SABU

SABU

Born: November 18, 1964
in Wakayama, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan
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.

Movies for SABU...

Silence
Title: Silence
Character: Samurai #1
Released: December 22, 2016
Type: Movie
Two Jesuit priests travel to seventeenth century Japan which has, under the Tokugawa shogunate, banned Catholicism and almost all foreign contact.
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Sakuran
Title: Sakuran
Character: Patron
Released: December 7, 2006
Type: Movie
Anna Tsuchiya blasts back in time playing an oiran, a top-notched geisha of the Edo period’s Yoshiwara District, navigating brothel politics while trying to cling to the man she loves.
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Josee, the Tiger and the Fish
Title: Josee, the Tiger and the Fish
Released: December 13, 2003
Type: Movie
Tsuneo is a university student working part-time in a mah-jong parlour. Lately the customers have been talking about an old lady who pushes a baby carriage through the streets. They say she is carrying something for a crime syndicate, and they wonder what it is she has in the carriage Money? Drugs? One day, the owner of the mah-jong parlour sends Tsuneo out to walk his dog. A baby carriage comes rolling down a hill and crashes into a guard rail. The old lady asks him to look into the carriage, where he finds a young woman clutching a knife. This is how Tsuneo first meets the girl who calls herself Josee.
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Ichi the Killer
Title: Ichi the Killer
Character: Kaneko
Released: December 22, 2001
Type: Movie
As sadomasochistic yakuza enforcer Kakihara searches for his missing boss he comes across Ichi, a repressed and psychotic killer who may be able to inflict levels of pain that Kakihara has only dreamed of.
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Unlucky Monkey
Title: Unlucky Monkey
Character: Bank Robber
Released: July 18, 1998
Type: Movie
A dark and strange comedy about a bank robber with bad luck. Bungling a bank robbery turns out to be a profitable mistake for Yamazaki, an amateur crook who ends up with 80 million yen after a string of improbable accidents. But having so much cash doesn't make his life is any easier. In fact, it gets much more complicated when Yamazaki stabs a hairdresser by mistake and instantly becomes a hunted fugitive. He's just one unlucky monkey but can he turn his luck around?
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Postman Blues
Title: Postman Blues
Character: Kurokawa
Released: August 16, 1997
Type: Movie
Sawaki is a postman who's not quite thrilled about his boring way of life. But his life is about to change when he delivers mail to his old schoolmate Noguchi, who's now a member of the Yakuza, the Japanese Mafia, and just finished cutting his little finger off.
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Dangan Runner
Title: Dangan Runner
Released: November 9, 1996
Type: Movie
A would-be bank robber forgets his mask on his first big heist, and then botches an attempt to shoplift a replacement mask from a nearby convenience store. The store's clerk, a washed-up rock star, chases the thief and literally runs into a Yakuza to whom he owes money. Thus begins an all-night, three-way pursuit through the streets of Tokyo.
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Don't Look Up
Title: Don't Look Up
Character: Sekikawa
Released: March 22, 1996
Type: Movie
On the set of a dark war time drama at an old movie studio, a young director, Toshio Murai, is trying to complete his debut film. The two starring actresses, Hitomi Kurokawa and Saori Murakami, play sisters in his film. Murai has a crush on Hitomi, the seasoned leading actress, and keeps a photo of her by his bed. The younger and less experienced actress, Saori, is annoying and likes to have recess on the set. The production of the movie is consistently interrupted by strange occurrences and the cast and crew begin to get spooked.
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Suit Yourself or Shoot Yourself: The Gamble
Title: Suit Yourself or Shoot Yourself: The Gamble
Released: March 1, 1996
Type: Movie
Having lost everything to horse racing, Yûji accidentally gets 10 million yen. But this sum belongs to a Yakuza.
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Shinjuku Triad Society
Title: Shinjuku Triad Society
Released: August 26, 1995
Type: Movie
Tatsuhito, a cop, pursues Chinese warlord Wang through the underworld of Shinjuku and over to Taiwan.
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Suit Yourself or Shoot Yourself!! The Escape
Title: Suit Yourself or Shoot Yourself!! The Escape
Character: Domoto
Released: August 12, 1995
Type: Movie
Hapless gangsters are hired by the yakuza to tail his daughter. Once the identity of the boy she's dating has been unveiled, the boss offers a reward for his capture.
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Suit Yourself or Shoot Yourself!! The Heist
Title: Suit Yourself or Shoot Yourself!! The Heist
Character: Domoto
Released: April 22, 1995
Type: Movie
Two petty gangsters get ransomed by a group of Yakuza members, fortunately they are rescued by a kindly Kindergarten teacher.
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Zëiram 2
Title: Zëiram 2
Character: Fujikuro (as Sabu)
Released: December 17, 1994
Type: Movie
Intergalactic bounty hunters Iria and Bob return to track down an ancient mystical relic. When a second Zeiram unit shows up and goes berserk, it takes all of Iria's resources to survive a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with the fearsome space creature.
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Kiriko
Title: Kiriko
Released: September 23, 1994
Type: Movie
1994 sequel to Satoru Kobayashi's "The Blind Cat".
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800 Two Lap Runners
Title: 800 Two Lap Runners
Character: Kyoichi Nakazawa
Released: July 9, 1994
Type: Movie
This coming-of-age story revolves around two young long distance runners, Kenji Hirose and Ryuji Nakazawa. Kenji, haunted by memories of his dead friend Aihara with whom he had a brief homosexual affair, is now dating Aihara's former girlfriend Kyoko, but Kyoko is more interested in Kenji than he is in her. Ryuji, Kenji's friend and track rival, is pursuing hurdler Shoko but she in turn is after Kenji. Ryuji does have his own admirer, Nao, Kenji's younger sister, but when they do get together, Nao resembles her brother too much for Ryuji to go through with the lovemaking.
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Kuma-chan
Title: Kuma-chan
Released: April 24, 1993
Type: Movie
Kuma-chan, an alien who looks just like a stuffed bear, helps a middle-aged sculptor fall in love with a young actress from a theater company.
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A Legend of Turmoil
Title: A Legend of Turmoil
Released: January 15, 1992
Type: Movie
A story about the development of a bright and strong yakuza. Otaki is an old-fashioned respectful yakuza who tries to protect his small yakuza family. When his boss gets shot, he decides to go after the plotters.
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Savage City: Angel Whisper
Title: Savage City: Angel Whisper
Released: April 26, 1991
Type: Movie
A corrupt cop teams up with an unlikely partner to protect the city from a gang of ruthless drug addicts.
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World Apartment Horror
Title: World Apartment Horror
Character: Ita
Released: April 5, 1991
Type: Movie
A Yakuza underling is given the assignment to rid an apartment of its tenants within a week. He tries a variety of desperate tactics to no avail. Soon his problems get worse as an evil spirit makes its presence known.