Masanobu Ando

Acting

Masanobu Ando

Born 1975-05-19 · Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan

Masanobu Ando  (安藤 政信, Andō Masanobu, born May 19, 1975 in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan) is a Japanese actor and director. For his second film, in 1996, he won the Film Academy of Japan's Best New Actor Award, starring in Takeshi Kitano's Kids Return. Ando has extensive experience in both Japanese television drama and film and has played a large variety of different roles: mentally challenged (Innocent World), bank robber (Space Travelers, Drive), doctor (Transparent), ninja and samurai (Red Shadow), even a corpse (Monday). Out of all of Ando's characters, he is best known for his role as Kazuo Kiriyama, the heartless, psychopathic killer in the controversial film, Battle Royale (2000). He also played an art forger in the low-budget Battle Royale parody Tokyo 10+01 (2003). As well as acting, Ando has been in Japanese ad campaigns for the popular Japanese snack food, Pocky, Toyota, and for DoCoMo mobile phones. In 2003, he directed his first film, Adagietto. Sehr langsam, starring Japanese actress, Kumiko Aso. The short is included in Hiroyuki Nakano's Peacedelic compilation called Short Films. In it, he also stars in the short, 県道スター (loosely translated to "Prefectural road star"). In his spare time, he enjoys photography and shopping Description above from the Wikipedia article Masanobu Ando, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia

Acting credits

Battle Royale poster
7.3

In the future, the Japanese government captures a class of ninth-grade students and forces them to kill each other under the revolutionary "Battle Royale" act.

Battle Royale

2000

Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning poster
7.7

Before he was a protector, Kenshin was a fearsome assassin known as Battosai. But when he meets gentle Tomoe Yukishiro, a beautiful young woman who carries a huge burden in her heart, his life will change forever.

Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning

2021

Sadako vs. Kayako poster
5.6

A girl, Yūri Kurahashi, after watching a cursed videotape together with her friend in a haunted house, becomes trapped in a conflict between the two murderous ghosts: Sadako Yamamura and Kayako Saeki.

Sadako vs. Kayako

2016

City Hunter poster
6.5

An exceptional marksman and hopeless playboy, private eye Ryo Saeba reluctantly forms an alliance with his late partner's sister to investigate his death.

City Hunter

2024

Sukiyaki Western Django poster
6.2

A nameless gunfighter arrives in a town ripped apart by rival gangs and, though courted by both to join, chooses his own path.

Sukiyaki Western Django

2007

Sakuran poster
6.5

Kiyoha rises from the lowly courtesan ranks to the high class position of Oiran in the steamy red-light district of Yoshiwara. She is determined to stand on her own two feet and live life as she pleased.

Sakuran

2006

The Fable: The Killer Who Doesn't Kill poster
7.0

Akira is the legendary killer known as the Fable. Following the order of his boss and due to being overworked, he lives peacefully with his partner, Yoko, as ordinary siblings. Akira still works part-time at design company Octopus with CEO Takoda and employee Misaki. CEO Takoda and Misaki are unaware of Akira's background as an assassin. Meanwhile, Utsubo is a representative for an NPO. But, Utsubo works with contract killer Suzuki to set people up for extortion purposes. They target someone at design company Octopus.

The Fable: The Killer Who Doesn't Kill

2021

Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale poster
7.8

An indigenous clan-based people living in harmony with nature find their way of life threatened when violent interlopers from another culture arrive, intent on seizing their natural resources and enslaving them.

Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale

2012

Transparent: Tribute to a Sad Genius poster
6.9

A young, good-hearted doctor Kenichi suffers from a rare syndrome whereby his feelings cannot be hidden. Such people are known as "satorare" and their well-being come under special government protection.

Transparent: Tribute to a Sad Genius

2001

Kids Return poster
6.9

Shinji and Masaru spend most of their school days harassing fellow classmates and playing pranks. They drop out and Shinji becomes a small-time boxer, while Masaru joins up with a local yakuza gang. However, the world is a tough place.

Kids Return

1996

Crickets poster
7.0

Kaoru, a wealthy woman whose youth is fading, abandons the hustle and bustle of the city to live peacefully in a home on the coast. There, she takes care of an old deaf, dumb and blind man as if he were an insect, a child or a pet. He can’t do anything for himself, so she feeds him and accompanies him on his walks. This strong mutual dependency offers Kaoru an escape from society and allows her to free herself from restrictions imposed by common sense.

