Showing posts with label Steve Okazaki. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Steve Okazaki. Show all posts

Sunday, January 29, 2017

One Lucky Star: Haruo Nakajima

Seen here is veteran actor Haruo Nakajima. We by chance came across his unique story through a WWII forum and found it fascinating enough to share with you here. You see, Haruo Nakajima was conscripted into the IJN at the age of 14. He served as a gunner on a Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" Bomber, and somehow miraculously survived an encounter with a Grumman F6F Hellcat.Mr. Nakajima  is said to have attended Admiral Yamamoto's funeral. If surviving the Hellcat wasn't enough he just happened to be flying on the day that his new ship, the "Shinano" was sunk with 1500 men going down with her. If not for the war's end, he would have been assigned to suicide missions on Shinyo suicide boats. Nearly all of his classmates from training had died on such missions. Somebody was definitely looking out for this man!

Mr. Nakajima would later become famous when he won the role of Godzilla in 1954. He played the iconic character until 1972, when he retired. He is also known for his work on Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai and recently appeared in Steve Okazaki's Documentary MIFUNE THE LAST SUAMURAI. Mr. Nakajima is now 88 years old still counting his lucky stars! How awesome is that? すごいい!!!

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Toshiro Mifune Hollywood Walk of Fame Induction Ceremony

In a largely long overdue accolade owed to the late great Japanese film giant legend Toshiro Mifune, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce presented a star on Hollywood Boulevard this Monday November 14th 2016. We were fortunate to have been there to cover the event which was attended by Mifune's eldest son Shiro Mifune, his wife, and Mifune's grandson Rikiya Mifune of which we were happy to meet. This coincides with the 2016 AFI Film Fest screening of Academy Award Winning Director Steve Okazaki's documentary MIFUNE: The Last Samurai the night before at the Chinese Theater. 
This ceremony was well attended and included other Hollywood actors such as Martin Landau and Actress Tamlyn Tomita. But for us we had the opportunity to speak with and present a copy of our last Samurai epic The Setting Sun to Steve Okazaki, Mifune Productions head Rikiya Mifune, and Shiro Mifune who we found to be a true Gentlemen who took time out to speak with us and graciously accepted our book in appreciation of his father's work that heavily inspired our characters. Here are some photos we took. Please enjoy!
Steve Okazaki & Shiro Mifune.
Actress Tamlyn Tomita.
Grandson Rikiya Mifune.
 Shiro Mifune receiving our book.
This was an honor! 
Steve Okazaki & Shiro Mifune.
Then we gave a copy of The Setting Sun to Steve Okazaki.
Great guys both!
Academy Award Winning Director and Future Academy Award Winning Writer!