Takeshi Katō

Acting

Takeshi Katō

Born — Died

1929-05-24 — 2015-07-31

Place of birth

Tokyo, Japan

Known for

Acting

Credits

72 titles

Takeshi Katō (加藤 武 Katō Takeshi, 24 May 1929 – 31 July 2015) was a Japanese stage and film actor. He appeared in more than one hundred films.

Known for

Film credits

2000s · 3 titles

1990s · 3 titles

1980s · 11 titles

Ran poster
8.0

Shakespeare'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

Godzilla 1985 poster
6.8

Originally released in Japan as "The Return of Godzilla" in 1984, this is the heavily re-edited, re-titled "Godzilla 1985". Adding in new footage of Raymond Burr, this 16th Godzilla film ignores all previous sequels and serves as a direct follow-up to the 1956 "Godzilla King of the Monsters", which also featured scenes with Burr edited into 1954's "Godzilla". This film restores the darker tone of the original, as we witness the nuclear destruction of giant lizard terrorizing Japan.

Godzilla 1985

1985

The Return of Godzilla poster
7.2

After a fishing boat is attacked, the sole surviving crew member realizes it is none other than a resurrected Godzilla. However, efforts to bring the story to light are suppressed by the Japanese government amid growing political tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union, who are both willing to bomb Japan to stop the monster.

The Return of Godzilla

1984

Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp poster
7.0

This film stays very faithful to the original down to the smallest details, save for the kangaroo-rat that suddenly appears twenty minutes into the movie and subsequently follows Aladdin around, serving no purpose in the story but fulfilling the role of token animal mascot. The story takes some illogical and confusing jumps at the point where Aladdin begins to court the princess, and the extravagant animation that had characterised Toei films of the 60s, when Toei had the best animators around, had become a thing of the past long before this point; but this is still an above-average film, in large part because of the screenplay that stays so faithful to the original. The character designs are slightly more western-looking than one is accustomed to seeing in anime.

Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp

1982

Four Days of Snow and Blood poster
7.3

Based on the "2.26 Incident", an attempted coup d'état in Japan 1936, launched by radical ultra-nationalist parts of the military. Several leading politicians were killed and the center of Tokyo was briefly held by the insurgents before the coup was suppressed.

Four Days of Snow and Blood

1989

The Fir Trees Remain poster
NR

The 21-year-old feudal on Sendai, Tsunamune Date, was prohibited to go out in the daytime for his misbehavior during his short stay in Edo. On the next day, his 4 attendants were killed one after another. Sakai Utanokamike, the Rozyu, is turned out to be involved in this scheme, and the aim is to destroy the Date family. Tsunamune's brother Munekatsu Date who is willing to take over the family doesn't know the real purpose of Utanokami and helps him. Munesuku Harada gets to know the whole picture of the incident and takes action alone for the sake of protecting the Date family, leaving his own family. His lonely fight continues for 10 years and he got in danger in Utanokamike's house, and...

The Fir Trees Remain

1983

Company Executives poster
6.6

A fierce succession battle ignites at a newspaper company when the president passes away.

Company Executives

1989

Lonely Heart poster
8.3

A police procedural surrounding murder at a bookstore and the private lives of the cops trying to solve the case.

Lonely Heart

1981

Koto: The Ancient City poster
7.0

Chieko (Momoe Yamaguchi) has been raised as the only child of parents who run a dry goods store. When Chieko was a middle-school student, she learned that her parents are not her biological parents. Cheiko's mother told her that she was stolen while sleeping under a cherry tree in Gion, Kyoto, Japan, but Chieko doesn't believe that. Her relationship with her parents is very close. Chieko only tells her childhood friend Shinichi, but...

Koto: The Ancient City

1980

Zero poster
6.1

Two young men are recruited into the Japanese air force just before outbreak of WW2 by the test pilot of Japans new super fighter - the Zero. The movie is told in reverse from the point of one of the young men who don't qualify for the pilot training and instead joins the ground crew. It chronicles the entire history of the famous fighter from the first prototype test flights all through the war.

Zero

1984

For Kayako poster
6.4

A film about the substantial population of Koreans living in Japan, and the love affair between Kayako, a Japanese girl, and Sanjun, a Korean.

For Kayako

1984

1970s · 13 titles

Battles Without Honor and Humanity poster
7.3

In the teeming black markets of postwar Japan, Shozo Hirono and his buddies find themselves in a new war between factious and ambitious yakuza.

Battles Without Honor and Humanity

1973

The Inugami Family poster
6.8

When a tycoon passes away, he unexpectedly leaves the family fortune to outsider Tamayo on the condition that she marries one of the grandsons, pitting blood against blood.

The Inugami Family

1976

Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Police Tactics poster
7.0

As Japan gears up for the 1964 Olympic Games, the cops start to crack down on the gangs, under pressure from the public and the press, adding a new dimension in the war for power among the yakuza families of Hiroshima.

Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Police Tactics

1974

Island of Hell poster
6.2

A scruffy detective investigates the murders of three sisters on a small Japanese island in 1946.

Island of Hell

1977

The House of Hanging poster
6.2

This time, Kousuke investigates a murder in a hospital. The murderer leaves misleading evidence to divert Kousuke's attention on the case. Suspicion and doubt clouds Kousuke's mind.

The House of Hanging

1979

Miyamoto Musashi poster
7.3

In Part I we see the young would-be swordsman setting out to achieve greatness in war, achieving nothing because fighting on the losing side, & then beginning his long period of wandering & training, with the goal always in mind of his duel with Kojiro. Part II builds toward that great duel on Ganryu Island, with considerable focus on Musashi's planning & forethought as to how to gain an advantage.

Miyamoto Musashi

1973

The Pirates of Buban poster
6.5

By going to the Philippines, Imamura comes to meet people living in an extreme poverty. He discovers very quickly that some communities are under the control of cruel & armed pirates. Imamura will come to meet those men in order to understand their position.

The Pirates of Buban

1972

Lullaby to Kill poster
6.6

Kôsuke Kindaichi, a somewhat peculiar private detective, visits a remote town. He meets a police detective and they start to investigate an old unsolved murder. Then some murders happen. Kindaichi must find out about the past in order to reveal who the murderer is.

Lullaby to Kill

1977

Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Proxy War poster
7.0

Shozo Hirono has managed to separate from the Yamamori family and create his own small family, and extend his circle of acquaintances. These new friendships include a powerful underboss of the Muraoka family, Noboru Uchimoto.

Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Proxy War

1973

Queen Bee poster
7.6

To solve the mystery of a murder of an old governess which takes place at a wealthy Daidoji family's country estate, family secrets and lies dating back several generations must be sorted out once and for all.

Queen Bee

1978

The Gate of Youth poster
8.3

Mainly the story of Shinsuke and his stepmother, ranging from Shinsuke's infanthood to his mid-teens. Coal workers and the mines dominate nearly every aspect of the life of the characters. Shinsuke's father 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 kind Korean and a Harley-riding yakuza.

The Gate of Youth

1975

The Tempō Outlaws of the Marsh poster
NR

A great famine struck all of Japan: the so-called Great Tenpō famine. It was a time when there were frequent uprisings in rural areas due to farmers losing their land as a result of strict tax collection. The Tonegawa area of ​​Boso was a lawless area for a generation, as two major forces fought against each other: Sukegoro of Iioka, who wields power with his industrial capital behind him, and Shigezo of Sasakawa, a rising yakuza. Furthermore, the successive floods of the Tone River, which could be called fate, forced the farmers into even more poverty and despair. Meanwhile, farmers in Nabe Village continue to live a lethargic life, but agricultural reform is about to begin under the hands of Yugaku Ohara, a ronin who has settled in the village.

The Tempō Outlaws of the Marsh

1976

Summer Soldiers poster
6.7

During the Vietnam War, an American G.I. deserts his base in Japan and escapes to Tokyo with the help of his Japanese bar hostess girlfriend. In the capital he gets involved with an anti-war organization while dodging the military police.

Summer Soldiers

1972

1960s · 22 titles

High and Low poster
8.4

A Yokohama shoe executive faces a wrenching choice when kidnappers mistakenly seize his chauffeur’s son but demand the ransom anyway.

High and Low

1963

Yojimbo poster
8.1

A nameless ronin, or samurai with no master, enters a small village in feudal Japan where two rival businessmen are struggling for control of the local gambling trade. Taking the name Sanjuro Kuwabatake, the ronin convinces both silk merchant Tazaemon and sake merchant Tokuemon to hire him as a personal bodyguard, then artfully sets in motion a full-scale gang war between the two ambitious and unscrupulous men.

Yojimbo

1961

Battle of the Japan Sea poster
6.4

Japan and Russia clash in what comes to be known as the Russo-Japanese War. An attempt by the Japanese fleet and army to take Port Arthur fails, and a Russian fleet bears down on the Sea of Japan. Admiral Heihachiro Togo sends his fleet to confront the Russians, with results which stun both nations. Meanwhile, Major Genjiro Akashi makes secret negotiations with the Bolshevik revolutionaries in Russia, negotiations that have repercussions far beyond the conflict at hand.

Battle of the Japan Sea

1969

The Bad Sleep Well poster
7.7

In this loose adaptation of "Hamlet," illegitimate son Kôichi Nishi climbs to a high position within a Japanese corporation and marries the crippled daughter of company vice president Iwabuchi. At the reception, the wedding cake is a replica of their corporate headquarters, but an aspect of the design reminds the party of the hushed-up death of Nishi's father. It is then that Nishi unleashes his plan to avenge his father's death.

