Akihiko Hirata
Akihiko Hirata (born Hirata Akihiko; 26 December 1927–25 July 1984) was a Japanese film actor. While Hirata starred in many movies (including Hiroshi Inagaki's Samurai trilogy), he is most well known for his work in the kaiju genre, including such films as King Kong vs.... Read full bio →
Featured Characters
Roles you can spot in Whatthemovie snapshots
Gojira tai Mekagojira
After the appearance of a new Gojira (Godzilla), the Japanese government builds a robotic Godzilla from the bones of the original monster that attacked Tokyo in 1954 to stop the beast.
Gojira vs. Desutoroiâ
The aftermath of the Oxygen Destroyer brings forth Destoroyah, a beast intent on killing Godzilla, who is on the verge of a nuclear meltdown.
Fugitive Alien
An alien is pursued as a traitor by his own race because he refuses to kill humans.
Sayonara Jupitâ
While extracting water from the Martian polar ice caps, ancient carvings are uncovered describing an alien spacecraft crashing into Jupiter, postponing plans to turn Jupiter into a second Sun.
Wakusei daisenso
Earth is attacked by alien spacecraft from Venus. But a Japanese scientist has constructed a space craft, the Gohten, with which he may save humanity.
Mekagojira no gyakushu
Godzilla comes to the rescue when an alien race rebuilds Mechagodzilla to destroy Earth's cities. A traitorous scientist gives them a second weapon: Titanosaurus.
Nosutoradamusu no daiyogen
A scientist fears that the prophecies of Nostradamus, including the end of all life on Earth, are coming true one after another.
Gojira tai Mekagojira
Great monster fight sequences are a highlight of the 14th Godzilla film. Aliens armed with a mechanical Godzilla intend to take over the planet. The earthlings summon the legendary King Seesar to assist Godzilla in the battle to defend earth.
Ido zero daisakusen
A journalist is saved by a giant submarine captained by a 200-year-old man who takes him to an underwater paradise city where no one ages. That's when monsters and mutants sent by the captain's rival, a 200-year-old scientist, attack.
Furin kazan
Kansuke Yamamoto is a samurai who dreams of a country united, peaceful from sea to sea. He enters the service of Takeda, the lord of Kai domain. He convinces Takeda to kill the lord of neighboring Suwa and take his wife as a concubine. He then convinces the widow, Princess Yu, to accept this arrangement and to bear Takeda a son.
Nihon no ichiban nagai hi
Following the detonation of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese military and the government clash over the demand from the Allies for unconditional surrender. Minister of the Army Anami leads the military officers who propose to fight on, even to the death of every Japanese citizen.
Kokusai himitsu keisatsu: Zettai zetsumei
Two agents of the International Secret Police must prevent a crime organization from assassinating the President of Buddabai and his General.
Kaijûtô no kessen: Gojira no musuko
Reporter Goro Maki stumbles upon scientists conducting weather experiments on Sollgel Island in the South Seas. He discovers the island is inhabited by giant mantis and a woman named Saeko who's been cast away since the death of her father. The pair soon find a helpless infant monster that Godzilla must adopt and learn to raise as one of his own.
Gojira, Ebirâ, Mosura: Nankai no daiketto
Searching for his brother, Ryota stows away on a boat belonging to a criminal alongside two other teenagers. The group shipwrecks on Letchi island and discover the Infant Island natives have been enslaved by a terrorist organization controlling a crustacean monster.
Abare Gôemon
Farmer Abare Goemon is confronted by brigand-like samurai. He raises an army of farmers to fight them and does so brilliantly. When Lord Asakura sees the success Goemon has achieved, he attempts to recruit him to fight in a conflict between Asakura and another clan. Goemon refuses, and Lord Asakura sets out to destroy him.
Samurai
Japan, 1860. The men of the Mito clan, victims of the Ansei purge, anxiously prowl around the Sakurada Gate of Edo Castle with the intention of assassinating Naosuke Ii of Hikone, tairō of the Tokugawa shogunate and responsible for their misfortune.
Shikonmado - Dai tatsumaki
Set at the end of the Siege of Osaka this film follows the exploits of several members of the defeated Toyotomi clan as they cope with the post battle chaos and the persecution of the Shogun's army. Five samurai decide on different fates when it becomes clear that their side is being destroyed.
San daikaijû: Chikyû saidai no kessen
A massive meteor falls to Earth, and from it emerges the three-headed King Ghidrah, who must defeat the combined forces of Godzilla, Rodan, and Mothra.
