Ryo Kase (加瀬 亮, Kase Ryō, born November 9, 1974 in Yokohama) is a Japanese actor.[1][2]

Ryo Kase
加瀬 亮
Born (1974-11-09) 9 November 1974 (age 49)
Yokohama, Japan
NationalityJapanese
OccupationActor
Years active2000–present
AgentRyo Kase Office
Known for
Height174 cm (5 ft 8+12 in)
Websiteryokaseoffice.com/index_english.html

Early life

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Kase was born in Yokohama, Kanagawa prefecture. He moved to Bellevue, Washington in the United States soon after his birth, due to his father's job being transferred.[3] His father Yutaka Kase, was former chairman and representative director of Sojitz, a major Japanese general trading company.

Career

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Kase made his screen debut in Sogo Ishii's Gojoe: Spirit War Chronicle in 2000.[3]

That same year, Kase received his major break when he starred in the critically acclaimed film I Just Didn't Do It [4] (2007), directed by Masayuki Suo, for which he won the Best Actor Award at the 31st Japan Academy Prize and the 2nd Asia Film Award, among other domestic and international film awards.

In 2010, Kase played a yakuza mobster[5] in Takeshi Kitano’s highly anticipated return to the crime genre Outrage (アウトレイジ, Autoreiji) which competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. The film was a major success,  grossing 634 million yen[6] at the Japan Box office, leading to two sequels.[7][8]

In 2023, Kase reunited with Takeshi Kitano in the Japanese film Kubi about the Honnō-ji Incident. In the film, Kase portrayed the historical figure, Oda Nobunaga, a charismatic military leader revered and feared as a demon king in Japan.[9] His wildly mad-like performance was highly praised by many journalists at the Cannes Film Festival. In Japan, this portrayal of Nobunaga, which diverges greatly from his public image of being cold yet violent but also deeply human and virtuous, has sparked debate. Some audience members felt that the character setting demeaned the historical figure, while others believed the acting was so realistic it seemed to overwrite the actual image of Nobunaga himself. When director Takeshi Kitano shared this original idea with the late director Akira Kurosawa, he was told that if Kitano were to make it, it could become a masterpiece on par with Seven Samurai. This work won several awards at the 47th Japan Academy Prize, including Excellence in Cinematography, Excellence in Lighting, Excellence in Art Direction, Excellence in Sound Recording, and Excellence in Editing. Ryo Kase, who played Nobunaga, also won the award for Excellent Supporting Actor.[10]

International Films

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From the beginning of his career, Kase took advantage of his English fluency and participated in international films from various countries in Asia, Europe, and America.

His first American film was Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) directed by Clint Eastwood, where he delicately portrayed a complex character of a former military policeman turned young soldier. He made his Cannes Film Festival debut with Abbas Kiarostami's Like Someone in Love (2012). He has also appeared in Michel Gondry's Tokyo! (2008), Gus Van Sant's Restless (2011) with Mia Wasikowska, Hong Sang-soo's Hill of Freedom (2014), and Martin Scorsese's Silence (2016). In Paul Weitz's Bel Canto, he starred alongside Julianne Moore and Ken Watanabe. In the film Minamata, inspired by a photo collection of Japan's pollution lawsuit taken by the late photographer Eugene Smith,[11] he co-starred with Johnny Depp and Hiroyuki Sanada. In 2014, when Hong Sang-soo's Hill of Freedom was released, he was selected as the Best Actor by CINE21, a Korean film magazine, despite being a foreigner. In Kiyoshi Kurosawa's To the Ends of the Earth (2019), he won the Best Supporting Actor award at the 14th Asia Film Awards.

