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1-50 of 3,411
- Actor
- Producer
- Music Department
Hiroyuki Sanada was born on October 12, 1960 in Tokyo. He made his film debut when he was 5 in Rokyoku komori-uta (1965) (Shin'ichi Chiba played the lead role.) His father died when he was 11. He joined Japan Action Club, organized & run by Sonny Chiba, when he was 12. He 1st became famous as an action star for his role in Yagyu Clan Conspiracy (1978) but is now known as one of the most talented actors in Japan. From 1999-2000, he played the fool in an English-language production of "King Lear" w/ members of the Royal Shakespeare Co as the 1st Japanese actor to act w/ the RSC. He received an honorary MBE (Member of the British Empire) for this work. He & Satomi Tezuka split after 7 years in 1997.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Sonoya Mizuno's a Japanese-born English actress, model & ballet dancer. She was born on July 1, 1986 in Tokyo, Japan. She graduated from the Royal Ballet School.
She has starred in Ex Machina (2014), Annihilation (2018) & Devs (2020). She had minor roles in La La Land (2016), Beauty and the Beast (2017) & Crazy Rich Asians (2018). She also starred in Maniac (2018) & is set to appear in House of the Dragon (2022).- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Samaire Rhys Armstrong is an American actress and fashion designer. She is known for her roles in Stay Alive, The O.C., It's a Boy Girl Thing, and as Juliet Darling in the ABC television series, Dirty Sexy Money. She has appeared on television as Elaine Richards in the ABC fantasy-drama Resurrection. She has also appeared in music videos for "Penny & Me" by Hanson and "Bad Day" by Daniel Powter.- Animation Department
- Writer
- Art Department
Hayao Miyazaki is one of Japan's greatest animation directors. The entertaining plots, compelling characters, and breathtaking visuals in his films have earned him international renown from critics as well as public recognition within Japan.
Miyazaki started his career in 1963 as an animator at the studio Toei Douga studio, and was subsequently involved in many early classics of Japanese animation. From the beginning, he commanded attention with his incredible drawing ability and the seemingly endless stream of movie ideas he proposed.
In 1971, he moved to the A Pro studio with Isao Takahata. In 1973, he moved to Nippon Animation, where he was heavily involved in the World Masterpiece Theater TV animation series for the next 5 years. In 1978, he directed his first TV series, Future Boy Conan (1978). Then, he moved to Tokyo Movie Shinsha in 1979 to direct his first movie, the classic Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro (1979). In 1984, he released Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984), which was based on the manga of the same title he had started 2 years before. The success of the film led to the establishment of a new animation studio, Studio Ghibli. Since then, he has since directed, written, and produced many other films with Takahata. More recently, he has produced with Toshio Suzuki. All enjoyed critical and box office success, in particular Princess Mononoke (1997). It received the Japanese equivalent of the Academy Award for Best Film and was the highest-grossing (about USD $150 million) domestic film in Japan's history at the time of its release.
