Japanese actor Hiroyuki Sanada has starred in many, many historical martial arts films. I was watching the trailer for the upcoming Shogun and 1) being impressed with how beautiful it looked, and 2) wondering where the hell I knew Sanada from (modern-set Lost, it turns out). But going down the rabbit hole on him made me think he was worthy of a feature! So let’s look at his historical roles, although there may be some early ones I’ve missed.
First, if you haven’t, watch the Shogun trailer:
And now, let’s run him down!
Haiyaku Eiji in Rimeinzu: Utsukushiki yuusha-tachi (1990)
Based on a true story about a bear who attacks a village in 1915.
Takauji Ashikaga in Taiheiki (1991)
14th-century emperor Go-Daigo has overthrown the last shogunate; now the leader of the samurai contemplates rebellion.
Tonbo in Sharaku (1995)
“A crippled kabuki player is taken into a strolling company of itinerant actors,” per IMDB.
Matashichirou in The Abe Clan (1995)
Set in the 17th-century Edo era, a vassal decides whether to commit suicide following his lord’s death.
Hanshichi in Shin Hanshichi torimono chô (1997)
Sanada plays an Edo-era detective.
Douson in Onmyoji: The Yin Yang Master (2001)
A samurai discovers a coup plot.
Sukeroku Sukedachiya in Sukedachi-ya Sukeroku (2001)
A samurai returns to his hometown just in time for “things to go down,” per some user’s summary on IMDB.
Seibei Iguchi in The Twilight Samurai (2002)
“As the feudal Japan era draws to a close, a widower samurai experiences difficulty balancing clan loyalties, two young daughters, an aged mother, and the sudden reappearance of his childhood sweetheart,” per IMDB.
Ujio in The Last Samurai (2003)
Tom Cruise (ugh) plays a 19th-century American military advisor who becomes a samurai.
Matsuda in The White Countess (2005)
A Merchant-Ivory film set in 1930s Shanghai.
General Guangming in Wu Ji (2005)
A royal concubine falls in love with a slave.
Oishi in 47 Ronin (2013)
A band of samurai seek revenge for their shogun’s murder.
Takeshi Nagase in The Railway Man (2013)
A British World War II veteran (Colin Firth) sets out to confront the man responsible for his treatment while a prisoner of war.
Tamiki Umezaki in Mr. Holmes (2015)
Ian McKellen plays an aging Sherlock Holmes.
Musashi in Westworld (2018-20)
Sanada plays a key figure in the “samurai world” of the second season of this sci-fi series that features historical worlds.
in Shogun (2024)
“Set in the 17th century, John Blackthorne, a sailor who rises from outsider to samurai, while being used as a pawn in Japanese leader Toranaga’s struggle to reach the top of the ruling chain or Shogun,” per IMDB. Sanada plays Toranaga. By the way, if you know anything about 17th-century Japanese dress and would like to review this for us, please get in touch!
Have you seen any of Hiroyuki Sanada’s films and what did you think? Thoughts on the upcoming Shogun?
Hah, I was very, very surprised to see that there’s a Shogun adaptation in progress. If someone was a perfect person to replace Toshiro Mifune in the place of Toranaga, it was definitely Hiroyuki Sanada.
As for Shogun, I have bit of a love-hate relationship with the original book. I have had it in progress for over a year now. Sometimes I read it a lot in one sitting. Sometimes I completely loose motivation because of some minor historical inaccuracy or pointless moment of drama that take itself too seriously. Never has I ever changed my opinion on a book this many times, almost every other chapter. And in the end I cannot bring myself to completely hate it. It’s not the most historically my accurate thing and sometimes that becomes really infuriating, especially when they throw around anachronistic judo and karate or try to claim that commoners of Japan had in fact, no given names (they did. Clavell, where the heck did you get that from???). But I appreciate the thought behind the book, to introduce the culture of Japan to western countries and to make peace with Clavell’s own troubled past as a POW in a Japanese prison camp. And hey, at least they seem to have improved the historicality in this adaptation, based on the Japanese clothes at least. However, I have a bad feeling that the western characters are all going to have random bullcrap clothes a la Hollywood.
