Asano Tadanobu

Tadanobu Asano is one of Japan's famous actors. He is said that he will lead Japanese movie world and a lot of boys aspire to his life-style and atmosphere. He is popular among not only boys but also girls, because he has a wife and a child, and he loves them so much. His wife, Chara is a popular singer in Japan. She also loves him.

He is still 25. The movies in which he appears have been admired by many critics, even if he appeared not as the main characher. His acting attracts people. He has appeared in movies much more than in dramas. It is because he likes movies. A lot of people word to make a movie for a long time. To make a wonderful movie, they must unite storongly, so he likes the union. He says a movie fits in himself. He looks cheerful when he appears in a movie.

He makes much of his family. He says it is because his family which had been brought up. His mother is Japanese-American (his grandtather was American and his grandmother was Japanese), so she brought him up more free than the style in which most Japanese parents do. He is effected by his mother. When he was a child, he looked American. His hair was light brown and his eyes were not so dark, so he was chaffed by his friends, but on the other hand, he was welcomed by women. He began to work as an actor when he was 16 and when appeard in the movie, "Picnic" (directed by Syunji Iwai) he first met Chara. More and more the movie made, deeper and deeper their love grew. The movie's director, Syunji Iwai, noticed that they were falling in love, so he changed the scenario for them.

He got marred to Chara when he was 21 because she got pregnant. They exchanged the marriage rings at the middle of intersection in Shibuya. She gave birth to a girl. Her name is Sumile. It is originated from "SMILE" in English. He gave blue glasses to her as commemoration of marriage and she is wearing it in the movie, "Swallowtail" (directed by Syunji Iwai) .

He has also done other kind of works except acting. One of them is as a model. What made him start this kind of work was his friend. His friend is a fashion model and actor. They appeared together in the movie "Picnic." One day, Mr. Asano said to his friend, "I want to try fashion modeling, too." And his friend advised him that actors can also do modeling. Then first he went to Under Cover. Under Cover is one of the most popular bland-names among young people in Japan. He talked with the designer, Jun Takahashi, and Mr. Takahashi thought he was so cool and he suited the cloth of Under Cover very much. And then he began to work as a model. Besides, he is also the model of Takeo Kikuchi.

Next, he is a musician. He likes music and singing a song. He is a member of a band. He is a vocalist in the band. He must sometimes control himself to get along with people who he does not like very much when he plays in a movie and so on, so he lets off his stress by singing loudly.

Third, he is good at drawing pictures. He has written an essay in a magazine of Kadokawa bookstore. He sometimes writes it with illustrations. They are so pretty. He can also draw a comic strip.

He was awarded many prizes as an actor. For example, in 1997, he was awarded a topic prize of actor at 20th Japan academy grand prix, the main actor prize at 18th Yokohama movie festival, the most wonderful main actor prize at 11th Takasaki movie festival, and the main actor prize at 6th Japan movie professional grand prix. But he isn't pleased to be awarded so much. He says this: "I sometimes feel shame when I must write "actor" as my occupation on a form. I am likely to write vocalist." He doesn't brag it even if he is awarded so many prizes. He always lives naturally.

He is easy to be mistaken that he isn't friendly because his roles which he played so far are unfriendly or slightly strange men. Actually, he is friendly, smiles well and likes talking. He looks like unfriendly at first sight but his heart is passionate.

Now he is 25 years old. Nobody can guess what he will do in the future.

Reported by: Chieko Maruyama
Date of Report: July 1998

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