SABU

Sabu (サブ, Sabu, born November 18, 1964) is the pseudonym of Japanese actor and director Hiroyuki Tanaka. Born in Wakayama Prefecture, Sabu studied at an Osaka fashion school before deciding to go to Tokyo to become a professional musician. 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." 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. 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). His film Chasuke's Journey was selected to be screened in the main competition section of the 65th Berlin International Film Festival.

Works

Under Your Bed

Ji-hoon comes alive only when he sees Ye-eun at college. After a long time, he desires to see her once more. Unfortunately, she has lost her vivacity after marrying her abusive husband, Hyung-oh. Ji-hoon hides under both their noses to rescue her from her suffering.

Release Date: 2023-12-13

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 4

Jam: The Drama

Hiroshi, Takeru, and Tetsuo all live in the same city. Hiroshi is an unpopular idol singer and he feels a void in his life. He is placed under confinement by his fan Masako. Takeru believes that a girl returns to consciousness. Tetsuo decides to take revenge on a yakuza who sent him to prison.

Release Date: 2021-08-30

Department: Editing

Job: Editor

Episode Count: 8

Vote Count: 2

My Blood and Bones in a Flowing Galaxy

Kiyosumi's affection for his schoolmate Hari grows after he saves her from bullying, but a dark secret she's unwilling to share threatens their bond.

Release Date: 2021-04-09

Department: Writing

Job: Screenplay

Vote Count: 20

Dancing Mary

Kenji is the youngest member of a team in charge of building a large shopping center. But, to create the new complex, an old dance floor must be destroyed, and every effort to tear down the building is boycotted by a mysterious power. In fact, there is a rumor that the place is cursed, and the construction team thought about hiring exorcists, but none of them seems to find the solution.

Release Date: 2019-10-03

Department: Editing

Job: Editor

Vote Count: 5

Jam

A traditional ballad singer Hiroshi has enthusiastic middle-aged female fans. Takeru believes that by doing good things to others, he could cause a miracle to happen and cure his beloved girlfriend who is in coma. Tetsuo avenges himself on yakuza for putting him in a jail and now is chased by them. These three men's paths are somehow intertwined and drawing them toward a showdown.

Release Date: 2018-12-01

Department: Editing

Job: Editor

Vote Count: 5

Mr. Long

Long is a Taiwanese killer known for his sword skills. After Long fails a Tokyo mission, he moves to a small town where no one knows about him.

Release Date: 2017-04-22

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 85

Happiness

A mysterious man arrives in a quiet Japanese town. With him, he carries a strange helmet that allows one to re-experience the happiest moment of their life. He goes on to make the village people recall their happy pasts, but his face is lined with worry and a sadness that deepens. What is the secret of this helmet? And what is he trying to do with it?

Release Date: 2017-03-16

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 3

Silence

In the 17th century, two Portuguese Jesuit priests travel to Japan in an attempt to locate their mentor, who is rumored to have committed apostasy, and to propagate Catholicism.

Release Date: 2016-12-23

Character: Samurai #1

Vote Count: 3101

Chasuke's Journey

Things are hectic in heaven. Dozens of scribes sit before a long scroll incessantly scribbling away. They are composing the biographies of earth-dwellers. What is invented by the men in heaven is lived out below. And their employer, God, is increasingly vehement in demanding avant-garde ideas. Take, for example, the beautiful Yuri, a girl who dies in a car crash. Some of the heavenly scribes find this very dull and send former gangster Chas, who has become a heavenly tea-boy, back down to earth with instructions to save Yuri no matter what. And so Chas ends up in Okinawa, gets to know the earth-dwellers, interferes in their fates, becomes celebrated as 'Mr Angel' and is hounded by brutal enemies. His falling in love with Yuri is of course a foregone conclusion. But no one could anticipate what happens next. Not even God himself

Release Date: 2015-06-27

Department: Writing

Job: Screenplay

Vote Count: 11

Miss ZOMBIE

A doctor and his family receive an unexpected delivery from an old friend at their remote country home - a large wooden crate containing a gun, a female zombie and an instruction sheet telling them not to feed her meat. The family is concerned, of course, but she seems harmless enough. Perhaps she can help clean up outside?

Release Date: 2013-09-14

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 47

Bunny Drop

Daikichi learns that his recently deceased grandfather has an illegitimate daughter with an unknown mother. The girl's name is Rin and she is just 6 years old. Everybody in Daikichi's family looks at the girl as an embarrassment and wants no part of her. Daikichi, annoyed by his family's attitude, decides to raise Rin by himself. Even though Daikichi himself has no experience raising a child and is still single.

