Zenpaku Kato

Zenpaku Kato

Born: October 7, 1958
Died: April 27, 2007
in Akita Prefecture, Japan
Zenpaku Kato, also known by his birth name and former stage name Yoshihiro Kato, was a Japanese actor born on October 7, 1958, in Akita Prefecture. He was affiliated with the SAI Production agency.

He stood at a height of 174 cm and enjoyed music appreciation as a hobby. His special skill was illustration, and his favorite color was blue. He graduated from Akita Prefectural Yuri Technical High School.

Kato made his debut in the stage play "Shitaya Mannencho Monogatari," directed by Yukio Ninagawa. He was known for portraying eccentric antagonistic roles, such as a strict physical education teacher in the 1983 film "Kazoku Geemu" (Family Game), who methodically decides students' desired high schools for exams. He also played the role of Mr. Sugimoto, a department head who bullies subordinates through workplace harassment and power dynamics in the 1992 TV drama "Ai to Iu Na no Moto ni" (Under the Name of Love).

Throughout his career, Kato was recognized for his distinctive performances in various mediums, including film, television, and stage. However, on April 27, 2007, at the age of 48, he tragically took his own life through hanging in a park located in Shibuya, Tokyo. His passing was mourned by fellow actors, including Toshi Kazawa, Yoji Tanaka, and Mako Maekawa, who expressed their condolences.

(Translated from WIkipedia Japan "加藤善博")

Movies for Zenpaku Kato...