In addition to animation, he also draws manga. His major work was Nausicaä, an epic tale he worked on intermittently from 1982 to 1984 while he was busy making animated films. Another manga Hikotei Jidai, later evolved into Porco Rosso (1992).- Writer
- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
After training as a painter (he storyboards his films as full-scale paintings), Kurosawa entered the film industry in 1936 as an assistant director, eventually making his directorial debut with Sanshiro Sugata (1943). Within a few years, Kurosawa had achieved sufficient stature to allow him greater creative freedom. Drunken Angel (1948) was the first film he made without extensive studio interference, and marked his first collaboration with Toshirô Mifune. In the coming decades, the two would make 16 movies together, and Mifune became as closely associated with Kurosawa's films as was John Wayne with the films of Kurosawa's idol, John Ford. After working in a wide range of genres, Kurosawa made his international breakthrough film Rashomon (1950) in 1950. It won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival, and first revealed the richness of Japanese cinema to the West. The next few years saw the low-key, touching Ikiru (1952) (Living), the epic Seven Samurai (1954), the barbaric, riveting Shakespeare adaptation Throne of Blood (1957), and a fun pair of samurai comedies Yojimbo (1961) and Sanjuro (1962). After a lean period in the late 1960s and early 1970s, though, Kurosawa attempted suicide. He survived, and made a small, personal, low-budget picture with Dodes'ka-den (1970), a larger-scale Russian co-production Dersu Uzala (1975) and, with the help of admirers Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas, the samurai tale Kagemusha: The Shadow Warrior (1980), which Kurosawa described as a dry run for Ran (1985), an epic adaptation of Shakespeare's "King Lear." He continued to work into his eighties with the more personal Dreams (1990), Rhapsody in August (1991) and Madadayo (1993). Kurosawa's films have always been more popular in the West than in his native Japan, where critics have viewed his adaptations of Western genres and authors (William Shakespeare, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Maxim Gorky and Evan Hunter) with suspicion - but he's revered by American and European film-makers, who remade Rashomon (1950) as The Outrage (1964), Seven Samurai (1954), as The Magnificent Seven (1960), Yojimbo (1961), as A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and The Hidden Fortress (1958), as Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977).- With parents in the show business perhaps it is not surprising that Ando Sakura would become an actress and, moreover, also end up marrying an actor. She was born to actor/director Okuda Eiji and celebrity Kazu Ando on 18.02.1986. Her great grandfather was prime minister Tsuyoshi. Her older sister is director Ando Momoko. She saw her father on stage at age five and decided to become an actress while in second grade. She was often ill as a child. Her disease made her dizzy, lose her balance and more throughout her childhood. Her brain would shut down. She would opt for her mother's maiden surname for her professional career. Sono Sion picked her for his film Love Exposure and gave her a major start on the big screen. She won an award as the Best Supporting Actress for her work in it at the 31st Yokohama Film Festival. Earlier her father cast her in his film Kaze No Sotogawa ('Outside The Wind') alongside her mother and sister. She has since appeared in multiple movies and serials and won several more awards. She married actor Emoto Tasuku in 2012. She had met him on a train in 2008 and had obtained her father's permission to date and marry. She was a boxer in 100 Yen Love, which was fortunate since she had practiced boxing when she was fourteen-years-old. She gave birth to her first child, a girl, in 2017. She won the award for Best Actress at the 42nd Japan Academy Prize for her work on 2018's Shoplifters. By then she was considered one of several top young actresses in Japan next to Yu Aoi, Miyazaki Aoi and perhaps Aso Kumiko. Interestingly, she had earlier decided to retire and focus on raising her child. She is a graduate of Gakushuin Women's College.
- Takehiro Hira is an internationally-renowned actor that passionately embodies all roles encompassing a wide scope of genres.
Takehiro will next be seen in Robert Schwentke's Snake Eyes, alongside Henry Golding, Andrew Koji and Úrusla Corberó. Takehiro will be seen as one of the villains in this G.I. Joe spin off. Paramount is slated to release the film on October 23, 2020.
Last year, Takehiro was seen starring in the Netflix/BBC series Giri/Haji, opposite Kelly Macdonald. The series follows Kenzo Mori (Hira), a detective from Tokyo who scours London for his missing brother, who's been involved with the Yakuza and accused of murder. The Guardian hailed Takehiro's performance as "bone deep" and NPR Fresh Air's John Powers acclaimed the series as "unlike anything else on TV."
Most notably, Takehiro was seen as the role of 'Kazu' in William Olsson drama thriller, Lost Girls and Love Hotels opposite Alexandria Daddario. The film followed Margaret (Daddario), a young Western woman in the midst of losing herself in the bacchanal of nighttime Tokyo. Haunted by memories of her twin brother's descent into madness, Margaret courts danger with her fellow ex-pat misfits in dive bars and love hotels. When she falls for Kazu (Hira), a handsome Japanese gangster, she has a chance at redemption.
