Known For
Directing
Born
Nov 18, 1964
Place of Birth
Wakayama, Japan
Credits
44 titles
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.
Known For
Filmography
Under Your Bed
Director
Redder Than Yesterday, Bluer Than Tomorrow: Cinema Fighters Project
Director
Jam: The Drama
Editor
My Blood and Bones in a Flowing Galaxy
Screenplay
Dancing Mary
Editor
Jam
Editor
Mr. Long
Director
Happiness
Director
Silence
Samurai #1
Chasuke's Journey
Screenplay
Miss ZOMBIE
Director
Ichi the Killer - Behind the Scenes
Self
Ichi the Killer - Making Of
Self
Bunny Drop
Director
Trouble Man
Screenplay
Kanikôsen
Director
Sakuran
Patron
Dead Run
Director
Hold Up Down
Director
Josee, the Tiger and the Fish
Patron
A1012K
Director
Hard Luck Hero
Director
Blessing Bell
Director
Drive
Director
Ichi the Killer
Kaneko
Monday
Screenplay
Unlucky Monkey
Bank Robber
Postman Blues
Kurokawa
Dangan Runner
Assassin
Don't Look Up
Sekikawa
(Ura) Tôsatsu nanpa-dô
Suit Yourself or Shoot Yourself!! The Gamble
Costume Club Wars - Angel of Sumata
Shinjuku Triad Society
Shusuke Shimada
Zëiram 2
Fujikuro (as Sabu)
Kiriko
800 Two Lap Runners
Kyoichi Nakazawa
Warrior's Justice 2: Full Battle
New Book of the Waru 3: Passion
Kuma-chan
A Legend of Turmoil
Savage City: Angel Whisper
World Apartment Horror
Ita
Arrested Memory
Director