Oct 07 2008
Another international cinema legend has been lost
Some sad news to report today. Japanese actor Ken Ogata passed away on Sunday, October 5, at the age of 71. A lot of you may not know who he is or have seen any of his work, but if you have a passion for film, you should make it a point to discover both the actor and his legacy. His first major roles began in 1965, but Ogata was still performing up to his death, having just completed work on a new Japanese television drama. He didn’t reach the same kind of international following as someone like Toshiro Mifune, yet his cinematic contributions are no less important.
Ogata’s worked with some of the greatest filmmakers of all time from a variety of countries. He’s delivered terrific performances in movies as varied as Shohei Imamura’s gripping, uncompromising 1979 serial killer pic Vengeance is Mine, the 1996 erotic drama The Pillow Book by Peter Greenaway, and, my personal favorite, Taxi Driver-scribe Paul Schrader’s astounding, hyper-stylized 1985 visual biography Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, in which Ogata channelled the multi-faceted persona of the infamous Japanese author/artist, Yukio Mishima.
Ogata’s quiet yet ferocious charisma will live on through the masterpieces that he has left behind. You can go here to see a widescreen Mishima trailer, or check out an unsubtitled but no less engaging preview for Vengeance is Mine over here.
