Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Samurai Actors From Back in the Day

The other day I watched 13 Assassins.  I really  liked it.  I watched it twice.

Here's a YouTube trailer.



Matsukata Hiroki was in it, and it totally blew my mind.  I remembered watching samurai movies when I was a kid, and he was in a lot of um.  He looked exactly the same in 13 Assassins as he did back then. And he fought the same . . . he looked great . . . not like an old man.   I was confused at first . . . and then I was just amazed.


I checked him out online.  He was born in 1942 and started acting when he was 17 years old.  Here is how he looked back then. He looks the same, yah!  I got to wondering if some of my other favorite actors were still alive.























 

Okawa Hashizo (1929 - 1984)
Nakamura Kinnosuke (1932 - 1997)

Otomo Ryutaro (1912 - 1985)

Ichikawa Utaemon (1907 - 1999)

Tsukigata Ryunosuke (1902 - 1970)

All of the above actors were in a 1961 movie called Ako Roshi, a star-studded adaption of the 47 Ronin story.  I would love to see it.

11 comments:

mmiissee said...

they scare me lol

Kalin's Mommy said...

I hate to say it, but I remember some of these guys, when my grandma and mom used to watch japanese shows. I one I liked the best was Kin-san.

Nippon Nin said...

I have not seen the movie but I heard good things about it. It looks too bloody for me. Goro Inagaki cast as tyrant shogun was interesting. Yeah! Hiroki Matsukata aged well.

You didn't go to Swap Meet last Saturday?

jalna said...

Hahaha, some of the samurai used to scare me too, Mmiissee!!

You do, Mich?! Wow!

I had to think Akemi . . . I forgot if I went to swap meet or not. That's right, I did go, and got the Coach stuff. I need to look at the pictures to see if I got enough to blog about.

Anonymous said...

I think it is amazing how the Japanese filmmakers back then could portray the horror of battle, even though they worked in black and white and not color. When you saw the splatter on the shoji door, you knew the bad/good guy met his end.

Erick said...

Cool, I remember some of those actors. I must be old. I gonna check my drivers license.

jalna said...

I agree Warren. I wonder if they ever show those old movies on TV sometime.

We ARE old, Erick.

Randism said...

yeah, 13 assasins was good and funny :-)

jalna said...

I watched it again, Rand! I loved that rock throwing guy . . . so funny him!

Randism said...

oh yeah; he was super funny; remember how he was still kicking at the end?!? totally different kind of movie but remember departures? wow!

jalna said...

Loooove Departures!