Other film credits include Yûichi Hibi's Erica 38; Masato Harada's Criminal on the Prosecutor's Side and Sekigahara; Takashi Yamazaki's The Fighter Pilot; Yasuo Mikami's Bushido; Shinji Higuchi and Isshin Inudô's The Floating Castle; Takashi Miike's Lesson of Evil, Ace Attorney and Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai; as well as Hajime Hashimoto's Chacha.
Takehiro began his career in theater where he was discovered in Yukio Ninagawa's production of Hamlet at the Barbican in London. Other theatrical credits include on-stage work in Tokyo in the productions of Tamiya Kuriyama's Phaedra; Keiko Miyata's Pygmalion; Shintaro Mori's Harvest; and Mikijiro Hira's Othello. - Actor
- Soundtrack
Mackenyu was born in Los Angeles, November 16, 1996, and is the son of actor, producer, director, and martial artist Shin'ichi Chiba. Growing up in Los Angeles, he appeared in a few films and TV shows while he was in school and had many interests that included learning to ride horseback, Kyokushin Karate, gymnastics, water polo, and wrestling as well as interest in music that led him to learn piano at age ten and later learning to play saxophone and flute.
Mackenyu rose to fame as an actor after landing the role of Wataya Arata in the Chihayafuru trilogy (2016) that earned him the 40th Annual Japan Academy Newcomer of the Year Award in 2017. His fame grew dramatically after his supporting role as Cadet Ryoichi in the feature Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018) and his lead role in the racing action movie Over Drive (2018). Mackenyu was cast as the villain, Enishi Yukishiro, in the blockbuster Rurouni Kenshin: Final Chapter (2021) and then as Scar in Fullmetal Alchemist: The Revenge Of Scar and Fullmetal Alchemist: Final Transmutation (2022).
In 2021, Mackenyu was cast as Roronoa Zoro in the Netflix live action series adaptation of One Piece (2023), and as the lead, Seiya, in the feature Knights of the Zodiac (2023). Mackenyu also stars in two Disney+ projects in 2023, the original live action/ anime mixed feature, Dragons of Wonderhatch and the drama series, House Of The Owl.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Olivia Mary de Havilland was born on July 1, 1916 in Tokyo, Japan to British parents, Lilian Augusta (Ruse), a former actress, and Walter Augustus de Havilland, an English professor and patent attorney. Her sister Joan, later to become famous as Joan Fontaine, was born the following year. Her surname comes from her paternal grandfather, whose family was from Guernsey in the Channel Islands. Her parents divorced when Olivia was just three years old, and she moved with her mother and sister to Saratoga, California.
After graduating from high school, where she fell prey to the acting bug, Olivia enrolled in Mills College in Oakland, where she participated in the school play "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and was spotted by Max Reinhardt. She so impressed Reinhardt that he picked her up for both his stage version and, later, the Warner Bros. film version in 1935. She again was so impressive that Warner executives signed her to a seven-year contract. No sooner had the ink dried on the contract than Olivia appeared in three more films: The Irish in Us (1935), Alibi Ike (1935), and Captain Blood (1935), this last with the man with whom her career would be most closely identified: heartthrob Errol Flynn. He and Olivia starred together in eight films during their careers. In 1939 Warner Bros. loaned her to David O. Selznick for the classic Gone with the Wind (1939). Playing sweet Melanie Hamilton, Olivia received her first nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, only to lose out to one of her co-stars in the film, Hattie McDaniel.
