SABU

Born: 1964-11-18

Sabu (サブ, Sabu, born November 18, 1964) is the pseudonym of Japanese actor and director Hiroyuki Tanaka. Born in Wakayama Prefecture, Sabu studied at an Osaka fashion school before deciding to go to Tokyo to become a professional musician. It was suggested he try acting and in 1986 he made his film debut in Sorobanzuku. He earned his first starring role in the 1991 World Apartment Horror, a live-action film directed by Katsuhiro Ōtomo of Akira fame. Working from a script he wrote himself, he made his directorial debut with the 1996 Dangan Runner, a film that set his early style of "quirky action-comedies propelled by characters who hurtle headlong though squirming narratives steered more by the forces of incidence and coincidence than the actions of the protagonists themselves." Shin'ichi Tsutsumi played the lead in Sabu's first five films. Blessing Bell, starring Susumu Terajima (who has played minor roles in nearly all of Sabu's films), was a turn away from his kinetic, parodic, and black comedy narratives, and earned the NETPAC Award at the 2003 Berlin Film Festival. Later films featured the J-pop band V6. In 2009, he directed The Crab Cannery Ship, a modern adaptation of a classic of Japanese proletarian literature written by Takiji Kobayashi. He has continued to work as an actor, such as in Takashi Miike's Ichi the Killer (2001). His film Chasuke's Journey was selected to be screened in the main competition section of the 65th Berlin International Film Festival.


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Silence

as Samurai #1
Released: 2016-12-22

Two Jesuit priests travel to seventeenth century Japan which has, under the Tokugawa shogunate,...

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Ichi the Killer

as Kaneko
Released: 2001-12-22

As sadomasochistic yakuza enforcer Kakihara searches for his missing boss he comes across Ichi,...

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Josee, the Tiger and the Fish

as uncredited
Released: 2003-12-13

Tsuneo is a university student working part-time in a mah-jong parlour. Lately the customers...

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Sakuran

as Patron
Released: 2006-12-07

Anna Tsuchiya blasts back in time playing an oiran, a top-notched geisha of the Edo period’s...

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Dangan Runner

as uncredited
Released: 1996-11-09

A would-be bank robber forgets his mask on his first big heist, and then botches an attempt to...

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Shinjuku Triad Society

as Shusuke Shimada
Released: 1995-08-26

Tatsuhito, a cop, pursues Chinese warlord Wang through the underworld of Shinjuku and over to...

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Postman Blues

as Kurokawa
Released: 1997-08-16

Sawaki is a postman who's not quite thrilled about his boring way of life. But his life is about...

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Zëiram 2

as Fujikuro (as Sabu)
Released: 1994-12-17

Intergalactic bounty hunters Iria and Bob return to track down an ancient mystical relic. When a...

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Suit Yourself or Shoot Yourself!! The Heist

as Domoto
Released: 1995-04-22

Two petty gangsters get ransomed by a group of Yakuza members, fortunately they are rescued by a...

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Don't Look Up

as Sekikawa
Released: 1996-03-22

On the set of a dark war time drama at an old movie studio, a young director, Toshio Murai, is...

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World Apartment Horror

as Ita
Released: 1991-04-05

A Yakuza underling is given the assignment to rid an apartment of its tenants within a week. He...

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Suit Yourself or Shoot Yourself!! The Escape

as Domoto
Released: 1995-08-12

Hapless gangsters are hired by the yakuza to tail his daughter. Once the identity of the boy...

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A Legend of Turmoil

as uncredited
Released: 1992-01-15

A story about the development of a bright and strong yakuza. Otaki is an old-fashioned...

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Unlucky Monkey

as Bank Robber
Released: 1998-07-18

A dark and strange comedy about a bank robber with bad luck. Bungling a bank robbery turns out...

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800 Two Lap Runners

as Kyoichi Nakazawa
Released: 1994-07-09

This coming-of-age story revolves around two young long distance runners, Kenji Hirose and Ryuji...

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Kiriko

as uncredited
Released: 1994-09-23

1994 sequel to Satoru Kobayashi's "The Blind Cat". Yakuza drug dealers lure the blind Kiriko...

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Kuma-chan

as uncredited
Released: 1993-04-24

Kuma-chan, an alien who looks just like a stuffed bear, helps a middle-aged sculptor fall in...

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Suit Yourself or Shoot Yourself: The Gamble

as uncredited
Released: 1996-03-01

Having lost everything to horse racing, Yûji accidentally gets 10 million yen. But this sum...

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Savage City: Angel Whisper

as uncredited
Released: 1991-04-26

A corrupt cop teams up with an unlikely partner to protect the city from a gang of ruthless drug...

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Warrior's Justice 2: Full Battle

as uncredited
Released: 1994-01-01

Takeshi Kojima, who once killed a corrupt economic yakuza boss, has been hiding out in the doya...

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