Sabu (サブ, Sabu, born November 18, 1964) is the pseudonym of
Japanese actor and director Hiroyuki Tanaka (ç"°ä¸å šè¡Œ, Tanaka
Hiroyuki).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
ÅŒtomo 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.
Japanese actor and director Hiroyuki Tanaka (ç"°ä¸å šè¡Œ, Tanaka
Hiroyuki).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
ÅŒtomo 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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