After GWTW, Olivia returned to Warner Bros. and continued to churn out films. In 1941 she played Emmy Brown in Hold Back the Dawn (1941), which resulted in her second Oscar nomination, this time for Best Actress. Again she lost, this time to her sister Joan for her role in Suspicion (1941). After that strong showing, Olivia now demanded better, more substantial roles than the "sweet young thing" slot into which Warners had been fitting her. The studio responded by placing her on a six-month suspension, all of the studios at the time operating under the policy that players were nothing more than property to do with as they saw fit. As if that weren't bad enough, when her contract with Warners was up, she was told that she needed to make up the time lost because of the suspension. Irate, she sued the studio, and for the length of the court battle she didn't appear in a single film. The result, however, was worth it. In a landmark decision, the court said that not only would Olivia not need to make up the time, but also that all performers would be limited to a seven-year contract that would include any suspensions handed down. This became known as the "de Havilland decision": no longer could studios treat their performers as chattel. Olivia returned to the screen in 1946 and made up for lost time by appearing in four films, one of which finally won her the Oscar that had so long eluded her: To Each His Own (1946), in which she played Josephine Norris to the delight of critics and audiences alike. Olivia was the strongest performer in Hollywood for the balance of the 1940s.
In 1948 she turned in another strong showing in The Snake Pit (1948) as Virginia Cunningham, a woman suffering a mental breakdown. The end result was another Oscar nomination for Best Actress, but she lost to Jane Wyman in Johnny Belinda (1948). As in the two previous years, she made only one film in 1949, but she again won a nomination and the Academy Award for Best Actress for The Heiress (1949). After a three-year hiatus, Olivia returned to star in My Cousin Rachel (1952). From that point on, she made few appearances on the screen but was seen on Broadway and in some television shows. Her last screen appearance was in The Fifth Musketeer (1979), and her last career appearance was in the TV movie The Woman He Loved (1988).
Her turbulent relationship with her only sibling, Joan Fontaine, was press fodder for many decades; the two were reported as having been permanently estranged since their mother's death in 1975, when Joan claimed that she had not been invited to the memorial service, which she only managed to hold off until she could arrive by threatening to go public. Joan also wrote in her memoir that her elder sister had been physically, psychologically, and emotionally abusive when they were young. And the iconic photo of Joan with her hand outstretched to congratulate Olivia backstage after the latter's first Oscar win and Olivia ignoring it because she was peeved by a comment Joan had made about Olivia's new husband, Marcus Goodrich, remained part of Hollywood lore for many years.
Nonetheless, late in life, Fontaine gave an interview in which she serenely denied any and all claims of an estrangement from her sister. When a reporter asked Joan if she and Olivia were friends, she replied, "Of course!" The reporter responded that rumors to the contrary must have been sensationalism and she replied, "Oh, right--they have to. Two nice girls liking each other isn't copy." Asked if she and Olivia were in communication and spoke to each other, Joan replied "Absolutely." When asked if there ever had been a time when the two did not get along to the point where they wouldn't speak with one another, Joan replied, again, "Never. Never. There is not a word of truth about that." When asked why people believe it, she replied "Oh, I have no idea. It's just something to say ... Oh, it's terrible." When asked if she had seen Olivia over the years, she replied, "I've seen her in Paris. And she came to my apartment in New York often." The reporter stated that all this was a nice thing to hear. Joan then stated, "Let me just say, Olivia and I have never had a quarrel. We have never had any dissatisfaction. We have never had hard words. And all this is press." Joan died in 2013.
During the hoopla surrounding the 50th anniversary of GWTW in 1989, Olivia graciously declined requests for all interviews as the last of the four main stars. She enjoyed a quiet retirement in Paris, France, where she resided for many decades, and where she died on 26 July, 2020, at the age of 104.