The Bad Sleep Well

1960

None But the Brave poster
6.4

American and Japanese soldiers, stranded on a tiny Pacific island during World War II, must make a temporary truce and cooperate to survive various tribulations. Told through the eyes of the American and Japanese unit commanders, who must deal with an atmosphere of growing distrust and tension between their men.

None But the Brave

1965

The Great White Tower poster
7.3

The story contrasts the life of two doctors, former classmates and now both assistant professors at Naniwa University Hospital in Osaka. The brilliant and ambitious surgeon Goro Zaizen stops at nothing to rise to a position of eminence and authority, while the friendly Shuji Satomi busies himself with his patients and research.

The Great White Tower

1966

Pigs and Battleships poster
7.1

In the city of Yokosuka, Kinta and his lover Haruko, both involved with yakuza, brave the post-occupation period with a goal to be together.

Pigs and Battleships

1961

Tale of Japanese Burglars poster
7.0

Gisuke Hayashida is an illegal dentist during the day and a burglar by night. One night during a burglary he witnesses a train derailment. Some communists are found guilty of causing the incident, but he knows it wasn't them. He can save innocent people but for that he must confess his own crime.

Tale of Japanese Burglars

1965

Japan's Longest Day poster
7.3

A dramatisation of the 24-hour period in which the Japanese government was deadlocked over the decision to accept or reject the Allies' demand for an unconditional surrender following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Japan's Longest Day

1967

The Last Judgment poster
8.3

Driven by greed and a desire for his cousin's wife, Jiro orchestrates a complex frame-up to have his cousin arrested for murder.

The Last Judgment

1965

House of Terrors poster
5.3

A 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

Ninja, A Band of Assassins poster
6.4

Warlord Oda Nobunaga seeks to unite a fractured Japan. A young man trained in the arts of ninjitsu is manipulated by a ninja master into attempting to assassinate the warlord before he completes his task.

Ninja, A Band of Assassins

1962

Zatoichi's Revenge poster
6.6

Itinerant masseur and master swordsman, the blind Zatoichi, is near the village of his teacher, Hikonoichi, so he decides to visit. He learns of Hikonoichi's recent robbery and murder and the imprisonment of his virginal daughter, Osayo, in a brothel. Through friendship with Denroku, a local dice thrower and devoted father, Ichi uncovers an unholy alliance between the governor and the area strongman: among their scams is falsifying tax records to put farmers in debt, then forcing their daughters into prostitution at the boss's brothel. With help from Denroku's daughter, Otsuru, Ichi comforts Osayo until he can provoke showdowns with the villains and their henchmen.

Zatoichi's Revenge

1965

Happiness of Us Alone poster
9.0

The story is of two people. One is deaf, the other deaf and mute. They marry after meeting at a school reunion, and the film follows their trials and tribulations ... and joys.

Happiness of Us Alone

1961

午前零時の出獄 poster
NR

This movie depicts the confrontation between a man entangled in a despicable trap and the shadow of murderous intent, and the efforts of a journalist chasing after the truth. Due to the passage of time since the film's release, some scenes may be marred by visual and audio distortions. We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your understanding.

午前零時の出獄

1963

Foundry Town poster
7.8

Set in Kawaguchi in the early 60s, this simple story chronicles the lives of foundry families and one girl's dreams of higher education.

Foundry Town

1962

Only on Mondays poster
6.7

Yuka is a “good-time girl” from Yokohama who is persuaded by her papa to sleep with a foreign business executive so that he can close an important deal. Nakahira presents a shrewdly observed portrait of a modern, sexually assertive woman—an unsettling character for a changing but still patriarchal society.

Only on Mondays

1964

Fighting Elegy poster
7.0

Kiroku boards with a Roman Catholic family and falls for the daughter Michiko. He ignores his feelings, joins a gang, gets in fights and, eventually, becomes involved with the radical Kita Ikki group.

Fighting Elegy

1966

A Wanderer's Notebook poster
7.2

Based on the life and career of novelist Fumiko Hayashi, she bitterly struggles for literary recognition in the first half of the 20th-century – her affairs with feckless men, the jobs she took to survive (peddler, waitress, bar maid), and her arduous, often humiliating attempts to get published in a male-dominated culture.

A Wanderer's Notebook

1962

New Treasure Island poster
7.0

This was the first episode of Mushi Pro Land, a unique series of 60-minute animated programs. It was also Japan's first 60-minute animated TV program. However, the series never materialized and only this episode was actually aired. The story follows Stevenson's "Treasure Island," featuring characters in the form of animals. For example, the pirate Silver is illustrated as a wolf, where the main character Jim is changed into a rabbit. This has, therefore, nothing to do with the "New Treasure Island," Tezuka's masterpiece Manga.

