Ken Ogata, 1937 - 2008.

Japanese actor Ken Ogata, who starred in a number of films for the great director Shohei Imamura, died of liver cancer on Sunday. He was 71. Ogata is perhaps best known to an international audience for his role in Imamura's The Ballad of Narayama, in which he played a man who, by village tradition, has to leave his elderly mother up a nearby mountain to die; the film won the Palme d'Or and Ogata won the Japanese equivalent of the best actor Oscar in 1984. In total he was nominated 11 times for the gong, winning three times. Other collaborations with Imamura include Vengeance Is Mine (1979), Eijanaika (1981) and Zegen (1987).

Ben Child, the Guardian.

Updated through 10/10.

Ogata also played the title role in Paul Schrader's 1985 Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters as the controversial scribe Yukio Mishima. The pic screened in competition at Cannes, but opposition from Mishima's widow, among other factors, prevented its theatrical bow in Japan.

Mark Schilling, Variety.

Ogata remained an in-demand performer for films, TV dramas, commercials and stage plays until his death. He played a supporting role in Yoji Yamada's samurai drama Love and Honor in 2006. That same year Ogata's final lead role was in the highly praised A Long Walk, which took top honors at the Montreal World Film Festival. Ogata's final TV drama, entitled Kaze No Garden, will air on Fuji TV on Oct 9.

Ken Ogata was also a noted calligrapher and author, and is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.

Jason Gray, Screen Daily.

Update: Kimberly Lindbergs revisits her reviews of The Demon and Vengeance Is Mine and notes that the "Japanese newspaper Mainichi Daily has a brief report about Ken Ogata's death and Criterion currently has a nice tribute to the actor on their website."

Update, 10/10: "Besides his work on Schrader's Mishima (which has never been released in Japan because of opposition from Mishima's widow), Ogata's only other film made with an English-speaking director was Peter Greenaway's exquisitely exotic The Pillow Book (1996)," writes Ronald Bergan in the Guardian. "In it, Ogata plays a master calligrapher who paints a traditional blessing on his daughter's face every birthday. The casting of Ogata was especially apposite because he was a talented calligrapher in his own right, and held his first public exhibition in 1991."

Posted by dwhudson at October 7, 2008 6:18 AM