As well as being the last surviving major cast member of some of cinema's most beloved pre-war and wartime film classics (including The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) and Gone with the Wind (1939)), and one of the longest-lived major stars in film history, Olivia de Havilland was unquestionably the last surviving iconic figure from the peak of Hollywood's golden era during the late 1930s, and her passing truly marked the end of an era.- Director
- Writer
- Editor
Born in Tokyo in 1962. Originally intended to be a novelist, but after graduating from Waseda University in 1987 went on to become an assistant director at T.V. Man Union. Snuck off set to film Mou hitotsu no kyouiku - Ina shogakkou haru gumi no kiroku (1991). His first feature, Maborosi (1995), based on a Teru Miyamoto novel and drawn from his own experiences while filming August Without Him (1994), won jury prizes at Venice and Chicago. The main themes of his oeuvre include memory, loss, death and the intersection of documentary and fictive narratives.- Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa got his first big break as an actor when he was cast in Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor (1987). A US Army brat, he was born in Tokyo and lived in various cities while growing up. His father was in the army, stationed at Ft. Bragg (NC), Ft. Polk (LA) and Ft. Hood (TX). His mother was an actress from Tokyo. The family finally settled in Southern California, where Tagawa began acting in high school. He was an exchange student in Japan while studying at the University of Southern California. He has recently been involved off-screen in addressing student groups (at SFSU and Stanford). He has also been coaching the martial artist portraying Shang Tsung in the Mortal Kombat Live Tour, and in his free time developing his new form of martial arts, called "Chun Shin."- Ryoma Takeuchi was born on 26 April 1993 in Tokyo, Japan. He is an actor, known for Kamen Rider Super Movie War Genesis: Kamen Rider vs. Kamen Rider Ghost & Drive (2015), Pokémon: Detective Pikachu (2019) and Kamen Rider Movie War Full Throttle: Kamen Rider vs. Kamen Rider Drive & Gaim (2014).
- Born in Tokyo, Ayumi Ito has always had a love for movies and art. She made her big-screen debut in Nobuhiko Obayashi's The Water Travelers: Samurai Kids. Her distinctive style led to her critically acclaimed performance in Swallowtail Butterfly, directed by the renowned Director Shunji Iwai. At 16-years-old, Ayumi was awarded both the Best New Actress Award as well as the Best Supporting Actress Award at the 20th Annual Japanese Academy Awards.
Ayumi's career has blossomed into starring roles in several successful films and television shows. She trained in LA and New York and has worked globally with world-renown Chinese director and artist Zhuangzhuang Tian, Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), among other great filmmakers. Ayumi's performance in the the Fuji TV drama Belle de Jour was so strong that she reprised the role when it became a feature film and box-office hit, earning over 2.3 billion JPY. She is also the voice of Tifa Lockhart in the animated film Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. Off-screen, Ayumi is a talented vocalist and recording artist. Her passion for art continues to thrive and she brings characters to life in her performances. - Actor
- Visual Effects
- Producer
Masayori "Masi" Oka is a Japanese American actor, producer and digital effects artist. He became widely known for his role on NBC's Heroes as Hiro Nakamura and in CBS' Hawaii Five-0 as Doctor Max Bergman. Oka was born in Tokyo, Japan, to Setsuko Oka. His parents divorced when he was one month old; he was raised in a single parent family and has never met his father. He was six years old when his mother and he moved to Los Angeles from Japan. At age eight, he appeared on the CBS-TV game show Child's Play. In 1987, a twelve-year-old Oka was featured on the cover of Time titled "Those Asian-American Whiz Kids". Though he was not featured in the article itself, he was acquainted with the photographer who conducted the shoot. His IQ has been reported at over 180.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Born Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland on October 22, 1917, in Tokyo, Japan, in what was known as the International Settlement, to British parents, Lilian Augusta (Ruse), a former actress, and Walter Augustus de Havilland, an English professor and patent attorney. Her paternal grandfather's family was from Guernsey in the Channel Islands. Her father had a lucrative practice in Japan, but due to Joan and older sister Olivia de Havilland's recurring ailments the family moved to California in the hopes of improving their health. Mrs. de Havilland and the two girls settled in Saratoga while their father went back to his practice in Japan. Joan's parents did not get along well and divorced soon afterward. Mrs. de Havilland had a desire to be an actress but her dreams were curtailed when she married, but now she hoped to pass on her dream to Olivia and Joan. While Olivia pursued a stage career, Joan went back to Tokyo, where she attended the American School. In 1934 she came back to California, where her sister was already making a name for herself on the stage. Joan likewise joined a theater group in San Jose and then Los Angeles to try her luck there. After moving to L.A., Joan adopted the name of Joan Burfield because she didn't want to infringe upon Olivia, who was using the family surname.
