Fumio Watanabe

Acting

Fumio Watanabe

Born — Died

1929-10-31 — 2004-08-04

Place of birth

Tokyo, Tokyo Prefecture, Japan

Known for

Acting

Credits

69 titles

Fumio Watanabe October 31, 1929 – August 4, 2004 was a Japanese actor most known for his work with Japanese New Wave director Nagisa Oshima. He was born in Tokyo and graduated from the University of Tokyo before joining the Shōchiku studio in 1956.

Known for

Key Hunter poster
7.0

Key Hunter is a prime-time Japanese television detective series. It aired on Saturday nights in the 9:00–9:56 p.m. time slot on the Tokyo Broadcasting System network from April 6, 1968 to April 7, 1973. There were a total of 262 episodes, and it was one of the most popular action dramas in Japan at the time. The story involved "Key Hunter", a special clandestine unit of the International Police, which endeavored to solve various crimes. "Key Hunter" was a unique TV show, which started out as a grand scale spy thriller never before seen in Japan. The episodes were individually themed on global crimes and political strife. The initial hardboiled theme later evolved to include intellectual elements involving action, and occasionally with comical elements as well. Tetsuro Tamba starred in the 1967 film You Only Live Twice as Japanese Secret Service agent Tiger Tanaka, an ally of James Bond. This role greatly influenced his image in "Key Hunter".

Key Hunter

1968

Uzushio poster
NR

The 4th NHK Asadora. Starring Michiko Hayashi as a woman born in poverty who lives a brave life. She lost her husband in war and now must take care of their 5-year-old child alone. Adapted from the novel of the same name by Fumiko Hayashi.

Uzushio

1964

Shogun's Joy of Torture poster
5.6

A young magistrate recalls three tales of heinous crimes committed by women, and the brutal punishments that ensued.

Shogun's Joy of Torture

1968

Nemuri Kyoshiro poster
NR

Thirteen years after his mother took her own life as a ritual sacrifice for the Black Mass, samurai Kyoshiro (Masakazu Tamura), who lives his life with his eyes turned away from happiness, uses his beloved sword to slay his enemies who come at him.....

Nemuri Kyoshiro

1972

The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity poster
8.2

Kaji, sent to the Japanese army labeled Red, witnesses cruelties in the army and revolts against the abusive treatment against a fellow recruit. He also sees his friend Shinjô defecting to the Russian border, and he ends in the front to fight a lost battle against the Russian tanks division.

The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity

1959

シークレット部隊 poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

シークレット部隊

1972

Film credits

1980s · 4 titles

1970s · 31 titles

Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion poster
7.1

After being cruelly set up and deceived by Sugimi, a detective in cahoots with the mob with whom she was whole-heartedly in love, Matsushima’s desire for revenge knows no bounds.

Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion

1972

The Street Fighter poster
6.8

Takuma Tsurugi takes on the government, the police, the mafia and an international ring of kidnappers who aim to dispossess a beautiful young heiress of her millions.

The Street Fighter

1974

The Transgressor poster
6.4

18 years after the mysterious death of her mother, Maya takes religious vows to find out what terrible things happened to her mother inside the Sacred Heart Convent. As soon as the door closes to the nunnery, the nuns start torturing her. She also has to deal with a lecherous archbishops and a lesbian mother superior.

The Transgressor

1974

Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 poster
7.1

After being used and betrayed by the detective she had fallen in love with, young Matsu is sent to a female prison full of sadistic guards and disobedient prisoners.

Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41

1972

The Bullet Train poster
6.9

A Japanese bullet train is threatened with a bomb that will explode automatically if the train slows below 80 km/h, unless a ransom is paid. Police race to find the bombers so the train crew can learn how to defuse the bomb.

The Bullet Train

1975

Deep Throat in Tokyo poster
4.4

Kumi Taguchi is a model who leaves her boxer boyfriend after he sustains an injury. She meets and quickly marries Hideo, the heir to a corporate empire. Hideo's father, Takehiko, lusts after Kumi. Takehiko sends his son away, ostensibly on a business trip, but actually so that he can be murdered by Takehiko's henchmen. Takehiko seduces Kumi, but is frustrated when she refuses to perform oral sex on him. Angered, Takehiko forces Kumi to undergo surgery in which her clitoris is transferred to her throat, thereby requiring that she engage in oral sex in order to have an orgasm. Hideo, the supposedly murdered son, returns having paid off his assassins. Hideo shoots and kills his father, but Kumi grabs the gun and kills Hideo so that she can inherit the family's fortune

Deep Throat in Tokyo

1975

Japanese Godfather: Conclusion poster
7.2

The three-film saga comes to a conclusion as three leaders of the underworld battle it out to determine who will become Don of Japan.

