SABU

Overview

Known for
Acting
Gender
Other
Birthday
Nov 18, 1964 (60 years old)

SABU

Known For

Silence
2h 41m
Movie 2016

Silence

In the 17th century, two Portuguese Jesuit priests travel to Japan in an attempt to locate their mentor, who is rumored to have committed apostasy, and to propagate Catholicism.

Sakuran
1h 51m
Movie 2006

Sakuran

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.

Dangan Runner
1h 22m
Movie 1996

Dangan Runner

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.

Don't Look Up
1h 15m
Movie 1996

Don't Look Up

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.

Suit Yourself or Shoot Yourself: The Gamble
1h 20m
Movie 1996

Suit Yourself or Shoot Yourself: The Gamble

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

Suit Yourself or Shoot Yourself!! The Heist
1h 21m
Movie 1995

Suit Yourself or Shoot Yourself!! The Heist

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

Kiriko
1h 17m
Movie 1994

Kiriko

1994 sequel to Satoru Kobayashi's "The Blind Cat". Yakuza drug dealers lure the blind Kiriko into town to take revenge on her. However, Kiriko is a master swordswoman and has plans of her own.

800 Two Lap Runners
1h 50m
Movie 1994

800 Two Lap Runners

A coming-of-age story about two runners, Kenji and Ryuji, tangled in love, loss, and rivalry, as they navigate complex emotions and relationships.

Warrior's Justice 2: Full Battle
1h 29m
Movie 1994

Warrior's Justice 2: Full Battle

Takeshi Kojima, who once killed a corrupt economic yakuza boss, has been hiding out in the doya district to escape the gang and the police. Then he is approached by the local yakuza, the Kamata clan. However, the residents don't like the Kamata gang's outrageous tactics, and he refuses their offer...

Kuma-chan
1h 38m
Movie 1993

Kuma-chan

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.

Biography

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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