She tested at MGM and gained a small role in No More Ladies (1935), but she was scarcely noticed and Joan was idle for a year and a half. During this time she roomed with Olivia, who was having much more success in films. In 1937, this time calling herself Joan Fontaine, she landed a better role as Trudy Olson in You Can't Beat Love (1937) and then an uncredited part in Quality Street (1937). Although the next two years saw her in better roles, she still yearned for something better. In 1940 she garnered her first Academy Award nomination for Rebecca (1940). Although she thought she should have won, (she lost out to Ginger Rogers in Kitty Foyle (1940)), she was now an established member of the Hollywood set. She would again be Oscar-nominated for her role as Lina McLaidlaw Aysgarth in Suspicion (1941), and this time she won. Joan was making one film a year but choosing her roles well. In 1942 she starred in the well-received This Above All (1942).
The following year she appeared in The Constant Nymph (1943). Once again she was nominated for the Oscar, she lost out to Jennifer Jones in The Song of Bernadette (1943). By now it was safe to say she was more famous than her older sister and more fine films followed. In 1948, she accepted second billing to Bing Crosby in The Emperor Waltz (1948). Joan took the year of 1949 off before coming back in 1950 with September Affair (1950) and Born to Be Bad (1950). In 1951 she starred in Paramount's Darling, How Could You! (1951), which turned out badly for both her and the studio and more weak productions followed.
Absent from the big screen for a while, she took parts in television and dinner theaters. She also starred in many well-produced Broadway plays such as Forty Carats and The Lion in Winter. Her last appearance on the big screen was The Witches (1966) and her final appearance before the cameras was Good King Wenceslas (1994). She is, without a doubt, a lasting movie icon.- Yuka Kouri was born on 24 September 1990 in Tokyo, Japan. She is an actress, known for Shōgun (2024), September 1923 (2023) and Heart Attack.
- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Liv Ullmann's father was a Norwegian engineer who used to work abroad, so as a child she lived in Tokyo, Canada, New York and Oslo. In the mid-1950s she made her stage debut and in 1957 made her film debut. She really became successful, however, when she began to work for Swedish director Ingmar Bergman in such films as Persona (1966), The Passion of Anna (1969) and Face to Face (1976). She also had a successful film career away from Bergman (The Abdication (1974), Dangerous Moves (1984).- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Takeshi Kitano originally studied to become an engineer, but was thrown out of school for rebellious behavior. He learned comedy, singing and dancing from famed comedian Senzaburô Fukami. Working as a lift boy on a nightclub with such features as comic sketches and striptease dancing, Kitano saw his chance when a comedian suddenly fell ill, and he went on stage in the man's place. With a friend he formed the comic duo "The Two Beat" (his artist's name, "Beat Takeshi", comes from this period), which became very popular on Japanese television.