Japanese Godfather: Conclusion

1978

Conflagration poster
7.0

Global South guerrillas hijack the Japanese oil tanker Arabian Light, threatening to blow it up in Tokyo Bay, unless the Cabinet complies with an economically devastating ultimatum.

Conflagration

1975

It Was a Faint Dream poster
5.8

Set in 13th century Kyoto, where the Imperial court is under control of the clergy. Shijo was a peasant girl sold to a powerful daima as a concubine. Bored by her life in seclusion she starts an affair with State Councillor and the brother of a retired Emperor. Realising that she is only a plaything of the court, she becomes a nun and wanders the country.

It Was a Faint Dream

1974

The Erotomaniac Daimyo poster
5.0

Kiyohime, a daughter of Tokugawa Ienari is married-off to Tadateru Ogura, the lord of a Kyushu clan. However, the lord's sexual inexperience and Kiyohime's strict morals lead to significant crisis in their marriage. To improve his sexual prowess, the lord is introduced to Sandra, a French woman held captive by usurer-smuggler Hatakaya. This results in the lord's choosing Sandra as his mistress. Kiyohime's attendants see this move as an insult and have Sandra beaten and imprisoned. Nevertheless, Sandra escapes with the help of Morita, a retainer of the lord. Out of bitterness and as some sort of revenge, the lord imposes a sex ban on his subjects.

The Erotomaniac Daimyo

1972

The Ceremony poster
6.8

Oshima’s magisterial epic, centering on the ambivalent surviving heir of the Sakurada clan, uses ritual and the microcosm of the traditional family to trace the rise and fall of militaristic Japan across several decades.

The Ceremony

1971

Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance poster
7.4

Official Shogunate executioner Ogami Itto has been framed for disloyalty to the Shogunate by the Yagyu clan, against whom he now is waging a one-man war, along with his infant son, Daigoro.

Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance

1972

Main Line to Terror poster
6.2

Akiyama is an intern, disgusted with the noise pollution caused by the bullet trains and the heart attacks that noise has been causing in older hospital patients, plots to disrupt and, in ten days, destroy a unit of the operation. He warns the Japan National Railway, that, if nothing is done to reduce the noise, he will derail a bullet train. Takigawa is the police detective sent to stop him.

Main Line to Terror

1975

Dangerous Trade in Kobe poster
7.0

Using a lesser mobster as bait a government agent infiltrates a narcotics-smuggling gang to try to capture the boss. But his survival has a price.

Dangerous Trade in Kobe

1973

Thugs of Shinjuku poster
9.0

Fresh out of jail, a smart-mouth wise guy Goro takes the name “Big Brother Katsumata.” Not fitting in well with established gangs, he forms a rag-tag gang called “the Shinjuku Brothers.” The members of their gang are thugs who only wish they were traditional yakuza. When they turn up at the funeral for a gangster, they are not welcomed, but a senior boss intervenes to keep things calm. The boss of bosses invites them to join a respected local council of warlords. Katsumata is suspicious of why such powerful men would extend an invitation to lowlife like himself.

Thugs of Shinjuku

1970

The Insatiable poster
5.4

Yuki Onozaki, who was studying at a Women's College in Tokyo, was originally a young and ignorant girl, but her life changed completely in the summer of a certain year. During the summer vacation, Yuki returned to her hometown of Kyoto, only to be raped by the lover of her mother. Yuki then abandoned her studies and chose a depraved life. She met the gang leader Kiyoshi Oba and factory industrialists. Although these men could give her more or less physical comfort, they could not open Yuki's locked heart. It was not until the appearance of the young architect Yoichiro Honma that Yuki's love flower gradually bloomed. Soon, Yoichiro's first love while studying in France, Sandra, finds her, which makes Yuki's heart surge. After several twists and turns, Yoichiro decided to marry Yuki, but the trials never stopped...

