He made a lot of movies but I really know him from Ridley Scott's Black Rain, he made it a much better movie than it was with his solid performance, a ethical rock against Michael Douglas loose cop.
And so utterly wonderful - a brilliant performance - in the excellent The Yakuza. He's not an actor I know well ... but he helped make this one of my favourite films.
There was something really touching in the way he ate noodles with Douglas in Black Rain, and he gently counseled him, like a kind father figure, even though they were pretty much complete strangers. What a great actor he was.
great pics neo. Thats what im talking about! That bristling body language and movement. He tried so hard to be loyal to the code but once activated, the guy was a supreme killing machine. The sword fighting and stalking inside the confines of the clan house is second to none.
Great film, great score, and spot-on performances, especially by Takakura and Mitchum. The latter gave off "I don't give a damn" vibes in interviews, but Mitch owned that role in Sydney's unheralded masterwork.
I know Takakura mostly from Black Rain and Yakuza, but I am familiar with his work in Japanese crime films.
Here's something I remember from Marvel Deadly Hands Of Kung Fu magazines. A really nice piece of Takakura and Robert Mitchum from The Yakuza by Terry Austin, from 1975.
He made a lot of movies but I really know him from Ridley Scott's Black Rain, he made it a much better movie than it was with his solid performance, a ethical rock against Michael Douglas loose cop.
