Ten Things That I Know About Takashi Sasano, the One Scene Wonder

Takashi Sasano (笹野高史, b. 1948) is one of my favourite character actors. He’s appeared in so many films and television series that his face is a familiar sight to Japanese audiences. With only the widening of his eyes, Sasano can have an audience erupt with peals of laughter. At the same time, he has a great range and depth in serious roles. Sasano recently jumped onto the radar of Western audiences when the Yōjirō Takita’s Departures (おくりびと, 2008) scooped up the Best Foreign Language Film award at the Oscars in 2009. He plays the role of Shokichi Hirata in that film.

Sasano (right) in Departures

1. He was born on the island of Awaji to a family of sake producers. He was the fourth son in the family, but his parents died when he was still a child.

2. In 1968, while studying Film at Nihon University, Sasano joined the company of Jiyū Gekijyō (Freedom Theatre). He dropped out of university, but he staying with the theatre group until 1982.

3. Sasano appears frequently in the films of Yōji Yamada (山田 洋次). Notable among these many collaborations are many of the Tora-san films, Hidden Blade (2004), Kabei: Our Mother (2008), and About Her Brother (2010).

4. Sasano was awarded Best Supporting Actor at the Japanese Academy Awards in 2007 for playing the role of Tokuhei in Yōji Yamada’s Love and Honour (武士の一分/ Bushi no Ichibun, 2006). His performance in this film also garnered him with a Kinema Junpo Award and a Mainichi Film Concours.

Sanko-Seika spot for senbei crackers

5. He calls himself a “one scene actor” because he never turns down a role, no matter how small. This year alone he appears in three feature films, a made-for-TV movie and three TV series. He also does a lot of television commercials.

Sasano's face imprinted on senbei for a Sanko-Seika campaign

6. At age 42, Sasano finally parted ways with bachelorhood, marrying a woman 17 years his junior. 

7. He has four sons, all of whom work in show business: Shota Sasano (ささの翔太, b.1991), Yuma Sasano (ささの 友間, b. 1993), Kenta Sasano (ささの堅太b. 1995), and Takato Sasano (ささの 貴斗, b. 1997).

8. His profile on the talent agency Gran Papa’s website lists his specialties as playing the trumpet and speaking the Osaka dialect.

9. He has written a memoir called Taiki Bansei in which he pokes fun of his status as a late-bloomer and character actor (never a leading man).  I love how the cover highlights his trademark receding hairline.

10. You can follow him on Twitter under the username sasano61

Selected Filmography

1985 Tora-san’s Island Encounter aka Tora-san: From Shibamata with Love

(Otoko wa Tsurai yo: Shibamata yori Ai o Komete, Yōji Yamada)

1986 Tora-san's Bluebird Fantasy 

(Otoko wa Tsurai yo: Shiawase no Aoi Tori, Yōji Yamada)

1987 Tora-san Goes North 

(Otoko wa Tsurai yo: Shiretoko Bojo, Yōji Yamada)

1987 Tora-san Plays Daddy 

(Otoko wa Tsurai yo: Torajirō Monogatari, Yōji Yamada)

1988 Tora-san Salad-Day Memorial 

(Otoko wa Tsurai yo: Torajiro Sarada Kinenbi, Yōji Yamada)

1989 Tora-san Goes to Vienna 

(Otoko wa Tsurai yo: Torajirō Kokoro no Tabiji, Yōji Yamada)

1989 Tora-san , My Uncle 

(Otoko wa Tsurai yo: Boku no Ojisan, Yōji Yamada)

1990 Tora-san Takes a Vacation 

(Otoko wa Tsurai yo: Torajirō no Kyūjitsu, Yōji Yamada)

1991 Tora-san Confesses 

(Otoko wa Tsurai yo: Torajirō no Kokuhaku, Yōji Yamada)

1993 Tora-san 's Matchmaker 

(Otoko wa Tsurai yo: Torajiro no Endan,Yōji Yamada)

1995 Tora-san to the Rescue 

(Otoko wa Tsurai yo: Torajiro Kurenai no Hana,Yōji Yamada)

1998 Love Letter (Azuma Morisaki)

1999 The Geisha House (Omocha, Kinji Fukasaku)

2003 Bright Future (Akarui mirai, Kiyoshi Kurosawa)

2004 The Hidden Blade (Kakushi ken oni no tsume, Yōji Yamada)

 

