Ken Watanabe

Acting

Ken Watanabe

Born October 21, 1959 · Uonuma, Niigata, Japan (age 66)

Ken Watanabe (born October 21, 1959) is a Japanese stage, film, and television actor. To English-speaking audiences he is known for playing tragic hero characters, such as General Tadamichi Kuribayashi in Letters from Iwo Jima and Lord Katsumoto Moritsugu in The Last Samurai, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Among other awards, he has won the Japan Academ…

Known For

InceptionInception · 2010
Inception
8.42010
MovieActionScience Fiction
Cobb, a skilled thief who commits corporate espionage by infiltrating the subconscious of his targets is offered a chance to regain his old life as payment for a task considered to be impossible: "inception", the implantation of another person's idea into a target's subconscious.
Batman BeginsBatman Begins · 2005
Batman Begins
7.72005
MovieDramaCrime
Driven by tragedy, billionaire Bruce Wayne dedicates his life to uncovering and defeating the corruption that plagues his home, Gotham City. Unable to work within the system, he instead creates a new identity, a symbol of fear for the criminal underworld - The Batman.
The CreatorThe Creator · 2023
The Creator
7.02023
MovieScience FictionAction
Amid a future war between the human race and the forces of artificial intelligence, a hardened ex-special forces agent grieving the disappearance of his wife, is recruited to hunt down and kill the Creator, the elusive architect of advanced AI who has developed a mysterious weapon with the power to end the war—and mankind itself.
The Last SamuraiThe Last Samurai · 2003
The Last Samurai
7.62003
MovieDramaAction
Nathan Algren is an American hired to instruct the Japanese army in the ways of modern warfare, which finds him learning to respect the samurai and the honorable principles that rule them. Pressed to destroy the samurai's way of life in the name of modernization and open trade, Algren decides to become an ultimate warrior himself and to fight for their right to exist.
Transformers: Age of ExtinctionTransformers: Age of Extinction · 2014
Transformers: Age of Extinction
6.02014
MovieScience FictionAction
As humanity picks up the pieces after the battle of Chicago, a shadowy group reveals itself in an attempt to control the direction of history…while an ancient, powerful new menace sets Earth in its crosshairs. With help from Cade Yeager, Optimus Prime and the Autobots rise to meet their most fearsome challenge yet.
Pokémon Detective PikachuPokémon Detective Pikachu · 2019
Pokémon Detective Pikachu
6.92019
MovieActionAdventure
In a world where people collect pocket-size monsters (Pokémon) to do battle, a boy comes across an intelligent monster who seeks to be a detective.
Godzilla: King of the MonstersGodzilla: King of the Monsters · 2019
Godzilla: King of the Monsters
6.72019
MovieScience FictionAction
Follows the heroic efforts of the crypto-zoological agency Monarch as its members face off against a battery of god-sized monsters, including the mighty Godzilla, who collides with Mothra, Rodan, and his ultimate nemesis, the three-headed King Ghidorah. When these ancient super-species, thought to be mere myths, rise again, they all vie for supremacy, leaving humanity's very existence hanging in the balance.
Transformers: The Last KnightTransformers: The Last Knight · 2017
Transformers: The Last Knight
6.12017
MovieActionAdventure
Humans and Transformers are at war. Optimus Prime is gone. The key to saving our future lies buried in the secrets of the past, in the hidden history of Transformers on Earth. Saving our world falls upon the shoulders of an unlikely alliance: Cade Yeager; Bumblebee; an English Lord; and an Oxford Professor.

Filmography

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Samurai VengeanceSamurai Vengeance · 2026
Samurai Vengeance
8.82026
MovieMysteryAction
In January 1810 in Edo, Kikunosuke, the 17-year-old-son of a murdered samurai, takes revenge on his father's murderer, Sakubai, who was his father's former retainer. Kikunosuke gloriously defeats the swaggering Sakubai in single combat in front of a theater, witnessed by a huge audience that had just finished watching a production of 47 Ronin. With Sakubai's severed head, Kikunosuke has achieved his revenge and ensured that his family won't be exiled. 18 months later, a ronin named Soichiro Kase from Kikunosuke's domain arrives at the theater. While he seems silly and smooth-talking, he's very keen on finding out more about the incident and Kikunosuke's time working at the theater. The theater's staff – the barker Ippachi, the swordsmanship teacher Sagara, the costumer Hotaru, the craftsman Kyuzo, and the playwright Kinji – are apprehensive and suspicious at his digging. However, not everything is as it seems.

Kinji Shinoda

SegodonSegodon · 2018
Segodon
8.32018
SeriesDramaWar & Politics
Saigo Takamori, the hero of the Meiji Restoration, was born to a poor, low-ranking samurai family in the Satsuma domain (present day Kagoshima Prefecture). His simple honesty caught the attention of its charismatic feudal lord of Satsuma, Shimazu Nariakira. Nariakira’s assertion that the love of people is what will enrich and strengthen the nation captivated Saigo who took on Nariakira’s secret mission and eventually became a key person for Satsuma. Not a portrait of him survives today and much of his life is a mystery. He is a man who was twice exiled and thrice married. He overthrew the Tokugawa Shogunate with exceptional bravery and action. Although he accomplished the restoration, he lost his life in a fight with the new Meiji government.

Shimazu Nariakira

Vessel of SandVessel of Sand · 2004
Vessel of Sand
4.02004
SeriesDrama
Eiryo Waga is well-known musician who has begun a rapid climb to stardom, but he must keep his terrible past a secret. One day someone who knows all about his past confronts him, and Waga kills him in order to protect the fame he has obtained. Unfortunately, as Waga is leaving the scene, he runs into Asami, a budding stage actress. An investigation team is established led by two detectives, but they have difficulty making any headway. Meanwhile, by coincidence Waga bumps into Asami again. She also has her own dark past, and soon they fall in love. But Waga is already engaged to Ayaka whose father is responsible for his rapid ascent to the top of the music world. It looks like Waga’s ambitions are about to confront reality. Based on Seicho Matsumoto’s famous work that was released in 1960-61, this drama illustrates the life of a man burdened with a heavy fate in a contemporary setting.

Shuichiro Imanishi