Kitano soon embarked on an acting career, and when the director of Violent Cop (1989) (aka "Violent Cop") fell ill, he took over that function as well. Immediately after that film was finished he set out to make a second gangster movie, Boiling Point (1990). Just after finishing Getting Any? (1994), Kitano was involved in a serious motorcycle accident that almost killed him. It changed his way of life, and he became an active painter. This change can be seen in his later films, which are characterized by his giving more importance to the aesthetics of the film, such as in Fireworks (1997) and Kikujiro (1999).- Actor
- Soundtrack
Kento Yamazaki was born on 7 September 1994 in Tokyo, Japan. He is an actor, known for Orange (2015), Heroine Disqualified (2015) and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable - Chapter 1 (2017).- Born in Tokyo, Japan Tsuchiya Tao received her first break in Tokyo Sonata, which would go on to become a popular movie and even win the Un Certain Regard - Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008. Prior to that she had appeared in a 2007 commercial for Gamesoft. She was chosen for the commercial after auditioning at 2005's Super Heroine Audition Miss Phoenix. Renbutsu Misako won the contest, Sekido Yuki and Mizutani Riho were runners-up, but Tao ranked third, alongside Takagi Koto and Kawaharada Maari, which accorded her a management contract. She attended an all-girl high school. She continued to act in movies and on television including the Rurouni Kenshin adaptation where she played a boyish heiress to a dojo and in NHK's Mare in 2015 where they reportedly picked her out of over 2,000 auditioning actresses. She was romantically linked to co-star Yamazaki Kento in 2016 and 2017, but a relationship was not confirmed. They remained silent after being photographed together outside a barbecue restaurant late one night. She was awarded the Newcomer Of The Year award at the 39th Japan Academy Prize in 2016 for her role in Orange. She has a blog she updates daily. It became news when one day in 2016 she did not update it with a post. She was the dancer in Sia's Arrive video and sang the theme song for the Ballerina anime in 2017. Tao has had surgery for ankyloglossia in order to speak and enunciate better. She lists playing the flute, piano and shamisen as well as dancing as skills and loves to ski, read and watch films. Her younger brother is actor Tsuchiya Shimba who is two years younger than her. She herself is two years younger than her sister. Her given name was inspired by a dream her mother had while pregnant, which included a girl with the unusual name Tao. Tao means 'Phoenix,' which she took as an omen when auditioning in 2005.
- Eleanor Matsuura (born c. 1983) is an English actress, who is best known for her roles as Hannah Santo in Spooks: The Greater Good, Bev in Utopia and as PC Donna Prager in Cuffs.
Matsuura was born in Tokyo and raised in Hertfordshire, England. She was trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama and graduated in 2004. She is trained in Modern and Period dance.
Matsuura worked on stage at the Royal Court Theatre, Old Vic Theatre and several West End theatres. She has also appeared in several British TV dramas, including EastEnders, Thorne, Extras, Holby City, Lead Balloon, Doctor Who and Hustle, and British films. She appears as Isobel in Bull at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield.
Matsuura features in the fourth series of the hit BBC One drama series Sherlock, playing the role of Detective Inspector Hopkins. She has done voice acting for video games such as Mass Effect: Andromeda and Dreamfall Chapters. She currently portrays Yumiko on the hit TV Show The Walking Dead based on the comic book of the same name.
Matsuura is of half-Japanese and half-British descent, and has a basic skill in Japanese. She is an animal rights supporter and works closely with the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home.
Matsuura is married to the Canadian actor Trevor White, the couple resides in London. - Born in 1986, Satomi began acting professionally in 2003 at age 17 and has not looked back since. Satomi began her acting career in 2003 when she starred in the drama Kimi wa petto (2003), starring Jun Matsumoto and Koyuki. She has devoted equal time to television serials and the world of movies and in the process won several awards such as Best Actress at both the 27th Japan Academy Prize and 46th Blue Ribbon Awards for My Grandpa.