2006 Love and Honour (Bushi no Ichibun, Yōji Yamada)

2008 Kabei: Our Mother (Yōji Yamada)

2008 Departures (Okuribito, Yojiro Takita)

2008 One Million Yen Girl (Hyakuman-en to Nigamushi Onna, Yuki Tanada)

2009 Dear Doctor (Miwa Nishikawa)

2010 About Her Brother (Ototo, Yōji Yamada)

2010 Surely Someday (Shun Oguri)

Related Posts:

Dear Doctor
One Million Yen Girl
About Her Brother

Available from Japan:

Ototo [Regular Edition]

Available from the USA:

© Catherine Munroe Hotes 2010

10 More Things About Natto Wada

Shunji Iwai’s 2006 documentary The Kon Ichikawa Story (Ichikawa Kon Monogatari) arrived in the post yesterday afternoon. As connoisseurs of Japanese film will know, Japanese DVDs are usually very overpriced compared to prices in other countries. The price for this 2 disc box set is well worth it for the beautifully designed packaging and glorious black and white photographs of the director and his screenwriter wife Natto Wada (和田 夏十, 1920-1983). 

The documentary was its flaws (more on that another time), but from it I have gleaned a few more things about Natto Wada than I knew when I wrote 10 Things I Know About Natto Wada:

1. When Ichikawa met his wife, she was working as an interpreter at Toho.

2.  When Ichikawa fell in love with Wada, he decided he would marry her after he became a full-fledged director. She chose the novel for him to use for his first screenplay: Machiko by Yaeko Nogami. This novel became his first feature film A Flower Blooms (Hana Hiraku, 1948) 

3.  On April 10, 1948, Ichikawa and Wada married quietly in a local shrine and invited a few close friends from Toho to celebrate with them.

4.  The name Natto Wada initially was their pen name as co-writers, but it soon became her name. In private, she called him “Danna” (often translated at “master”, it is a traditional way for a wife to refer to her husband)  and he called her “Natto-san”. 

5.  Ichikawa and Wada could have intense creative arguments with each other that could lead to them eating dinner together in silence. But, Ichikawa admitted that when they argued he would always end up being the first to give in because he had to admit that her ideas were always right.

 Ichikawa in the foreground at his desk.  

Wada in the background working at the coffee table.

6.  Wada had never set out to be a screenwriter. She wanted to be a good wife and saw her writing work as an extension of her support for her husband. In a very Jane Austen kind of way, she didn’t have her own study but would write in communal family spaces like the dining table, the coffee table, or in the kitchen.

 Tanizaki (center) and Ichikawa (right)

7.  In order to acquire the rights from Junichiro Tanizaki for his 1956 novel The Key (Kagi), Wada told Ichikawa that he should prepare a wad of cash and drive a Mercedes to visit the great writer. Apparently, she was right about the cash and the Mercedes because Ichikawa did get the rights to make the film Odd Obsession (Kagi, 1960) and Wada’s adaptation met with Tanizaki’s approval.

 

7.  After Tokyo Olympiad, Wada told Ichikawa that it was time for him to do it by himself. After her retirement, she showed no interest in screenplays any longer and Ichikawa was left to his own devices.  However, before he passed away, Ichikawa told Shunji Iwai that he still had screenplays by Wada that he had not yet had a chance to film.

8.  While Ichikawa was away working on films, Wada rarely called to interrupt his work. One exception was when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She called him in Osaka where he was editing a television drama.

9.  Shortly before she died, Ichikawa convinced Wada to write the ending to his Makioka Sisters screenplay. She died before the film was released.

 

10.  The last film that Natto Wada saw was E.T. (1982) at a theatre in Ginza.  She and Ichikawa agreed was Steven Spielberg’s best film to date. Ichikawa recalls her saying: “I’m glad I saw such a good movie in the end.”  She died in the New Year.