The Insatiable

1971

The Tattooed Hitman poster
6.2

The most dangerous hired gun in Kyushu's underworld has managed to trigger a vicious gang war, and now, there's a contract on his life. Though nobody is more skilled in the arts of dealing death, can the tattooed hitman fend off the entire Japanese mafia as he searches for the man who wants him dead?

The Tattooed Hitman

1974

Dagger poster
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

Dagger

1971

Outlaw Killers: Three Mad Dog Brothers poster
6.8

The great Bunta stars as a gangster who is sent to jail for the sake of his gang, but when he’s released he finds everything completely changed and his gang has swept him aside for being too violent. He tries to start a new life with his two ”brothers” but can’t seem to escape old affiliations

Outlaw Killers: Three Mad Dog Brothers

1972

House of Gamblers poster
7.0

Ken Takakura stars as Ryoji one of the Aramasa family's loyal lieutenants whao takes the burden of his family being insulted by the Tanuma's family goons, by retaliating on his own. After injuring the head of Tanuma's family, and slaying others along the way, he then surrenders to the law and serves time. Before his last year to serve, the head of the Aramasa family falls ill and decides to retire, Ryoji miss chance to be successor, his old friend is reluctant but accepts. Now this gives the Tanuma family a chance for revenge! But with Tomisaburo Wakayama (Sekine) always having your back, how can you go wrong?

House of Gamblers

1970

High Seas Hijack poster
10.0

Terrorists hijack an oil tanker and threaten to blow it up unless Japan meets their demands.

High Seas Hijack

1977

The Viper Brothers and the Young General poster
9.0

The last in the series. Sugawara runs into two mahjong cheaters (Ichiro Araki and Mako Midori + sidekick Takuzo Kawatani) whom he takes for friends in need as his naivety prevents him from seeing their true nature.

The Viper Brothers and the Young General

1975

Internal Sleuth poster
7.5

When 150 guns are stolen from Iwakuni base and two police officers are shot dead, a detective criminal tries to find out the truth.

Internal Sleuth

1973

The Scandalous Adventures of Buraikan poster
7.1

An outlaw pushes the residents of Edo's red light district to rebel against a growing number of stifling, moralistic laws.

The Scandalous Adventures of Buraikan

1970

Japanese Godfather: Ambition poster
7.7

An ambitious Kansai yakuza don moves in on Tokyo using financial and political tactics, sparking conflict with a local criminal association.

Japanese Godfather: Ambition

1977

Quarreling with Yakuza poster
5.0

Set loose in a postwar world with no rules, an ex-juvenile delinquent begins building the most powerful gang in Tokyo's glittering Shibuya ward.

Quarreling with Yakuza

1973

Cobra poster
8.7

Japanese crime film.

Cobra

1974

Gokudo of Kamagasaki poster
7.0

Ninth installment in the "Gokudo" series. Depicts the activities of Shimamura Seikichi and his henchmen.

Gokudo of Kamagasaki

1973

Bloodstained Clan of Honor poster
7.4

The story takes place in the sunset days of the yakuza in 1965. The postwar turmoil that created the black market and lubricated illegal business opportunities was giving way to Japan Inc. A young Bunta Sugawara takes over as the oyabun of a crime syndicate in Yokohama, where he is struggling to keep operations at the port there alive. As his syndicate is eroding quickly, a major heavy industries company offers his gang the chance to chase some vagrants out of a shantytown where they are squatting on land where a factory is to be built. The job would secure steady profits for Bunta's crime ring for years to come. However, Bunta and other members of his outfit grew up in the shanty, and they would be muscling their friends and neighbors. This sets the stage for an internal struggle that complicates the violent struggle with a rival mafia organization in Tokyo.

Bloodstained Clan of Honor

1970

Kamikaze Cop, Marihuana Syndicate poster
6.4

An undercover cop insinuates himself into a yakuza family. Managing to avert an assassination attack on the boss he is assigned to kill a rival boss.

Kamikaze Cop, Marihuana Syndicate

1970

The Maizuru Showdown between The Yakuza Brothers poster
10.0

With a Kansai syndicate vying for Tokyo, one man reunites with his roguish half-brother in the midst of negotiations, when all hell breaks loose.

