Acting
Takao Kataoka
Born March 14, 1944 · Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, Japan (age 82)
No biography available.
Known For
The Wicked · 1980The Wicked
★ 6.71980
MovieCrimeDrama
A selfish playboy uses rich women to pay off his debts. Divorcing his wife and marrying the woman he loves throws him into a spiral of destruction.
Sure Death · 1984Sure Death
★ 6.51984
MovieDramaCrime
A group of seemingly ordinary merchants is really a band of assassins for hire. When they discover that all the assassins in Edo are being killed they must act quickly to find the culprit.
Kabuki Actor Kataoka Nizaemon · 1992Kabuki Actor Kataoka Nizaemon
★ 8.01992
MovieDocumentary
Documentary film from Japan.
The Last Ronin · 2010The Last Ronin
★ 6.62010
MovieDramaHistory
16 years after the fateful "revenge of the Forty-seven Ronin," involving samurais from the Ako domain who avenged their leader and then commited seppuku (ritual suicide), the sole survivor of that incident, Kichiemon Terasaka (Koichi Sato) traverses the country on a mission. His purpose is to find the families of the fallen samurais and spread the truth of the ronin uprising.
The Three Undelivered Letters · 1979The Three Undelivered Letters
★ 6.01979
MovieDramaMystery
A young Japanese-American man arrives at his grandmother's old hometown in Yamaguchi, begins to stay at her family's elite but dysfunctional household, and gets entangled in a sinister plot of murder.
Beauty · 2008Beauty
2008
MovieDrama
Set in a small Nagano village in the 1930s, the film follows Hanji, a young boy captivated by a local kabuki performance. Inspired by Yukio, Hanji learns kabuki with Utako. As they grow, they become skilled actors, performing in a final kabuki before World War II. After the war, Hanji returns to revive kabuki and restore the community’s spirit. In the 1980s, as he nears death, the villagers organise a final performance in his honour, where he performs “Tenryu Koishibuki” for Yukio.
Ningyo Sashichi: The Cat’s Golden Claws of Death · 1984Ningyo Sashichi: The Cat’s Golden Claws of Death
1984
MovieActionDrama
Sashichi is a dapper and handsome man. He is called a doll Sashichi because he is "a nice man like a doll." On top of that, he is a considerable young boss. This is a story in that Kanda solves the murder spree in Edo where a famous boss of Otamaga pond, Sashichi lives in.
The Loyal 47 Ronin · 1932The Loyal 47 Ronin
1932
MovieDrama
This 1932 adaptation is the earliest sound version of the ever-popular and much-filmed Chushingura story of the loyal 47 retainers who avenged their feudal lord after he was obliged to commit hara-kiri due to the machinations of a villainous courtier. As the first sound version of the classic narrative, the film was something of an event, and employed a stellar cast, who give a roster of memorable performances. Director Teinosuke Kinugasa was primarily a specialist in jidai-geki (period films), such as the internationally celebrated Gate of Hell (Jigokumon, 1953), and although he is now most famous as the maker of the avant-garde silent films A Page of Madness (Kurutta ichipeji, 1926) and Crossroads (Jujiro, 1928), Chushingura is in fact more typical of his output than those experimental works. The film ranked third in that year’s Kinema Junpo critics’ poll, and Joseph Anderson and Donald Richie noted that 'not only the sound but the quick cutting was admired by many critics.