The Kon Ichikawa Story (English Subtitles)

Japanese Movie

Odd Obsession (Kagi)

Movie

© Catherine Munroe Hotes 2010

Ten Things I Know About Kōgo Noda (野田高梧)

Ozu with Kōgo Noda (野田高梧, 1893-1968)

This Hokkaido-born / Nagoya-raised screenwriter is most famous for his collaborations with Yasujirō Ozu at Shochiku studios. They collaborated on more than half of Ozu’s films together (a total of 27). Of their close working relationship, Ozu has been quoted as saying: “When I work with Noda, we agree even on short bits of dialogue. And though we never discuss the details of sets or the costumes, his image of these things is always in accord with mine. Our ideas never contradict each other. We even agree on whether a line should end with a wa or a yo. Of course, sometimes we have a difference of opinion. And we don’t compromise easily since we are both stubborn.” (Richie, p. 27)

1. Family

The youngest of five brothers, one of whom was the painter Kyūho Noda (野田九浦, 1879-1971) whose work can be found at the Kichijoji Art Museum in Musashino.

2. Schooling

Graduated from Waseda University with a degree in English Literature. Other famous Waseda grads include Edogawa Rampo, Hirokazu Koreeda, Akio Jissoji, Haruki Murakami, and Shuji Terayama.

3. Collaborations

Ozu, Shimizu, Fushimi & Noda at an onsen in Izu (July1928)

While Kōgo Noda’s name is most closely associated with Ozu, he has actually collaborated with over a dozen directors over the course of his four decades at Shochiku. Other notable pairings include Yasujiro Shimazu, Hōtei Nomura, Hiromasa Nomura, Hiroshi Shimizu, Heinosuke Gosho, Kiyohiko Ushihara, Kenji Mizoguchi and Mikio Naruse.

4. How Ozu & Noda Met

Ozu and Noda had seen each other around the Shochiku lot many times before they ended up working together. Ozu had come up with a film scenario called Sword of Penitance (Zange no yaiba) based upon an early George Fitzmaurice film Kick In (USA, 1917) that he had read about. The head of studio, Shiro Kido, sent him to work on it in the jidai-geki section of the studio which is where he and Noda got to know each other for the first time and Noda agreed to help him write the script. Sword of Penitance, which is sadly lost, was Ozu’s debut as a film director.

5. Noda & Ozu’s Writing Methods

Noda and Ozu used a writing method that I often use for writing essays – a card system. In the early stages of writing they would write each scene idea on a card rather than in a book. This allowed for greater flexibility when organizing the script as the cards could be shuffled around or discarded freely. (Richie, p. 21)

6. Drinking Binges

Noda and Ozu legendarily enjoyed drinking sake while writing scripts together. They would go somewhere like a bar called Fledermaus in Nishi-Ginza and stay up late drinking until the ideas came. When the finished writing Tokyo Story, Noda wrote in his diary: “Finished. 103 days, 43 bottles of sake.” (Richie, p. 26).

7. Tateshina

In the early 1950s, Ozu bought a cottage in the mountains of Tateshina (Nagano) where he and Noda could seclude themselves to drink and write. A typical scenario would take them 3 to 4 months if they were writing it from scratch, while adaptations took less time.

8. Shared Stubbornness

Both Ozu and Noda were notoriously stubborn and in the rare event of a disagreement could give each other the silent treatment. As Noda remarked after Ozu’s passing: “If we didn’t agree we would sometimes scarcely speak to each other for two or three days in a row except for remarks like, ‘Well, the birch leaves have finally started to fall,’ or, ‘Last night there was a bird singing down in the valley.’ After some days of this kind of thing there would come, strangely enough, either from me or from him an idea quite different from anything we had been considering before, and then work would go smoothly again.” (Richie, p. 27)

9. Marriage

Unlike Ozu, Noda did marry. His daughter also worked as a scriptwriter under the name Ryū Tachibana (立原りゅう). She married the writer Hisashi Yamanouchi (山内久, b. 1925).

10. Awards

In 1950, Noda and Ozu jointly won the Mainichi Film Concours for Late Spring (1949). In 1967, Noda was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun for his contribution to Japanese culture.

Filmography (work in progress)

