Described as a cross between Johnny Depp and Toshirô Mifune, Asano Tadanobu is certainly the hippest, if not the single most important, Japanese film actor working today.

His father, an actors' agent, suggested he take on what became his first role, in the TV show "Kimpachi Sensei," at the age of 16. His film debut was in the 1990 Swimming Upstream (Bataashi Kingyo), though his first major critical success was in Shunji Iwai's Fried Dragon Fish (1993) (TV).

His first critical success in the West was in Hirokazu Koreeda's Maboroshi no hikari (1995), in which he played a man who inexplicably throws himself in front of a train, widowing his wife and orphaning his infant son. His best known works internationally are the samurai films Gohatto (1999) and Zatôichi (2003). It was on the set of Iwai's Picnic (1996) that he met and fell in love with J-Pop idol Chara. They married soon after learning she was pregnant with their first child, Smile.

While best known for characters who are psychologically offbeat, if not downright psychotic (e.g. Kakihara in Ichi the Killer (Koroshiya 1 (2001), Asano is described by those who know him as a down-to-earth family man. He has directed commercial TV spots for Chara, and manages to find time to take Smile and his son, Himi, to the zoo.

Hesistant to identify himself as an actor, he most readily describes himself as a vocalist, referring to Mach 1.67, the band he has with director Sogo Ishii. He's also an artist, and a model, most notably for the Japanese designers Takeo Kikuchi and Jun Takahashi.





*** movie links in forum below ***

FILM ROLES



# Donju (2009) (pre-production)
As: Dekogawa
# Villon's Wife (2009) (filming)
# Tsurugidake: ten no ki / Mt. Tsurugidake(2009) (post-production)
R246 Story
As: No clue about his character but it seems that he is a co-director!
Kaabee / Kabei
As: Yamazaki Toru
Sad Vacation
As: Kenji Shiraishi
Mongol
As: Temudzhin
Invisible Waves
As: Kyoji
Eli,Eli,Lema Sabachthani?
As: Mizui
Tokyo Zombie
As: Fujio
Rampo jigoku / Rampo Noir
As: Private detective Kogorô Akechi (2x); A man; Masaki (story "Imomushi", "Kagami jigoku", "Kasei no unga", and "Mushi")
Umoregi
As: San-chan
Tagatameni
As: Tamio Murase
Nice no mori:The First Contact
Vital
As: Hiroshi Takagi
Survive Style5+
As: Ishigaki
Chichi to Kuraseba / The Face Of Jizo
As: Tadashi Kinoshita
Kohi Jiko / Cafe Lumiere
As: Hajime Takeuchi
Cha no Aji / The Taste Of Tea
As: Ayano Haruno
Zatoichi
As: Gennosuke Hattori
Chikyu de Saigo no Futari / Last Life In The Universe
As: Kenji
DEAD END RUN
As: a man
Watashi no Granpa / My Grandpa taught me a lot about life
As: Shinichi Nakafuji
Akarui Mirai / Bright Future
As: Mamoru Arita
Mizu no Onna aka Woman of Water
As: Yusaku Miyazawa
Koroshiya 1 aka Ichi The Killer
As: Kakihara
Electric Dragon 80000V
As: Morison
DISTANCE
As: Sakata
Kaza hana
As: Renji Sawaki
Party 7
As: Okita Souji
Gojoe Reisenki / Gojoe
As: Shanaou
Gohatto aka Taboo
As: Hyouzou Tashiro
Jirai wo Fundara Sayonara / One step on a mine, it's all over
As: Taizo Ichinose
Soseiji / Gemini
As: The young man
Hakuchi aka The Innocent
As: Izawa
Kujaku / A way with words
As: Asano
Samehada Otoko to MoMojiri Onna
/ Shark skin man and Peach hip girl
As: Samehada
Nejishiki / Wind Up Type
As: Tsube
Tokyo Biyori
As: The young man
Yume no Ginga / Labyrinth of Dream
As: Tatsuo Niitaka
Focus
As: Kanemura
Acri
As: Hisoka
Helpless
As: Kenji
PiCNiC
As: Tsumuji
Maborohi no Hikari aka Maboroshi
As: Ikuo
Yon shimai monogatari
As: Akira
119
As: Satoshi
Nemuranai machi
As: Koichi Sunagami
Fried Dragon Fish
As: Natsuro
Seishun Den Deke Deke Deke aka The Rocking Horseman
As: Seiichi Shirai
Aitsu
As: Sadato
Bata-ashi Kingyo aka Swimming Upstream
As: Ushiwakamaru