“If someone was a perfect person to replace Toshiro Mifune in the place of Toranaga, it was definitely Hiroyuki Sanada.” High praise indeed. I’ll definitely watch, although those don’t look like early-Edo eyebrows to me…
P.S. Will Mifune ever star in a Man Crush Monday?
Yes please!
Raises hand, shows previous work:
https://gurdymonkey.dreamwidth.org/964754.html
https://gurdymonkey.dreamwidth.org/964928.html
The trailer of the remake looks promising. (BTW, “Shogun” is terrible history. I want a movie with the real Will Adams commanding cannon crews for Tokugawa Ieyasu at Sekigahara.)
Re “Onmiyoji,” it’s a fantasy set in the Heian period (794-1185 CE) and Sanada plays the evil sorcerer with much scenery chewing. Great costumes, though you picked a less-than-great screenshot. (My DVD got loaned out and I never got it back, sadly.
YES PLEASE!!! We’d love for you to review the new Shogun :) Thank you so much!!!
I will see what I can do about that. ;)
Woot!
OMG YES
Very cool!
“I want a movie with the real Will Adams commanding cannon crews for Tokugawa Ieyasu at Sekigahara.”
I do have a question about that. I’ve read from a few sources that the cannon from the ship Liefde were dismounted and used at Sekigahara, but was William Adams himself physically at the battle? News to me and interesting if true.
It’s been awhile since I read it, but Hiromi Rogers’ “Anjin – The Life and Times of Samurai William Adams, 1564-1620: A Japanese Perspective” uses Japanese sources that describe Adams’ service at Sekigahara, for which he and his men were paid in gold. It also describes Adams relationship with Tokugawa Ieyasu as an advisor, tutor in Western geometry, mathematics, navigation and astronomy after the battle, Ieyasu having been fascinated by Adams’ ability to correctly calculate and fire cannon in foggy conditions at the battle.
Well worth a look if you want to look at a fairly recent book about William Adams and his stay in Japan.
I will check that out, cheers!
I have only seen him in John Wick 4, so I shall go and change that.
Loved him as Seibei in Twilight Samurai, as I loved the other mid-nineteenth-century-set samurai films of Yamada (The Hidden Blade, Love and Honor).
I think he’s a great actor, in both period and contemporaneous roles. I love samurai films, but have middling feelings on modern ones. For the most part they cannot hold a candle to both the “Golden Age” and “New Wave” Japanese films, some of which include the greatest films ever made.
But I think Twilight Samurai (2002) is one of the few modern samurai films that holds up to comparison. Very good movie and Sanada’s great in it.
I’ve noted in the past that Mr Sanada is very nearly synonymous with Japanese period drama, especially in Hollywood: I sometimes wonder if the poor fellow ever finds himself thinking “Will I ever get to wear jeans onscreen? I like jeans” (Though he’s not the only Frock Flicks veteran of whom that might be wondered).
As I’ve said elsewhere, I lived in Japan for three years. And I really struggle against things like Shōgun because they get so many aspects of Japanese culture wrong. A production of Madame Butterfly drove me BANANAS because they kept putting people in black and white clothing, which the Japanese strictly use only for funerals. (The Japanese LOVE their strict rules) The built in obvious racism and stupid tropes really are bothersome.
However, after seeing Sanada Hiroyuki in The Last Samurai I went on a small quest to see him in other things. Sanada-san is a brilliant actor and I adore seeing him on screen.
I have been IN LOVE with him ever since seeing him in the non-Frock Flicks sci fi film Sunshine in the early 2000s. Is is SOOOOO HOTTTT. Oh, yeah, and a great actor. Of his Frock Flick roles listed here, he was good in 47 Ronin and sooo charming in Mr Holmes. Despie my love of Ralph Fiennes, I never saw The White Countess, but knowing Hiroyuki Sanada is in might motivate me to watch it, finally! Great MCM choice!!
I’ve only seen “The Twilight Samurai” and “Lost” but will look into some of these other films. I thought he was wonderful as Seibei in TTS, though. I have seen many films and television shows where you were meant to empathize with a downtrodden, silent, suffering hero but the emotion fell flat because the actor could not convey an inner life in his/her face and body language, so the character merely came across as boring and empty. From what I have seen, this is not a problem for Hiroyuki Sanada! Even in “Lost,” where (sadly) they didn’t give his character very much to do, he was able to make Dogen memorable and likable.