Steven Frederic Seagal is an American actor, producer, screenwriter, martial artist, and musician. A 7th-dan black belt in aikido, he began his adult life as a martial arts instructor in Japan where he became the first American to teach in an aikido dojo. He later moved to Los Angeles where he continued teaching aikido. In 1988, Seagal made his acting debut in Above the Law, which is regarded as the first American film to feature aikido in fight sequences.
Aki Olavi Kaurismäki is a Finnish film director and screenwriter. He is best known for the award-winning Drifting Clouds (1996), The Man Without a Past (2002), Le Havre (2011), The Other Side of Hope (2017) and Fallen Leaves (2023), as well as Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989). He has been described as Finland's best-known film director.
Shiki-Jitsu, also known as Ritual, is a 2000 Japanese psychological drama film written and directed by Hideaki Anno. It is based on the novella Tōhimu by Ayako Fujitani, who also stars alongside Shunji Iwai.
Ayako Fujitani is a Japanese actress and writer. She acts and writes in both Japanese and English.
The Patriot is a 1998 American action thriller film directed by Dean Semler. Starring Steven Seagal, the film is loosely based on the novel The Last Canadian by William C. Heine. Seagal's first direct-to-video film, it features him as a local doctor and former immunologist who races against time to find a cure for an active viral outbreak, the origins of which trace back to a militia leader who injected himself with a deadly virus.
Gamera: Guardian of the Universe is a 1995 Japanese kaiju film directed by Shusuke Kaneko and written by Kazunori Itō, with special effects by Shinji Higuchi. It is the ninth installment in the Gamera film series, serving as a reboot of the franchise, and is the first entry in the franchise's Heisei period. The film stars Tsuyoshi Ihara, Akira Onodera, Shinobu Nakayama, Ayako Fujitani, and Yukijirō Hotaru, with Naoki Manabe and Jun Suzuki portraying the giant monster Gamera, and Yuhmi Kaneyama playing Gyaos.
Fred Kida was a Japanese-American comic book and comic strip artist best known for the 1940s aviator hero Airboy and his antagonist and sometime ally Valkyrie during the period fans and historians call the Golden Age of Comic Books. He went on to draw for Marvel Comics' 1950s iteration, Atlas Comics, in a variety of genres and styles, and then again for Marvel superhero titles in the 1970s. He drew the company's The Amazing Spider-Man newspaper comic strip during the early to mid-1980s. Kida also assisted artist Dan Barry on the long-running strip Flash Gordon from 1958 to 1961 and then again from 1968 to 1971.
Kepler Laveran de Lima Ferreira OM, known as Pepe, is a former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. He is widely regarded as one of the best centre-backs of all time.
Pepe Serna is an American film and television actor and artist.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon, is a 2007 Japanese crime film directed by Takashi Miike, based on the 2005 PlayStation 2 video game Yakuza. The film stars Kazuki Kitamura, Goro Kishitani, Show Aikawa, Yoshiyoshi Arakawa, Kenichi Endō and Tomorowo Taguchi.
Kazuki Kitamura is a Japanese film and television actor who won the award for best supporting actor at the 21st Yokohama Film Festival for Minazuki, Kyohansha and Kanzen-naru shiiku as well as the CUT ABOVE Award for Excellence in Film at JAPAN CUTS: Festival of New Japanese Film in New York in 2014.
Events in the year 1979 in Japan. It corresponds to Shōwa 54 (昭和54年) in the Japanese calendar.
Pyrokinesis, also known as Crossfire, is a 2000 Japanese crime thriller/horror/romance/science fiction film co-written and directed by Shusuke Kaneko. The film is about a woman with pyrokinetic powers seeking to avenge the murder of her friend's sister.
Dave Boyle is an American director, writer, editor, and actor. He has written and directed several movies that utilize primarily Asian or Asian-American casts, including the feature films Big Dreams Little Tokyo (2006), White on Rice (2009), Surrogate Valentine (2011), Daylight Savings (2012), and Man from Reno (2014), several of which have won awards at film festivals around the world.
Killers is a 2014 neo-noir action horror film directed by Indonesian directing duo The Mo Brothers. A co-production between Japan and Indonesia, the screenplay was written by Takuji Ushiyama and The Mo Brothers' Timo Tjahjanto with Kazuki Kitamura and Oka Antara in the starring roles. The film won two out of its three nominations at the 34th Citra Awards, for Best Original Score and Best Sound.
9 Souls is a 2003 Japanese crime drama film directed by Toshiaki Toyoda. It was released on July 19, 2003.
Yamegoku: Yakuza Yamete Itadakimasu (ヤメゴク〜ヤクザやめて頂きます〜) is a Japanese television drama series that premiered on TBS on 16 April 2015. This is Yuko Oshima's first time starring in the lead role of a serial drama. It received an average viewership rating of 6.5%.
Javier Gullón is a Spanish screenwriter.
Scarlet is a Japanese television drama series and the 101st Asadora series, following Natsuzora. It premiered on September 30, 2019, and concluded on March 28, 2020.
Daylight Savings is a 2012 American comedy film written by Dave Boyle, Michael Lerman, Joel Clark and Goh Nakamura, directed by Boyle and starring Nakamura. It is the sequel to Boyle's 2011 film Surrogate Valentine.
