Sabu (サブ, Sabu, born November 18, 1964) is the pseudonym of Japanese actor and director Hiroyuki Tanaka (田中博行[1], Tanaka Hiroyuki).
Career
Born in Wakayama Prefecture, Sabu studied at an Osaka fashion school before deciding to go to Tokyo to become a professional musician.[2] 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."[3] 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.[4] 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).
Selected filmography
Director
- Dangan Runner (1996)
- Postman Blues (1997)
- Unlucky Monkey (1998)
- Monday (2000)
- Drive (2002)
- Blessing Bell (2002)
- A1012K (2003 - short film)
- Hard Luck Hero (2003)
- Hold-Up Down (2005)
- Shisso (2005)
- The Crab Cannery Ship (Kanikōsen, 2009)
- Troubleman (2010)
- Usagi Drop (2011)
- Miss ZOMBIE (2013)
Actor
References
External links
Persondata |
Name |
Sabu |
Alternative names |
|
Short description |
Japanese film director |
Date of birth |
November 18, 1964 |
Place of birth |
Wakayama, Wakayama, Japan |
Date of death |
|
Place of death |
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