1964-11-18 ( 60 years old ) in Wakayama, Japan
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.
Movies
大风杀
2025-05-01
Silence
2016-12-23
Sakuran
2006-12-07
Josee, the Tiger and the Fish
2003-12-13
Ichi the Killer
2001-12-22
Unlucky Monkey
1998-07-18
Postman Blues
1997-08-16
Dangan Runner
1996-11-09
Don't Look Up
1996-03-22
Suit Yourself or Shoot Yourself: The Gamble
1996-03-01
Shinjuku Triad Society
1995-08-26
Suit Yourself or Shoot Yourself!! The Heist
1995-04-22
Zëiram 2
1994-12-17
Kiriko
1994-09-23
800 Two Lap Runners
1994-07-09
Warrior's Justice 2: Full Battle
1994-01-01
Kuma-chan
1993-04-24
A Legend of Turmoil
1992-01-15
Savage City: Angel Whisper
1991-04-26
World Apartment Horror
1991-04-05
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