
SABU
Personal Info
Known for
Directing
Gender
Male
Birthday
1964-11-18 (60 years old)
Place of Birth
Wakayama, Japan
SABU
Biography
Sabu (サブ, Sabu, born November 18, 1964) is the pseudonym of Japanese actor and director Hiroyuki Tanaka.
Born in Wakayama Prefecture, Sabu studied at an Osaka fashion school before deciding to go to Tokyo to become a professional musician. It was suggested he try acting and in 1986 he made his film debut in Sorobanzuku. He earned his first starring role in the 1991 World Apartment Horror, a live-action film directed by Katsuhiro Ōtomo of Akira fame. Working from a script he wrote himself, he made his directorial debut with the 1996 Dangan Runner, a film that set his early style of "quirky action-comedies propelled by characters who hurtle headlong though squirming narratives steered more by the forces of incidence and coincidence than the actions of the protagonists themselves." Shin'ichi Tsutsumi played the lead in Sabu's first five films. Blessing Bell, starring Susumu Terajima (who has played minor roles in nearly all of Sabu's films), was a turn away from his kinetic, parodic, and black comedy narratives, and earned the NETPAC Award at the 2003 Berlin Film Festival. Later films featured the J-pop band V6. In 2009, he directed The Crab Cannery Ship, a modern adaptation of a classic of Japanese proletarian literature written by Takiji Kobayashi.
He has continued to work as an actor, such as in Takashi Miike's Ichi the Killer (2001).
His film Chasuke's Journey was selected to be screened in the main competition section of the 65th Berlin International Film Festival.
Acting
(2016)
Silence
as Samurai #1
(2006)
Sakuran
as Patron
(2003)
Josee, the Tiger and the Fish
as Patron
(2001)
Ichi the Killer
as Kaneko
(1998)
Unlucky Monkey
as Bank Robber
(1997)
Postman Blues
as Kurokawa
(1996)
Dangan Runner
as Assassin
(1996)
(1996)
Don't Look Up
as Sekikawa
(1995)
(1995)
Shinjuku Triad Society
as Shusuke Shimada
(1994)
Zëiram 2
as Fujikuro (as Sabu)
(1994)
800 Two Lap Runners
as Kyoichi Nakazawa
(1994)
(1994)
(1993)
(1992)
(1991)
World Apartment Horror
as Ita
(1991)
Crew
(2023)
Under Your Bed
Director
(2021)
My Blood and Bones in a Flowing Galaxy
Screenplay, Editor, Director
(2019)
Dancing Mary
Editor, Director, Writer
(2018)
Jam
Editor, Director, Screenplay
(2017)
Mr. Long
Director, Screenplay
(2017)
Happiness
Director, Screenplay
(2015)
Chasuke's Journey
Screenplay, Director
(2013)
Miss ZOMBIE
Director, Writer
(2011)
Bunny Drop
Director, Screenplay
(2009)
Kanikôsen
Director, Screenplay
(2005)
Hold Up Down
Director, Writer
(2005)
Dead Run
Director, Screenplay
(2003)
Hard Luck Hero
Director, Screenplay
(2003)
A1012K
Director
(2002)
Drive
Director, Screenplay
(2002)
Blessing Bell
Director, Writer
(2000)
Monday
Screenplay, Director
(1998)
Unlucky Monkey
Director, Writer
(1997)
Postman Blues
Director, Writer
(1996)
Dangan Runner
Director, Screenplay