Kunie Tanaka
Kunie Tanaka (田中 邦衛 Tanaka Kunie, November 23, 1932 - March 24, 2021) was a Japanese actor. He had his first notable role in 1960 as a thug in Akira Kurosawa's The Bad Sleep Well, and worked with the director again on Sanjuro. Tanaka is well known for his roles in Kinji... Read full bio →
Featured Characters
Roles you can spot in Whatthemovie snapshots
Kakushi ken: Oni no tsume
Set in 19th Century Japan a young samurai who finds himself in love with a farm girl leaves his home to begin a new life. He has to take stock of his new life when he is put to the test and ordered to kill a traitor who just happens to be his dearest friend.
Gakkô III
A widow who has single-handedly raised her autistic son loses her job and begins attending a technical college to gain new qualifications. She meets others looking for a new start in life, including a former salaryman with whom she begins a furtive romance...
Otoko wa tsurai yo: Torajiro kurenai no hana
Tora-san works hard to bring together his nephew, Mitsuo, and Mitsuo’s girlfriend who is engaged to someone else.
Gakkô
At a night school a diverse group of students ranging from teenagers to elderly, smart to under-developed and of different races have been assembled to study and finally hopefully graduate.
Rônin-gai
Near the end of Japanese civil war, several disgraced ronin living in Edo's red light district attempt to regain their honor by defending a brothel from a hostile militia bent on wiping out local prostitutes.
Eki
A detective goes out of his way to crack the case of a serial killer who specialises in murdering police officers.
Jigoku
Hell manifests itself through the sins, shame and desires of an upper class rural family and a mother's grief from beyond the grave.
Yasei no shômei
Special forces officer Ajisawa leaves his paramilitary group to take care of his newly-adopted daughter, Yoriko: the sole survival of a bloodbath for which he is responsible. Years later, Ajisawa is forced to return to the scene of the tragedy for his new job as a claims adjuster where he is subsequently arrested for his suspected involvement.
Kumokiri Nizaemon
Kumokiri Nizaemon, a former samurai warrior, has abandoned his class to become the leader of a gang of thieves. He leads his outlaws in an attempt to rob the castle of his former clan.
Kichiku
Random people are terrorized by a malevolent man who brings their worst fears to life.
Shinkansen daibakuha
One of the Japanese Shinkansen, “Bullet Trains,” is threatened with a bomb that will explode automatically if the train slows below 80 km/h, unless a ransom is paid. Police race to find the bombers so the train crew can learn how to defuse the bomb.
Kenkei tai soshiki boryoku
When a lucrative waterfront development becomes available, the Kawade gang quickly use their political connections to secure the land. However, the acting boss of the Ohara gang also has his eyes on the property and recruits crooked detective Tokumatsu Kuno to help him hijack the deal.
Jingi no hakaba
A self-destructive man becomes a powerful member of the yakuza but quickly loses his self-control. Based on the true story of Rikio Ishikawa.
Jingi naki tatakai: Kanketsu-hen
While Hirono is in prison, his rival Takeda turns his own crime organization into a political party, whose two executives stir up new tensions in their thirst for power.
Jingi naki tatakai: Chojo sakusen
As Japan gears up for the 1964 Olympic games, the cops start to crack down on the gangs, under pressure from the public and the press, adding a new dimension in the war for power among the yakuza families of Hiroshima.
Chi o suu bara
A professor takes up a new post at an all-girls school only to discover the principal concealing a dark secret.
Jingi naki tatakai: Dairi sensô
Shozo Hirono has managed to separate from the Yamamori family and create his own small family, and extend his circle of acquaintances. These new friendships include a powerful underboss of the Muraoka family, Noboru Uchimoto.
Jingi naki tatakai
In the teeming black markets of postwar Japan, Shozo Hirono (Bunta Sugawara) and his buddies find themselves in a new war between factious and ambitious yakuza...
