CAST TADANOBU ASANO - Hattori, the Bodyguard


Tadanobu Asano is one of Japan's most popular young stars.He can currently be seen in Cannes 2003 competition entry BRIGHT FUTURE (dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa) and Thai director Pen-Ek Ratanaruang's LAST LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE (Venice 2003, Upstream), for which he won the best actor award in Venice.
Asano is perhaps best known to international audiences for his performances inTakashi Miike's
ICHI THE KILLER, Katsuhito Ishii's SHARK SKIN MAN AND PEACH HIP GIRL and Nagisa Oshima's
GOHATTO in which he co-starred with 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano. His other credits include Hidenori
Sugimori's WOMAN OF WATER (2002 Golden Alexander winner at the Thessaloniki Film Festival),
Shinji Soomai's KAZA-HANA, Christopher Doyle's AWAY WITH WORDS, Hirokazu Kore-Eda's
Cannes 2001 competition entry DISTANCE, 1995's MABOROSI, Shinya Tsukamoto's GEMINI,
Shunji Iwai's PICNIC (1996 Berliner Zeitung Reader's Award at the Berlin Film Festival) and three
films by Sogo Ishii - ELECTRIC DRAGON 80,000V, GOJOE and LABYRINTH OF DREAMS.
Asano began his career in Joji Matsuoka's 1990 film SWIMMING UPSTREAM. A few films later,
Asano received a breakthrough starring role in Shinji Aoyama ' s 1996 crime drama HELPLESS.
Born in 1973 in Yokohama, Asano is also a talented illustrator and an occasional composer /
guitarist.


TADANOBU ASANO - Selected Filmography

2003

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DEAD AND RUN

dir: Sogo Ishii

-

MY GRANDFATHER TAUGHT ME
ALOT ABOUT LIFE

dir: Yoichi Higashi

-

LAST LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE
[Best Actor Venice Upstream 2003]

dir: Pen-ek Ratanaruang

-

ZATOICHI

dir: Takeshi Kitano

2002

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BRIGHT FUTURE

dir: Kiyoshi Kurosawa

-

WOMAN OF WATER

dir: Hidenori Sugimori

2001

-

ICHI THE KILLER

dir: Takashi Miike

-

DISTANCE

dir: Hirokazu Kore-Eda

-

ELECTRIC DRAGON 80,000V

dir: Sogo Ishii

2000

-

KAZA-HANA

dir: Shinji Soomai

-

GOJOE

dir: Sogo Ishii

-

GOHATTO

dir: Nagisa Oshima

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GEMINI

dir: Shinya Tsukamoto

1999

-

AWAY WITH WORDS

dir: Christopher Doyle

1997

-

LABYRINTH OF DREAMS

dir: Sogo Ishii

1996

-

PICNIC

dir: Shunji Iwai

1995

-

MABOROSI

dir: Hirokazu Kore-eda

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