Prisoner/Terrorist
Title: Prisoner/Terrorist
Released: February 2, 2007
Type: Movie
During a suicide attack on an airport, the hand grenade of 'M', one of three terrorists, malfunctions, leaving him captured. Exposed to maltreatment in prison, he slowly loses his grip on reality as he is forced to confront his ideological convictions.
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Bonds
Title: Bonds
Character: Hiroshi Okahori
Released: June 6, 1998
Type: Movie
Tetsuro Haga is a troubled gangster, living under the assumed identity Ise for ten years, to escape jail for gunning down his cruel adoptive father. His life begins to unravel when a journalist following him takes an interest in the wife of a boyhood chum, and the wife of another close friend takes an interest in Ise. A couple of murders later, Ise/Haga goes on the run and also sets out for revenge.
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The Files of Young Kindaichi: Snow Yaksha Legend Murder Case
Title: The Files of Young Kindaichi: Snow Yaksha Legend Murder Case
Released: December 30, 1995
Type: Movie
Hajime Kindaichi is working a part time job as an assistant to a TV station for the filming of a shock show. They have invited celebrities in Segori Village and are planning to scare them by playing pranks on them such as fake deaths. However, a threatening letter arrives and soon, a real murder occurs broadcasted in front of everyone.
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Title: The End of the World
Character: Nimura Koichi
Released: January 10, 1994
Type: TV
Maria is in need of money. Because her day-time job doesn't pay enough, she works at night at a cabaret. She needs the money so that she can pay for her sister, Nana's eyes operation. When both Maria and Nana were younger, Maria burned down the home, causing her sister's blindness and killing their father (mother survived.) Shiro is a famous concert pianist. However, he isn't happy with his marriage or his life in general. Maria and Shiro are united through a traffic accident, causing Shiro to be hospitalized. Faking amnesia and his identity, he stays at Maria's place and eventually starts to work at the cabaret as a piano player. As you will find out later on, life was not meant for Maria and Shiro to find one another.
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The Last Dance
Title: The Last Dance
Character: Radiographer
Released: May 29, 1993
Type: Movie
A successful Japanese movie director in his sixties becomes increasingly ill while working on his latest film. Though his family, friends, and doctor try to keep the secret of his terminal cancer from him, Buhei gradually comes to realize the truth of his condition, leading him on a journey of despair, anger, and – ultimately – acceptance.
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Drop Out: Supple Female Leopard
Title: Drop Out: Supple Female Leopard
Released: February 21, 1992
Type: Movie
A story about a female hitman, Lisa Yajima, who carries out an assassination at the command of an organization, gets involved in an organization's plot.
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The Gentle 12
Title: The Gentle 12
Character: Juror #12
Released: December 14, 1991
Type: Movie
The film opens as a jury is about to acquit a defendant -- a bar hostess who pushed her ex-husband path of an oncoming truck, supposedly in self-defense. Just as everyone seems to be in agreement over the woman's innocence, one juror voices second thoughts.
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Report on Latent Narcotic Substances in the Brain: Drugless
Title: Report on Latent Narcotic Substances in the Brain: Drugless
Character: Himself
Released: April 26, 1991
Type: Movie
A fake documentary disguised as an undercover report on a secret circle that teaches how to freely secrete the brain drug endorphins. At the end of the film, the director (Yoshihiro Kato), who has become a cripple as a result of his undercover work, reconstructs the images in his brain that he sees, and fantastic abstract experimental film-like images appear. It also contained elements of the video drugs that were popular at the time.
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Hole in the Pants 5: I Found a Glittering Star in my Pants!
Title: Hole in the Pants 5: I Found a Glittering Star in my Pants!
Released: December 8, 1990
Type: Movie
5th installment of the Pantsu no ana video series released by BOMB magazine
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Maria's Stomach
Title: Maria's Stomach
Released: July 21, 1990
Type: Movie
A carnivorous monster lives on the island of Sipang. A group of office ladies band together to fight it.
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Tales of a Golden Geisha
Title: Tales of a Golden Geisha
Released: June 2, 1990
Type: Movie
The film stars two of Itami's regular actors, Nobuko Miyamoto as a geisha who brings luck to the men with whom she sleeps, and Masahiko Tsugawa as her unfaithful, sometimes partner. As well as showing her relationships with the man she loves and the men who employ her, it satirizes corruption and the influence of money in Japanese politics.
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Let's Go to the Hospital
Title: Let's Go to the Hospital
Released: April 7, 1990
Type: Movie
When a hard-driving copywriter (Hiroyuki Sanada) discovers his comely wife (Keiko Saito) is involved in a scintillating game of strip rock-paper-scissors with some guy clad only in a pair of boxer shorts and Mickey Mouse ears, he is less than happy. When the stranger tries to make a run for it, a fight ensues between the two men, and they accidentally tumble down several flights of a concrete stairwell. One hurried ambulance ride later, the copywriter finds himself in a private teaching hospital equipped with the latest gleaming gizmos. Meanwhile, a young internist (Hiroko Yakushimaru) girds herself for her first emergency room case -- the battered copywriter. After giving a curt bow and a nervous "Good Evening," she accidentally jams a syringe into his bloody wound. Soon the absurdity of their situation, along with their medical misery, binds the two men and their blundering nurse together.
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Roppongi Banana Boys
Title: Roppongi Banana Boys
Released: August 12, 1989
Type: Movie
A stylish light comedy about the “Banana boys”— two boys who were born and raised in Roppongi who are still growing up. It is based on the light novel of the same name written by Takashi Kitajima
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Stay or go?
Title: Stay or go?
Released: August 27, 1988
Type: Movie
