Pulse of Cinema
Ken Watanabe portrait

Ken Watanabe

11 films

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.

Where to Start with Ken Watanabe

Ken Watanabe appears in 11 drama films in the Pulse of Cinema catalogue. The highest Pulse-rated are Letters from Iwo Jima, The Last Samurai, Memoirs of a Geisha, a strong place to start exploring Ken Watanabe's drama work.

Letters from Iwo Jima 7.5

Letters from Iwo Jima

2006
The Last Samurai 7.6

The Last Samurai

2003
Memoirs of a Geisha 7.6

Memoirs of a Geisha

2005

Ken Watanabe: Drama Films 11

The Last Samurai 7.6

The Last Samurai

2003
Memoirs of a Geisha 7.6

Memoirs of a Geisha

2005
Letters from Iwo Jima 7.5

Letters from Iwo Jima

2006
Ashes and Snow 7.2

Ashes and Snow

2005
The Sea and Poison 7.1

The Sea and Poison

1986
The Creator 7.0

The Creator

2023
Unforgiven 7.0

Unforgiven

2013
The King and I 7.0

The King and I

2018
Rage 6.8

Rage

2016
Memories of Tomorrow 6.1

Memories of Tomorrow

2006
MacArthur's Children 5.5

MacArthur's Children

1984

Frequent Collaborators

Sang-il Lee Sang-il Lee 2 films together Edward Zwick Edward Zwick 1 film together Tom Cruise Tom Cruise 1 film together Timothy Spall Timothy Spall 1 film together Tony Goldwyn Tony Goldwyn 1 film together Hiroyuki Sanada Hiroyuki Sanada 1 film together