Chris Tashima

Born: 1960-03-24

Chris Tashima is an award-winning American actor and director. He has starred in numerous independent feature films, most notably as the romantic lead opposite Joan Chen, Allison Sie, Kelly Hu and Autumn Reeser, in Eric Byler's Americanese which won a Special Jury Prize for Outstanding Ensemble Cast at SXSW. He was awarded Best Actor in a Supporting Role, at the inaugural Love International Film Festival, for his portrayal of Papa Nakaji in Tim Savage's World War II family drama Under the Blood Red Sun produced by Dana Satler Hankins. He portrayed real-life educator/activist Shigeo Yoshida in the 442nd RCT origin story Go For Broke from producer/screenwriter Stacey Hayashi. Most recently, he played the hard-nosed Uncle Bob in the generational family comedy No No Girl from writer/director Paul Daisuke Goodman--for which he received two nominations at the Austin Revolution Film Festival, and he plays Hiro in Brian M. Tang's action/fantasy short Kodama, receiving its world premiere at SXSW 2023. Tashima received an Academy Award® for directing the dramatic short film Visas and Virtue, a re-telling of the heroic actions of Holocaust rescuer Chiune Sugihara. In addition he co-wrote the screenplay adapting a one-act play by Tim Toyama, and starred as the Humanitarian diplomat Sugihara. He also directed, co-wrote and starred in the WWII Japanese American internment short film Day of Independence which was nominated for a NATAS Northern California Area Emmy®. These two directorial works came from Tashima's own Cedar Grove Productions, an indie entertainment house aiming to "Boldly defy mainstream Hollywood by giving Asian Americans the close-up onscreen."


See
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A Nightmare on Elm Street

as Kid (uncredited)
Released: 1984-10-31

Teenagers in a small town are dropping like flies, apparently in the grip of mass hysteria...

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as Fire Rescue Attendant (uncredited)
Released: 1987-03-06

Veteran buttoned-down LAPD detective Roger Murtaugh is partnered with unhinged cop Martin Riggs,...

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See!

The Karate Kid Part II

as The Rockabilly Club Dancer (uncredited)
Released: 1986-06-18

Summoned by his dying father, Miyagi returns to his homeland of Okinawa, with Daniel, after a...

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The Perfect Weapon

as Bag Man
Released: 1991-03-15

Jeff, a young delinquent, is enrolled by his father in a kenpo school, in the hopes of teaching...

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Model Minority

as Ken Tanaka
Released: 2012-05-11

Kayla, an underprivileged Japanese American 16 year old, endangers her promising future as an...

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Real Playing Game

as Mr. Chan
Released: 2013-08-28

In a future not too far away, Steve Battier, an elderly, terminally ill multi-millionaire,...

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Surviving Theater 9

as Professor Cambro
Released: 2018-04-22

From the survivors of the Aurora Colorado Batman Movie Theater and Columbine mass shootings, a...

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Overkill

as Nagumo Jr.
Released: 1987-12-16

A Tokyo cop is sent to Los Angeles to help an LAPD detective break up a yakuza ring operating in...

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Under the Blood-Red Sun

as Papa Nakaji
Released: 2014-09-14

December 7, 1941 - TOMIKAZU “TOMI” NAKAJI (Kyler Ki Sakamoto) and his best friend BILLY DAVIS...

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Lil Tokyo Reporter

as Sei Fujii
Released: 2012-09-14

1935 Los Angeles, community leader Sei Fujii uncovers the corrupt activities of his community's...

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Go for Broke

as Shigeo Yoshida
Released: 2017-10-14

During the tumultuous year after the attack on Pearl Harbor, a group of University of Hawaii...

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No No Girl

as Uncle Bob
Released: 2022-09-09

In the middle of the night, before they are to be sent to a Japanese American Internment Camp,...

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Americanese

as Raymond Ding
Released: 2006-03-15

Long after their breakup, Chinese American Raymond Ding and Amerasian Aurora Crane struggle to...

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Killzone

as Crawford's Men
Released: 1985-05-01

A troubled Vietnam vet snaps during a training exercise at a survivalist-type military camp and...

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Strawberry Fields

as Mark
Released: 1997-03-09

After a visit from the ghost of her sister, a rebellious 16 year old Japanese American girl hits...

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Visas and Virtue

as Chiune 'Sempo' Sugihara
Released: 1997-05-01

Europe, 1940. For thousands of Jews, a Japanese diplomat and his wife defy Tokyo and the Nazis,...

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Half Kenneth

as Masamichi
Released: 2009-04-18

1945: after the death of his father, Ken escapes Japanese American internment camp to find his...

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Requiem

as Philip
Released: 1995-11-07

A waitress-dancer remembers her loving brother and their bittersweet childhood in Hong Kong.

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Day of Independence

as The Umpire
Released: 2003-09-26

Zip, a 17 year-old Nisei (second-generation Japanese American) baseball pitcher, faces the...

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The Hour of the Ox

as James
Released: 1985-01-01

An unexpected visit from a jealous ex-girlfriend accidentally turns bloody, but a deadlier fate...

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