New Treasure Island

1965

Kill or Be Killed poster
NR

When Yakuza decides to take avenge his brother, the war shall begin.

Kill or Be Killed

1966

Bushido: The Cruel Code of the Samurai poster
6.7

After a salary-man's fiancée attempts suicide, he recounts his gruesome family history which saw generations of his ancestors suffer and sacrifice themselves for the sake of their cruel lords.

Bushido: The Cruel Code of the Samurai

1963

1950s · 7 titles

Seven Samurai poster
8.5

A samurai answers a village's request for protection after he falls on hard times. The town needs protection from bandits, so the samurai gathers six others to help him teach the people how to defend themselves, and the villagers provide the soldiers with food.

Seven Samurai

1954

Throne of Blood poster
7.9

Returning to their lord's castle, samurai warriors Washizu and Miki are waylaid by a spirit who predicts their futures. When the first part of the spirit's prophecy comes true, Washizu's scheming wife, Asaji, presses him to speed up the rest of the spirit's prophecy by murdering his lord and usurping his place. Director Akira Kurosawa's resetting of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" in feudal Japan is one of his most acclaimed films.

Throne of Blood

1957

The Hidden Fortress poster
8.0

In feudal Japan, during a bloody war between clans, two cowardly and greedy peasants, soldiers of a defeated army, stumble upon a mysterious man who guides them to a fortress hidden in the mountains.

The Hidden Fortress

1958

The Thick-Walled Room poster
7.2

A group of rank-and-file soldiers are jailed for crimes against humanity, themselves victims of a nation refusing to bear its burdens as a whole.

The Thick-Walled Room

1956

An Inlet of Muddy Water poster
6.2

A Japanese woman writes down three stories she has witnessed or heard of in her diary, each about the difficult situation a young woman finds herself in.

An Inlet of Muddy Water

1953

A Sun-Tribe Myth from the Bakumatsu Era poster
7.0

Saheji, a man-about-town, gets stuck at a high-class brothel when he can’t pay the bill. He makes the best of his situation by performing various tasks amidst the tumult of the end of the shogunate—but always by making sure to get a “commission” for his troubles.

A Sun-Tribe Myth from the Bakumatsu Era

1957

Endless Desire poster
6.8

Set in post-war Japan, a group of five, four men and one woman, gathers in the basement of a butcher shop to dig up a cache of morphine buried during the war. A grimly humorous tale of twisted relationships as one by one each of the group is eliminated.

Endless Desire

1958

Series credits

Furuya Ikkou's Great Detective Kindaichi Kousuke Series poster
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

Furuya Ikkou's Great Detective Kindaichi Kousuke Series

1983

Kimi no na wa poster
8.0

A story of a man and a woman who meet amid the Great Tokyo Air Raid in 1945.

Kimi no na wa

1991

Choudenshi Bioman poster
7.8

Five descendants of the people showered with Bio Particles by Bio Robots five centuries in the past have become Biomen. They transform with the Bio Brace and fight using their Super Electronic Brains on their masks. Their Bioswords are equipped with sword and gun modes.

Choudenshi Bioman

1984

Natchan no shashinkan poster
NR

The 25th NHK Asadora. Nishiki Natsuko is a woman who strives to become a photographer.

Natchan no shashinkan

1980

Life of a Flower poster
7.0

The story chronicles the life of Ii Naosuke.

Life of a Flower

1963

Akō Rōshi poster
7.5

"Ako Roshi" is a group of 47 former retainers of Lord Asano. Lord Asano was forced to commit suicide after attempting to kill Lord Kira. Once the retainers hear about their Lord's death, they sacrifice their lives to regain the honor of their former master.

Akō Rōshi

1964

Hana no Asuka-gumi! poster
8.5

While the adults were devouring the country in peace the young girls are now plunging into the Sengoku Period. A domination of fear and terror by the Zenchura, a federation of banchos nationwide, began. With 80% of the nation's middle schools already under its control. Yet, there was one girl who was determined to crush those wicked ambitions. Her name is Asuka Kuraku.

Hana no Asuka-gumi!

1988

Iki no Iiyatsu poster
NR

Set in a sushi restaurant in Tokyo shortly after the end of the war, the story follows a stubborn, old-fashioned master and his hot-tempered, brash apprentice growing up among the warm-hearted people of downtown Tokyo.

Iki no Iiyatsu

1987

The Tale of Genji poster
NR

The life of Prince Hikaru Genji, who was nicknamed "Shining" by people for his dazzling noble beauty. Based on the novel "The Tale of Genji" by Murasaki Shikibu.

The Tale of Genji

1991

Momi no Ki wa Nokotta: Ranshin poster
NR

A human drama based on the "Date Riots".

Momi no Ki wa Nokotta: Ranshin

1983

愛のホットライン poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

愛のホットライン

—

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

なつかしき海の歌

1975