Ken Takakura Trailers
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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.
Most Popular Ken Takakura Trailers
Total trailers found: 185
22 December 2005
Takada, a Japanese fisherman has been estranged from his son for many years, but when the son is diagnosed with terminal cancer his daughter-in-law, Rie, summons him to the hospital.
20 May 1970
A WWII film set on a Pacific island. Japanese and allied forces occupy different parts of the island.
05 June 1999
A railway stationmaster at a dying end-of-the-line village in Hokkaido is haunted by memories of his dead wife and daughter.
18 April 1965
Abashiri Prison is located in the coldest place in Japan. Two men, handcuffed together have escaped from the prison, one a yakuza, the other a petty criminal, and although they hate each other they must work together if they are to evade capture in this harshest of climates.
20 October 1963
A modern gang version of Chushingura, chronicling almost scene for scene the Brave 47 Ronin story, transposed from the Genroku Period to the Showa Era.
17 June 1978
Kanno is a Yakuza. He had to kill Matsuoka who betrayed their boss. Kanno knew Matsuoka had a 3-year-old daughter named Youko.
04 September 1965
The fifth and final installment with the build up of the epic battle between Sasaki Kojiro and Miyamoto Musashi.
15 September 1967
The Domain: Where The Blade Enters
30 May 1967
Ryoma is a former military man who gets to know the leader of a yakuza group and begins to work with them, helping them defend themselves against other yakuza gangs.
07 February 1962
A geisha helps a runaway who looks just like her.
03 November 1989
Based on a celebrated book by Kuniko Mukoda, this film directed by Yasuo Furuhata tells of a close friendship undone by love.
09 September 1962
A touching drama about a love triangle between a young architect, Koroku, and two women, Ranko and Teruko.
16 October 1982
After a passenger ship sinks in 1954, Go Akutsu devises a life-saving project in the form of a tunnel under the Tsugaru Strait.
18 April 1968
Rival gangs fight over ownership of bicycle race track.
14 August 1963
In the third installment of Yoshikawa's novel Musashi, things continue from the 2nd film at the end of battle, where Miyamoto continues on a mission of learning; with the introduction of his arch-rival Sasaki Kojiro; and lastly the large cast of characters rendezvouses for a fateful finale.
30 December 1972
The ninth and final film in the Contemporary Tales of Chivalry series.
05 April 1964
Assassin Nanjo goes on a solitary mission to take revenge on the man who trapped him into a complicated drug deal.
28 January 1959
An action-packed, dramatic gangster film.
05 July 1975
A Japanese bullet train is threatened with a bomb that will explode automatically if the train slows below 80 km/h, unless a ransom is paid.
16 March 1963
After eloping with a prostitute named Otoyo, Hishakaku takes refuge in the Kogane family’s turf. Indebted to Boss Kogane for his kindness, Hishakaku swears to dedicate himself to protect the Koganes in time of crisis.
15 December 1957
The first batch of flight control officer candidates, full of yearning for the sky, are assembled at the 101st Air Regiment base.
08 July 1967
Fierce war breaks out when Shujiro’s rival clan attempts to sabotage his lucrative construction business.
23 November 1968
Shinkichi, a peasant employed as a cloth-dyer, has a dream: in the midst of the civil war which ravages Japan, he hopes to revive the long-banned custom of the Kyoto Gion Festival, and by doing so, bring together the warring clans and rampaging brigands in peaceful celebration.
28 August 1957
Hayata and his best friend Ushijima came to Tokyo to become champions. Hayata repeatedly sought to join Tamura's boxing club, but Tamura fell in love with Ushijima's punch.
01 October 1965
After World War II, their town was a pile of rubble. Gennosuke, the second generation boss of the Kamizu Group was upholding yakuza chivalry by keeping black-market and illegal items out of their open-air market.
04 April 1962
Mr. Mito, a former president of an instant food company, with two young men’s help, solves the quality problems and wins a big ramen contract with a large Chinese company.
31 July 1969
Popular geisha Shinji (Fuji Junko) must defy a gang who plot to steal a lucrative coal business from struggling miners during the turbulent Meiji Era.
14 August 1970
Prisoner Katsuji must fend for himself and his prison mates in the fierce battle involving a family feud.
13 August 1971
Former inmate Katsuji gets involved in the horse gambling business while lending a helping hand to a ranch operator.
06 March 1969
Hidejuro is sent to prison after killing the boss of a rival family. After being released, he discovers that his family has scattered and he is taken in by a company of quarry workers, whose boss has a strict code of non-violence.
13 January 1966
Hidejiro is a wandering yakuza with a ‘karashi botan’ (Chinese lion and peony) tattoo. Owing a favor to the Soda Family, he kills the boss of the rival Sakaki Family.
09 July 1966
The karashi Botan returns in the third chapter of the incredible Showa Zankoden series. This time legendary actor Ken Takakura plays Takei Shigejiro of the Shimazu family.
03 February 1966
The Domain: Kanda Festival Showdown
28 January 1967
The Domain: White Blade
22 September 1989
Two New York cops get involved in a gang war between members of the Yakuza, the Japanese Mafia. They arrest one of their killers and are ordered to escort him back to Japan.
17 April 1982
A martial arts master/detective investigates a series of murders and helps a deaf bathhouse attendant, Hisako.
22 October 1961
Daughter of a lumber shop in Edo strives to protect her family business from the competitor.
01 March 1960
Young geisha Kohana scrambles to realize her dream of bringing back her grandmother’s restaurant business.
06 August 1958
A friendly rivalry turns into romance for Yukiko, an elite female detective, and a handsome private eye named Mitamura while both are investigating the missing person's case from a wealthy family.
10 April 1969
The industrual revolution comes to Japan with the introduction of the railroad system. This led to clashes between boatmen, who livihoods are threatened, and the railroad construction workers.
12 August 1965
Third part of Nihon Kyokakuden series is set in Kanto in 1924. Ken Takakura playing a ship's mate befriending fish shop owners harassed by yakuza.
15 March 1960
One of the earliest of sukeban / girl boss type eiga
06 March 1971
When the aging leader of the yakuza gang Maeda-gumi decides to retire, many of the gang members have no confidence in the young man he has chosen to replace him.
09 January 1970
An exciting tale of action on the distant northern island of Hokkaido around the beginning of the 20th Century starring two of the biggest names in Yakuza film history, Fuji Junko and Takakura Ken.
10 September 1958
Sayuri, a young woman born to a simple life on a farm, moves to Tokyo to pursue a life long dream of becoming a singer.
25 October 1968
With his penultimate film, Uchida revisited one of his popular prewar titles, 1936’s Theatre of Life, an adaptation of Shiro Ozaki’s eponymous novel.
09 October 1974
Two inmates are simultaneously released from jail, but go their separate ways, only to cross paths again in the nearest brothel.
29 October 1970
With World War II is coming to its end and Japan nearing defeat, Japanese military leaders step up suicide attacks on Allied ships.
10 August 1974
Based on Kazuo Taoka's autobiography, this film follows a Kobe gangster as he builds the small Yamaguchi-gumi into Japan's largest criminal clan.
22 February 1968
The Domain: Severed Relations
01 August 1968
A Kansai gang is up to conquer the whole country under the mask of a patriotic group. However after an assassination their henchmen will struggle to avenge the death of their master.
05 December 1956
Japanese drama film.
10 May 1960
Sheriff Goro goes undercover to investigate drug smugglers.
