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.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Ken Takakura, licensed under CC-BY-SA,full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Black Rain

6.6

The Yakuza

7.1

Mr. Baseball

5.9

Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles

7.2

Too Late the Hero

6.5

Antarctica

7.3

The Bullet Train

6.8

A Fugitive from the Past

7.5

Railroad Man

7.0

The Yellow Handkerchief

6.8

A Distant Cry from Spring

7.2

47 Ronin

7.5

Manhunt

6.5

Golgo 13

4.9

Mount Hakkoda

6.4

Red Peony Gambler

7.2

Station

6.1

Dearest

6.8

Miyamoto Musashi V: Musashi vs Kojiro

7.3

Miyamoto Musashi: The Duel at Ichijo Temple

7.0

Miyamoto Musashi: Birth of Two Sword Style

7.0

Main Street in the Underworld

6.0

Buddies

6.8

Brutal Tales of Chivalry

7.1

Abashiri Prison

7.1

Never Give Up

5.7

Red Peony Gambler: Flower Cards Game

7.0

Wolves, Pigs & Men

8.1

The Drifting Avenger

6.7

Brutal Tales of Chivalry 5: Man With The Karajishi Tattoo

7.5

The International Gang of Kobe

5.7

Patience Has An End

5.7

Red Peony Gambler: Second Generation Ceremony

6.2

An Outlaw

4.8

Flower, Storm and Gangster

6.0

The Pledge

5.0

Bloodiest Flower

5.2

Demon

7.7

Winter's Flower

6.2

The Domain

5.8

The Homeless

7.5

Classmates

6.5

Brave Red Flower of the North

6.0

The Kanto Scarlet Cherry Gang

6.0

Choji Snack Bar

7.0

Four Hours of Terror

5.7

Glorious Fights

7.0

New Prison Walls of Abashiri: Stormy Cape

5.0

Lady Sen and Hideyori

8.0

Contemporary Tales of Chivalry 4

6.2

Prison Boss

7.0

The Sand City in Manchuria

6.5

Hishakaku and Kiratsune: A Tale of Two Yakuza

6.0

Ken San

6.0

Black Rain: Making The Film

6.0

Prison Walls of Abashiri, Part 2

7.0

Gambler's Legacy

6.5

The Escape

7.0

Gang Loyalty and Vengeance

5.0

The Domain: The Naniwa Story

3.2

SMAP×SMAP

8.5

The Kamikaze Guy

5.0

Contemporary Tales of Chivalry 2

7.0

Contemporary Tales of Chivalry: The Lone Wolf

6.0

Brutal Tales of Chivalry 7: Hell Is a Man's Destiny

6.0

The Firefly

7.0

Robert Mitchum: The Reluctant Star

7.0

Contemporary Tales of Chivalry: Forbidden Love

7.0

The Day the Sun Rose

7.0

The Path of the King

6.0

The Deep Blue Sea

5.0

The Last Kamikaze

6.0

The Revolt

6.0

New Prison Walls of Abashiri

6.0

Detective Duel

6.0

House of Gamblers

7.0

The Second Bullet is Marked

6.0

New Prison Walls of Abashiri 2

6.0

The Chivalrous Life

7.0

Prison Walls of Abashiri 3

7.0

Jakoman and Tetsu

6.0

Samurai Geisha

6.0

Life of Hishakaku

8.0

Memoir of Japanese Assassinations

7.0

Brothers Serving Time

8.0

The Biggest Gamble

7.0

The Domain: Kanto Legends of Chivalry

6.0

Great Jailbreak

7.0

Employee Full of Fight

4.0

New Prison Walls of Abashiri: The Vagrant Comes to a Port Town

6.0

Yukyo-retsuden

5.0

Gambler Biography

5.0

The Longest Tunnel

0.0

Operation Diamond

0.0

Tokyo Gang vs. Hong Kong Gang

