Tadanobu Satō, better known by his stage name Tadanobu Asano, is a Japanese actor.
He is known for his roles as Dragon Eye Morrison in Electric Dragon 80.000 V, Kakihara in Ichi
the Killer, Mamoru Arita in Bright Future, Hattori Genosuke in Zatoichi, Kenji in Last
Life in the Universe, Aman in Survive Style 5+, Ayano in The Taste of Tea, Temudjin in
Mongol, and Hogun in the film Thor, based on the Marvel Comics character.
Early life Asano was born in the Honmoku area of Yokohama
to artist Yukihisa Satō and mother Junko whose father was Willard Overing, a U.S. citizen,
whom Asano never met.
He has Norwegian and Dutch ancestry through this grandfather.
Asano has an older brother Kujun Satō, born in 1971, who is a musician and a partner in
Anore Inc., a talent agency Asano and their father Yukihisa Satō founded.
Career His father, an actors' agent, suggested he
take on his first acting role in the TV show Kinpachi Sensei at the age of 16.
His film debut was in the 1990 Swimming Upstream, though his first major critical success was
in Shunji Iwai's Fried Dragon Fish.
His first critical success internationally was Hirokazu Koreeda's Maboroshi no Hikari,
in which he played a man who inexplicably throws himself in front of a train, widowing
his wife and orphaning his infant son.
He also worked with Koreeda in the pseudo-documentary Distance in 2001.
His best known works internationally are the samurai films Taboo and Zatoichi, as well
as the critically acclaimed film Bright Future.
He acted in Katsuhito Ishii's 2003 film The Taste of Tea, which premiered at the 2004
Cannes Film Festival.
He appeared as the lead actor in Last Life in the Universe by Thai director Pen-Ek Ratanaruang
and starred in a follow-up film by Pen-Ek, Invisible Waves, in 2006.
In 2007 he starred as the young Genghis Khan in Sergei Bodrov's Oscar-nominated film Mongol..
In "Villon's Wife", he played the part of an alcoholic writer, though he has since stated
that since he doesn't actually drink alcohol, he based his performance on people he knows,
a lot of whom drink.
In 2011, he starred in the Marvel Studios film Thor as the Asgardian warrior Hogun,
a member of the Warriors Three and companion to Thor.
He reprised the role in 2013's Thor: The Dark World.
In addition to his acting career, Asano directed commercial TV spots for his then-wife, Chara.
He is a musician; he formed the band MACH-1.67 with director Sogo Ishii in 1996 and, from
time to time, plays in the bands Peace Pill and Safari.
He is an artist and a model, most notably for Japanese fashion designers Jun Takahashi
and Takeo Kikuchi, for whom he filmed a series of commercial spots directed by Wong Kar-wai:
one released under the name "wkw1996@7'55"hk.net".
Asano and his father run the actor's agency Anore Inc. which represents Japanese actors
like Ryō Kase and Rinko Kikuchi.
Personal life Asano met J-Pop idol Chara on the set of Iwai's
Picnic.
They were married in March 1995 and Chara became pregnant with their first child, Sumire,
who was born on July 4.
In 1999, they also had a son.
In July 2009, Chara announced on her website that the two would be getting an amicable
divorce.
She received custody of both their children.
Awards He won the Most Popular Performer award at
the 1997 Japanese Academy Awards for Acri and was nominated in the Best Supporting Actor
category in 2004 for his performance in Zatôichi.
He also received the Upstream Prize for Best Actor at the 2003 Venice Film Festival for
his role in Last Life in the Universe.
In 2014 he won the award for Best Actor at the 36th Moscow International Film Festival
for his role in My Man.
Filmography References
Bibliography Morris, Jerome C. "I’m Not as Whacked Out
as Dragon Eye Morrison", in Asian Cult Cinema, #54.
External links Tadanobu Asano at the Internet Movie Database
Tadanobu Asano's official website ASANO TADANOBU on Twitter
Asano Tadanobu's JMDb Listing