Tatsuya Nakadai

Birthday: 13 December 1932, Tokyo, Japan

Birth Name: Motohisa Nakadai

Height: 180 cm

Japanese leading man, an important star and one of the handful of Japanese actors well known outside Japan. Nakadai was a tall handsome clerk in a Tokyo shop when director Masaki Kobayashi encountered him and cast him in Kabe atsuki heya (1956). Nakadai was subsequently cast in the lead role in Kobayashi's monumental trilogy 'Ningen no joken' and became a star whose international acclaim rivaled that of countryman Toshirô Mifune. Like Mifune, Nakadai worked frequently with director Akira Kurosawa and indeed more or less replaced Mifune as Kurosawa's principal leading man after the well-known falling out between Mifune and Kurosawa. His appearances for Kurosawa in Kagemusha (1980) and Ran (1985) are among the most indelible in the director's oeuvre. Show less «

If someone were to ask me on my deathbed what my best film was, I think I'd say it was Harakiri, whi...Show more »

If someone were to ask me on my deathbed what my best film was, I think I'd say it was Harakiri, which I made when I was 29. You could say my most important work was finished by the time I was 29! So I'd like to put Seppuku (1962) on the list. Next is Yôjinbô (1961). And then there's a director named Kihachi Okamoto, who did a film called The Sword of Doom - this was a very difficult film for me, one that's been made into a movie many times in Japan. Then there's Ran (1985) - the last film I did with Kurosawa. Before that, I took over for the actor Shintarô Katsu in Kurosawa's Kagemusha (1980), which won the Grand Prix at Cannes. Lastly, there's Hideo Gosha's Goyôkin (1969), which is a little bit different from an ordinary Samurai film. Show less «

Japanese cinema was very focused on capturing both the ordinary and the extraordinary, so a lot of t...Show more »

Japanese cinema was very focused on capturing both the ordinary and the extraordinary, so a lot of the things that we captured tended to be existentialist, as well. In the films, there were influences by Camus or Sartre, different philosophers. In the theater, we referred to Brecht, so in that sense there was a lot of inclination towards existentialism and extraordinary references were very strong. In that sense, I thought this piece - that was based on Abe Kobo's work - was something altogether very different from works by Kurosawa, for instance. Show less «

I'm quieter than average, and a bit solitary. I think maybe those characteristics have something in ...Show more »

I'm quieter than average, and a bit solitary. I think maybe those characteristics have something in common with the positive elements of a Samurai. I'm a loner. I worked hard as a film actor, but essentially I'm a theatre actor. For sixty-some years I served those two masters, but I never signed with a film company. Maybe you can call that lone wolf behavior a connection. Show less «

You're willing to take a plunge from any height. There's just something about being in front of a ca...Show more »

You're willing to take a plunge from any height. There's just something about being in front of a camera. And being in front of an audience is the same thing. It's hopeless. I guess I'm just a ham. Show less «

I think I tend to prefer freedom. I've always worked in a manner that I will give it my all; I'll do...Show more »

I think I tend to prefer freedom. I've always worked in a manner that I will give it my all; I'll do it to my heart's content, and then the director will tell me, "You can tone it down a little. You don't have to go so far." That's the way I've always worked and I think I don't really prefer that oppressive type of direction. Show less «

In reference to Japanese actors, while here in New York, whenever have free time, I take in a Broadw...Show more »

In reference to Japanese actors, while here in New York, whenever have free time, I take in a Broadway show. I intend to watch eight shows before I leave this time. American actors on stage, I'm struck by how powerful and skillful they are, and at the same time that I'm inspired, I also feel very regretful and sorrowful because I cannot say the same thing about Japanese actors. My generation of actors - not only actors, but directors - went through so much training and I wonder why the younger generation of Japanese actors today don't train as hard? Show less «

Tatsuya Nakadai

Tatsuya Nakadai's FILMOGRAPHY

Tatsuya Nakadai'S roles

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