Ken Ogata Movies
Lead actor, onscreen from the ,70s. ~ All Movie Guide
A gut-wrenching, violent psychological crime drama from start to finish, this award-winning film by noted Japanese director Shohei Imamura is based on a true story. Iwao Enokizu (Ken Ogata) is a murderous sociopath who kills two money lenders in a gory opening scene. Then flashbacks are interspersed with Enokizu's flight across Japan as his miserable childhood and the development of his malevolent, anti-social behavior are portrayed. Vicious and sexually aggressive, Enokizu's rage simmers during an earlier stay in prison as he imagines his wife is bedding down his father. Once on the run from the police, his aberrant sexual life and violent nature are further revealed in a series of gripping events. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ken Ogata, Rentaro Mikuni, (more)
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
- Starring:
- Ken Ogata, Shima Iwashita, (more)
- 1977
Set in 1901, this movie depicts the fate of two military training companies sent on war exercises to Mount Hakkoda in the northernmost part of the main island of Japan. They were preparing for maneuvers in the Russo-Japanese War, on the orders of Maj. General Tomoda, in terrain which they believed would be similar to those they would encounter during the war itself. They were asked to rendezvous somewhere on the mountain. The smaller group was headed by a man who scouted the local area and asked local people how best to survive the conditions they would encounter. This group also asked for local guides. They survived quite handily, but could not complete their mission because the larger group, which trusted their modern procedures and military training and spurned the locals' offers of guidance, was lost -- frozen, on the mountain. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shogo Shimada, Ken Takakura, (more)
- 1970
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
- 1969
An aging master swordsman becomes the advisor of a powerful 16th-century warlord. Trouble erupts when the proud leader refuses to listen to his wise samurai's advice to work for a united Japan. More problems arise when the fighter and lord fall in love with the same woman. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1969
In this Japanese melodrama, set during WW II, a student falls for a naval officer's widow. Unfortunately, the widow is devoted to her husband's memory. The determined student then joins the navel academy. There he discovers that his beloved is marrying her husbands best friend. Unfortunately, he has been assigned to a Kamikaze unit. The war ends, and the young man later tells the woman that her second husband was made a Kamikaze because he married her. The despondent woman then kills herself. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