Shohei Taguchi is a salaryman who works for a securities company and loves women like no other. One day, he plans to use the cash borrowed from the gangsters and snatch to repay his debt . However, Sayoko Mukai, who said that she used the money of the company for gambling , took over the money. Shohei and Sayoko plan a robbery and steal cash from the gallery, but another man steals it.
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The Glorious Asuka Gang!
Title: The Glorious Asuka Gang!
Character: Cop
Released: August 13, 1988
Type: Movie
In the year 199X, on the dark, shady streets of New Kabuki Town, the free-for-all between gangs of young delinquents and a corrupt police force is further complicated by the appearance of a mysterious girl named Asuka.
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Love Bites Back
Title: Love Bites Back
Character: Shohei Tsunoda
Released: July 1, 1988
Type: Movie
Yuichi Koga is an upper-class business executive, running his own adult video company, and living a successful life with his wife and daughter. Outwardly, his family seems really happy, but in reality Yuichi enjoys sex with everyone but his wife Chikako. One day, he gets a phone call from a woman named Sanae, an old elementary school classmate of his.
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A Taxing Woman's Return
Title: A Taxing Woman's Return
Character: Yamada
Released: January 15, 1988
Type: Movie
Ryōko Itakura returns as the tough-as-nails government taxing agent. This time she must figure out a way to expose a fanatical religious cult lead by a corrupt sociopath.
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Hawaiian Dream
Title: Hawaiian Dream
Character: Newlywed Husband
Released: August 29, 1987
Type: Movie
Tatsuhiko and Shofumi are hoodlums living in downtown Hawaii, having flown out of Japan and entered the country illegally for a reason. The two make a living by trafficking pakalolo – marijuana – under the pretext of selling tea leaves, but they are in a foreign land where they don't speak the language well. When they get busted by the chief of police, they're forced to make a deal and and help get a local crime boss masquerading as a benevolent celebrity arrested.
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Hahako kankin: Mesu
Title: Hahako kankin: Mesu
Character: Minoru Ishikawa
Released: February 28, 1987
Type: Movie
After watching her friend fall from a building a depressed high school girl runs away from home. When she is picked up by a nice guy on a phone date she realizes too late that he has plans to use her for his own ends.
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A Taxing Woman
Title: A Taxing Woman
Character: Yamada
Released: February 7, 1987
Type: Movie
Intrepid tax investigator Ryoko Itakura sets her sights on the mysterious and philandering Hideki Gondo, a suspected millionaire and proprietor of a thriving chain of seedy hourly hotels, who has for years succeeded at hiding the true extent of his assets from the Japanese authorities. Itakura and Gondo soon find themselves engaged in a complicated, satirical battle of wits.
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A Homance
Title: A Homance
Character: Shigeru Goki
Released: October 10, 1986
Type: Movie
A homeless man suffering from memory loss is unbeatable in a fight. He becomes involved with the Yakuza. It is based on a manga by Carib Marley.
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Lost in the Wilderness
Title: Lost in the Wilderness
Character: Murata
Released: June 7, 1986
Type: Movie
The life and travels of adventurer Naomi Uemura, who disappeared in Alaska in 1984. A member of the first Japanese expedition to reach the summit of Mt Everest in 1970, Uemura also accomplished several "firsts". He was the first man to reach the North Pole solo, climb Denali solo, and float down the Amazon river solo. In the film, Uemura returns to Tokyo after a stint in Siorapaluk in Northern Greenland. In Tokyo, he reconnects with an old friend and, over coffee, shares his life story - from his days as a college dropout to his successful expedition to the top of Everest.
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Tampopo
Title: Tampopo
Character: Man in White Suit's Henchman
Released: November 23, 1985
Type: Movie
In this humorous paean to the joys of food, a pair of truck drivers happen onto a decrepit roadside shop selling ramen noodles. The widowed owner, Tampopo, begs them to help her turn her establishment into a paragon of the "art of noodle-soup making". Interspersed are satirical vignettes about the importance of food to different aspects of human life.
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The Funeral
Title: The Funeral
Character: Ebihara's Colleague
Released: November 17, 1984
Type: Movie
When Wabisuke's father-in-law unexpectedly dies, the family goes through a series of random events and occurrences as the funeral unfolds over three days in their home.
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Main Theme
Title: Main Theme
Character: Hajime Yotsukaichi
Released: July 14, 1984
Type: Movie
A kindergarten teacher meets a novice magician and together they travel to another city to find love.
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Deaths in Tokimeki
Title: Deaths in Tokimeki
Released: February 18, 1984
Type: Movie
Deaths in Tokimeki tells the story of a nondescript hitman, in a remote country villa, waiting to carry out a job: the assassination of the leader of a religious cult.
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Detective Story
Title: Detective Story
Character: Man who picks up Naomi
Released: July 16, 1983
Type: Movie
Naomi is a university student who is leaving for the US to study in a week; Shuichi is a washed-up gumshoe who's hired by Naomi's father to bodygard his daughter until she leaves. Shuichi finds the job annoying and wants to quit. But he also has a screwed-up ex and alimony to pay. Things go from bad to worse when Naomi and Shuichi stumble upon a murder which might involve the yakuza. They decide to find out who committed the murder but God knows what it will lead to.
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The Family Game
Title: The Family Game
Character: Shigeyuki's Gymnastic Teacher
Released: May 4, 1983
Type: Movie
A sendup of the stereotypical Japanese family: dad is a salaryman jerk, unable to relate to anyone; mom is a hopeless housewife; the older son is a moderate academic success; but the younger son is a rebellious goof-off for whom a tutor must be hired. The tutor, played by the prototypical bad boy actor Matsuda Yusaku, proceeds to blow the entire family apart.