Not long ago, the prestigious Japanese magazine "Movie Xunbo" selected the top ten films of 2018. The ten best films showcased the remarkable achievements of Japanese films over the past year in many aspects, including last year's Cannes Palme d'Or winner "Shoplifters", veteran drama star Shu Shirin's legacy "Everyday is a Good Day", highlighting the Japanese style Culture's "Chrysanthemum and the Guillotine" and so on. Among them, " Lone Wolf Blood ", which ranks fifth, is very unique. It is neither a Japanese-style heart-warming drama nor a historical costume theme. With a retro attitude, it restores the Toei Jinxia gangster theme of the 1960s with passion and chivalry.
Stills of "Blood of the Lone Wolf"
The biggest highlight of the film is the detective Ogami Shogo played by Yakusho Koji . On the surface, he is an experienced detective who takes both black and white, but on the inside, he is a conscientious detective who endures hardships. In order to solve the case, Ogami shouldered all the pain. In Hiroshima in the 1980s, he shed his last drop of blood for justice like a lone wolf.
At the 42nd Japan Film Academy Awards, known as Japan's Oscars, which were announced early last month, Yakusho Koji also won the Best Actor for "Blood of the Lone Wolf". This is also the third academy he has won. Award for Best Actor.
Domestic audiences may be a little unfamiliar with the name Yakusho Koji, but they will definitely remember this actor after watching his performance.
In March this year, Yakusho Koji won the Outstanding Asian Filmmaker Award and the Best Actor Award at the 13th Asian Film Awards. Picture/Visual China
has been nominated for the Japanese Academy Award for Performance 20 times, the most honor in the film industry. The film "Eel" in which he starred won the Palme d'Or at Cannes that year, and the challenging "Paradise Lost" became the focus of public opinion after its release. The copyright of "Let's Dance", which he collaborated with Zhou Fangzhengxing, was purchased overseas and has maintained its adaptation status to this day. The film's Hollywood box office record...
Although regarded as an idol by many younger generations, Yakusho Koji off-screen is humble and humorous. His professional attitude and approachable personality are the keys to his success in his 40-year acting career.
Written by Robin
Nakadai Tatsuya Named "Yakusho Koji"
Yakusho Koji's real name is Hashimoto Yukiji. He was born in Isahaya City, Nagasaki. There are 6 brothers in the family, and he is the youngest one. After graduating from Nagasaki Prefectural Omura Industrial High School, Hashimoto joined the Chiyoda Ward government agency in charge of civil engineering. In his youth, Koji Hashimoto was not as passionate about acting as most actors.
One day, a friend couldn't go to a stage play for some reason and gave him the ticket. Hashimoto Koji had no interest in it but went anyway. This stage play is adapted from Gorky's "At the Bottom", starring Tatsuya Nakadai. This experience of watching the drama also changed the life of Hashimoto Koji. He hopes to become an actor like Nakadai Tatsuya who can mobilize the audience's emotions.
Apparently Hashimoto Koji had a very high acting talent at that time. He passed a complicated examination and officially entered the theater troupe "Muming Juku" founded by Nakadai Tatsuya. He was the only one who passed the exam that year. Nakadai Tatsuya liked him very much and gave him a stage name - Yakusho Koji. Yakusho means character, while Hiroshi means broad. On the one hand, Yakusho once worked in a political organization, and on the other hand, Nakadai hopes that he can expand his acting career as soon as possible.
Stills from the TV series "Miyamoto Musashi"
In 1983, he played the role of Oda Nobunaga in the NHK Taiga drama "Tokugawa Ieyasu", which was the first important role in Yakusho's acting career. The following year, also in Taiga Drama, Yakusho starred for the first time as the leading actor in NHK's "Miyamoto Musashi", playing the protagonist Miyamoto Musashi in the play. Its success brought Yakusho to the attention of the industry, and he subsequently received offers from the big screen. Here, he not only fell in love with acting but also met his future wife.
Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for seven consecutive years
Yakusho Koji’s acting experience is enough to make any actor “jealous”. Not long after
entered the big screen, he joined the crew of Itami Jusan's " Dandelion ". Juzo Itami acted before "Dandelion" and Yuno directed and filmed the directorial debut "Funeral", which was praised by "Film Weekly". "Dandelion" successfully established Juzo Itami's image style.In the film, Yakusho Koji wears a pure white suit and breaks the fourth wall to talk to the audience, explaining "food, sex, and sex" with a vigorous performance.
Stills from the movie "Dandelion"
Since then, Yakusho Koji, who has been in the industry for more than ten years, was promoted from a supporting role to a leading role. In 1995, he won the "Mainichi Movie" Best Actor Award for his starring role in " kamikaze 72 hours ". After that, his career entered the fast lane and he began to cooperate with major Japanese directors. "Let's Dance", a collaboration with Masayuki Suho, won 14 awards at the Japan Film Academy Awards that year, and also allowed Koji Yakusho to win the first Best Actor trophy at the Japanese Oscars, starting his streak of success. A record of seven consecutive years of being nominated for Best Actor at the Academy Awards. The subsequent "Eel" helped director Shohei Imamura win his second Palme d'Or at Cannes, and also allowed Koji Yakusho to win the Academy Award for Best Actor.
's "Sleeping Man" with Oguri Kohei won praise overseas; "Artificial Paradise" with Shinji Aoyama shined in Cannes; and the remake of the classic " Thirteen Assassins " with Miike Takashi won the fourth place in the top ten of "Film Weekly" . Mitani Yuki 's "The Grand Hotel", Okita Shuichi's " Woodpecker and Rain ", Nakajima Tetsuya's "Desire", Hirokazu Kore-eda 's " The Third Suspect " and other famous director works Yakusho Koji's charming performance can be seen in both.
Stills from the movie " Woodpecker and Rain"
Stills from the movie "X Holy Rule "
Among the many directors who have worked with him, Kiyoshi Kurosawa is considered the most familiar partner of Yakusho Koji. "X" was the first collaboration between the two. What Kurosawa Kiyoshi didn't expect was that as a low-cost thriller, the film would attract Koji Yakusho, who had become a superstar at the time. He evaluated Kurosawa Kiyoshi as "the most attractive director" and later collaborated with him on 8 works including "Tokyo Sonata".
"Yes, you have to do something in front of the camera"
It is difficult to define Yakusho Koji's acting style. Fukuyama Masaharu, who worked with him in "The Third Suspect", once said of him, "Yakusho's acting skills are free. Changing".
htmlIn his 40-year acting career, Yakusho Koji has portrayed all kinds of characters. From civil servants to Miyamoto Musashi, from murderers to great writers, Hitomi Kuroki's dialogue in "Paradise Lost" can well express the audience's attitude towards Yakusho's acting, "I love you for both good and evil."Stills from the movie "Let's Dance"
"Let's Dance" made Yakusho Koji gain favor from academics for the first time. This was also his introverted breakthrough. He no longer plays dramatic roles. In the film, Sugiyama is a working-class man who works a nine-to-five job and has a happy family. Sugiyama's characters represent every ordinary person in life who follows the rules, who are ordinary and simple but feel empty in their souls. Just like Yakusho Koji's view on acting, acting is very lonely. "You have to do something in front of the camera and you can't make mistakes." He learned dance, which he was not good at, for the movie, and used precise performances to show the most authentic inner portrayal of the little character.
Stills from the movie "Paradise Lost"
Next, Yakusho Koji starred in the large-scale taboo film "Paradise Lost" directed by Yoshimitsu Morita. This movie, adapted from the novel of the same name by Junichi Watanabe, tells the life-and-death love story of a pair of middle-aged lovers. The movie became a rage after its release, and its delicate depiction of middle-aged people resonated strongly with countless people. In addition to his solid performance, Yakusho Koji also proved his commercial appeal. After the release of "Paradise Lost", it became the highest-grossing local live-action film in Japan in 1997.
