The Many Faces of Tatsuya Nakadai

July 10–September 9

In a career that spanned seven decades, Tatsuya Nakadai (1932–2025) worked with an elite cadre of Japanese filmmakers, including Akira Kurosawa, Masaki Kobayashi and Kinuyo Tanaka. Time and time again they called upon his versatility and depth to play a variety of characters, from naïve pacifist to furious samurai, measured detective or persecuted lover. Combine those talents with a matinée-idol face adorned with a pair of luminous eyes and it is no wonder that Nakadai become one of Japan’s greatest actors, matched only by Toshirō Mifune, whom he faced in several chanbara films such as YOJIMBO and THE SWORD OF DOOM. Nakadai’s performances were influenced by Shingeki, the Japanese “new drama” style in which he was trained, which eschewed traditional Noh and Kabuki theater and embraced Western “realism,” though later he would look to Noh for his performance as the aging Ichimonji Hidetora in Kurosawa’s RAN. To honor Nakadai’s passing, AFI Silver presents 15 films — a sliver of the over 150 credits to his name — that represent the most cherished and acclaimed roles of this Japanese titan who left in an indelible mark in the annals of cinema.

Inspired by Hollywood’s innovative CinemaScope format, Japanese studios introduced their own proprietary widescreen formats, used in several Nakadai films, including HIGH AND LOW, LOVE UNDER THE CRUCIFIX and SAMURAI REBELLION, among others.