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Biography: Ken Watanabe

Despite the fact that veteran Japanese actor Ken Watanabe has been appearing in films since the early '80s (foreign film buffs may remember him from a supporting role in the 1985 art-house "noodle Western" Tampopo), it wasn't until his breakthrough role in the Tom Cruise adventure The Last Samurai that the frequent onscreen samurai eventually came to the attention of stateside audiences. Watanabe has been a mainstay of Japanese cinema beloved by legions of older fans overseas, but his performance as the last in a long line of ancient warriors in The Last Samurai is what finally found the modest actor courting international success. Watanabe was born in Niigata to schoolteacher parents -- his father taught calligraphy and his mother general education. A blissful childhood spent exploring the countryside and skiing with his brother Jun was rounded out by Watanabe's love of the trumpet and his involvement with the school band, and though he studied acting early on, he was hesitant to pursue a career before the cameras. Convinced by a director from England's National Theater Company that he was truly gifted in the art of performing, the then 24-year-old hopeful soon landed his first film role. Initial bliss was followed by harsh uncertainty when Watanabe was diagnosed with leukemia shortly thereafter, but the disease would eventually go into remission and his career would skyrocket. Though Watanabe has portrayed many different types of characters in his long and varied career, it is his skill with a sword that has truly cemented his status as a star in Japan -- he has played more samurai than even he can keep track of. It was this magnetism that attracted the attention of Last Samurai director Edward Zwick, who quickly made the decision to cast him in the popular blockbuster. His impressive performance in the film found him nominated for both a 2003 Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Watanabe's son is an actor and his daughter a model. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide less

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Movies (9)
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Inception (2010)
Cast: Michael Caine Leonardo DiCaprio
Tags: Action Science Fiction
Length: min
Warner Bros. presents the new film by The Dark Knight's Christopher Nolan, this one taking on a sci-fi psychological spin for the serious-minded action auteur, with Leonardo DiCaprio spearheading the cast. Emma Thomas serves as producer, with Joseph...
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Shanghai (2009)
Cast: John Cusack Gong Li
Tags: Period Film Drama
Length: min
The Weinstein Company presents this story of an American (John Cusack) in Shanghai who, through the investigation of the death of a friend, ends up falling in love while stumbling upon a political conspiracy in this period drama from 1408 helmer...
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Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant (2009)
Tags: Children's Fantasy Creature Film Fantasy
Length: 108min
Based on the popular series of books by Darren Shan, Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant tells the story of a small-town teen who inadvertently shatters a 200-year-old truce between warring factions of vampires. Sixteen-year-old Darren (Chris...
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Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
Cast: Clint Eastwood Steven Spielberg
Tags: Anti-War Film Combat Films Drama War War Drama
Length: 141min
After bringing the story of the American soldiers who fought in the battle of Iwo Jima to the screen in his film Flags of Our Fathers, Clint Eastwood offers an equally thoughtful portrait of the Japanese forces who held the island for 36 days in this...
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Memories of Tomorrow (2006)
Tags: Drama
Length: 122min
After being stricken with Alzheimer's disease in the prime of his life, a successful young businessman slips slowly away from his loving family in director Yukihiko Tstusumi's poignant family drama. Saeki (Ken Watanabe) is about to launch what...
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Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)
Cast: John Williams Michelle Yeoh
Tags: Romance Drama Romantic Drama Melodrama Period Film
Length: 144min
This film, based on the novel by Arthur Golden, unfolds from the perspective of Chiyo (Zhang Ziyi), a girl who, at the age of nine, is sold to a geisha house in Kyoto in the early 1930s. Here, she learns that becoming a geisha can be the single path...
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The Last Samurai (2003)
Cast: Tom Cruise Edward Zwick Ken Watanabe Hans Zimmer Tony Goldwyn Timothy Spall Billy Connolly
Tags: Period Film Historical Epic Drama Samurai Film
Length: 154min
Edward Zwick returned to the director's chair for the first time since 1998's The Siege with this sweeping period drama set in 19th-century Japan. After centuries of relying on hired samurai for national defense, the Japanese monarchy has decided to...
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Uni To Dokuyaku (1987)
Length: 121min
In this gruesome and extraordinarily explicit wartime medical horror story, based on a 1948 novel by Simsako Endo, two rival surgical teams at the University Hospital in Kyushu begin on a course of practice which violates every concept of medical...
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Tampopo (1986)
Cast: Juzo Itami Koji Yakusho
Tags: Satire Comedy of Manners Comedy
Length: 114min
The sophomore directorial effort from ill-fated Japanese filmmaker Juzo Itami, Tampopo is an off-beat comedy featuring several intersecting stories all related to food. Tsutomu Yamazaki plays Goro, a truck driver who helps a young widow named Tampopo...
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Biography: Ken Watanabe

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