Ken Watanabe
50Movies
10.0 Best Rating
Biography
Ken Watanabe (born October 21, 1959) is a Japanese stage, film, and television actor. To English-speaking audiences he is known for playing tragic hero characters, such as General Tadamichi Kuribayashi in Letters from Iwo Jima and Lord Katsumoto Moritsugu in The Last Samurai, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Among other awards, he has won the Japan Academy Prize for Best Actor twice, in 2007 for Memories of Tomorrow and in 2010 for Shizumanu Taiyō. He is also known for his roles in director Christopher Nolan's Hollywood blockbusters Batman Begins and Inception.
Top Rated Movies
Complete Filmography & Verdicts
| Year | Movie | Character | Rating | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | The Final Piece | Shigeyoshi Toumyo | HIT | |
| 2025 | Kokuho | Hanjiro Hanai | HIT | |
| 2024 | All Lives | - | HIT | |
| 2024 | Kensuke's Kingdom | Kensuke (voice) | HIT | |
| 2023 | True Love: Making The Creator | Self | HIT | |
| 2023 | The Creator | Harun | HIT | |
| 2020 | 劇場の灯を消すな！PARCO劇場編 | - | HIT | |
| 2020 | Fukushima 50 | Masao Yoshida | HIT | |
| 2019 | Godzilla: King of the Monsters | Dr. Ishiro Serizawa | HIT | |
| 2019 | Pokémon Detective Pikachu | Lieutenant Hide Yoshida | HIT | |
| 2018 | The King and I | The King of Siam | HIT | |
| 2018 | Bel Canto | Katsumi Hosokawa | FLOP | |
| 2018 | Isle of Dogs | Head Surgeon (voice) | HIT | |
| 2018 | 7 Guardians of the Tomb | Father | FLOP | |
| 2017 | Transformers: The Last Knight | Drift (voice) | FLOP | |
| 2016 | Rage | Yohei Maki | HIT | |
| 2016 | The Sea of Trees | Takumi Nakamura | FLOP | |
| 2014 | Evolution Within Extinction | Self | HIT | |
| 2014 | Transformers: Age of Extinction | Drift (voice) | FLOP | |
| 2014 | Godzilla | Dr. Ishiro Serizawa | FLOP | |
| 2013 | Unforgiven | Jubee Kamata | HIT | |
| 2012 | Hayabusa: The Long Voyage Home | Junichiro Kawaguchi | FLOP | |
| 2010 | A School Behind Bars | - | HIT | |
| 2010 | Inception | Saito | HIT | |
| 2010 | Shanghai | Tanaka | FLOP | |
| 2009 | The Unbroken | Hajime Onchi | HIT | |
| 2009 | Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant | Mr. Tall | FLOP | |
| 2007 | Earth | Narrator (voice) | HIT | |
| 2006 | Letters from Iwo Jima | General Tadamichi Kuribayashi | HIT | |
| 2006 | Memories of Tomorrow | Masayuki Saeki | FLOP | |
| 2005 | Memoirs of a Geisha | Chairman | HIT | |
| 2005 | Batman Begins | Ra's al Ghul | HIT | |
| 2005 | Year One in the North | Komatsubara Hideaki | FLOP | |
| 2003 | The Last Samurai | Moritsugu Katsumoto | HIT | |
| 2003 | 第三の時効 | - | FLOP | |
| 2003 | T.R.Y. | Masanobu Azuma | HIT | |
| 2002 | Dawn of a New Day: The Man Behind VHS | Okubo | HIT | |
| 2001 | Drowning Fish | Miyota | HIT | |
| 2000 | The Whispered City | Ishida | HIT | |
| 2000 | Space Travelers | Sakamaki ("Crusher") | FLOP | |
| 1998 | Bonds | Detective Sako Akio | FLOP | |
| 1997 | Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald | Raita Onuki | HIT | |
| 1992 | Oda Nobunaga | - | HIT | |
| 1992 | Ganryujima: Kojiro and Musashi | Kojirō | HIT | |
| 1991 | A Naive History of the Bakumatsu Era | Ryoma Sakamoto | HIT | |
| 1987 | Commando Invasion | - | FLOP | |
| 1986 | The Sea and Poison | Toda | HIT | |
| 1985 | Tampopo | Gun | HIT | |
| 1985 | Kekkon Annai Mystery | - | HIT | |
| 1984 | MacArthur's Children | Tetsuo Nakai | FLOP |