Yakusho Koji once said that the most difficult thing to play is a noble and respectable role. From this point of view, "Eel" poses a greater challenge to his performance. Eels live in the cleanest and most pure waters, and this creature has become a symbol of purity in Japan. In the film, Yamashita Takuro, played by Koji Yakusho, is an eel-like character, silent and pure at heart. Yakusho used a restrained way to express Yamashita's dull kindness, making it impossible to imagine that this actor is the veteran driver in "Paradise Lost".
"The Third Suspect" made Koji Yakusho nominated for the first time and won the Japan Film Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. It is no exaggeration to say that the performance in the film can be said to be textbook level. Yakusho Koji shocked everyone with his skillful performance. Director Hirokazu Kore-eda was full of shock when he recalled the performance, "I read the script countless times myself, but after he finished it, I felt that it was not written by me. The effect of the performance had a sense of reality like a documentary, It created a great distance from the script. This effect simply stunned me, and I couldn't hide my surprise at all."
The stills of the movie "The Third Suspect" were found to be fake, and I advised them not to release their work again.
Except. Talent, Yakusho Koji's ability to become an "actor representing Japan" is entirely due to his seriousness and responsibility. Hirokazu Kore-eda praised his professionalism as "terrible", and his former partner Shun Oguri also called Yakusho-san his role model.
Yakusho Koji has his own philosophy on taking on dramas. He will consider the script first, and if there is no script, he will watch the director's previous works. Finally, he will consider commercial considerations. This kind of criterion for accepting roles makes most of Yakusho Koji's works of high quality, but Yakusho-san, who has a good vision, also sometimes makes mistakes.
Yakusho Koji once made a public statement on his official blog that he hopes his works will no longer be released. This movie is called "Rubble and Radio" and it is a documentary describing the great earthquake in Japan. There is a scene in the film where after the death of her daughter and grandson in the disaster, the heroine is encouraged by a radio program on the radio to step out of the shadows. However, this touching plot was processed. After learning that the plot was fabricated, Yakusho Koji was very angry, "Although there are many real parts in the movie, as actors and production members, it was too much to accept this without understanding it." This is a work, and I have a big responsibility." He hopes that this movie will not be released again in the future.
's original intention when taking over this film was to encourage people in the disaster-stricken areas through the film, but as a result, fraud occurred. He even said that after learning about the fraud, he felt that it was really sad to be involved in such a movie.
Next Stop China
As an actor in the Japanese film industry today, Yakusho Koji also has a good reputation in the international film industry. His first nomination for the Japan Academy Award came from the Japanese-Soviet film "Aurora", his first Hollywood appearance was in "Memoirs of a Geisha" with Rob Marshall, and the following year he participated in " "Tower of Babel" went from Cannes to Oscar. In 2007, Yakusho and Miki Nakatani co-starred in the Japanese, American and Italian film "Silk".
Yakusho Koji also has a story with China. He visited Xinjiang with Sino-Japanese friend Yasuhiro Kojima and fell in love with the Gobi Desert. Last year, Yakusho Koji also joined the domestic movie " Ice Storm " as the protagonist.
In addition to actors
1 In addition to actors, Yakusho Koji has also served as the dubbing voice of many film and television works. He has served as the Japanese dubbing for the classic American TV series "Band of Brothers", and has also collaborated with animation master Mamoru Hosoda in " Monster Son " and " Mirai Mirai ". Yakusho wrote, directed and acted in "Toad's Oil ", but he said he only watched the finished film once because he could not objectively evaluate his work.
Work photos from the movie "Toad's Oil"
2 Yakusho Hiroshi had poor gastrointestinal problems when he was young, but he preferred American high-calorie foods. Now his favorite food is natto.
3 Influenced by his elder brother, Yakusho Koji worked part-time to earn money and bought a guitar when he was a student. He was very fond of the British rock band The Animals in the 1960s and envied his elder brother's ability to play "The House of the Rising Sun".
4 Yakusho Koji is tall and he was on the basketball team in middle school. He was born with naturally curly hair, and his hair is hard and voluminous. His appearance advantages also helped him attract the attention of hair extender manufacturers and shoot advertisements. Written by
/Robin
Beijing News Editor Wu Dongni Proofreading Zhao Lin
