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Ando-gumi
was a Japanese actor, writer, singer and former yakuza. He is known for utilizing his experiences as a criminal in his many roles in yakuza films. He had a large knife scar on his left cheek, the result of a brawl with a Korean gangster as a young man. Life and career Noboru Ando was born in Higashi, Ōkubo, Tokyo, the oldest of four children to a father of samurai descent. After going to primary school in Yokohama he entered junior high in Manchuria, where his father was working, but returned to Tokyo to live with relatives when he was expelled. He was expelled from another school after only three months and began running with other delinquents, before being sent to a reformatory school for theft. He entered the military for pilot training in December 1943 and in June 1945 volunteered for a suicide frogman unit, though the war ended before he saw action. When he returned to Tokyo, he entered Hosei University, although he continued his gangster behavior and dropped out in May ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Abe
, known by his pen name , was a Japanese author and former yakuza. Outside Japan he is best known for writing the manga series '' Rainbow: Nisha Rokubō no Shichinin'' in collaboration with artist Masasumi Kakizaki. As a teenager Abe became a member of the Ando-gumi yakuza family, and was later recruited by the Koganei-ikka. In 1986, after leaving the yakuza life, he wrote a novel about his time in Fuchū Prison titled , which became a bestseller and was adapted into a film. Abe died on September 2, 2019, from pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ..., aged 82. References External links * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Abe, George 1937 births 2019 deaths Deaths from pneumonia in Japan Manga writers People from Tokyo Japanese writers Yakuza members ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yoko Yamaguchi
was a Japanese lyricist and novelist. In 1985, Yamaguchi won the Naoki Prize for her novels, ''Enka no Mushi'' ("Japanese Ballad Lover") and ''Robai'' ("Old Japanese Plum"). Life and career Yamaguchi was born in Nagoya as the illegitimate child of a wealthy restaurant owner and a waitress. She dropped out of high school at 16 and opened a coffee shop named "Yoko" with backing by an elderly widower. Although it was successful, she quit after about three years. In 1957, Yamaguchi passed Toei's 4th New Face competition of 1,000 people, becoming an actress. However, she only ever had small parts, and quit acting after two years. When she was 20 years old, Yamaguchi met then-yakuza boss Noboru Ando. She became his mistress, known to members of his crime family, the , as "Hime" ("princess"). When Ando was on the run from the police in 1958 for having a hitman shoot businessman Hideki Yokoi, Yamaguchi hid him in her apartment in Yoyogi. On August 5, 1959, she opened an upscale bar in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yoyogi
is a neighbourhood in the northern part of Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Geography The area encompassed by Yoyogi is typically defined two ways: * Only the five Yoyogi . * The former , corresponding roughly to the area south of National Route 20 (Kōshū-kaidō), east of Tokyo Route 420, north of the districts of Uehara and Tomigaya, and west of Meiji Shrine. This larger definition of Yoyogi is generally used by residents and government to deliver services such as police, fire, and postal delivery. Characteristics Yoyogi is composed of ten districts. * : Home of the ''juku'' chain Yoyogi Seminar as well as other college preparatory schools and technical institutions. There are also several businesses catering to those who use Yoyogi Station. * : The Nishi-Shinjuku skyscraper district is directly north of this area. There are numerous offices and shops due to the proximity to the south exit of Shinjuku Station. * : This area was once called Yamaya-chō (山谷町) and is mainly com ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Japan Organized Crime Boss
is a 1969 Japanese yakuza film directed by Kinji Fukasaku. Plot The Danno Organization, Japan's largest yakuza clan, expands outward from its base in Osaka during the post-war period under the leadership of Boss Danno and Chief Executive Tsubaki, the family's ruthless captain. In Yokohama, the boss of the Hamanaka Family pledges fealty to the Danno Organization. In order to block Boss Danno's progress, the yakuza families of Tokyo form the Tokyo Alliance, appointing Boss Yato as chairman. The Alliance uses the Sakurada Family, the dominant family in Yokohama, to attack the Hamanaka Family in a proxy war between their forces and those of the Danno Organization. Hamanaka's right-hand man, Tetsuo Tsukamoto, is released after spending eight years in prison and learns that his wife committed suicide. Shortly thereafter, the boss of the Hamanaka family is killed by explosives thrown by hitmen from the Sakurada Family. With his dying breath, he passes control of the gang to Tsukamoto, u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kinji Fukasaku
was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. Known for his "broad range and innovative filmmaking," Fukasaku worked in many different genres and styles, but was best known for his gritty yakuza films, typified by the ''Battles Without Honor and Humanity'' series (1973–1976). According to the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, "his turbulent energy and at times extreme violence express a cynical critique of social conditions and genuine sympathy for those left out of Japan's postwar prosperity." He used a '' cinema verite''-inspired shaky camera technique in many of his films from the early 1970s. Fukasaku wrote and directed over 60 films between 1961 and 2003. Some Western sources have associated him with the Japanese New Wave movement of the '60s and '70s, but this belies his commercial success. His works include the Japanese portion of the Hollywood war film ''Tora! Tora! Tora!'' (1970), ''jidaigeki'' such as ''Shogun's Samurai'' (1978), the space opera ''Mes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Teruo Ishii
was a Japanese film director best known in the West for his early films in the ''Super Giant'' series, and for his films in the ''ero guro'' ("erotic-grotesque") subgenre of ''pinku eiga'' such as ''Shogun's Joy of Torture'' ( 1968). He also directed the 1965 film, ''Abashiri Prison'', which helped to make Ken Takakura a major star in Japan. Referred to in Japan as "The King of Cult", Ishii had a much more prolific and eclectic career than was generally known in the West during his lifetime. Early life Born in Tokyo's Asakusa neighborhood in 1924, Ishii developed a love of cinema early. His parents would often take him to see foreign films, particularly French movies. Ishii worked at Toho Studios as an assistant director beginning in 1942. His film career was interrupted when he was sent to Manchuria during World War II to take aerial photographs for bombing runs. Shintoho In March, 1947 Ishii joined the newly founded Shintoho studios. Ishii would later recall his time with Shint ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Five-Company Agreement
The was an agreement signed 10 September 1953 between five major Japanese entertainment companies: Shochiku, Toho, Daiei, Shin-Toho, and Toei. Although nominally it prohibited hiring away a cosignatory company's actors and directors, in reality intention of the agreement was to prevent actors from being hired away by Nikkatsu, which had recently begun making films. It was executed mainly under the leadership of Masaichi Nagata, then president of Daiei. After the Second World War, Nikkatsu (which had been primarily active in the hotel business and such) began taking steps to return to movie production under president Hori Kyuusaku, constructing Tamagawa Film Studio (in reality, Nikkatsu Film Studio) and trying to hire directors and actors away from the five companies. To oppose this, those companies bound under Nagata's leadership agreed to the following: # Hiring away actors and directors from each other would be forbidden. # The occasional lending of actors and directors was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Toei Company
() (also styled TOEI) is a Japanese film, television production, and distribution and video game developer and publishing company. Based in Tokyo, Toei owns and operates thirty-four movie theaters across Japan (all but two of them operated by its subsidiary, T-Joy), studios at Tokyo and Kyoto; and is a shareholder in several television companies. It is notable for creating animated programming known as anime, and live action dramas known as tokusatsu which use special visual effects. It also creates historical dramas (jidaigeki). Outside Japan, it is known as the controlling shareholder of Toei Animation and the owner of the '' Kamen Rider'' and ''Super Sentai'' franchises. Toei is one of the four members of the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan (MPPAJ), and is therefore one of Japan's Big Four film studios. The name "Toei" is derived from the company's former name . History Toei's predecessor, the , was incorporated in 1938. It was founded by Keita Goto, CEO ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tai Kato
was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. He was best known for making yakuza films at the Toei Company in 1960s. Biography Born in Hyōgo Prefecture, Kato was the nephew of the film director Sadao Yamanaka. He entered the Toho studio in 1937 and first began by working on documentary, documentaries. He worked as an assistant director to Akira Kurosawa in ''Rashomon (film), Rashomon''. After World War II he switched to making jidaigeki. Style and influences Kevin Thomas of ''Los Angeles Times'' noted that Kato has been compared with Budd Boetticher and Samuel Fuller. Selected filmography * ''Brave Records of the Sanada Clan'' (1963) * ''Kaze no Bushi'' (1964) * ''Bakumatsu zankoku monogatari (AKA Cruel Story of the Shogunate's Downfall)'' (1964) * ''Meiji Kyokyakuden: Sandaime Shumei'' (1965) * ''Kutsukake Tokijiro: Yukyo Ippiki'' (1966) * ''By a Man's Face Shall You Know Him'' (1966) * ''I, the Executioner'' (1968) * ''Red Peony Gambler: Hanafuda Shobu'' (1969) * ''Re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hiragana
is a Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with ''katakana'' as well as ''kanji''. It is a phonetic lettering system. The word ''hiragana'' literally means "flowing" or "simple" kana ("simple" originally as contrasted with kanji). Hiragana and katakana are both kana systems. With few exceptions, each mora in the Japanese language is represented by one character (or one digraph) in each system. This may be either a vowel such as ''"a"'' (hiragana あ); a consonant followed by a vowel such as ''"ka"'' (か); or ''"n"'' (ん), a nasal sonorant which, depending on the context, sounds either like English ''m'', ''n'' or ''ng'' () when syllable-final or like the nasal vowels of French, Portuguese or Polish. Because the characters of the kana do not represent single consonants (except in the case of ん "n"), the kana are referred to as syllabic symbols and not alphabetic letters. Hiragana is used to write ''okurigana'' (kana suffixes following a kanji ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Natalie (website)
is a Japanese entertainment news website that debuted on February 1, 2007. It is operated by Natasha, Inc. The website is named after the song of the same name by Julio Iglesias. ''Natalie'' has been providing news for such leading Japanese portals and social networks as Mobage Town, GREE, Livedoor, Excite, Mixi, and Yahoo! Japan. It has also been successful on Twitter, with 1,510,000 followers as of February 2017, being the third-most-followed Japanese media company, after '' The Mainichi Shimbun'' and ''The Asahi Shimbun''. History Natasha, Inc., a content provider, was founded in December 2005, becoming a limited company in February 2006 and being demutualized in January 2007. On February 1, 2007, Natasha, Inc. opened its own news website ''Natalie'', named after the song "Nathalie" by Julio Iglesias. It was dedicated exclusively to music news and created with the idea of updating on a daily basis, something that newspapers could not do. The website also offered optiona ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shochiku
() is a Japanese film and kabuki production and distribution company. It also produces and distributes anime films, in particular those produced by Bandai Namco Filmworks (which has a long-time partnership—the company released most, if not all, anime films produced by Bandai Namco Filmworks). Its best remembered directors include Yasujirō Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi, Mikio Naruse, Keisuke Kinoshita and Yōji Yamada. It has also produced films by highly regarded independent and "loner" directors such as Takashi Miike, Takeshi Kitano, Akira Kurosawa, Masaki Kobayashi and Taiwanese New Wave director Hou Hsiao-hsien. Shochiku is one of the four members of the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan (MPPAJ), and the oldest of Japan's "Big Four" film studios. History As Shochiku Kinema The company was founded in 1895 as a kabuki production company and later began producing films in 1920. Shochiku is considered the oldest company in Japan involved in present-day film production, b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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