Koji Yakusho
Kōji Hashimoto (橋本 広司, Hashimoto Kōji, born 1 January 1956), known professionally as Kōji Yakusho (役所 広司, Yakusho Kōji), is a Japanese actor. He is known internationally for his starring roles in Shall We Dance? (1996), 13 Assassins (2010), The Third Murder (2017), The Blood... Read full bio →
Featured Characters
Roles you can spot in Whatthemovie snapshots
Hateshi naki Sukâretto
A medieval princess on a quest to avenge her father's death awakens in a realm between life and death, where she encounters an idealistic young man from the present day who shows her the possibility of a future free of bitterness and rage.
Perfect Days
Hirayama is content with his life as a toilet cleaner in Tokyo. Outside of his structured routine, he cherishes music on cassette tapes, books, and taking photos of trees. Through unexpected encounters, he reflects on finding beauty in the world.
Madogiwa no Totto-chan
This engaging series of childhood recollections tells of an unconventional school in Tokyo during World War II that combined learning with fun, freedom, and love.
Ryû to sobakasu no hime
Teen Suzu embarks on an epic quest to uncover the identity of a mysterious beast in a virtual world.
Mirai no Mirai
Unhappy after his new baby sister displaces him, four-year-old Kun begins meeting people and pets from his family's history in their unique house in order to help him become the big brother he was meant to be.
Sandome no satsujin
Shigemori is a lawyer tasked with defending Misumi in a murder trial. Misumi has previous convictions for murder and has confessed to the crime, but evidence in the case leads to Shigemori having doubts about what really happened.
Nihon no ichiban nagai hi
In July 1945, during the end of World War II, Japan is forced to accept the Potsdam Declaration. A cabinet meeting has continued through days and nights, but a decision cannot be made. The U.S. drops atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.
Mifune: The Last Samurai
Nearly 20 years after his death and in the run-up to his centenary, Toshiro Mifune remains a true giant of Japanese cinema.
Bakemono no ko
Kyuta, a boy living in Shibuya, and Kumatetsu, a lonesome beast from Jutengai, an imaginary world. One day, Kyuta forays into the imaginary world and, as he's looking for his way back, meets Kumatetsu who becomes his spirit guide. That encounter leads them to many adventures.
Kawaki
Showa Fujishima is a former detective. One day, his daughter Kanako, who is a model student, disappears. To find his daughter, he investigates more carefully into his daughter's life. He then becomes involved in a shocking situation.
Kitsutsuki to ame
Rookie movie director Koichi and his crew travels to the mountain village of Yamamura to film his next movie. The villagers are eventually enlisted to help film the movie and, in particular, 60-year-old lumberjack Katsuhiko helps against his will.
Ichimei
An tale of revenge, honor and disgrace, centering on a poverty-stricken samurai who discovers the fate of his ronin son-in-law, setting in motion a tense showdown of vengeance against the house of a feudal lord.
Jûsan-nin no shikaku
Cult director Takeshi Miike delivers a bravado period action film set at the end of Japan's feudal era in which a group of unemployed samurai are enlisted to bring down a sadistic lord and prevent him from ascending to the throne and plunging the country into a war-torn future.
Zerachin shirubâ love
The story of a photographer who becomes obsessed with a mysterious woman who lives in the apartment opposite his.
Tokyo Sonata
The winds of change blow as a family grapples with unemployment, alienation, mistrust and a lack of communication. When a Japanese salaryman loses his job to outsourcing to China, it's simply the beginning of a series of shattering incidents, leading to the implosion of the family unit.
Pako to mahô no ehon
Onuki asks people in a hospital to perform a play for Paco, who suffers from memory disorder. His only hope is to help Paco survive from her illness.
Silk
Based on the beloved, best-selling novel by Alessandro Baricco, this visually stunning film tells the story of a married French smuggler whose perilous and solitary travels lead him to the strange and captivating new world of the west to collect his materials.
Sakebi
An experienced police detective has to investigate the murder of an unknown woman dressed in a scarlet dress.
Babel
Tragedy strikes a married couple on vacation in the Moroccan desert, touching off an interlocking story involving four different families.
Memoirs of a Geisha
Based on the internationally acclaimed novel by Arthur Golden, Memoirs of a Geisha is a sweeping romantic epic set in a mysterious and exotic world that still casts a potent spell today. The story begins in the years before WWII when a penniless Japanese child is torn from her family to work as a maid in a geisha house.
Lorelei
A drama set during World War II where a submarine carrying a secret weapon attempts to stop a planned third atomic bombing of Japan. Based on Harutoshi Fukui's novel Shuusen no Lorelei.
Kôrei
A psychic housewife and her husband become burdened with a kidnapped girl who escaped her assailant. Junko will not let her husband call the hospital or the police for purely selfish reasons. The girl dies while still in their house and her ghost begins to haunt not only Junko but also her husband, Sato (Koji Yakusho).
Dopperugengâ
Hayasaki is an inventor working on an Artificial Body. It is not going well and he is stressed out and on the verge of being fired from the research division of his company. His doppelganger appears to help him out of the rut he has created for himself
Kairo
In the immense city of Tokyo, the darkness of the afterlife lures some of its inhabitants desperately trying to escape the sadness and isolation of the modern world.
Akai hashi no shita no nurui mizu
A newly unemployed salaryman meets a particularly sexual woman.
Yurîka
After a tragic incident of violence, a bus driver tries to find two other teen-aged survivors, a brother and sister.
Dora-heita
A new magistrate in the town of Horisoto—widely reputed to be the most lawless township in Japan, uses guile and his opponents' own misperceptions and prejudices to defeat his enemies and uproot corruption.
Karisuma
A seasoned detective is called in to rescue a politician held hostage by a lunatic. In a brief moment of uncertainty, he misses the chance for action. Leaving his job and family without explanation, he makes his way to a mountain forest, encountering a peculiar tree called Charisma.
Ningen gôkaku
Having fallen into a coma following a car accident at 14, Yutaka wakes ten years later and realizes that his family is no longer intact: father, mother and sister live at different places, so he decides to reopen the farm that his family once ran.
Unagi
A businessman kills his adulterous wife and is sent to prison. After his release, he opens a barbershop and meets new people, talking to almost no one except for an eel he befriended while in prison.
Cure
A frustrated detective deals with the case of several gruesome murders committed by people who have no recollection of what they've done.
Baunsu ko gaurusu
Jonko runs a group of high school girls involved in paid dating. Raku is a street dancer. Togo was brought up in the US, and after being back in Japan for one year, wants to escape to New York. Their contact with the world of talent scouts and yakuza places them in danger over the span of one day and night in the Shibuya district of Tokyo.
Shall We Dansu?
A bored accountant spots a beautiful woman in the window of a ballroom dance studio. He secretly starts taking dancing lessons to be near her, and then over time discovers how much he loves dancing. His wife, meanwhile, has hired a private detective to find out why he has started coming home late smelling of perfume.
Kamikaze takushi
A revenge-seeking man and his foolish friends plan to rob a yakuza gang.
Tampopo
a pair of truck drivers happen onto a decrepit roadside fast food stop selling ramen noodles and help the widowed owner, Tampopo, turn her establishment into a paragon of the "art of noodle soup making".
Yami no karyudo
Yataro Tanigawa, a one-eyed hired assassin, impresses yakuza boss Gomyo Kiyoemon with his skill. Gomyo hires Tanigawa as his bodyguard, or yojimbo, to protect him during an inter-clan conflict. Tanigawa quickly rises in stature in the clan, but finds his boss's enemies almost overwhelming.