
Acting
Kazuo Katō
Born
1928-01-01 (98)
Place of birth
Tokyo, Japan
Known for
Acting
Credits
39 titles
Known for
8.0Shakespeare's King Lear is reimagined as a singular historical epic set in sixteenth-century Japan where an aging warlord divides his kingdom between his three sons.
Ran
1985
8.4A Yokohama shoe executive faces a wrenching choice when kidnappers mistakenly seize his chauffeur’s son but demand the ransom anyway.
High and Low
1963
7.1On a Tokyo dump’s shantytown edge, interwoven vignettes follow residents scraping by: a boy who “drives” an imaginary trolley, a homeless father and son designing a dream house, a young woman brutalized at home, drunks, schemers, and saints of small kindnesses. Kurosawa crafts a ragged mosaic of hardship, fantasy, and flickers of grace that keep people moving forward.
Dodes'ka-den
1970
7.3An aging foundry patriarch, gripped by terror of nuclear annihilation, tries to uproot his family to Brazil. When they petition to have him declared incompetent, a family-court counselor witnesses his obsession slide into ruin—and asks whether ignoring the atomic threat is any saner.
I Live in Fear
1955
No synopsis available yet.
白昼の死角(TV)
—
NRThe story of the battles between the 3 related families Kishu, Mito, and Owari, as each vies for the shogun’s seat in the line of succession. Highlighting the series are many fights between the young lord’s Negoro ninja helpers and their mortal enemies, the Koga ninja. History comes alive with the bloody blades of the three families at war within the highest levels of government as the search for a new shogun continues!
Tokugawa Chronicles: Ambition of the 3 Branches
1986
Film credits
1980s · 11 titles
8.0Shakespeare's King Lear is reimagined as a singular historical epic set in sixteenth-century Japan where an aging warlord divides his kingdom between his three sons.
Ran
1985
7.0Toru Hayashi is an unremarkable bachelor who lives with his mother, until one day a young woman named Rumi moves in in the apartment upstairs. Rumi is a self-proclaimed master thief, but she needs socially awkward Toru's help to actually kickstart her so-called career.
Kaito Ruby
1988
6.4A married couple of abalone divers must confront ruthless investors taking over their coastline.
Mermaid Legend
1984
7.2The story of Shinsuke, a young man who lives through a stormy life as a poverty-stricken coal miner. Ranging from Shinsuke's infanthood to his mid-teens. Coal workers and the mines dominate nearly every aspect of his life. Shinsuke's father a group leader at the mine, dies while bravely using dynamite to rescue a group of trapped Korean miners. Several older men attempt to help he and his mother cope, including a friendly Harley-riding yakuza boss. This movie has it all, drama, romance, sex, yakuza and violence! It is based on a story by Hiroyuki Itsuki that was originally serialized in the magazine Shukan Gendai in 1969-70.
Gate of Youth
1981
10.0After a passenger ship sinks in 1954, Go Akutsu devises a life-saving project in the form of a tunnel under the Tsugaru Strait. While working on this project Akutsu becomes involved with Tae Makimura leading to his estrangement from his wife.
The Longest Tunnel
1982
6.5In 1026, students in western China are shanghaied into the forces of crown prince Li Yuanhao of Xi Xia, who wants to control the length of the Silk Road. One student is Zhao Xingde, who becomes the favorite of his commander, Zhu Wangli. While sacking a fortress, Xingde discovers Tsurpia, princess of the Uighur. He hides her; they fall in love. When he's sent away to study Xixian, he leaves Tsurpia in Zhu's care, but returns to find her engaged to Li. Tragedy follows, and he and Zhu enter a pact to take revenge when Li arrives at Dun-Huang, the region's seat of learning and culture. Against overwhelming odds, they find a surprising way to leave a monument to their life and love.
The Silk Road
1988
7.0Coinciding with the LDP presidential election of the entire national public, a masterpiece depicting the reverse side of Showa political history released, superimposed cast, a group image of real politicians centered on Shigeru Yoshida and political history after the war.
The Yoshida School
1983
7.2Daisuke is supposed to be out looking for a respectable job and equally respectable wife. He is 30 years old and devotes his attention to music and literature; his family is wealthy and can support his interests. When his friend Hiraoka returns with his wife Michiyo, problems arise.
And Then
1985
NRKotiyama is a swindler and extortionist, the head of a whole gang of crooks, usually posing as a poor monk; once he really took vows, but he was kicked out of the monastery long ago. He is enterprising, smart and not too cruel, so his accomplices love him. Posing as an envoy from the abbot of the Kennei Temple, Kotiama plays a show in front of Lord Matsue with an income of 150,000 koku, and extorts money from him. The film is based on the famous play by Kawatake Mokuami.
The Villain from Edo Kochiyama Soshun
1982
NRThere are two bizarre rumors spreading about a girls' high school called “Seiwa Joshi Gakuen.” The first is a “Hanako-san in the Toilet”-like story about a painting that hangs in the principal's office = young twin sisters who escape from the painting at night and promenade around the school. The other is about Ryoko Mizumura, an art teacher who is too beautiful to be true and the object of the students' admiration, but who may actually be two people.
Grudge Girls Academy: Serial Murder of Fear!
1981
2.0After appearing on a TV program a young woman is recruited to be an advertising idol much to the dismay of her boyfriend.