She is known to Japanese television drama audiences for her portrayal as Saeko Takahashi in the Shitsuren Chocolatier (2014). she gained popularity by appearing in a Shitsuren Chocolatier (2014) with Jun Matsumoto in 2014. She was the most searched for actress on Yahoo Japan in 2014 following roles like Shitsuren Chocolatier. - Actress
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Meiko Kaji was born on March 24, 1947 in the Kanda area of Tokyo, Japan. Following graduation from the Yakumo Academy High School in Meguro, Tokyo, Japan in 1965, Kaji first began acting in films in the mid-1960's under her real name of Masako Ôta. She was given the stage name Meiko Kaji by director Masahiro Makino. Meiko achieved her greatest enduring cult cinema popularity with her fierce portrayals of various tough outlaw characters which include young rebellious delinquents in the Stray Cat Rock series, the lethal Sasori from the Female Prisoner Scorpion pictures, and, most famously, the ruthless and driven titular assassin in the Lady Snowblood films. Kaji won a plethora of awards for her stand-out performance in Double Suicide of Sonezaki (1978). In the 1980's Meiko started acting more on television. Moreover, Kaji has also eked out a career as a singer: She not only sang the haunting theme song "Flower of Carnage (Shura No Hana)" for Lady Snowblood (1973) and the theme song "Urami-Bushi" for Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion (1972), but also has recorded and released several albums and singles. ("Flower of Carnage (Shura No Hana)" and "Urami-Bushi" were both featured on the soundtracks to Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004), respectively.) In addition, Meiko has turned down offers to act in Hollywood movies because she believes she can't give a good performance in a language other than Japanese.- Actress
- Producer
Hyunri LEE (well known as "Hyunri" in Japan and Korea )is born in Tokyo, Japan of Korean descent. She is completely bilingual in Japanese and Korean. She lived in Oxford, England when she was a teenager. And she moved to study acting in Shin-Yong Wook Acting academy in Korea at the same time as an exchange student at Yonsei University from Aoyama Gakuin University majoring in law. After college she returned to Japan and landed acting jobs in many Japanese films as well as top TV shows. In 2016, Her first starring role, she played a Japanese Korean girl living in Tokyo, in "The Voice of Water" which was officially invited to the 65th Berlin International Film Festival. This film received numerous awards including the Rising Star Award in the 29th Takasaki Film Festival. She also received People choices Asian Star award in Seoul international drama awards 2017. In 2020, she appearing as the support role Hiroko Kusakabe in the movie "Wife of a Spy" directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa won the Silver lion prize in Venice International Film Festival. Also in 2021, the role of Tsugumi in the movie "The wheel of fortune and fantasy" directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi won the prize of Silver Bear Grand July prize in Berlin International Film Festival. The best well known her role in Japan is Saeko Harada in "Mistresses" based on BBC's TV series and the role of Yoon Jian in "Love you as the world ends" on Hulu(2021). Hyunri also hosted her own radio show for one of the largest radio stations J-WAVE in Tokyo from 2017 until 2022. She speaks fluent Japanese, Korean and English.- Recently named by Refinery 29 as an "Unforgettable Breakout Star" of the 2021 Sundance Film Festival for her role as Sammy Ko in "Marvelous and the Black Hole", actress Miya Cech is described as "a revelation" and "enthralling to watch". Critics call her "A standout" and "perfectly cast" in her performance (opposite Rhea Perlman) in Kate Tsang's directorial debut. Originally from Tokyo, Japan, Cech was raised in Northern California with her 3 siblings. Print modeling as a toddler led to an interest in television and film and she landed her first guest star role at age 8 playing Young Kono Kalakaua (Actress Grace Park's character) on the hit CBS series, Hawaii Five-0. In 2018, she starred alongside Amandla Stenberg and Harris Dickinson as fan favorite, "Zu" in Fox's "The Darkest Minds", a film adaptation of the #1 New York Times Best Selling book series of the same title, written by Alexandra Bracken. Since then, Miya has had recurring roles on hit shows such as "American Horror Story" and "American Housewife", where she played Ali Wong's Doris' precocious youngest daughter, Marigold. In 2019, she starred in two of Netflix's most popular original films, as Young Sasha in "Always Be My Maybe" and as "Zhen Zhen" in "Rim of the World", directed by McG. In addition, Miya has led several popular kids/teens series, as Akiko Yamato in Nickelodeon's re-imagined "Are You Afraid of the Dark" in 2019 and in Ron Howard, Brian Grazer and Imagine Entertainment's "The Astronauts" in 2020 as the lead character, Samy Sawyer-Wei. An Asian American adoptee, Miya is very passionate about representation and telling authentic stories through her work. She also enjoys art, cooking and gardening in her free time.