The Maizuru Showdown between The Yakuza Brothers

1974

1960s · 22 titles

Shogun's Joy of Torture poster
5.6

A young magistrate recalls three tales of heinous crimes committed by women, and the brutal punishments that ensued.

Shogun's Joy of Torture

1968

Boy poster
7.2

A family of four lives off of scams in which they pretend to be injured by automobiles.

Boy

1969

Late Autumn poster
7.7

A woman and her daughter are each forced to contend with an increasing pressure to marry, particularly from three men who knew her late husband.

Late Autumn

1960

Death by Hanging poster
7.5

A Korean man is sentenced to death in Japan but somehow survives his execution, sending the authorities into a panic about what to do next.

Death by Hanging

1968

Pleasures of the Flesh poster
5.8

After committing murder, businessman Atsushi is blackmailed into keeping a suitcase of embezzled money. What follows is a descent into lustful, reckless actions and regret.

Pleasures of the Flesh

1965

Cruel Story of Youth poster
6.6

A harsh young man seduces a freeloading young woman and eventually takes advantage of her knack for hitchhiking to rob middle-class men.

Cruel Story of Youth

1960

Diary of a Shinjuku Thief poster
4.8

In Tokyo's Shinjuku district, the lives of a young man prone to theft, a young woman he meets at a bookstore, and a kabuki actor intersect.

Diary of a Shinjuku Thief

1969

The River Fuefuki poster
7.7

In a time of continuous civil wars ravaging the fields of feudal Japan, the eldest son of a very poor peasant family, living alongside the bridge over the Fuefuki river, decides to serve a warlord to escape his miserable condition, being soon followed by his younger brothers. Although not all the men of the family take this tragic path of death, women of the family will be doomed to endure the pain of loss during the next five generations.

The River Fuefuki

1960

Yakuza on Foot poster
7.5

An Osaka gangster Shimamura just got married. His new bride, Mineko is also involved in drug trafficking. When she goes to China to make a deal, things get botched pretty badly. Shimamura must travel to save her and recoup his employers’ losses.

Yakuza on Foot

1969

Violence at Noon poster
6.2

Two young women must come to terms with the fact that a man they're deeply linked to is a murdering rapist.

Violence at Noon

1966

The Sun's Burial poster
6.5

In Osaka's slum, capricious folks without futures engage in pilfering, assault and robbery, prostitution, and the trading of ID cards and blood.

The Sun's Burial

1960

Night and Fog in Japan poster
6.5

Long takes and a highly theatrical visual approach combine to form a tense and confrontational look at the decline of a socialist student activists' movement in Japan.

Night and Fog in Japan

1960

Kanto Street Peddlers poster
NR

Kokubu Masaru (Bunta Sugawara) is a hard-headed, hot-tempered member of a street vendor clan run by an elderly boss (Kanjuro Arashi). They come into conflict with an unholy alliance of evil Yakuza bosses (Watanabe, Amatsu and Kawazu).

Kanto Street Peddlers

1969

Organized Violence II poster
7.5

No synopsis available yet.

Organized Violence II

1967

Good-for-Nothing poster
6.9

Yoshida's first feature follows the lives of young students against a background of jazz, emptiness and boredom. The plot is fairly simple: a "good-for-nothing" from a poor background falls in love with the young secretary of his rich friend's father. The woman senses good in him and tries to lead him on the right path.

Good-for-Nothing

1960

Invitation to Jail poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Invitation to Jail

1967

Rogue poster
7.0

Coal miner Isamu Oba is forced to quit his village and leave his mother and siblings behind. Mining buddy Ichiro accompanies him to Tokyo, and the pair enjoy several "fish-out-of-water" sequences before finding employment at a boxing gym with trainer Sawada and his spunky sister Tomoko. The boys also find part time night jobs as roving minstrels in the club district courtesy of benevolent gang boss Asakawa. Of course, they run afoul of boss Karasawa's cruel gang. Karasawa also has it in for Asakawa, and this indirectly throws a spanner into the works as far as Isamu's burgeoning success as a kickboxer. When Asakawa's HQ is burned to the ground by Karasawa's men, Asakawa tries to kill Karasawa - which, of course, leads to his own gruesome death. Isamu goes on the rampage with his sword, wiping out Karasawa and men.