Kaitei gunkan
The legendary empire of the lost continent of Mu reappears to threaten the world with domination. While countries unite to resist, an isolated World War II Captain has created the greatest warship ever seen, and possibly the surface world's only defense.
Eburi manshi no yûga na seikatsu
A salaryman's drunken ravings in public attract the attention of journalists who coerce him into telling them his life's story.
Yôsei Gorasu
In 1976, a drifting star named Gorath is discovered to be on a collision course with Earth. Although it is smaller than Earth, its enormous mass is enough to destroy the planet totally. A mission sent to observe Gorath is destroyed after the ship is drawn into the star, with a later mission barely escaping the same fate.
Varan the Unbelievable
In an effort to find an economic means of purifying salt water, a joint U.S.-Japanese military command is set up on an isolated Japanese island where an unusual salt water lake is situated. However, their purifying experiments arouse the prehistoric monster Obaki from hibernation at the lake's bottom, and it proceeds to attack Japan.
Tsubaki Sanjûrô
A crafty samurai helps a young man and his fellow clansmen save his uncle, who has been framed and imprisoned by a corrupt superintendent.
Kingu Kongu tai Gojira
The advertising director of Pacific Pharmaceuticals, frustrated with the low ratings of their sponsored TV program, seeks a more sensationalist approach. He orders his staff to Faro Island to capture King Kong for exploitation. As Godzilla re-emerges, a media frenzy generates with Pacific looking to capitalize off of the ultimate battle.
Kingu Kongu tai Gojira
King Kong vs. Godzilla is the third film from the Japanese Godzilla film series. In this film the two popular giant animal mutants battle each other as all of Japan watches.
Onna bakari no yoru
In the late 1950's prostitution was banned in Japan and if a woman was found exercising this profession they were sent to a reformatory. This is a story of one of these brave women Kuniko who is released from the reformatory and tries to build a new life.
Mosura
Classic 60's Japanese Monster Movie. Shipwreck survivors are found on Beiru, an island previously used for atomic tests. Amazingly free of radiation
Densô ningen
Men are being murdered by a psycho called "The Telegian," who uses a matter-transmitting device to locate his victims.
Aru kengo no shogai
Edmund Rostand's play Cyrano de Bergerac, transplanted to Japan. A poet-warrior with an oversized nose (matched only by his great heart) loves a lady. But she sees him only as a friend, so he helps another man to woo her by giving him the poetry of his own heart.
Daikaijû Baran
In an effort to find an economic means of purifying salt water, a joint U.S.-Japanese military command is set up on an isolated Japanese island where an unusual salt water lake is situated. However, their purifying experiments arouse the prehistoric monster Obaki from hibernation at the lake's bottom, and it proceeds to attack Japan.
Bijo to ekitai ningen
Fallout from hydrogen bomb tests is turning people into blobs of oozing, radioactive green goop that travel through sewers and have a taste for human flesh, in "The H-Man" (1958). Kenji Sahara, Akihiko Hirata star.
Chikyû Bôeigun
Scientifically advanced wanderers from the destroyed planet Mysteroid request a patch of land on Earth and the right to marry earthling women. After a demonstration of their destructive abilities from the help of their giant robot Moguera, mankind must decide whether to capitulate or to resist.
Sora no daikaijû Radon
When a village is besieged by giant caterpillars, a more horrifying discovery is made in their underground home...a giant flying creature that resembles the prehistoric pterodactyl. Soon after, a second Rodan appears and the two monsters begin to destroy Japan.
Miyamoto Musashi kanketsuhen: kettô Ganryûjima
Musashi Miyamoto is challenged to a duel by a confident swordsman Sasaki Kojiro. He agrees to fight him in a year's time.
Godzilla, King of the Monsters!
A 400-foot (122-meter) dinosaur-like beast, awoken from undersea hibernation off the Japanese coast by atomic-bomb testing, attacks Tokyo. This is the edited American release of "Gojira".
Zoku Miyamoto Musashi: Ichijôji no kettô
After years on the road establishing his reputation as Japan's greatest fencer, Takezo returns to Kyoto. Otsu waits for him, yet he has come not for her but to challenge the leader of the region's finest school of fencing. To prove his valor and skill, he walks deliberately into ambushes set up by the school's followers.
Miyamoto Musashi
Starring Toshiro Mifune as Musashi Miyamoti, this first film in Hiroshi Inagaki's Samurai Trilogy won a 1956 Honorary Oscar for Best Foreign Film. Struggling to elevate himself from his low caste in 17th century Japan, Mayamoto trains to become a mighty samurai warrior. In the film's bracing climax, Miyamoto finally gets a chance to prove himself.