1925 Shin chikyōdai (Yasujiro Shimazu)

1926 Kōtō no kage (Yasujiro Shimazu)

1926 Cosmos saku koro (Hotei Nomura)

1926 Yōfu gonin onna – Dai ippen: Benten Osaku (Tsutomu Shigemune)

1926 Yōfu gonin onna – Dai gohen: Reijō Osumi (Yoshinobu Ikeda)

1927 Sword of Penitence (Zange no yaiba, Yasujirō Ozu)

1928 Man’s Worldly Appearance (Hito no yo no sugata, Heinosuke Gosho)

1928 Riku no ōja (Kiyohiko Ushihara)

1929 Wasei kenka tomodachi (Yasujirō Ozu)

1929 Kaishain seikatsu (Yasujirō Ozu)

1929 Dance girl no hiai (Kōjirō Sasaki)

 1929 Mother (Haha, Hotei Nomura)

1930 Marriage for Beginners (Kekkongaku nyūmon, Yasujirō Ozu)

1930 The Army Advances (Shigun, Kiyohiko Ushihara)

1930 Shami-hen: Haha (Hotei Nomura)

1930 Daitokai: Bakuhatsu-hen (Kiyohiko Ushihara)

1930 Vengeful Ghost of Erotica (Eroshin no onryo, Yasujirō Ozu)

1930 Ashi ni sawatta koun (Yasujirō Ozu)

1930 Story of Kinuyo (Kinuyo Monogatari, Heinosuke Gosho)

1931 Tōkyō no kōrasu (Yasujirō Ozu)

1931 Nanatsu no umi: Zempen Shojo-hen (Hiroshi Shimizu)

1932 Nanatsu no umi: Kohen Teiso-hen (Hiroshi Shimizu)

1932 Manshu koshin-kyoku (Yasushi Sasaki and Hiroshi Shimizu)

1932 Byakuya wa akaruku (Hiroshi Shimizu)

 1932 Seishun no yume imaizuko (Yasujirō Ozu)

1932 Mata au hi made (Yasujirō Ozu)

1932 The Stepchild (Nasanunaka: Mikio Naruse)

1933 Tōkyō no onna (Yasujirō Ozu)

1933 Ōendanchō no koi (Hiromasa Nomura)

1934 Haha wo kowazukuya (Yasujirō Ozu)

1934 Kōki Manshu-koku (Kazuo Ishikawa)

1935 Hakoiri musume (Yasujirō Ozu)

1936 Shindo: Zempen Akemi no maki (Heinosuke Gosho)

1936 Shindo: Kohen Ryota no maki (Heinosuke Gosho)

1937 Hana-kago no uta (Heinosuke Gosho)

1938 Kokumin no chikai (Hiromasa Nomura)

1938 The Tree of Love (Aizen Katsura, Hiromasa Nomura)

1939 Zoku aizen katsura (Hiromasa Nomura)

 1939 Aizen katsura – Kanketsu-hen (Hiromasa Nomura)

1940 Nishizumi senshacho-den (Kozaburo Yoshimura)

1941 Genkide yukōyo (Hiromasa Nomura)

1943 Hiwa Normanton jiken: Kamen no butō (Keisuke Sasaki)

1944 Kimi koso tsugi arawashia da (Toshimasa Hozumi)

1944 Yasen gungakutai (Masahiro Makino)

1946 Josei no shōri (Kenji Mizoguchi)

1949 The Flame of My Love (Waga koi wa moenu , Kenji Mizoguchi)

1949 Late Spring (Banshun, Yasujirō Ozu)

 1950 The Munekata Sisters (Munekata kyoudai, Yasujirō Ozu)

1950 Hi no tori (Shigeo Tanaka)

1951 The Good Fairy (Zemma, Keisuke Kinoshita)

1951 Early Summer (Bakushū, Yasujirō Ozu)

1952 Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice (Ochazuke no aji, Yasujirō Ozu)

1953 Tokyo Story (Tōkyō monogatari, Yasujirō Ozu)

1956 Early Spring (Shoshun, Yasujirō Ozu)

1957 Tōkyō boshoku (Yasujirō Ozu)

1958 Equinox Flower (Higanbana, Yasujirō Ozu)

1959 Good Morning (Ohayō, Yasujirō Ozu)

1959 Floating Weeds (Yasujirō Ozu)

1960 Late Autumn (Akibiyori, Yasujirō Ozu)

1961 The End of Summer (Kohayagawa-ke no aki, Yasujirō Ozu)

1962 Zoku aizen katsura (Noboru Nakamura)

1964 Radishes and Carrots (Daikon to ninjin, Minoru Shibuya)

2003 Musume no kekkon (Kon Ichikawa, TV)

3-DVD "Chichi Ariki," "Todake no Kyodai," "Hitori Musuko (The Only Son)"

Japanese Movie

3-DVD "Banshun (Late Spring)," "Nagaya Shinshiroku," "Kaze no Naka no Mendori (A Hen in the Wind)"

Japanese Movie

© Catherine Munroe Hotes 2010