Hitokiri yota: Kyôken san-kyôdai
The great Bunta stars as a gangster who is sent to jail for the sake of his gang, but when he’s released he finds everything completely changed and his gang has swept him aside for being too violent. He tries to start a new life with his two ”brothers” but can’t seem to escape old affiliations
Shussho Iwai
After going to prison for killing the boss of the Kanno gang, a gangster gets released early - only to find that his ex-gang has merged with the Kannos. But with bitter resentments lingering on both sides, bloodshed is bound to begin anew.
Otoko wa tsurai yo: Funto hen
After a quarrel with his mother, Torajiro sets off to find a bride.
Dodesukaden
Dodes'ka-den is a film by Akira Kurosawa set in a 1970 era Japanese rubbish dump.
Hitokiri
A ronin desperately seeks a way out of financial straits; he allies with the Tosa clan under the ruthless leader Takechi, who quickly takes advantage.
Goyôkin
Magobei Wakizaka is a samurai overcome with guilt over his unwitting part in a massacre of a small village. Now a ronin, he learns of a scheme by his old clan to repeat the same crime. Determined to stop them, he endures great hardships in an attempt to atone for his earlier mistakes.
Nikudan
A soldier has been in the Japanese military for the entirety of WWII, and in that time, his dedication to the army has never faltered. However, as the war draws to a close, his commanding officers become increasingly desperate and push their men to ever more absurd extremes.
Burai - kuro dosu
A street war breaks loose between two rival gangs in the Kansai region of Japan. Goro is in the middle of action. Through a knife fight against Sueo, a high profile gangster from Busou-kai, Goro notices a familiar face approaching him from amidst the chaos - his girlfriend, Yuri.
Zatôichi umi o wataru
Our hero Zatoichi sails to one of the distant islands to begin a pilgrimage to a total of 88 Shinto shrines.
Tanin no kao
A businessman with a disfigured face obtains a lifelike mask from his new doctor, but the mask starts altering his personality and causing him to question his identity.
Heitai yakuza datsugoku
Private Omiya and Private First Class Arita, who are about to be executed for desertion, are sent to the Soviet border instead.
Gohiki no shinshi
Fresh out of prison, a broken man reluctantly takes a job to kill three men, but changes his mind when some gangsters target the same men. He then tries to find out why the men are being targeted in the first place.
Dai-bosatsu tôge
Through his unconscionable actions against others, a sociopath samurai builds a trail of vendettas that follow him closely.
Zoku Abashiri bangaichi
Two convicts just released from prison find a green bauble filled with diamonds — and try to prove they didn't steal it.
Kedamono no ken
Legendary swordplay filmmaker Hideo Gosha's Sword of the Beast chronicles the flight of the low-level swordsman Gennosuke, who kills one of his ministers as part of a reform plot. His former comrades then turn on him, and this betrayal so shakes his sense of honor that he decides to live in the wild, like an animal.
Abashiri bangaichi: Bôkyô hen
Upon returning to his hometown of Nagasaki, recently released prisoner Tachibana Shinichi must rejoin the Asahi gang family in order to pay back a past debt. Trouble brews when the rival gang that was responsible for sending him to prison learns of his return.
Abashiri bangaichi
Abashiri Prison is located in the coldest place in Japan. Two men, handcuffed together have escaped from the prison, one a yakuza, the other a petty criminal, and although they hate each other they must work together if they are to evade capture in this harshest of climates.
Kaidan
A classic collection of four Japanese Horror stories. Features "Black Hair", "The Woman in the Snow", "Hoichi the Earless" and "In a Cup of Tea"
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.
Otoshiana
A man wanders into a seemingly deserted town with his young son in search of work. But after a bit of bad luck, he joins the town's population of lost souls.
Warui yatsu hodo yoku nemuru
A young executive hunts down his father’s killer. Continuing his legendary collaboration with actor Toshiro Mifune, Kurosawa combines elements of Hamlet and American film noir to chilling effect in exposing the corrupt boardrooms of postwar corporate Japan.
Taiyô no hakaba
In Osaka's slum, capricious folks without futures engage in pilfering, assault and robbery, prostitution, and the trading of ID cards and blood.
Ningen no jôken (II)
As a conscript in war-time Japan's military, a pacifist struggles to maintain his determination to keep his ideals.