Profile of Tadanobu Asano on Famous Like Me

Tadanobu Asano (浅野忠信 Asano Tadanobu) (born Tadanobu Sato on November 27, 1973 in Yokohama) is a charismatic and versatile Japanese actor who has been described by critics as that country's answer to Johnny Depp.

Born to a half-American mother, his fair complexion and lighter-than-black eyes drew him qualifiably different attentions from his male and female schoolmates. His father, an actors' agent, suggested he take on what became his first role, in the TV show "Kimpachi Sensei", at the age of 16. His film debut was in the 1990 Swimming Upstream (Bataashi Kingyo; 1990), though his first major critical success was in Shunji Iwai's Fried Dragon Fish (1993). His first critical success internationally was Hirokazu Koreeda's Maboroshi no hikari (1995), in which he played a man who inexplicably throws himself in front of a train, widowing his wife and orphaning his infant son. His best known works internationally are the samurai films Gohatto (1999) and Zatoichi (2003), as well as the critically acclaimed film "Akarui Mirai" (Bright Future). It was on the set of Iwai's Picnic (1996) that he met and fell in love with J-Pop idol Chara. They married soon after learning she was pregnant with their first child, Sumile (Sumire- violet, or 'smile').

While best known for characters who are psychologically offbeat, if not downright psychotic; e.g. Kakihara in Ichi the Killer (2001), Asano is described by those who know him as a down-to-earth family man. He has directed commercial TV spots for Chara, and manages to find time to take Sumile and his son, Himi, to the zoo. Hesistant to identify himself as an actor, he most readily describes himself as a vocalist, referring to Mach 1.67, the band he has with director Sogo Ishii. He is also an artist, and a model, most notably for Japanese fashion designers Jun Takahashi and Takeo Kikuchi, for whom he filmed a series of commercial spots directed by Wong Kar-wai, one released under the name wkw/tk/1996@7′55″hk.net.

He appeared as the lead actor in Last Life in the Universe (2003).

The profiligacy of his film career is due in part to the fact that he no longer appears in TV programmes, which in Japan are more lucrative than film work.

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