Ryō Kase

is a Japanese actor.

Early life Kase was born in Yokohama, Kanagawa prefecture. His family moved to Bellevue, Washington, in the United States soon after his birth due to his father's job being transferred; they lived there until he was seven. His father Yutaka Kase, was former chairman and representative director of Sojitz, a major Japanese general trading company.

Career Kase made his screen debut in Sogo Ishii's Gojoe: Spirit War Chronicle in 2000. (2007), directed by Masayuki Suo, for which he won the Best Actor Award at the 31st Japan Academy Prize and the 2nd Asia Film Award, among other domestic and international film awards.

In 2010, Kase played a yakuza mobster in Takeshi Kitano's highly anticipated return to the crime genre Outrage (アウトレイジ, Autoreiji) which competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. The film was a major success, grossing 634 million yen at the Japan Box office, leading to two sequels.

In 2023, Kase reunited with Takeshi Kitano in the Japanese film Kubi about the Honnō-ji Incident. In the film, Kase portrayed the historical figure, Oda Nobunaga, a charismatic military leader revered and feared as a demon king in Japan. His wildly mad-like performance was highly praised by many journalists at the Cannes Film Festival. In Japan, this portrayal of Nobunaga, which diverges greatly from his public image of being cold yet violent but also deeply human and virtuous, has sparked debate. Some audience members felt that the character setting demeaned the historical figure, while others believed the acting was so realistic it seemed to overwrite the actual image of Nobunaga himself. When director Takeshi Kitano shared this original idea with the late director Akira Kurosawa, he was told that if Kitano were to make it, it could become a masterpiece on par with Seven Samurai. This work won several awards at the 47th Japan Academy Prize, including Excellence in Cinematography, Excellence in Lighting, Excellence in Art Direction, Excellence in Sound Recording, and Excellence in Editing. Ryo Kase, who played Nobunaga, also won the award for Excellent Supporting Actor.

International Films From the beginning of his career, Kase took advantage of his English fluency and participated in international films from various countries in Asia, Europe, and America.

His first American film was Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) directed by Clint Eastwood, where he delicately portrayed a complex character of a former military policeman turned young soldier. He made his Cannes Film Festival debut with Abbas Kiarostami's Like Someone in Love (2012). He has also appeared in Michel Gondry's Tokyo! (2008), Gus Van Sant's Restless (2011) with Mia Wasikowska, Hong Sang-soo's Hill of Freedom (2014), and Martin Scorsese's Silence (2016). In Paul Weitz's Bel Canto, he starred alongside Julianne Moore and Ken Watanabe. In the film Minamata, inspired by a photo collection of Japan's pollution lawsuit taken by the late photographer Eugene Smith, he co-starred with Johnny Depp and Hiroyuki Sanada. In 2014, when Hong Sang-soo's Hill of Freedom was released, he was selected as the Best Actor by CINE21, a Korean film magazine, despite being a foreigner. In Kiyoshi Kurosawa's To the Ends of the Earth (2019), he won the Best Supporting Actor award at the 14th Asia Film Awards.

Filmography

Film Year Title RoleNotes 2000 Gojoe: Spirit War Chronicle Kamuro 2001 Misuzu Masasuke Hush! Soba-ya cashier Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack Fisher 2002 Rock'n'Roll Mishin Kenji Hamada 2003 Bright Future Fuyuki Arita When the Last Sword Is Drawn Shohei Kondo Kakuto Shinji 2004 Cutie Honey Todoroki 69 Ryo Otaki The Taste of Tea Rokutaro Hamadayama Nobody Knows Mini-market employee 2005 Break Throughi! Hideto Noguchi Female Man Segment "Tamamushi" About Love Tecchan Segment "Taipei" Scrap Heaven Police officer Shingo The Passenger Akira Custom Made 10.30 Probationer angel "Jeff" Dead Run Yuji Miyahara Su-ki-da 2006 Funky Forest Takefumi Hana Sodekichi Honey and Clover Takumi Mayama Strawberry Shortcakes Nagai Letters from Iwo Jima Superior Private Shimizu Retribution Sailor 2007 I Just Didn't Do It Teppei Kaneko Lead role Megane Yomogi 2008 10 Promises to My Dog Susumu Hoshi Gururi no koto Tsuyoshi Tanaka The Sky Crawlers Yūichi Kannami (voice) Paco and the Magical Book Kōichi Tokyo! Akira Segment "Interior Design" 2009 Gravity's Clowns Izumi Okuno Lead role 2010 Outrage Ishihara Sketches of Kaitan City Haruo Meguro About Her Brother Akira 2011 Restless Hiroshi 2012 Like Someone in Love Noriaki Outrage Beyond Ishihara SPEC: Ten Takeru Sebumi Lead role 2013 It's Me It's Me Tajima Pecoross' Mother and Her Days Satoru Okano SPEC: Close Takeru Sebumi Lead role 2019 To the Ends of the Earth Iwao 2020 Minamata Kiyoshi The Works and Days Ryo Sasaki 2023 Kubi Oda Nobunaga

Television Year Title RoleNotes 2010 SPEC: Birth Takeru Sebumi Lead role 2012 Penance Koji Takano Episode 3 2025 Anpan Yutaro Asada Asadora

Writings "Minna no Ozu-kai" in Ozu Yasujiro Taizen (The Complete Book of Ozu Yasujiro) by Matsuura Kanji and Miyamoto Akiko (Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. 2019)