0.0

South Pacific Waves Are High

0.0

A Dead Drifter

0.0

Rogue

0.0

Men Fighting Whales

0.0

Tokyo Untouchable

0.0

Delinquent Angel

0.0

Mannen Taro and His Feminine Colleagues

0.0

Tenka no Kaidanji Senpū Tarō

0.0

Blackmail

0.0

Hell's Companion

0.0

The Outsiders

0.0

Tokyo's Business District

0.0

Manchurian Sunset

0.0

Showdown in Blood

0.0

If You're Man Enough

0.0

All Rascals

0.0

The Man

0.0

Karate Cop

0.0

Tokyo Untouchable: Escape

0.0

Uragirimono wa jigoku daze

0.0

G-men of Japan 4: Special Armed Unit Mobilization

0.0

A Portrait of the Author

0.0

Lightning Karate Blow

0.0

The Prickly Mouthed Geisha Part 2

0.0

With Songs in My Heart

0.0

Prison Walls of Abashiri 4

0.0

Romance Freestyle

0.0

Devil's Nursery Rhyme

0.0

Jet Air Base 101

0.0

Sister with Sister

0.0

A Fishwife's Tale

0.0

The Prickly Mouthed Geisha and the Girl of Osaka

0.0

365 Nights

0.0

Feisty Edo Girl Nakanori-san

0.0

Tales of President Mito

0.0

Man of the World 2

0.0

No Advice Taken

0.0

Outlaw Under a Blue Canopy

0.0

The Bullet and the Horse

0.0

The Prickly Mouthed Geisha, Part 4

0.0

The Prickly Mouthed Geisha, Part 3

0.0

Eleven Gangsters

0.0

Brutal Tales of Chivalry 6

0.0

Contemporary Tales of Chivalry: The Traitor Shall Die

0.0

A Story from Abashiri Prison—Duel in Snow Storm

0.0

The Domain: Flower and Dragon

0.0

New Prison Walls of Abashiri: Snowbound Deserter

0.0

Song of Kagoshima

0.0

Yakuza of the Present

0.0

Beyond the Seasonal Wind

0.0

Third Generation Boss

0.0

Man of Thirteen Eyes

0.0

Mother Peacock

0.0

The Prickly-Mouthed Geisha Goes to Sado

0.0

Man of the World

0.0

The Happy Family

0.0

The Japan Derby Race

0.0

The Big Boss

0.0

Lullaby for a Tough Guy

0.0

Men in a Rough Town

0.0

Storm Party

0.0

Japan's Top Gangster

0.0

The Boss

0.0

Abashiri Prison: Duel in the South

0.0

Abashiri Prison: Duel in the Snow Country

0.0

Abashiri Prison: Duel in Hokkaido

0.0

New Prison Walls of Abashiri: High Stakes at Abashiri

0.0

Abashiri Prison: Challenge to the Evil

0.0

New Prison Walls of Abashiri: Stray Wolf in Snow

0.0

New Abashiri Prison Story: Honor and Humanity, Ammunition That Attracts the Storm

0.0

The Domain: Rising Dragon

0.0

Showdown of Men

0.0

Dagger

0.0

The Domain: Kanda Festival Showdown

0.0

The Domain: White Blade

0.0

The Domain: Duel at Thunder Gate

0.0

The Domain: Where The Blade Enters

0.0

The Domain: Severed Relations

0.0

Path of Japanese Chivalry: Story of All-Out Attack

0.0

To the Sea, See You

0.0

A Hoodlum At The Risk Of His Life

0.0

The Great Road

0.0

Hell's Juggler

0.0

Duel of the Underworld

0.0

Hell's Kitchen

0.0

Histories of the Chivalrous

0.0

The Chop Professor

0.0

The detective whose path was crossed by a snake

0.0

Meteor Karate Strike

0.0

A Man's Dark Finger

0.0

Older brother

0.0

An Elegy of Tyrole

0.0

Korekara: Umibe no Tabibitotachi

0.0