Ken Ogata Movies

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

Junya Sato directs this historical epic about an Japanese sailor shipwrecked in Russia. Set during the Edo period (1600-1868, an era of great international isolation when going abroad was an offense punishable by death), the film centers on ship captain Daikokuya Kodayu (Ken Ogata), who, while transporting a load of rice from Ise to Edo (pre-modern Tokyo), gets blown off course. Nine months later, he and his ragged crew land on Kamchatka Peninsula. There they brave Siberian winters, and Russia's labyrinthine bureaucracy. Along the way, Kodayu learns Russian and befriends a local scholar (Oleg Yankovskii), who accompanies him on his exhausting journey across the tundra to St. Petersburg where he meets Catherine the Great. Ten years later, when he returns to Japan, he is immediately jailed. Will the hero be put to death? ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

The boy who is the Shogun's Shadow, or heir, is in considerable danger. Personal bodyguard Igo Gyobu (Ken Igata), accompanied by seven samurai, is sent to bring him to safety. They cross deserts, swim through roaring rivers, and climb snow covered mountains, all with hostile armies in pursuit. This grand-scale action follows the outlines of a classic tall-tale. All sense of disbelief is happily suspended in order to provide maximum excitement. Director Yasuo Furuhata even stages one battle to the accompaniment of throbbing rock music. Martial arts legend Sonny Chiba) choreographed the exuberant fight scenes. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The award-winning director of such esteemed films as Black Rain and The Ballad of Narayama has chosen here to tell the decidedly dicey true tale of Iheiji Muraoka, also known as Zegen, the man who became the most powerful pimp in modern Japanese history, a man who could honestly regard himself as "The Boss of the South Seas." At the time, between the World Wars, Japan was involved in empire-building throughout East and Southeast Asia. After a brief career as a low-level military adventurer, Iheiji (Ken Ogata) decided to set up chains of brothels throughout Asia. As Japan's power in the region grew, so did his prosperity, as the man is quite literally surrounded by sex of all kinds, much of it shown onscreen. Interestingly enough, this engaging rogue was convinced that his entrepreneurship was not only personally rewarding, but was his way of doing his patriotic best to advance his country's global ambitions. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this drama, Fusajiro (Ken Ogata) is a tuna fisherman who lives alone with his grown daughter Tokiko (Masako Natsume), his wife having left him when Tokiko was still a baby. Now the young woman has fallen in love with Shunichi (Koichi Sato), who would like to learn how to fish tuna for his living. While her father is not thrilled at the prospect of teaching Shunichi how to fish for tuna, he does take him out a few times. On their second outing, the young man is nearly killed in an accident and Fusajiro seems oddly reluctant to save him, but he does. Eventually, the young couple marry and go away to live in another town. Left alone for the first time, Fusajiro goes looking for his estranged wife. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, 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

Eijanaika is a dramatization of a brief but critical moment in Japanese history when Japan emerges from two centuries of isolationism in the 1860s. This new regime proves more receptive to opening Japan up to trade from the West--particularly America. The story is told through the eyes of a Japanese peasant who has just spent several years in America after being shipwrecked. Director Shohei Imamura, who has explored the "westernization" of Japan in other films, points out the corrupting influence that occidental intervention has had on his country's centuries-old traditions. For those familiar with this story only from the American point of view, Eijanaika will be a genuine eye-opener. The film's running time varies from 127 to 151 minutes; the longer version is currently available on videocassette. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Consumed by the jealousy and power struggles of their own relationships, a man, his mistress and his wife involve three children in their own games-with tragic results. After Sokichi stops providing his mistress with monetary support, she leaves her three children with him, whom she insists are also his, and disappears. Sokichi is bewildered and his wife is livid so with regard only for their own discomfort, they go about remedying their situation. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide

This Japanese biopic chronicles reminiscences of renowned poet Hideo Yoshino as he speaks to the young Swedish student who interviews him. The story jumps from present to past as he speaks of his marriage to Yachigusa, the woman who inspired his best poetry. Following her death, Yoshino forgoes his art and concentrates on raising his children. Later he marries his housemaid and causes a major rift between his daughter and himself. His two sons begin to reject him, not because of his marriage, but because they hate living in his distinguished shadow. The film jumps to the present, and just before the old poet dies, he and one son reconcile. The poet is then inspired to write one more before he finally expires. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide