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Ken Ogata (緒形拳 Ogata Ken, born 20 July 1937) is a Japanese actor.

Ogata was born in Tokyo, Japan. Ogata is well known for his roles in Peter Greenaway's The Pillow Book, Paul Schrader's Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters and Shohei Imamura's The Ballad of Narayama.

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Created by dipity on Feb 7, 2008

Last updated: 02/14/08 at 12:40 PM

• The Pillow Book
  Jun 5, 1996

  The Pillow Book is a 1996 film by UK director Peter Greenaway, which stars Vivian Wu as Nagiko, a Japanese model in search of pleasure and new cultural experience from various lovers. The film is a rich and artistic melding of dark modern drama with idealized Chinese and Japanese cultural themes and settings. It co-stars Ewan McGregor as Jerome, an English translator who becomes Nagiko's favourite lover. Greenaway also wrote the screenplay, in addition to directing. A Japanese born model in Hong Kong, Nagiko (Wu) seeks a lover who can match her desire for carnal pleasure with her admiration for poetry and calligraphy. The roots of this obsession lie in her youth, when her father (Ken Ogata) would write characters of good fortune on her face. In an Englishman, Jerome (McGregor), she finds the partner with whom she can share her physical and her poetic passion, using each other's bodies as tablets for their art. Later, Nagiko rejects Jerome out of jealousy for fear that he has rejected...,
  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114134

• Zegen
  Sep 4, 1987

  Zegen (女衒 ZEGEN,Zegen?) is a 1987 Japanese film by director Shohei Imamura. This black comedy is a satire of Japan's 20th century imperialism. By taking the story of Iheiji Muraoka, who built brothels for the Japanese military, Imamura is able to make comments on Japan and its recent past from an unusual perspective.
  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094370

• Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
  1984

  Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters is an episodic, stylized 1985 film directed by Paul Schrader and written by Schrader with his brother Leonard. It is based on the life and fiction of the Japanese author Yukio Mishima.The film features original music by Philip Glass with performances by the Kronos Quartet. Ken Ogata stars as Yukio Mishima and Roy Scheider speaks an off-screen English narration, also as Mishima. The film was produced in Japan by Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas (while they were involved with Akira Kurosawa's Kagemusha).The four chapters are "Beauty", "Art", "Action" and "Fusion of Pen and Sword". Each chapter features flashback scenes from Mishima's life shot in lustrous black and white, intercut with highly-stylized, theatrical scenes from three different Mishima novels and the realistically-shot, docudrama-style story of Mishima's last day and seppuku. The novels depicted in the film are The Temple of the Golden Pavilion (1956) in "Beauty"; Kyoko's House (1959)...,
  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089603

• The Ballad of Narayama
  Apr 28, 1983

  The Ballad of Narayama (楢山節考,Narayama Bushiko?) is a 1983 Japanese film by director Shohei Imamura. It stars Sumiko Sakamoto as Orin, Ken Ogata, and Shoichi Ozawa. It is a remake of the 1958 film of the same name. Both films are based on the book Men of Tohoku by Shichiro Fukuzawa. The film is set in a small rural village in Japan in the 19th century. According to tradition, once a person reaches the age of 70 he or she must travel to a remote mountain to die of starvation, a practice known as Ubasuteyama. The story concerns Orin, who is 69 and of sound health, but notes that a neighbor had to drag his father to the mountain, so she resolves to avoid clinging to life beyond her term. She spends a year arranging all the affairs of her family and village: she severely punishes a family who are hoarding food, and helps her younger son lose his virginity. The film has some harsh scenes that show how brutal the conditions could be for the villagers. Interspersed between episodes in the...,
  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084390

• Eijanaika
  Mar 13, 1981

  Eijanaika or Why Not? (ええじゃないか ,Ee ja nai ka?) is a 1981 Japanese film by director Shohei Imamura. The film depicts carnivalesque atmosphere summed up by the cry "Ee ja nai ka" ("ain't it great?!") in Japan in 1867 and 1868 in the days leading to the Meiji Restoration. It examines the effects of the political and social upheaval of the time, and culminates in a revelrous march on the Kokyo, which turns into a massacre. Characteristically, Imamura focuses not on the leaders of the country, but on characters in the lower classes and on the fringes of society.
  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082313

• Vengeance is Mine
  1978

  Vengeance is Mine (Japanese title: 復讐するは我にあり, fukushū suru wa ware ni ari) is a 1979 film directed by Shohei Imamura, based on the book of the same name by Ryuzo Saki. It depicts the true story of serial killer Iwao Enokizu. It stars Ken Ogata as Enokizu, with Mayumi Ogawa, Rentaro Mikuni, Mitsuko Baisho, Nijiko Kiyokawa and Chocho MiyakoIt won the 1979 Best Picture Award at the Japanese Academy Awards. ,
  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079182

• Ken Ogata's Birthday
  1936

  Ken Ogata was born