Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano began his acting career as a teenager on a television show ‘Mr. Kinpachi in Class 3B’ in 1988. A couple of years later, he made his film debut with Joji Matsuoka directed sports romance drama ‘Swimming Upstream’. Critical appreciation came his way after his performance in the 1993 television movie ‘Fried Dragon Fish’. Further critical appreciation came with the 1995 drama film ‘Maboroshi no Hikari’. Directed by Hirokazu Koreeda, this movie had him in the role of a suicidal husband and father which gained him international recognition. His film releases in 1996 include ‘Acri’, ‘Focus’ ‘Picnic’ and ‘Helpless’. These films won him the ‘Yokohama Film Festival award’ for best actor. The first three films together with ‘Fried Dragon Fish’ (1993) also bagged him the Most Popular Performer award at the 1997 ‘Japanese Academy Awards’.
In 1999, Tadanobu Asano played the role of Samurai Hyozo Tashiro in Nagisa Ôshima directed drama film ‘Gohatto’ (‘Taboo’) and war photographer Taizo Ichinose in Shô Igarashi directed war drama ‘One Step on a Mine, It's All Over’. His work in the first film, along with his performance as Shanao/Yoshitsune in the 2000 historical fantasy martial arts film ‘Gojoe: Spirit War Chronicle’ bagged him the ‘Hochi Film Award’ for best supporting actor. He also bagged the ‘Yokohama Film Festival’ best actor award for his performance in ‘One Step on a Mine, It's All Over’ (1999) and ‘Gojoe: Spirit War Chronicle’.
Tadanobu Asano’s other films credits of the period include ‘Aitsu’ (1991), ‘Seishun Dendekedekedeke’ (1992), ‘Nemuranai machi - Shinjuku same’ (1993), ‘119’ (1994), ‘Yonshimai Monogatari’ (1995), ‘Swallowtail Butterfly’ (1996), ‘Yume no Ginga’, ‘Tokyo Biyori’ (both 1997), ‘Love & Pop’, ‘Neji-shiki’, ‘Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl’, ‘Rakka Suru Yugata’ (all 1998), ‘San tiao ren’, ‘Gemini’, ‘Hakuchi’, (all 1999), ‘Kaza-hana’ and ‘Party 7’ (both 2000).
Tadanobu Asano was next recognised for his performance as the Dragon Eye Morrison in the sci-fi fantasy action movie ‘Electric Dragon 80.000 V’ (2001); the facially mutilated yakuja enforcer Kakihara in the action crime film ‘Ichi the Killer’(2001); the masterless samurai Hattori Gennosuke in the action comedy crime film ‘Zatoichi’ (2003); the factory worker Mamoru Arita in the drama film ‘Bright Future’ (2003); the lonely and suicidal librarian Kenji in the romantic comedy film ‘Last Life in the Universe’(2003) and the lazy music producer uncle Ayano in the comedy film ‘The Taste of Tea’ (2004). ‘Last Life in the Universe’ also bagged him the best actor award at the ‘Venice Film Festival’. In 2007, Tadanobu Asano starred as Genghis Khan in Sergei Bodrov’s period epic film ‘Mongol’ and in 2009 played the role of an alcoholic writer Otani in Kichitarô Negishi’s drama film ‘Villon's Wife’.
His other films of the decade were ‘Distance’ (2001), ‘Woman of Water’ (2002), ‘My Grandpa’, ‘Dead End Run’, ‘Café Lumière’ (all 2003), ‘The Face of Jizo’, ’Survive Style 5+’, ‘Vital’, ‘Tori’ (all 2004), ‘The Buried Forest’, ‘Portrait of the Wind’, ‘Funky Forest: The First Contact’, ‘Rampo Noir’, ‘Tokyo Zombie’ (all 2005), ‘Invisible Waves’, ‘Hana’ (both 2006), ‘Sad Vacation’ (2007), ‘Kabei: Our Mother’, ‘R246 Story’, ‘Dreaming Awake’ (all 2008), ‘Mt. Tsurugidake’, ‘Dumbeast’, ‘Snow Prince’ (all 2009), ‘Vengeance Can Wait’ and ‘Wandering Home’ (both 2010).
In 2011, Tadanobu Asano made his Hollywood debut playing the role of the Asgardian warrior Hogun, a member of the Warriors Three, in Marvel Studios superhero film ‘Thor’. Later, he reprised his role in ‘Thor: The Dark World’ (2013) and ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ (2017). In between, his portrayal of Jungo Kusarino in the romantic drama ‘My Man’ (2014) won him the Best Actor award at the ‘Moscow International Film Festival’ and ‘Blue Ribbon Awards’. Additionally, he also won the Best Supporting Actor and Best Actor award at ‘Asian Film Awards’ and ‘Japan Movie Critics Award’ respectively for his performance in the 2014 fantasy romance drama movie ‘Journey to the Shore’. For the 2016 drama film ‘Harmonium’, Tadanobu Asano once again bagged the ‘Asian Film Awards’ for Best Actor. He next played the Interpreter in Martin Scorsese epic historical drama ‘Silence’ (2016); Rear Admiral Tamon Yamaguchi in Roland Emmerich's war film ‘Midway’ (2019), Tatsuo Matsumura in Andrew Levitas directed drama ‘Minamata’ (2020), Lt. Sako in Nobuhiko Obayashi anti-war fantasy drama ‘Labyrinth of Cinema’ (2020) and the thunder god Raiden in Simon McQuoid’s action-adventure fantasy film ‘Mortal Kombat’ (2021).