Filmography

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Film

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Year Title Role Director(s) Notes
2000 Gojoe: Spirit War Chronicle Kamuro Sogo Ishii
2001 Misuzu Masasuke Sho Igarashi
Hush! Soba-ya cashier Ryosuke Hashiguchi
Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack Fisher Shūsuke Kaneko
2002 Rock'n'Roll Mishin Kenji Hamada Isao Yukisada
2003 Bright Future Fuyuki Arita Kiyoshi Kurosawa
When the Last Sword Is Drawn Shohei Kondo Yōjirō Takita
Kakuto Shinji Yūsuke Iseya
2004 Cutie Honey Todoroki Hideaki Anno
69 Ryo Otaki Sang-il Lee
The Taste of Tea Rokutaro Hamadayama Katsuhito Ishii
Nobody Knows Mini-market employee Hirokazu Koreeda
2005 Break Throughi! Hideto Noguchi Kazuyuki Izutsu
Female Man Ryuichi Hiroki
Suzuki Matsuo
Shinya Tsukamoto
Segment "Tamamushi"
About Love Tecchan Ten Shimoyama
Yee Chin-yen
Zhang Yibai
Segment "Taipei"
Scrap Heaven Police officer Shingo Sang-il Lee
The Passenger Akira François Rotger
Custom Made 10.30 Probationer angel "Jeff" Hajime Ishimine
Dead Run Yuji Miyahara SABU
Su-ki-da Hiroshi Ishikawa
2006 Funky Forest Takefumi Katsuhito Ishii
Hana Sodekichi Hirokazu Koreeda
Honey and Clover Takumi Mayama Masahiro Takata
Strawberry Shortcakes Nagai Hitoshi Yazaki
Letters from Iwo Jima Superior Private Shimizu Clint Eastwood
Retribution Sailor Kiyoshi Kurosawa
2007 I Just Didn't Do It Teppei Kaneko Masayuki Suo
Megane Yomogi Naoko Ogigami
2008 10 Promises to My Dog Susumu Hoshi Katsuhide Motoki
Gururi no koto Tsuyoshi Tanaka Ryōsuke Hashiguchi
The Sky Crawlers Yūichi Kannami Mamoru Oshii
Paco and the Magical Book Kōichi Tetsuya Nakashima
Tokyo! Akira Michel Gondry
Leos Carax
Bong Joon-ho
Segment "Interior Design"
2009 A Pierrot Izumi Okuno Junichi Mori
2010 Outrage Ishihara Takeshi Kitano
Sketches of Kaitan City Haruo Meguro Kazuyoshi Kumakiri
About Her Brother Akira Yoji Yamada
2011 Restless Hiroshi Gus Van Sant
2012 Like Someone in Love Noriaki Abbas Kiarostami
Outrage Beyond Ishihara Takeshi Kitano
SPEC: Ten Takeru Sebumi Yukihiko Tsutsumi [12]
2013 It's Me It's Me Tajima Satoshi Miki
Pecoross' Mother and Her Days Satoru Okano Azuma Morisaki
SPEC: Close Takeru Sebumi Yukihiko Tsutsumi [12]
Dawn of a Filmmaker Keisuke Kinoshita Keiichi Hara
2014 Hill of Freedom Mori Hong Sang-soo
My Hawaiian Discovery Tomoya Abe Koji Maeda
Judge! Akira Nagai
2015 Our Little Sister Miu Sakashita Hirokazu Koreeda
Foujita Kanjiro Kōhei Oguri
2016 Japanese Girls Never Die Sawai (Policeman) Daigo Matsui
Silence João (Chokichi) Martin Scorsese
2017 March Comes in Like a Lion Tōji Sōya Keishi Ōtomo
March Goes out Like a Lamb Tōji Sōya Keishi Ōtomo
Moonlight Shimo-ochiai Tasuku Emoto
2018 Mori, The Artist's Habitat Takeshi Fujita Shūichi Okita
Lying to Mom Kōichi Suzuki Katsumi Nojiri
Bel Canto Gen Watanabe Paul Weitz
2019 To the Ends of the Earth Iwao Kiyoshi Kurosawa
2020 Minamata Kiyoshi Andrew Levitas
The Works and Days (of Tayoko Shiojiri in the Shiotani Basin) Anders Edström, C.W. Winter
2023 Kubi Oda Nobunaga Takeshi Kitano [13]

Television

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Writings

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"Minna no Ozu-kai" in Ozu Yasujiro Taizen (The Complete Book of Ozu Yasujiro) by Matsuura Kanji and Miyamoto Akiko (Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. 2019) ISBN 9784022515995[15]

Bibliography

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Awards

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2004

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2007

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2008

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2010

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  • 1st Nippon Theater Staff Film Festival: Best Supporting Actor[28]

