Tadanobu Asano
☼ Born on 27 February 1973, in Yokohama, Japan
BiographyTadanobu Asano's a Japanese film actor. His father suggested he take on what became his first role in the TV show Kimpachi Sensei at 16. His film debut was Swimming Upstream (1990) though his first major critical success was in Shunji Iwai's Fried Dragon Fish (1993). His first critical success in the West was in Hirokazu Koreeda's Maborosi (1995), in which he played a man who inexplicably throws himself in front of a train, widowing his wife & orphaning his infant son. His best known works internationally are the samurai films Taboo (1999) & The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi (2003). It was on the set of Iwai's Picnic (1996) that he met & fell in love with J-Pop idol Chara. They married soon after learning she was pregnant with their first child, Sumire. While best known for characters who are psychologically offbeat, if not downright psychotic (e.g. Kakihara in Ichi the Killer (2001)), he has been described by those who know him as a down-to-earth family man. He has directed commercial TV spots for Chara. Hesistant to identify himself as an actor, he most readily describes himself as a vocalist, referring to Mach 1.67, the band he has w/ director Gakuryû Ishii. He's also an artist & sometimes works as a model, most notably for the Japanese designers Takeo Kikuchi & Jun Takahashi.
In the role of actor
Mortal Kombat (25/04/2021)
The popular fighting video games receive a new film adaptation in Mortal Kombat. Cole Young (Lewis Tan) is a past-his-prime MMA fighter, who learns from Major Jax Briggs (Mehcad Brooks) that the dragon-shaped birthmark on his chest makes him chosen to participate in an ancient tournament called Mortal Kombat. Pursued by Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim), sent […]
Silence (08/01/2017)
Two 17th century Jesuit priests find their faith tested as they search for their mentor in Japan in Silence. Jesuit priest Alessandro Valignano (Ciarán Hinds) receives word that the long lost missionary Cristóvão Ferreira (Liam Neeson) has apostatized his faith after being tortured by the anti-Christian Japanese inquisitor Inoue Masashige (Issey Ogata). Ferreira’s pupils Father Sebastião Rodrigues (Andrew […]
Thor: The Dark World (18/11/2013)
The God of Thunder returns in Thor: The Dark World. While investigating on anomaly in London, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) comes in contact with an ancient weapon, known as the Aether, which absorbs into her body. Thor (Chris Hemsworth) arrives and takes Jane with him back to Asgard, in the hopes that his father Odin […]