Born Motohisa Nakadai, Tatsuya Nakadai is a Japanese film actor known for playing a very wide range of characters and for working with as many Japanese filmmakers as possible. He has starred in 11 films by Kobayashi Mask, 6 films by Akira Kurosawa, as well as directors such as Hiroshi Tesigahara, Mikio Naruse, Kihachi Okamoto, Hideo Gsiaa, Shiro Toyoda and Kon Ichikawa.
Biography
Tatsuya Nakadai grew up in a very poor family, so he could not afford to get any education other than high school. His only chance to break out into the people was acting. Since childhood, Tatsuya admired American films and was a fan of John Wayne and Marlon Brando.
Career
After graduating from high school, Nakadai got a job as a clerk in a clothing store in Tokyo. One day, quite by accident, young Tatsuya met the director Masaki Kobayashi and this led to the fact that Nakadai was shot in the movie "A Room with Thick Walls."
The following year, he played a short unpaid role in Seven Samurai, in which Tatsuya walked the city streets for a few seconds like a real samurai. The role of the samurai is considered to be Nakadai's technical acting debut, since the completion of the production of "Room with Thick Walls" was delayed by 3 years due to problems.
Since then, Nakadai and Kobayashi have linked each other with many years of friendship and fruitful cooperation, during which they managed to work on 11 joint films. These include such famous films as "Harakiri" (1962), "Kaidan" (1964), "Samurai Riot" and the trilogy "Conditions of Human Existence".
The turning point in the actor's career is the role of Joe, a young yakuza in the film "Black River" directed by Kobayashi. Nakanai continued to work under Kobayashi's direction until the late 1960s, and during this period of his career won his first significant award, the Blue Ribbon Award, for his role as the aging ronin Hanshiro Tsugumo in Harakiri.
In addition to films, Kobayashi Nakadai managed to play roles in 9 films by Hideo Goshi, in 6 films by Kon Ichikawa, in 6 films by Akira Kurosawa, in 5 films by Mikio Naruse and in 2 films by Hiroshi Teshigahara. In other words, Tatsuya managed to star in all the famous filmmakers in Japan. Basically, this became possible due to the fact that Tatsuya Nakadai from the very beginning did not enter into a long-term contract with any film company in Japan, so he could choose any offers he liked.
In the 1980s, Nakadai starred in two films directed by Akira Kurosawa. In the film "Kagemusha" Tatsuya plays the titular thief, who became the double of the famous daimyo Takeda Shingen, who, according to the plot, is forced to impersonate one or the other. This dual role earned him a second Blue Ribbon Award for Best Actor in a Leading Actor. In Ran, Nakadai plays another daimyo, Hidetora Ishimondji. The Wound screenplay is influenced by the play King Lear by William Shakespeare and the biography of the historical daimyo Mori Motonari.
In the 1990s, he taught and trained promising young actors such as Koji Yakusho, Mayumi Weikamura, Toru Masuoka, Azusa Watanabe, Kenichi Takito and others.
Acting creativity
From 1954 to the present, Tatsuya Nagai has starred in dozens and hundreds of films. The most famous of them are as follows:
- "Seven Samurai" (1954) - the role of a samurai wandering around the city;
- Black River (1957) - the role of Joe;
- Untamed (1957) - the role of Kimura;
- "Go and Get It" (1958) - the role of Naga;
- Angjo (1958) - Togari;
- Naked Sun (1958) - the role of Jiro Maeda;
- "Human Condition: No Big Love" (1959 film series) - the main role of Kaji;
- "Strange Obsession" (1959) - the role of Kimura;
- "The Human Condition: The Road to Eternity" (1959 film series) - the main role of Kaji;
- When a Woman Climbs the Stairs (1960) - the role of Kenichi Komatsu;