Release Date: 2011-08-20

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 75

Trouble Man

One day all of a sudden, a trouble befalls one man. That trouble snowballs into bigger troubles, one by one, pulling everyone around him in. A yakuza being chased by another yakuza, a mysterious woman who is being attacked, an otaku man with some sort of "power", a hit man who has lost his memory, and an old landlord. You can't miss even a second of the shocking confessions made by the residents of the apartment. A mystery upon another mystery, this is an intricately woven story. When all the pieces of the puzzles are put together, you will experience something you have never experienced before. A new experience will be felt through this fast-paced story. This is a serious comedy that will draw you in.

Release Date: 2010-04-09

Department: Writing

Job: Screenplay

Episode Count: 12

Kanikôsen

On board at the boat Kanikosen, where fish and crabs preserves, forced workers to work under miserable conditions, with minimum wages. Some can not cope with conditions and even death from malnutrition, and is also the supervisor of the more vicious variety. Shinjo, one of the employees, trying to convince the others that they will get good luck and fortune in his next life, and persuades them because they commit suicide to get there faster. It ends, however, in a single major failure. Rather than flee Shinjo being picked up by a Russian ship. Once there, he is overwhelmed by the social conditions that are completely different from those he has just left and decided therefore to return to Kanikosen to save their employees.

Release Date: 2009-07-04

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 6

Sakuran

Anna Tsuchiya blasts back in time playing an oiran, a top-notched geisha of the Edo period’s Yoshiwara District, navigating brothel politics while trying to cling to the man she loves.

Release Date: 2006-12-07

Character: Patron

Vote Count: 61

Dead Run

Classmates Shuji and Eri becomes friends, both young people have family problems. When Eri is taken away to Tokyo by her relatives, Shuji becomes increasingly isolated at school and drifts into criminal activity.

Release Date: 2005-12-17

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 11

Hold Up Down

A bank robbery goes completely to pot, a pair of shoplifters get both an old man and a cop behind them. It is the beginning of this zany comedy, including the guys from boy band V6.

Release Date: 2005-10-28

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 7

Josee, the Tiger and the Fish

A part-time employee in a mahjong parlour runs across a young woman, who is unable to walk, in baby carriage. He becomes friends with the woman and begins to feel enamoured with her.

Release Date: 2003-12-13

Character: Patron

Vote Count: 47

A1012K

A robot with human intelligence escapes from a military testing unit and wreaks havoc in a shopping mall

Release Date: 2003-10-17

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 2

Hard Luck Hero

The story of three pairs of characters involved one way or the other with the yakuza and a rigged boxing match and fleeing the thugs one way or the other. Filmed as a showcase of the Japanese boy band V6, Hard Luck Hero has food, drink, cars, kickboxing, debt, shooting, theft, blackmail and music.

Release Date: 2003-01-01

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 7

Blessing Bell

Existential study on a misplaced workers and ex-prisoner who moves through the city and his influence on other characters' lives.

Release Date: 2002-12-08

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 15

Drive

Kenichi Asakura is an uptight, hyper-square salesman. One day, three bank robbers commandeer his van. They are in hot pursuit of their fellow robber who has snatched the money. Unfortunately for the bank robbers, Asakura never drives over 40 km/h speed limit even under the extreme situation.

Release Date: 2002-08-24

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 17

Ichi the Killer

As sadomasochistic yakuza enforcer Kakihara searches for his missing boss he comes across Ichi, a repressed and psychotic killer who may be able to inflict levels of pain that Kakihara has only dreamed of.

Release Date: 2001-12-22

Character: Kaneko

Vote Count: 1005

Monday

A simple funeral turns a man's world Topsy turvy. He wakes up in a posh hotel room, totally clueless about how he got there. Slowly, he recalls what happened a day before.

Release Date: 2000-04-29

Department: Writing

Job: Screenplay

Vote Count: 57

Unlucky Monkey

A dark and strange comedy about a bank robber with bad luck. Bungling a bank robbery turns out to be a profitable mistake for Yamazaki, an amateur crook who ends up with 80 million yen after a string of improbable accidents. But having so much cash doesn't make his life is any easier. In fact, it gets much more complicated when Yamazaki stabs a hairdresser by mistake and instantly becomes a hunted fugitive. He's just one unlucky monkey but can he turn his luck around?

Release Date: 1998-07-18

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Character: Bank Robber

Vote Count: 13

Postman Blues

Sawaki is a postman who's not quite thrilled about his boring way of life. But his life is about to change when he delivers mail to his old schoolmate Noguchi, who's now a member of the Yakuza, the Japanese Mafia, and just finished cutting his little finger off.

Release Date: 1997-08-16

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Character: Kurokawa

Vote Count: 30

Dangan Runner

A would-be bank robber forgets his mask on his first big heist, and then botches an attempt to shoplift a replacement mask from a nearby convenience store. The store's clerk, a washed-up rock star, chases the thief and literally runs into a Yakuza to whom he owes money. Thus begins an all-night, three-way pursuit through the streets of Tokyo.

Release Date: 1996-11-09

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Character: Assassin

Vote Count: 25

Redder Than Yesterday, Bluer Than Tomorrow: Cinema Fighters Project

The fourth instalment of LDH Pictures, Cinema Fighters project. This time with all the main characters of the six short stories being portrayed by the members of Generations from Exile Tribe.

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Don't Look Up

On the set of a dark war time drama at an old movie studio, a young director, Toshio Murai, is trying to complete his debut film. The two starring actresses, Hitomi Kurokawa and Saori Murakami, play sisters in his film. Murai has a crush on Hitomi, the seasoned leading actress, and keeps a photo of her by his bed. The younger and less experienced actress, Saori, is annoying and likes to have recess on the set. The production of the movie is consistently interrupted by strange occurrences and the cast and crew begin to get spooked.

Release Date: 1996-03-22

Character: Sekikawa

Vote Count: 16

Suit Yourself or Shoot Yourself: The Gamble

Having lost everything to horse racing, Yûji accidentally gets 10 million yen. But this sum belongs to a Yakuza.

Release Date: 1996-03-01

Vote Count: 1

Shinjuku Triad Society

Tatsuhito, a cop, pursues Chinese warlord Wang through the underworld of Shinjuku and over to Taiwan.

Release Date: 1995-08-26

Character: Shusuke Shimada

Vote Count: 63

Suit Yourself or Shoot Yourself!! The Heist

Two petty gangsters get ransomed by a group of Yakuza members, fortunately they are rescued by a kindly Kindergarten teacher.

Release Date: 1995-04-22

Character: Domoto

Vote Count: 2

Zëiram 2

Intergalactic bounty hunters Iria and Bob return to track down an ancient mystical relic. When a second Zeiram unit shows up and goes berserk, it takes all of Iria's resources to survive a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with the fearsome space creature.

Release Date: 1994-12-17

Character: Fujikuro (as Sabu)

Vote Count: 10

Kiriko

1994 sequel to Satoru Kobayashi's "The Blind Cat". Yakuza drug dealers lure the blind Kiriko into town to take revenge on her. However, Kiriko is a master swordswoman and has plans of her own.

Release Date: 1994-09-23

Vote Count: 1

800 Two Lap Runners

A coming-of-age story about two runners, Kenji and Ryuji, tangled in love, loss, and rivalry, as they navigate complex emotions and relationships.

Release Date: 1994-07-09

Character: Kyoichi Nakazawa

Vote Count: 3

Warrior's Justice 2: Full Battle

Takeshi Kojima, who once killed a corrupt economic yakuza boss, has been hiding out in the doya district to escape the gang and the police. Then he is approached by the local yakuza, the Kamata clan. However, the residents don't like the Kamata gang's outrageous tactics, and he refuses their offer...

Release Date: 1994-01-01

Kuma-chan

Kuma-chan, an alien who looks just like a stuffed bear, helps a middle-aged sculptor fall in love with a young actress from a theater company.

Release Date: 1993-04-24

A Legend of Turmoil

A story about the development of a bright and strong yakuza. Otaki is an old-fashioned respectful yakuza who tries to protect his small yakuza family. When his boss gets shot, he decides to go after the plotters.

Release Date: 1992-01-15

Vote Count: 2

Savage City: Angel Whisper

A corrupt cop teams up with an unlikely partner to protect the city from a gang of ruthless drug addicts.

Release Date: 1991-04-26

Vote Count: 1

World Apartment Horror

A Yakuza underling is given the assignment to rid an apartment of its tenants within a week. He tries a variety of desperate tactics to no avail. Soon his problems get worse as an evil spirit makes its presence known.

Release Date: 1991-04-05

Character: Ita

Vote Count: 12