His other films since 2011 include ‘Moonlight Mask’, ‘A Ghost of a Chance’ (both 2011), ‘Dearest’, ‘Battleship’, ‘The Terminal Trust’, ‘Fly with the Gold’ (all 2012), ‘The Kiyosu Conference’, ‘47 Ronin’ (both 2013), ‘Kiki's Delivery Service’, ‘Rupan sansei’, ‘Parasyte: Part 1’ (all 2014), ‘Parasyte: Part 2.’, ‘Grasshopper’, ‘Nagasaki: Memories of My Son’ (all 2015), ‘The Wasted Times’ (2016), ‘Shinjuku Swan II’, ‘Dear Etranger’ (2017), ‘The Outsider’, ‘The Bastard and the Beautiful World’, ‘Kasane’ (all 2018), ‘Chiwawa’ (2019), ‘Independence of Japan’ (2020), ‘Detective Chinatown 3’ (2021) and ‘Kate’ (2021).
The period also saw Tadanobu Asano working in television miniseries like ‘The Long Goodbye’ (2014), ‘A Life: Itoshiki Hito’ (2017) and ‘Keiji yugami’ (2017) as well as TV series ‘Followers’ (2020).
Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok is a superhero movie that pits the Norse God Thor against his all-powerful sister Hela, who is freed after Odin’s death. He joins forces with the Hulk, Loki, Valkyrie and others to stop Hela and is forced to unleash Ragnarök, the destruction of Asgard, to save the rest of the universe.
This comedy drama film revolves around the Haruno family, who lives in a small town in rural Japan, on the north side of Tokyo. The father Nobua is a hypnotist while the mother Yoshiko works as an artist. Their son Hajime is having a rough time with puberty, and falls for a girl in his school. Meanwhile, their daughter periodically sees her own gigantic doppelganger following her through town.
The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi is a crime action comedy film which tells the story of a blind swordsman who comes to defend the people of a small town, who are caught in the middle of a gang war, and are forced to pay excessive amounts of tax. He soon meets two women, with each having their own agenda.
Last Life in the Universe is a romantic comedy drama film which revolves around Kenji, a lonely librarian living in Bangkok. Although he is suicidal, his constant attempts to kill himself are interrupted by people around him. His life takes a turn when he is acquainted with a Thai woman whose personality is the total opposite of him.
The lives of five people, who seem to have no connection to one another, get intertwined, which results in unexpected circumstances.
In 17th century, two Jesuit priests travel to Japan, trying to locate their mentor, who they have heard has committed apostasy. Once there, they find that Christians have gone underground and if caught are subjected to inhuman torture. They too are caught and while one of them embraces death, the other decides to apostate in order to save the life of his followers.
Crown prince Thor, son of Odin, King of Asgard, is stripped off of his powers and exiled to Earth to live amongst simple humans for a reckless attempt to punish the Frost Giants. He falls in love with scientist Jane Foster, but must prove himself worthy of his powers and save Asgard from his adoptive brother Loki.
A Yakuza boss named Anjo disappears with an amount of 300 million yen. His chief henchman Kakihara, begins to search for him, along with the others. They eventually capture a rival Yakuza member, in their quest for answers, and torture him. They soon realize that they have the wrong guy. Things get ugly when they come across Ichi, a sexually repressed young man possessing amazing martial arts abilities.
In this sequel to the 2011 movie, Thor strives to safeguard the Nine Realms along with his allies. When his girlfriend, Jane, absorbs the fluid like weapon ‘Aether’, she unintentionally awakens Malekith, the vindictive leader of an ancient race who threatens to destroy the universe. To protect the universe, Thor has to join hands with his adversary Loki.
Set during the Shogun era in Japan, this action drama film takes us to a samurai compound, where young warriors are trained in the art of swordfighting. The film centres around a good-looking young samurai, who is the newest member of the group. Several of the other samurai find themselves attracted to him, which creates a lot of tensions among them.
Young half-Japanese outcast Kai is rescued from the forest by benevolent Lord Asano Naganori and falls in love with his daughter Mika. Years later, when jealous neighboring lord, Kira, plots to force Asano to commit seppuku, 47 master-less warriors, led by Tengu-raised fighter Kai, plan to avenge Lord Asano and rescue Mika from the clutches of Lord Kira.
Kate is an assassin who eliminates targets chosen by Varrick, her handler and her mentor, who had raised her like a father. She is assigned to kill a powerful officer in Osaka, but she refuses because he is accompanied by a child. Eventually, she is forced to shoot him at Varrick’s insistence. She soon decides that she will start a new life, after performing a final job. However, someone slips a fatal poison into her, and she has less than 24 hours to find out who is responsible.
The Outsider is a crime drama thriller film which tells the story of an American Prisoner-of-war in Japan. After the Second World War is over, he decides to stay in Japan, and become a member of a crime organization known as the Yakuza.
Years after humans send transmissions to a newly discovered potentially habitable planet in the Gliese planetary system, an armada of five alien spacecrafts disrupt the 2012 RIMPAC exercise. With a major extinction event threatening humanity, the brave crew of guided missile destroyer USS John Paul Jones leads the fight for survival against the alien invaders.
Redline is an animated sports science fiction film which takes us to a distant future, where an inter-galactic car race takes place. The film revolves around a man named Joshua, who wants to win the race and obtain the huge cash prize, that would enable him to change his life. However, he is forced to take on great risks to win the race.
