Ken Ogata Movies

A retired school principal estranged from his grown daughter and still grieving the recent death of his alcoholic wife finds new meaning in life by protecting a young girl whose careless mother leaves her open to the repulsively salacious advances of her abusive lover in director Eiji Okuda's tender road movie. His wife gone and his daughter still bitter about his poor parenting skills, recent retiree Matsutaro Yasuda (Ken Ogata) retreats to a crumbling apartment building in the Japanese countryside. Upon witnessing the neglect with which his new, loose living neighbor Mayumi (Saki Takaoka) treats her five year-old daughter Sachi (Hana Sugiura), Matsutaro determines to protect the innocent child at all costs. When Mayumi's violent boyfriend Koji (Tomokazu Ohashi) attempts to have his way with the frightened girl one night, stealthy Matsutaro knocks the pervert unconscious and spirits the young girl away to safety. Later, as aimless Japanese boy Wataru (Shota Matsuda) joins the pair on their curious journey, seasoned Detective Iwai (Eiji Okuda) vows to reunite mother and daughter even if it means bending the rules of standard police procedure. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

An aging man in a dying town tries to sort out the loose ends of his life, with tragic results, in this drama. Nobuo (Ken Ogata) is an elderly man living in a remote village on the Japanese island of Hokkaido, known for its punishing winters. While the community was once prosperous thanks to the fishing trade, the harbors no longer yield many fish, and as a result the village has fallen on hard times. Nobuo once earned his living making sake, but most of his customers have moved away, and since the death of his wife, he's stopped working and spends his days walking the wind-swept streets of his town. Nobuo has two sons -- Ryoichi (Teruyuki Kagawa), who has struggled unsuccessfully in the city to make a career as a musician, and Yasu (Yasufumi Hayashi), who watches over his ailing father, much to the consternation of his girlfriend Keiko (Fusako Urabe), who wants to move to a city with better prospects. One of Nobuo's few pleasures in life is visiting a salmon breeding pond, where he likes to talk with Michiko (Sayoko Ishii), an attractive young woman whom Nobuo likes to imagine is infatuated with him. Nobuo tries to bring his two sons together for a family reunion, but both siblings have more than their share of bitterness over the hand life has dealt them, and before the evening is over everyone reveals their secrets. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Hiromitsu Yamanaka debuts with this deft, witty comedy about an old man and his unprofitable passion for the racetrack that recalls the comic elegance of a Charlie Chaplin movie. Opening with a shot of crumpled betting cards, the film focuses on 66-year old Kikujiro (Ken Ogata) and fellow loser and amateur criminal Kawasaki (Yosuke Eguchi). After another day of losing at the track, Kikujiro rashly hurls all of his belongings out of his apartment window. Later, when he happens upon an advertisement for female companionship in a telephone booth (common in parts of Japan), the deeply lonely Kikujiro calls the prostitute, Hitomi (Mami Shimizu), only to discover that her asking price is 600,000 yen. With Kawasaki's help, Kikujiro hatches a plan to kidnap prize race horse Shooting Star and demand a 600,000 yen ransom. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Following up on his 1995 violent crime-thriller Gonin, Tadashi Ishii adds sex into two-fisted mix of action and bloodlust: instead of a quintet of disenfranchised guys, this go-around features five very angry women. Small factory owner Masamichi Toyama (Ken Ogata) is deeply in debt to the local yakuza. One night, while returning from buying his wife a birthday present, he comes home to find the mobsters demanding payment. They rape his wife and beat him as a warning. The incident drives his wife over the edge: she frantically starts looking for the lost birthday present and then that night hangs herself. Like in the first movie, Toyama sets out to strike bloody revenge against the yakuza office. Meanwhile, the film catches up with four women in similarly desperate straits: Ran (Kimiko Yo), an out of work former owner of a fitness club; Sayuri (Shinobu Otake), an aging hooker with few prospects; Shiho, a housewife who just discovered her husband in mid-philander; and Saki, a low-rung corporate drone who is still traumatized by memories of a childhood rape. The four find themselves in the midst of a daylight robbery of a high-end jewelry store. While the ski-masked thieves busy themselves with grabbing as much loot as possible, the office worker zaps one with a tazer while the housewife bashes another on the head. Chaos breaks out and soon the four, along with a store saleswoman (Mai Kitajima), are fleeing place with jewels in hand. Having laid waste to the Mob lair and still brandishing a bloodied weapon, Toyama staggers to the store, looking to buy his dead wife the diamond ring she longed for, only to get swept up in the melee. Soon Toyama and the five women are fending off vengeful yakuza and enraged jewel thieves. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Kihachi Okamoto directs his 37th film with this sweet-natured satire about bungling cops and tax scams. The story opens with an 84-year-old widow and grandmother (Tanie Kitabayashi), who lives in a palatial estate in rural Wakayama prefecture, getting jumped by a trio of bumbling thugs (Toru Kazama, Katsuyoshi Uchida, and Hiroshi Nishikawa) and shoved into their waiting car. Instead of being afraid for her life, she is -- to the chagrin of her would-be captors -- having the time of her life. Soon the strong-willed granny takes command of her own kidnapping, offering the house of her former maid as a hideout and suggesting the amount of the ransom -- ten million yen. Soon the press gets wind of the crime and it soon balloons into a major media event, as the grandmother's four children fret and consult with the police. Ken Ogata also appears as the crime's lead detective and long-time friend of the grandmother. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Kumiko Goto and Toru Nakamura co-star in this sentimental tearjerker. Yumi is an academically and musically gifted junior high school girl who is dying of leukemia. Akira is a college student who hopes to someday become a teacher. Akira's mother talks her son into courting Yumi so she will know what love is before she dies. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This drama is based on the experiences of celebrated novelist Kazuo Dan. Kazuo Katsura (Ken Ogata) is a writer, with a wife and six children, who indulges in booze and extra-marital affairs. When he takes the flighty actress Keiko (Mieko Harada) as his mistress, Kazuo's long-suffering wife Yoriko (Ayumi Ishida) leaves him. The author must endure the situation he has set for himself as he suffers through arguments in between his sexual encounters. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Detective Seiji Otaki (Ken Ogata) is determined to find the psychopathic killer of a young woman who was ostensibly a student but in reality a high-priced prostitute. Even though he has been taken off the case for beating up a suspect, he refuses to let it go and recruits his mistress to act as a decoy for the killer. Her involvement turns out to be a fatal mistake, and when her husband gets out of prison, Detective Otaki is in worse trouble than ever. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In a melodrama with a familiar storyline, a young boy's life growing up in American-occupied Okinawa in the late 1950s is juxtaposed against his adult life as a worker in the film industry. The grown man would like to make a movie about his early life -- his family ran a brothel for American G.I.s -- but between his dreams and reality lie several tragedies, including death and suicide. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

A double disaster film with both an American and a Japanese cast, Virus presents some pretty wild probabilities to viewers. First of all, a virus has been developed that gets loose and starts to destroy humanity on a grand scale. The only people who are remotely safe are a group of eight hundred men and eight women on Antarctica. Since the President of the United States warns them by radio communications not to accept anyone into their area who has been contaminated, the men and women are somewhat prepared. That does not mean they are ready to handle the crew of a Russian submarine that seeks refuge with them. The second disaster is nuclear, and part of the suspense lies in whether or not it will be ultimately averted -- and who, if any, will survive all this. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide