Miki Odagiri passes away
Miki Odagiri, who played Toyo Odagiri (the girl in Watanabe’s office) in Ikiru is reported to have passed away on the 28th of November. She was 76 years of age, and Ikiru was her only role in an Akira...
View ArticleHitoshi Ueki dies
Japanese comedian Hitoshi Ueki passed away on Tuesday at the age of 80. The cause of his death was a heart failure. Although well known across Japan, Ueki is less familiar to audiences outside of is...
View ArticleFuyuki Murakami passes away
Fuyuki Murakami, who played a newspaperman in Kurosawa’s Ikiru, has passed away at the age of 95. Although the small role he had in Ikiru was his only role under Kurosawa, Murakami’s filmography is...
View ArticleKei Kumai: 1930-2007
Kei Kumai, who directed The Sea Is Watching from Kurosawa’s final script in 2002, has passed away. He was 77 years of age, and is perhaps best remembered outside of Japan for such movies as Sandakan...
View ArticleActress Isuzu Yamada dies
Actress Isuzu Yamada has passed away on Monday at the age of 95. She is probably best known for us as Lady Washizu in Throne of Blood, and also had roles in The Lower Depths and Yojimbo. Yamada’s...
View ArticleNoriko Sengoku passes away at age 90
Actress and Kurosawa regular Noriko Sengoku (also known as Reiko Mori) has died at the age of 90. Sengoku appeared in altogether seven of Kurosawa’s films, starting with Drunken Angel (1948) where she,...
View ArticleNagisa Oshima dies at age 80
Nagisa Oshima, the often experimental and always provocative Japanese director and occasional film scholar and social commentator, has died at the age of 80. During his four-decade career, Oshima...
View ArticleDonald Richie dies at age 88
It is with sadness that I must report that Donald Richie, the author of The Films of Akira Kurosawa and so much more on Japanese film and culture, has passed away in Tokyo at the age of 88. The news...
View ArticleKeiko Awaji dies at age 80
Actress Keiko Awaji has passed away at the age of 80. The cause of death is reported as cancer. A star in the 1950s and 60s, she is probably best known in the West for her screen debut as the spirited...
View ArticleShirley Yamaguchi dies at age 94
Actress Shirley Yamaguchi (born Yoshiko Yamaguchi, also known as Yoshiko Ōtaka and Li Xianglan) has passed away due to heart failure at the age of 94. Born to Japanese parents in Manchuria, Yamaguchi...
View ArticleKurosawa’s cinematographer Takao Saito has died at age 85
Akira Kurosawa’s longtime collaborator, cinematographer Takao Saito passed away on December 6 of chronic lymphocytic leukemia. He was 85. Born in Kyoto on 5 March 1929, Saito joined Toho studios in...
View ArticleActress Miki Sanjō dies at age 86
Actress Miki Sanjō has passed away at the age of 86. Sanjō appeared in Akira Kurosawa‘s 1949 film The Quiet Duel, where she played the role of Misao, the fiancée whom the young doctor played by Toshirō...
View ArticleKurosawa regular Takeshi Katō dies at age 86
Veteran Japanese actor Takeshi Katō has passed away on July 31 after collapsing in a sauna. He was 86. Katō, whose background was in English teaching and theatre, appeared in altogether seven Akira...
View ArticleSetsuko Hara dies at 95
It is with a hint of sadness but also an enormous amount of respect that I report the passing of Japanese screen legend Setsuko Hara (1920-2015). Hara died of pneumonia on September 5 but the news of...
View ArticleKurosawa screenwriter Shinobu Hashimoto Has Died at Age 100
The Japanese screenwriter Shinobu Hashimoto has passed away. He succumbed to pneumonia on Thursday in his Tokyo home. He was 100 years old. Hashmito was a veteran screenwriter who had over 70 films to...
View ArticleStephen Prince passed away last December
I am very late in writing about the passing of Professor Stephen Prince.
View ArticleCostume designer Emi Wada has died
Emi Wada, who designed costumes for Ran and Dreams, has passed away at the age of 84.
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