2013

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References

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  1. ^ "Ryo Kase Official Site".
  2. ^ 加瀬亮 [Ryo Kase] (in Japanese). Yahoo Japan Corporation. Retrieved 2015-05-30.
  3. ^ a b Mark Schilling (14 September 2012). "Nice guy actor Ryo Kase plays rough in 'Like Someone in Love'". The Japan Times.
  4. ^ "Soredemo boku wa yattenai". IMDb.
  5. ^ Kitano, Takeshi (2010-06-12), Autoreiji (Action, Crime, Drama), Takeshi Kitano, Kippei Shîna, Ryô Kase, Bandai Visual Company, Office Kitano, Omnibus Japan, retrieved 2024-06-16
  6. ^ "Japanese Box Office Weekends For 2010". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2024-06-16.
  7. ^ Kitano, Takeshi (2012-10-06), Autoreiji: Biyondo (Action, Crime, Drama), Toshiyuki Nishida, Tomokazu Miura, Takeshi Kitano, Bandai Visual Company, TV Tokyo, Omnibus Japan, retrieved 2024-06-16
  8. ^ Kitano, Takeshi (2017-10-07), Outrage Coda (Action, Crime, Drama), Takeshi Kitano, Toshiyuki Nishida, Tatsuo Nadaka, Bandai Visual, Office Kitano, TV Tokyo, retrieved 2024-06-16
  9. ^ Kitano, Takeshi (2023-11-23), Kubi (Action, Drama, History), Takeaki Abe, Yoshiyoshi Arakawa, Tadanobu Asano, Kadokawa, Toho, retrieved 2024-06-16
  10. ^ Cho, Suzie (2024-03-12). "The 47th Japan Academy Film Prize Announces Winners, "Godzilla Minus One" wins Eight Awards including Best Picture". Asian Movie Pulse. Retrieved 2024-06-16.
  11. ^ "Minamata • W. Eugene Smith • Magnum Photos Magnum Photos". Magnum Photos. Retrieved 2024-06-16.
  12. ^ a b "'SPEC' to spawn another movie and drama special next fall". 6Theory Media, LLC. Retrieved 2015-05-30.
  13. ^ "北野武監督『首』今秋公開決定!ティザービジュアルが解禁!". Fan's Voice. Retrieved April 14, 2023.
  14. ^ "来春朝ドラ『あんぱん』第3次キャスト7人発表 ヒロイン家族を演じる豪華な顔ぶれ". Oricon. 26 June 2024. Retrieved June 26, 2024.
  15. ^ "小津安二郎大全 = OZU".
  16. ^ Bellevue Ryo Kase:加瀬亮-写真+言葉+全作品 (in Japanese). National Diet Library. Retrieved 2015-05-30.
  17. ^ 第14回日本映画プロフェッショナル大賞. allcinema (in Japanese). Stingray. Retrieved 2015-05-30.
  18. ^ 第17回日本映画プロフェッショナル大賞. allcinema (in Japanese). Stingray. Retrieved 2015-05-30.
  19. ^ キネマ旬報ベスト・テン (in Japanese). Kinema-Junposha.Co.Ltd. Retrieved 2015-05-30.
  20. ^ 受賞作品 会社情報 テレビマンユニオン (in Japanese). TV Man Union, Inc. Retrieved 2015-05-30.
  21. ^ 第31回日本アカデミー賞優秀作品 (in Japanese). Japan Academy Prize Association. Retrieved 2015-05-30.
  22. ^ 報知映画賞 歴代受賞一覧 (in Japanese). The Hochi Shimbun. Retrieved 2015-05-30.
  23. ^ 第50回ブルーリボン賞. allcinema (in Japanese). Stingray. Retrieved 2015-05-30.
  24. ^ 第29回ヨコハマ映画祭 2007年日本映画個人賞 (in Japanese). Yokohama Film Festival website. Retrieved 2015-05-30.
  25. ^ 第3回おおさかシネマフェスティバル (in Japanese). Osaka Film Festival Executive Committee. Retrieved 2015-05-30.
  26. ^ "The 2nd Asian Film Awards". Asian Film Awards. Archived from the original on 2012-06-18. Retrieved 2015-05-30.
  27. ^ "全国映連賞". 全国映連 (in Japanese). Retrieved August 27, 2022.
  28. ^ 第1回日本シアタースタッフ映画祭 (in Japanese). Nippon Theater Staff Film Festival. Retrieved 2015-05-30.
  29. ^ 第69回毎日映画コンクール (in Japanese). Mainichi Newspapers. Retrieved 2015-05-30.
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