Foto di Ken Takakura
Recitazione

Ken Takakura

Professione
Recitazione
Nascita
16 febbraio 1931 · Nakama, Fukuoka, Japan
Morte
10 novembre 2014

Biografia

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.

Noto per

Locandina di Black Rain - Pioggia sporca
Black Rain - Pioggia sporca
Film · 1989 · ★ 6,6
Locandina di Yakuza
Yakuza
Film · 1974 · ★ 7,1
Locandina di Campione per forza - Mr. Basebal
Campione per forza - Mr. Basebal
Film · 1992 · ★ 5,8
Locandina di Mille miglia... lontano
Mille miglia... lontano
Film · 2005 · ★ 7,1
Locandina di Non è più tempo d'eroi
Non è più tempo d'eroi
Film · 1970 · ★ 6,4
Locandina di 新幹線大爆破
新幹線大爆破
Film · 1975 · ★ 6,9
Locandina di Antarctica
Antarctica
Film · 1983 · ★ 7,2
Locandina di Lo stretto della fame
Lo stretto della fame
Film · 1965 · ★ 7,3
Locandina di 鉄道員
鉄道員
Film · 1999 · ★ 7,0
Locandina di The Yellow Handkerchief
The Yellow Handkerchief
Film · 1977 · ★ 7,0
Locandina di A Distant Cry from Spring
A Distant Cry from Spring
Film · 1980 · ★ 7,4
Locandina di 四十七人の刺客
四十七人の刺客
Film · 1994 · ★ 7,4

Filmografia