Acting
Mar 3, 1931
Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan
Shigeru Amachi
Acting
Biography
Shigeru Amachi (天知 茂, Amachi Shigeru, 4 March 1931 – 27 July 1985) was a Japanese actor. He appeared in more than 120 films from 1953 to 1984. Amachi joined the Shintoho studio as one of its "New Face" actors of 1951 and established himself in action and jidaigeki films. He gained fame for the nihilistic mood of his character in Akatsuki no hijōsen and starred in Nobuo Nakagawa's version of Tokaido Yotsuya kaidan (1959). On television, he played the hardboiled detective in Hijō no raisensu and Kogoro Akechi in a long-running series of TV specials. On stage he was best known for playing Hishakaku in Jinsei gekijō.
Feature Films (148)
Zatoichi comes upon a dying man who asks him to give a bag of money to "Taichi". Zatoichi has no idea who this is but when he comes upon a small town harassed by gangsters, he finds that "Taichi" was the man's young son. Along his travels he also met a blind monk who makes Zatoichi question his murderous lifestyle. In trying to help the town, Zatoichi kills some gangsters and becomes a hero to the boy. He must make a choice of whether to use non-violence and set a good example, or violence and set the boy on the wrong path in life.
Zatoichi's Vengeance
In post-war Japan, it is difficult for private business to stay afloat. The small atelier has a debt of several million yen. To get a loan, his proprietress is forced to turn to a successful businessman, owner of entertainment establishments and bars. But she has nothing to guarantee the return of the debt, and then she offers herself as collateral. A drama about the contradictory nature of human feelings.
A Lonely Gamble
An early ninkyo film from before the genre had truly established its form. Koji Tsuruta plays an honourable outlaw who saves an older man from an ambush. It turns out the man is the head of a hard working clan appointed to a railway construction project. A ruthless yakuza gang is also trying to get their share of the project and attempts to sabotage the work. After the old man dies, his son (Sonny Chiba) and daughter (Junko Fuji) try to complete the project. Tsuruta joins them while also falling in love with a local woman working in a bar (after all, Tsuruta always was more of a lover than his stoic colleague Takakura).
Two Lives, Two Yakuza
A magician who targets the Yucun family, who obtain huge wealth through gemstones. Even the wise Kogoro was fooled by his meticulous criminal plan
The Beauty in the Bathroom
His bloodline damned by a witch, Waldemar Daninsky heads to Japan to seek a cure for his werewolf curse.
The Beast and the Magic Sword
The adventures of a blind, gambling masseur and master swordsman. Zatoichi targets a yakuza-controlled village, because war with a neighbouring town's smaller gang is brewing.
The Tale of Zatoichi
In the 1970s, the Japanese youth emancipation also found its way into the yakuza (crime) societies. A Girl Boss may have a choice between bikes, and between boyfriends. But she has to defend her choices the hard way, as her triumph and power over the girls' gang is questioned by her female rivals, and the all powerful Yakuza Boss. She inspires loyalty to her girls, and to men to the extent of many of them literally giving their lives for her - in a world of knife and gun fighting, bike and car chasing, and violent death.
Girl Boss Blues: Queen Bee's Counterattack
Television & Series (8)
A shikakenin was an under-the-cover trade that undertook killing in Edo. Hanemon of Otowa, an agency that introduced laborers and maids, was also one of these. Katsugoro Iseya was a timber dealer who had come in as a client. His target was the constructions magistrate Hanno, and the Tatsumiya who sipped on the benefits. Hanemon who had a stong code towards killing, where he would only kill those who do no good to be in the world, accepts this request. Baian Fujieda, a needle doctor would carry out the killing. However, the professional killer Baian fails to bring down Tatsumiya. Hanemon then looks to another shikakenin, the ronin Sanai Nishimura for the role. Although Sanai's ability with the sword is good, he lives poorly in a tenement, and accepts this commission on the condition that it is kept a secret from his wife and child. Here, they close in on Hanno and Tatsumiya again...
Professional Killers
Set in the eighteenth century, during the reign of the fifth Tokugawa shōgun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi. Akō-han is demolished by the Tokugawa shogunate. Hotta Hayato is a ronin who is living a desperate life because of his sad past. But one day he starts working for Chisaka Takafusa, the Chief retainer of the Uesugi clan. The Uesugi clan and Chisaka are wary of Ōishi Kuranosuke and Ako Roshi's movements, so Chisaka orders Hotta to observe Ōishi Kuranosuke.
The 47 Ronins of Ako
A girl survives a massacre of villagers by Japanese soldiers in a remote mountain village, and a member of the Self-Defense Force who stumbled upon the scene of the massacre during training - this suspenseful drama depicts a huge conspiracy in the Tohoku region centered on these two people.