Rogue

1968

The Hoodlum Priest poster
7.3

The first film in the 2 part series about Ryuzen, a renegade martial-arts priest who, in addition to breaking all the commandments against sex and gambling, opens his own gambling den in direct defiance of the local yakuza boss. Exciting action and a twisty plot this movie breaks new barriers in Japanese cinema. Katsu Shintaro is superb in one of his better non-Zato Ichi roles as he fights off the advances of a love-lorn woman and risks his life to defeat the powerful gambling boss who has a stranglehold on the town.

The Hoodlum Priest

1967

Silence Has No Wings poster
6.9

After a young boy captures a rare butterfly in Nagasaki, a caterpillar begins a relay-trip toward the northern tip of Hokkaido, serving as a silent witness to a series of vignettes featuring people struggling with the psychological and social scars of post-war Japan.

Silence Has No Wings

1966

Three Resurrected Drunkards poster
5.7

Three students spend their holidays at the seaside where they are mistaken for Koreans, a minority which is looked down on in Japan. The action develops into a crime story.

Three Resurrected Drunkards

1968

Sanctuary poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Sanctuary

1961

Yanagase Blues poster
NR

Jiro, a smooth-talking, womanizing bartender, flees from a Yakuza boss to Yanagase.

Yanagase Blues

1967

1950s · 3 titles

Series credits

Key Hunter poster
7.0

Key Hunter is a prime-time Japanese television detective series. It aired on Saturday nights in the 9:00–9:56 p.m. time slot on the Tokyo Broadcasting System network from April 6, 1968 to April 7, 1973. There were a total of 262 episodes, and it was one of the most popular action dramas in Japan at the time. The story involved "Key Hunter", a special clandestine unit of the International Police, which endeavored to solve various crimes. "Key Hunter" was a unique TV show, which started out as a grand scale spy thriller never before seen in Japan. The episodes were individually themed on global crimes and political strife. The initial hardboiled theme later evolved to include intellectual elements involving action, and occasionally with comical elements as well. Tetsuro Tamba starred in the 1967 film You Only Live Twice as Japanese Secret Service agent Tiger Tanaka, an ally of James Bond. This role greatly influenced his image in "Key Hunter".

Key Hunter

1968

Uzushio poster
NR

The 4th NHK Asadora. Starring Michiko Hayashi as a woman born in poverty who lives a brave life. She lost her husband in war and now must take care of their 5-year-old child alone. Adapted from the novel of the same name by Fumiko Hayashi.

Uzushio

1964

Nemuri Kyoshiro poster
NR

Thirteen years after his mother took her own life as a ritual sacrifice for the Black Mass, samurai Kyoshiro (Masakazu Tamura), who lives his life with his eyes turned away from happiness, uses his beloved sword to slay his enemies who come at him.....

Nemuri Kyoshiro

1972

シークレット部隊 poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

シークレット部隊

1972

The Great Chase poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

The Great Chase

1978

Vampires poster
NR

Based on the Osamu Tezuka manga

Vampires

1968

Delicious Relation poster
7.0

Momoe lives a life of luxury until one day, she loses everything... her money, her father and her lover. She must now find a way to support herself. With no experience whatsoever, she nonchalently applies for a position at at French restaurant where she once enjoyed a consomme soup many years earlier. Momoe was attracted to the French restaurant, La Petit Lapin, because of the wonderful owner, Kansuke and the delicious soup that was invented by the chef, Orita Keiji. Keiji, a first-rate chef, was trained in Paris at the two-star restaurant, Grand Bleu, and is as a result, a little spoiled and snobby. Find out what happens next when Momoe is taken on as an apprentice and must prove herself to Keiji.

Delicious Relation

1996

Hijo no License poster
NR

A hard-boiled detective drama. Detective Aida, who belongs to the Special Investigation Department founded by the Special Prosecutor's Office, gathers the outcasts of the Metropolitan Police Department and fights evil with an unconventional investigative method.

Hijo no License

1973

Umi ni kakeru Niji: Yamamoto Isoroku to Nippon Kaigun poster
NR

The tumultuous life of the fallen Isoroku Yamamoto is depicted, along with his family, friends, and subordinates, his bonds with the women who loved and watched over him, and the sorrows of the nameless people who have disappeared in the torrent of history.

Umi ni kakeru Niji: Yamamoto Isoroku to Nippon Kaigun

1983