and made his first film in 1922. Although he filmed almost 90 movies in the silent era, only his last 12 productions are really known outside of Japan because they were especially produced for Venice (e.g The Life of Oharu (1952) or Sansho the Bailiff (1954). He only filmed two productions in color: Yôkihi (1955) and Taira Clan Saga (1955).- Writer
- Actor
- Director
Yukio Mishima was born in Tokyo in 1925. He attended the University of Tokyo. His first work of fiction, a short story, was published when he was a first-year student. For the rest of his life he wrote - to enormous popular and critical acclaim - plays, poetry, essays, and novels. His first full-length novel, the autobiographical "Confessions of a Mask," is considered a classic of modern Japanese fiction. In it, a young man grapples with his homosexuality, the intensity of his inner states, the ways he must conceal himself, and the difficulties of not conforming to Japanese society. Mishima, educated in Japan and deeply influenced by European and Russian literature, developed his consuming obsession: a longing for unvanquished, imperial Japan; its samurai traditions, and heroic ideals of beauty, nationalism, and honor, including the traditionally enviable fate of dying for one's country. Mishima led by example. Along with writing energetically and passionately, he founded an elite right-wing organization for 100 males, the Shield Society, dedicated to 'Bushido,' the Samurai code of honor. Mishima became an expert in traditional martial arts, despaired of modern Japan and bemoaned the post-war suppression of its traditional past. Control - of the self, of art and of society - was of the utmost importance to Mishima. On travel, Mishima wrote in "Mask" : "...at no time are we ever in such complete possession of a journey, down to its last nook and cranny, as when we are busy with preparations for it. After that, there remains only the journey itself, which is nothing but the process by which we lose our ownership of it. This is what makes travel so utterly fruitless." Twenty-six years later, Mishima, intense and disturbed as ever, and in complete 'possession' of his life, committed suicide in a shocking and internationally-reported public event. He was forty-five.- Actress
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Eiko Masuyama was born on 22 April 1936 in Tokyo, Japan. She was an actress, known for Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro (1979), Lupin III: Island of Assassins (1997) and Lupin the 3rd: The Mystery of Mamo (1978). She was married to Kazuyoshi Masada. She died on 20 May 2024 in Japan.- Eiko Matsuda was born on 18 May 1952 in Yokohama, Japan. She was an actress, known for In the Realm of the Senses (1976), Stray Cat Rock: Machine Animal (1970) and Tatto of the Jack (1970). She died on 9 March 2011 in Tokyo, Japan.
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Yusaku Matsuda was born in Shimonoseki, Japan. In 1966, he visited his aunt in the U.S., where he lived for 1 year. After coming back to Japan, he started acting at a theatrical company. Since making his debut as a film actor in 1973, he appeared on various TV series & movies until his death.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Machiko Kyô was born on 25 March 1924 in Osaka, Japan. She was an actress, known for Rashomon (1950), The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956) and Gate of Hell (1953). She died on 12 May 2019 in Tokyo, Japan.