Koji Yakusho Movies
Koji Yakusho is one of Japan's most gifted and popular leading men. Whether playing a befuddled white-collar worker struggling to master the two-step or a burned-out police detective trying to unlock a series of bizarre murders, Yakusho's combination of handsome "everyman" looks and natural screen presence make him the actor of choice for many of Japan's leading directors, including Juzo Itami, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, and Shohei Imamura.Born Koji Hashimoto, Yakusho graduated from a technical high school in Nagasaki and got a job as a civil servant in the Chiyoda ward of Tokyo. In 1976, he became obsessed with theater after his friend gave him a ticket to see Donzoko by Maxim Gorky. His first big break was being chosen out of 800 applicants to study at the Mumei-juku (Studio for Unknown Performers) run by noted actor and '60s icon Tatsuya Nakadai. Because of his experience as a civil servant, Nakadai gave him the stage name Yakusho, which can mean either "municipal office" or "acting versatility." In 1983, he got a major role as feudal warrior Oda Nobunaga in a TV miniseries about the life of the first Shogun, Ieyasu Tokugawa. Later, he played the Man in the White Suit, who gleefully transgresses all social norms involving food and sex in some of the most memorable scenes of Juzo Itami's Tampopo (1986).
For much of the '80s and early '90s, Yakusho appeared in a handful of films, along with a number of television shows, until he landed the lead in Shall We Dance? (1996), in which his awkward missteps on the dance floor and shy attempts at getting to know the object of his affection seemed to embody the typical Tokyo office worker. His performance clearly struck a chord with audiences, as it was the biggest film of the year in Japan and one of the highest-grossing Japanese movies abroad. In 1997, he solidified his standing as a leading man in three of that year's most popular and talked-about films. As Yamashita in Shohei Imamura's prize-winning Unagi, Yakusho delivered a masterfully deadpan performance as an ex-con trying to reconstruct his life after murdering his wife. In Yoshimitsu Morita's popular Shitsurakuen, the second-highest grossing film of the year after the record-breaking Mononoke Hime (1997), Yakusho played a middle-aged editor who falls into a passionate, self-destructive relationship with a married woman. Finally, in cult favorite Cure, directed by maverick auteur Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Yakusho brilliantly played a cop pushed to the edge of the abyss by his search for a string of seemingly unconnected murders. Since then, Yakusho has teamed up with Kurosawa for License to Live (1998) and Charisma (1999). ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
Veteran filmmaker and perennial iconoclast Shohei Imamura directs this darkly comic tale about love, redemption, and a man's beloved pet eel. The film opens with Takuro Yamashita (Koji Yakusho), a seemingly normal salaryman, learning that his wife might be having an affair. When he catches the couple in flaganto delicto, he freaks out and brutally stabs them both to death. Eight years later, Yamashita is released on parole into the care of a Buddhist priest living in rural Chiba prefecture. Far away from his former life, yet still plagued with memories of his crime, Yamashita decides to start anew by opening a barbershop on a quiet road next to a canal. Though inward looking and self-conscious, he eventually befriends a bumptious but good-hearted day laborer, and a construction worker who's obsessed with UFOs. His most fateful encounter though is with a woman named Keiko (Misa Shimizu), who he discovers unconscious following a suicide attempt. Looking to put a few of her own demons to bed, Keiko decides to stay in this sleepy corner of Japan and help her savior with his barbershop. Initially against the idea -- she bears a striking resemblance to his dead spouse -- he eventually agrees and even grows to like having her around. This film won the Grand Prix at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Koji Yakusho, Misa Shimizu, (more)
- 1996
Kohei Oguri directs this sumptuously photographed free-formed tale about a beautiful corner of Japan. Consisting of a number of enigmatic, interwoven story lines, the film's title comes from Takuji (Ahn Sung-ki), who returns to his rural hometown after journeying about the world. After an accident in the mountain where he used to play as a child, he falls into an impenetrable slumber from which he cannot awake. Other tales include: a young lad listens to folklore spun by an old man who manages a water wheel; a foreign barkeep named Tia (Christine Hakim), who harbors a mysterious past; and Takuji's childhood friend (Koji Yakusho), who tells stories of the sleeping man's past. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ahn Sung-ki, Christine Hakim, (more)
Masato Harada tackles the racism experienced by South American-born, ethnically Japanese returnees in this two-fisted crime drama and road movie. The film centers on Tatsuo (Kazuya Takahashi) -- a low-level, short-tempered gangster moving up in the pimping business. Yet, when he sends out his one and only hooker (Reiko Kataoka) to service a wizened politician, she returns beaten, battered, and bruised. When Tatsuo's girlfriend complains, she is killed by crime boss Animaru (Mickey Curtis) as Tatsuo is forced to look on. Seeking revenge, he and his posse trash the politician's house and swipe a stack of yen. In retaliation, Tatsuo's own bosses put a hit out on them. After a bloody shoot out in a forest, the protagonist is the only one to emerge alive. He hails a cab with the aim of making a suicide run at the gang's HQ, but the cabbie proves to be a Peruvian returnee (Koji Yakusho), who speaks in a strange accent and can't read a Japanese map. Though at first the driver seems wide-eyed and innocent, he reveals an inner strength in chaotic situations. Soon the two seem less like a passenger and driver and more like two allies in the same beleaguered army. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
Reminiscent of the Australian hit Strictly Ballroom (1992), this romantic comedy from Japan was a hit in its country of origin, despite (or perhaps because of) its tacit criticisms of the restrictive aspects of Japanese culture. Shohei Sugiyama (Koji Yakusho) is a typically strait-laced Japanese businessmen who, passing by in his commuter train one day, glimpses a beautiful young woman, Mai (real-life ballerina Tamiyo Kusakari) through the window of a dance school. Obsessed with her, Shohei enrolls in the school and meets instructor Mai, who at first mistakes Shohei for a philanderer. To her surprise, however, Shohei is a naturally gifted dancer interested in an artistic partnership only, and Mai begins training with him for a competition. Meanwhile, Shohei becomes familiar with his eccentric fellow students, including one person that Shohei already knows, a co-worker (Akira Emoto) who blooms in the dance sessions as a bewigged master of rumba. As dancing is frowned upon in Japan as a frivolous enterprise for a respectable businessman, Shohei keeps his sideline hobby secret, leading his wife to believe that he's being unfaithful and to hire a private investigator to follow him. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Koji Yakusho, Tamiyo Kusakari, (more)
The sophomore directorial effort from ill-fated Japanese filmmaker Juzo Itami, Tampopo is an off-beat comedy featuring several intersecting stories all related to food. Tsutomu Yamazaki plays Goro, a truck driver who helps a young widow named Tampopo (Nobuko Miyamoto) improve her noodle restaurant. Over the course of the film, the story drifts around, not only following the stories of Tampopo, her son, and Goro, but also a number of customers who come through the diner, including an old woman (Izumi Hara) who insists on squeezing the cheese at a market and a criminal (Ken Watanabe) with a food-based kink. Tampopo was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the 1988 Independent Spirit Awards. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ken Watanabe, Nobuko Miyamoto, (more)
