Ken Takakura, DAN DADAN and Creepy Nuts

Next week, on February 16th, is Ken Takakura's birthday.
He was born on February 16th, 1931, in a coal mining town (Nakama City, Fukuoka Prefecture).
Unfortunately, he passed away on November 10th, 2014. He was 83 years old.

Momo Ayase was born around 1964 and adored Ken Takakura.
I wasn't born until 1965. What I often heard from people was that after watching Ken Takakura's films, almost everyone would imitate him. They said that watching his films made them feel stronger.

"Nothing wrong with that! I like masculine guys like Ken Takakura!"
..."Dudes like that are extinct."

 

However, Ken Takakura was not always a yakuza-style actor.
Ken Takakura was a yakuza-style actor from around 1965 to around 1975.

In the 1977 movie "The Yellow Handkerchief", Ken Takakura plays a man who has just been released from prison. This is a gentle drama.
It is the original Japanese road movie and also a masterpiece.
There is a scene in the film where he eats. The director asked him to act realistically, eating the food with relish. His performance was perfect. For the filming of this scene, Ken Takakura didn't eat for two days. When the film crew found out, they were so surprised that they couldn't say anything.

In the 1983 film "Antarctica", he played a geologist.
The main character in this film is a dog. When planning this film, the president of the film company said, "There's no way a film with just a dog running around will be a hit." But it was a hit. The filming took place in the Arctic and Antarctic. The director suffered a serious injury, breaking his ribs. But not a single animal died. The orca that attacks the dog is an animal called "Benkei" that was kept at the huge Japanese zoo "Adventure World" (Shirahama-cho, Wakayama Prefecture).

In the American movie "Black Rain" (1989) starring Michael Douglas, Ken Takakura plays a police inspector from the Osaka Prefectural Police. He uses a lot of English in the movie.
He had been studying English since junior high school, and when he was in high school, he set up an English conversation club at his school. He also learned English from the child of an American military commander who was stationed in Kyushu. He and the child were friends.
This is a line that Ken Takakura says to Michael Douglas.
"Assistant Inspector Matsumoto Masahiro, Criminal Investigation Section, Osaka Prefectural Police.
And I do speak fucking English."

February 16th is Ken Takakura's birthday. Let's watch a Ken Takakura movie together.

 

If you want to feel kind, I recommend "The Yellow Handkerchief" (Director: Yoji Yamada).
If you like action movies, I recommend "Black Rain" (Director: Ridley Scott).

Actually, I'm not that much of a fan. There are lots of movies I haven't seen.
I'll take this opportunity to watch some of Ken Takakura's movies too.

//

Finally, I'll talk a little about Creepy Nuts.

Please also pay attention to DJ MATSUNAGA.
I'll introduce two episodes of his.

① When DJ MATSUNAGA appeared on a radio show, he introduced his favorite rap group and burst into tears.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5injL2YuxbE (3'53")

②DJ MATSUNAGA won the "DMC WORLD DJ CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS 2019", but when the winner was announced, the MC mistakenly called out "DJ NAKAMURA" by mistake. DJ MATSUNAGA was embarrassed, but he raised his hand anyway.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy1ROOV3I7c

This is a scene from a music video. The story is that the Creepy Nuts look too ordinary, so the music company makes fake Creepy Nuts.

The real crazy one is DJ MATSUNAGA.