- Blue Beast (1960) - the role of Yasuhiko Kuroki;
- "Bodyguard" (1961) - the role of Unosuke;
- “The Human Condition: A Soldier's Prayer” (1961 film series) - the role of Kaji;
- "Eternal Love" (1961) - the role of Heibey;
- Sanjuro (1962) as Muroto Henbei;
- "Harakiri" (1962) - the main role of Tsugumo Hanshiro;
- "High and Low" (1963) - the role of the chief detective Tokura;
- Pressure of Guilt (1963) - the main role of Ichiro Hamano;
- "A Woman's Life" (1963) - the role of Takashi Akimoto;
- "Kwaidan" (1964) - the main role of Minokichi;
- The Illusion of Blood (1965) - the main role of Iemon;
- "Sword of Destiny" (1966) - the main role of Ryunosuke Tsukue;
- "The Face of Another" (1966) - the main role of Mr. Okuyama;
- "Age of Assassins" (1967) - the main role of Shinji Kikyo;
- "Rise of the Samurai" (1967) - the role of Asano Tatewaki;
- The Longest Day in Japan (1967) - as storyteller;
- "Today we kill, tomorrow we die!" (1968) - the role of James Elphego;
- "Murder!" (1968) - the role of Ghent;
- Human Bullet (1968) - as storyteller;
- Goyokin (1969) - the main role of Magobei;
- Hitokiri (1969) - the role of Takechi Hanpeita;
- "Portrait of Hell" (1969) - the main role of Yoshihide;
- Bakumatsu (1970) - the role of Nakaoka Shintaro;
- "The Scandalous Adventures of Buraikan" (1970) - the role of Kataoka Naojiro;
- Zatoichi Goes to the Fire Festival (1970) - Ronin;
- "Hotel of Evil" (1971) - the main role of Sadashici;
- The Battle of Okinawa (1971) - the main role of Colonel Hiromichi Yahara;
- Wolves (1971) - the main role of Seji Iwahashi;
- "The Human Revolution" (1973) - the role of Nichiren;
- Sunrise, Beautiful Sun (1973) - the role of Sakuzo;
- Karei-Naru Ichizoku (1974) - the role of Teppei Manpyu;
- "The Gate of Youth" (1975) - the role of Yuzu Ibuki;
- "Fumo Read" (1976) - the main role of Tadashi Iki;
- Blue Kinship (1978) - the role of Minami;
- Rhyme of Revenge (1978) - the role of Ginzo Maidoji;
- "Bandits against the Samurai Squadron" (1978) - the role of Kumokiri Nizaemon;
- "Hello, not Tory" (1978) - the role of Niniga;
- The Hunter in Temonote (1979) - the role of Gome Kiyomon;
- Kagemusha (1980) - the main role of Takeda Shingen and Kagemusha;
- "The Battle of Port Arthur" (1980) - the main role of General Noga Maresuke;
- "Premeditated Murder" (1981) - the main role of Yashiro;
- Onimasa (1982) - the main role of Masagoro Kiryuin;
- "Fireflies in the North" (1984) - the main role of Takeshi Tsukigata;
- Ran (1985) - the main role of Lord Hidetor Ishimondzhi;
- Hachiko Monogatari (1987) - the main role of Hijiro Ueno;
- Return from the River Kwai (1988) - the role of Major Harad;
- Angry City (1992) - the role of Daishu (Yuen Tai Chung);
- Toki Rakujutsu (1992) - the role of Sakaz Kobayashi;
- Lone Wolf and Cubs: The Final Conflict (1993) - the role of Yapo Retsudo;
- "East meets West" (1995) - the role of Katsu Rintaro;
- After the Rain (1999) - the role of Tsuji Gettan;
- "Enchanted" (1999) - the role of Hideaki Sasaki;
- Like Asura (2003) - the role of Kotaro Takezawa;
- "Yamato" (2005) - the role of Katsumi Kamio (75 years old);
- Inugamis (2006) - the role of Sahei Inugami;
- Listen to My Heart (2009) - the role of Kyoso Nyami;
- Haaru's Journey (2010) - the role of Tadao Nakai;
- The Last Zatoichi (2010) as Tendo;
- Human Trust (2013) - the role of Nobuhiko Sasakura;
- "Touge - The Last Samurai" (2020) - the role of Makino Tadayuki.
Awards
Tatsuya Nakadai was awarded the Order of the Arts and Letters in 1992, the Purple Ribbon Medal of Honor in 1996, the Order of the Rising Sun Class 4 in 2003, and the Order of Culture in 2015.
Nakadai was awarded the title of "Man of Cultural Dignity" in 2007.
The actor won the Asahi Prize in 2013, the Kawakita Prize in 2014, and the Toshiro Mifune Prize in 2015.
