Foreign Language Books Reading Room

Hot Topics
Volume Ⅴ (2014)
On Ken Takakura
高仓健

Contents

I. Life and career 2

II. Partial filmography and honours 3

III. Ken Takakura ’s ex-wife 4

I. Life and career

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Takakura

Ken Takakura (高倉健 Takakura Ken?), born Goichi Oda (小田剛一 Oda Gōichi?, February 16, 1931 – November 10, 2014), was a Japanese actor best known for his brooding style and the stoic presence he brought to his roles. He won the Japan Academy Prize four times, more than any other actor.

Takakura was born in Nakama, Fukuoka in 1931. He attended Tochiku High School in nearby Yahata City where he was a member of the boxing team and English society. It was around this time that he gained his streetwise swagger and tough-guy persona watching yakuza movies. This subject was covered in one of his most famous movies, Showa Zankyo-den (Remnants of Chivalry in the Showa Era), in which he played an honorable old-school yakuza among the violent post-war gangs. After graduating from Meiji University in Tokyo, Takakura attended an audition on impulse in 1955 at the Toei Film Company while applying for a managerial position.

Toei found a natural in Takakura as he debuted with Denko Karate Uchi (Lightning Karate Blow) in 1956. In 1959 he married singer Chiemi Eri, but divorced in 1971. His breakout role would be in the 1965 film Abashiri Prison, and its sequel Abashiri Bangaichi: Bokyohen (Abashiri Prison: Longing for Home, also 1965), in which he played an ex-con antihero. By the time Takakura left Toei in 1976, he had appeared in over 180 films.

He gained international recognition after starring in the 1970 war film Too Late the Hero as the cunning Imperial Japanese Major Yamaguchi, the 1974 Sydney Pollack sleeper hit The Yakuza with Robert Mitchum, and is probably best known in the West for his role in Ridley Scott's Black Rain (1989) where he surprises American cops played by Michael Douglas and Andy García with the line, "I do speak fucking English".[1][3] He again appeared to Western audiences with the 1992 Fred Schepisi comedy Mr. Baseball starring Tom Selleck.

He appeared in three films since 2000: Hotaru (ホタル Firefly?) in May 2001, Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles, by Chinese director Zhang Yimou, in late December 2005, and Yasuo Furuhata's Anata e (To You) in late August 2012, after a six-year hiatus.[6] He died of lymphoma on November 10, 2014. Shintaro Ishihara described him as "the last big star (in Japan)."

3 Honours

II. Partial filmography and honours

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Takakura

Partial filmography[edit]

A Fugitive from the Past (1965)

Abashiri Prison (1965)

The Drifting Avenger (1968)

Too Late the Hero (1970)

Golgo 13 (1973)

The Homeless (1974)

The Bullet Train (1975)

The Yakuza (1975)

Kimi Yo Funnu no Kawa o Watare (1976)

Mount Hakkoda (1977)

The Yellow Handkerchief (1977)

Never Give Up (1978)

A Distant Cry from Spring (1980)

Station (1981)

Izakaya Chōji (1983)

Antarctica (1983)

Black Rain (1989)

Mr. Baseball (1992)

Poppoya (1999)

Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles (2005)

Anata e (2012)

Honours

Japan Academy Prize for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

1978 – as Yusaku Shima, in The Yellow Handkerchief

1981 – as Kōsaku Tajima, in A Distant Cry from Spring

1982 – as Eiji Mikami, in Station

1999 – as Otomatsu Satō, in Poppoya

Blue Ribbon Awards

1977 – as Yusaku Shima, in The Yellow Handkerchief

1999 – as Otomatsu Satō, in Poppoya

Person of Cultural Merit (2006)

Order of Culture (2013)

III. Ken Takakura ’s ex-wife

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiemi_Eri

Chiemi Eri (江利チエミ Eri Chiemi?, January 11, 1937 – February 13, 1982),[1] was a Japanese popular singer and actress.

Eri was born as Chiemi Kubo on January 11, 1937 in Tokyo, Japan. She started her singing career at the age of 14 with her version of "Tennessee Waltz." She sang American songs such as "Jambalaya" and "Come on-a My House". Eri started her career as an actress similar to Misora Hibari. Eri, Misora and Izumi Yukimura formed a trio. In her concerts, she was supported by Nobuo Hara's jazz band.

Eri married Ken Takakura in 1959 but divorced in 1971. She released single "Sakaba Nite" (酒場にて lit. "At The Bar"?) in 1974. The song was later included by omnibus album "Enka no Kokoro".

Death

On the afternoon of February 13, 1982, Eri was found prone and not breathing on the bed of her Minato Ward apartment in Tokyo, by her manager. Her cause of death was listed as a stroke with asphyxiation due to vomit in the trachea. A further report indicated that while she had a cold and had already been drinking, a combination of whiskey mixed with milk, as well as cold medicine that she had heated up may have had a role in her death.

Editor: Chen Zhaoxia

Sep. 23，2014