Akio Tanaka

Movies

Osaka Gokudo Senso: Shinoidare
The Last Dance
Film Producer
A successful Japanese movie director in his sixties becomes increasingly ill while working on his latest film. Though his family, friends, and doctor try to keep the secret of his terminal cancer from him, Buhei gradually comes to realize the truth of his condition, leading him on a journey of despair, anger, and, ultimately, acceptance.
Minbo: the Gentle Art of Japanese Extortion
Yakuza Boss
An upscale Japanese hotel hires Mahiru Inoue, a lawyer adept at dealing with the Yakuza, to help them rid their hotel of the local gangsters so they can get a contract for a meeting of important foreign officials.
Detective Kyosuke Kozu's Murder Reasoning 10
Kyosuke (Masaomi Kondo) and his sister Nobuko (Yoko Moriguchi) were invited to the 10th anniversary party of the travel agency "Pigeon". At that seat, Ayako, the younger sister of President Gentaro, is shot dead. Other venues included Gentaro's brother-in-law, Palau branch manager Kiriyama, secretary manager Anna, and Miyo, who runs a restaurant on Palau Island. A few days later, Nobuko goes on a trip to Palau. She is kidnapped by someone in the field, and Kyosuke and other related parties rush to her. In Palau, there was Toshinosuke, the founder of Pigeon and retired. He was once a detective called "Sakuradamon Demon", but was accused of being arrested 15 years ago and was ousted from the Metropolitan Police Department. It was Kyosuke who proved his innocence.
Heaven and Earth: Dawn Episode
Some of the greatest battles during the Age of Civil Wars were fought between the Uesugi and Takeda clans. Leading up to them was the incredible life of Uesugi Kenshin, who rose from a son out of favor with his...
A Taxing Woman
Bank Branch Manager
Intrepid tax investigator Ryoko Itakura sets her sights on the mysterious and philandering Hideki Gondo, a suspected millionaire and proprietor of a thriving chain of seedy hourly hotels, who has for years succeeded at hiding the true extent of his assets from the Japanese authorities. Itakura and Gondo soon find themselves engaged in a complicated, satirical battle of wits.
Surgical Designs in Flames
A story of the skilled brain surgeon, Todo, whose talent and ambition are put to test through a series of high risk surgical procedures.
Tampopo
Salaryman
In this humorous paean to the joys of food, a pair of truck drivers happen onto a decrepit roadside shop selling ramen noodles. The widowed owner, Tampopo, begs them to help her turn her establishment into a paragon of the "art of noodle-soup making". Interspersed are satirical vignettes about the importance of food to different aspects of human life.
The Petrified Forest
Follows a young med student's relationships with two women: a dangerous affair with a childhood friend and his mother's struggle to rebuild their estranged relationship.
Flying Phantom Ship
Chairman Kuroshio (voice)
Hayato's home city is under attack from a gigantic robot. His parents are lying dead in the rubble and the only remaining friend is his dog. His only thought now is revenge against the owner of the Phantom Ship (from where the robot said he was sent). He ends up in the house of Kuroshio, the leader of the fight against the Phantom Ship and the most important person in the city. By complete accident, Hayato finds his way to an underground passageway where he realises that the true nature of events does not mesh with what Kuroshio has told him. His life is now in great danger, and only he can stop the plans of the evildoers.
Pale Flower
Stout Customer
Muraki, a hardboiled Yakuza gangster, has just been released from prison after serving a sentence for murder. Revisiting his old gambling haunts, he meets Saeko, a striking young upper-class woman who is out seeking thrills, and whose presence adds spice to the staid masculine underworld rituals. Muraki becomes her mentor while simultaneously coping with the shifts of power that have affected the gangs while he was interred. When he notices a rogue, drug-addicted young punk hanging around the gambling dens, he realizes that Saeko's insatiable lust for intense pleasures may be leading her to self-destruction.
Quick Draw Sanshiro
Koji Wada, who is good at shooting, karate, judo and boxing, has a tough fight with the sea gangsters!
Mekishiko mushuku
The Storm over Arabia
Japanese action film set in Arabia.
Lost in the Sun
The Man with a Shotgun
Nishioka
Ryoji, a wanderer, arrives in a remote mountain town, carrying a shotgun and claiming to be a hunter. He quickly becomes embroiled in a web of trouble surrounding the town's mill.
Blood Is Dry
An employee in an assurance company threatens to commit suicide when management announces a massive layoff, the company uses this threat to its own advantage by turning the incident into an advertising campaign. With the success of the campaign, however, he is no longer a desperate man pointing a gun to his head, but a potential leader who wishes to take advantage of his failed suicide.
I Want to Be a Shellfish
Television production of I Want to Be a Shellfish. On a post-war peaceful day in Japan, Toyomatsu Shimizu, a barber as well as a good father and husband, is suddenly arrested by the Prefectural Police as a war criminal and sued for murder. According to the accusation by GHQ, Toyomatsu "attemped to kill a US prisoner", which was nothing but an order by his superior and failed after all with hurting the prisoner by weak Toyomatsu. Also, Toyomatsu was driven to corner at the trial by the fact that he fed the US prisoner some burdock roots to nourish him. Toyomatsu believes nothing but being not guilty, but he is sentenced to death by hanging. Prior to the execution, Toyomatsu writes a long farewell letter to his family, the wife and the only son: "If I ever incarnate, I hate to be a human being any more.... Oh yes, I would like to be...a shellfish living on the rock-bottom of the sea."