Zankoku! Shōjo tarento
1984
1970s · 12 titles
7.1On a Tokyo dump’s shantytown edge, interwoven vignettes follow residents scraping by: a boy who “drives” an imaginary trolley, a homeless father and son designing a dream house, a young woman brutalized at home, drunks, schemers, and saints of small kindnesses. Kurosawa crafts a ragged mosaic of hardship, fantasy, and flickers of grace that keep people moving forward.
Dodes'ka-den
1970
7.0Kunihiko Date, a young criminal genius, puts a perfect crime plan into action to take revenge on the men who once drove his father to ruin.
The Beast Shall Die
1974
7.0Kunihiko Date, a young criminal genius, puts a perfect crime plan into action to take revenge on the men who once drove his father to ruin.
The Beast Shall Die
1974
4.8Two women are ferried to a small prison colony on the remote and barren prison island, where they and their fellow inmates are forced to perform perilous slave labor along the island’s treacherous cliffs, overseen by both an unforgiving sun and a crew of abusive male wardens. Meanwhile, the arrival of a newcomer among the island’s administrators, a disgraced policeman who is also the son of Nagasaki’s governor, creates dissension between the officials that, along with an untimely outbreak of bubonic plague on the island, ultimately sets the stage for a daring escape attempt on the part of the prisoners.
Island of Horrors
1970
6.2Akiyama 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
5.7Wild young people kidnap a wealthy woman and she becomes attracted to one of them. When she tells the man that she is the mistress of a religious leader, he and his posse make plans to rob her partner.
Stray Cat Rock: Wild Jumbo
1970
6.5A taut, economical policier-cum-gang-hostage thriller.
The Black Battlefront Kidnappers
1973
10.0Based on the novel of the same name by Seichô Matsumoto.
Without Complaint
1975
8.0Dramatic story of one man trying to make a difference.
Human Revolution II
1976
NRSakata Sankichi, an amateur shogi player living in the slums of Osaka, is so obsessed with the board game that he spends all of his family's money to keep playing in the hope of defeating star player Sekine.
The King
1973
NRMasuda Toshio film starring Watari Tetsuya and Mori Masayuki, about a lone-wolf type (Watari) seeking love and defending the honor of an elderly widower (Mori).
Sword and Flower
1972
NRFilm by Deme Masanobu
Sono hito wa hono no yo ni
1972
1960s · 7 titles
8.4A Yokohama shoe executive faces a wrenching choice when kidnappers mistakenly seize his chauffeur’s son but demand the ransom anyway.
High and Low
1963
5.3A hunchbacked caretaker presides over a forlorn mansion inhabited by the ghosts of his previous masters. An unbelieving trio (a doctor, his assistant and his niece) fail to heed the caretaker's warnings and are slaughtered horribly by the jealous occupants.
House of Terrors
1965
8.0Yuzo Kayama is an American-Japanese operative working for the US to uncover an arms deal between an American seller and Chinese communists, and to take out both parties. After almost getting assassinated himself, he takes a wounded civilian with him despite living in a world where no one can be trusted.
Bullet Wound
1969
9.0It is based on the story "The Lawyer" by attorney Hiroshi Masaki and his account of Japan's "Headless Murder Case" in which a police officer beat a suspect to death during the Pacific War.
Judge and Jeopardy
1968
5.8The survivors of a plane crash in a remote area are attacked by blob-like alien creatures that turn their victims into blood-thirsty vampires.
Goké, Body Snatcher from Hell
1968
6.7Experienced shipyard worker Shimazaki gets an offer of free lodging from his employer in the company seaside rest house if he agrees to see to its running. After moving in, Shimazaki finds out that this will also mean taking care of a flock of youngsters, and he soon becomes their none-too-successful warden. At work the boys are disciplined, as soon as they return to their dormitory however they turn into an unmanageable mob.
18 Roughs
1963
6.0No synopsis available yet.
The Man of Victory
1967
1950s · 7 titles
7.3An aging foundry patriarch, gripped by terror of nuclear annihilation, tries to uproot his family to Brazil. When they petition to have him declared incompetent, a family-court counselor witnesses his obsession slide into ruin—and asks whether ignoring the atomic threat is any saner.
I Live in Fear
1955
No synopsis available yet.
In Case of One Woman
1956
10.0On a post-war peaceful day in Japan, Toyomatsu Shimizu, a barber as well as a good father and husband, is suddenly arrested by the Prefectural Police as a war criminal and sued for murder.
I Want to Be a Shellfish
1959
7.0A film about the life of Kiyoshi Yamashita, a Japanese painter with disabilities.
The Naked General
1958
NRNo synopsis available yet.
The Story of Zenta and Sanpei: Kids in the Wind
1957
No synopsis available yet.
The Story of Zenta and Sanpei in the Ghost World
1957
No synopsis available yet.
Katsura Imperial Villa
1959
Series credits
No synopsis available yet.
白昼の死角(TV)
—
NRThe story of the battles between the 3 related families Kishu, Mito, and Owari, as each vies for the shogun’s seat in the line of succession. Highlighting the series are many fights between the young lord’s Negoro ninja helpers and their mortal enemies, the Koga ninja. History comes alive with the bloody blades of the three families at war within the highest levels of government as the search for a new shogun continues!
Tokugawa Chronicles: Ambition of the 3 Branches
1986