Crickets

2006

A Flower Aflame poster
5.8

When Sonoko enters a traditional Japanese arranged marriage with Amamiya facilitated by her parents the resulting union is loveless including the functional and goal-oriented sex. When the husband and wife move for his work she falls for her husband's boss and takes on the role of a betrayer.

A Flower Aflame

2016

SHORT FILMS poster
NR

Omnibus of six short films: Return; Ken-do star; Hana to oji-san; Adagietto Sehr, langsam; Nakayoki koto wa yoki koto ka na; Slow is Beautiful. Third installment of "SF" series produced by Hiroyuki Nakano.

SHORT FILMS

2003

69 poster
6.5

Hoping to catch a girl's attention, high school students Ken and Adama cook up an ambitious plan. They plan a festival that combines film, theater, and rock music, and develop their project into a school road block. This plan however catches the attention of television stations and newspapers, and soon even the cops became involved in this teenage adventure.

69

2004

Railroad Man poster
7.1

A railway stationmaster at a dying end-of-the-line village in Hokkaido is haunted by memories of his dead wife and daughter. When the railroad line is scheduled to be closed, he is offered a job at a hotel, but he is emotionally unable to part with his career as a railroader. His life takes a turn when he meets a young woman with an interest in trains who resembles his daughter.

Railroad Man

1999

Gonin Saga poster
5.1

Seiji is a third generation "Gosei kai" gang member. He works to build up the group's strength. Meanwhile, a journalist investigates a case that occurred 19 years ago. He meets Hayato, Daisuke and Asami.

Gonin Saga

2015

Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale - Part 1: The Sun Flag poster
7.3

An indigenous clan-based people living in harmony with nature find their way of life threatened when violent interlopers from another culture arrive, intent on seizing their natural resources and enslaving them. Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale - Part 1: The Sun Flag is Part one of the two-part, four-hour Taiwanese edition of the film Warriors of the Rainbow.

Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale - Part 1: The Sun Flag

2011

The Butcher, the Chef, and the Swordsman poster
5.4

A tale of revenge, honor and greed follows a group of misfits that gets involved with a kitchen cleaver made from the top five swords of the martial arts world in this wild and brash action comedy.

The Butcher, the Chef, and the Swordsman

2011

Rohan at the Louvre poster
7.7

Rohan Kishibe is a mangaka who can read people like a book. At work on a new creation, Rohan recalls a tale of the blackest painting ever made. Called the most evil of paintings, it used a paint that should not exist. Driven by the events linked to it, Rohan and his editor, Izumi, go to the Louvre in France for answers.

Rohan at the Louvre

2023

The Yin Yang Master Zero poster
6.2

During the Heian period, Abe no Seimei trains in magic but lacks interest, until a collaboration with Minamoto no Hiromasa arises to solve a strange phenomenon.

The Yin Yang Master Zero

2024

Monday poster
7.0

A simple funeral turns a man's world Topsy turvy. He wakes up in a posh hotel room, totally clueless about how he got there. Slowly, he recalls what happened a day before.

Monday

2000

Code Blue: The Movie poster
6.5

A medical team is dispatched to the patients on a helicopter to provide medical care in the field as soon as possible. One day, four young physicians are assigned to this latest medical system. The doctors experience traumatic medical situations, deal with personal ambitions, witness the fragility of life, and they grow personally and professionally.

Code Blue: The Movie

2018

Still Life of Memories poster
4.1

A rising photographer is asked by a mysterious woman to take pictures of her body, engaging both his talent and personal life.

Still Life of Memories

2018

Aegis poster
5.5

The Isokaze, an Aegis-class escort vessel, sets sail on a routine training exercise, playing host to a platoon from the Fleet Training Group. No sooner is the Isokaze on open water, however, then the FTG reveal themselves to be terrorist stowaways who kill the ship's captain, send the rest of the crew overboard and take control of the vessel. The ship is carrying a secret biological weapon which the terrorists are now threatening to use to level Tokyo! Only a stowaway NCO, Sengoko (played by Sanada Hiroyuki from Ring and Twilight Samurai) is in a position to stop them - but does he really have what it takes to save the day? Playing like a cross between a sea-faring version of Top Gun and Die Hard, director Sakamoto Junji shows that it's not just Hollywood that can produce thrill-a-minute action spectaculars.

Aegis

2005

Behind the camera