To Live To Act: Tatsuya Nakadai

In the organizer's words:

仲代達矢 役者を生きる Nakadai Tatsuya "yakusha" o ikiru
Director: INAZUKA Hidetaka
2014, 57 minutes, OmeU, Blu-ray

The documentary follows Nakadai Tatsuya over a period of one year and impressively shows how the exceptional actor continues to face the challenges of the stage as a member of the theater group Mumei Juku , even at an advanced age.

Nakadai Tatsuya had long intended to perform Eugène Ionesco's play "The Lesson", which had made a deep impression on him during a visit to Paris with his wife Yasuko. In 2012, he finally began extensive rehearsals, which lasted until the following year, and took on the role of the "Professor" himself.

The work is a three-character play with a maid and a student and belongs to absurdist theater, which is often considered difficult to access. For Nakadai, who was already over 80 years old at the time, memorizing the extensive texts in particular was a great challenge and demanded a great deal of effort from him.

After the performances at the Noto Engekidō and the Nakadai Theater (the rehearsal venue for Mumei juku), he said that he had "reached an important milestone".

In spring 2013, he began enrolling new students (29th year), whose rigorous training he led himself.

In the fall of the same year, he took on the role of Father Lorenzo in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. He deliberately no longer appeared in the lead role, but opted for a supporting role in order to support the young talents of Mumei juku.

As he gradually began to reflect on his retirement as an actor, his focus increasingly turned to the future of the theater group.

Film series
NAKADAI Tatsuya (1932-2025)
The many faces of the Japanese acting legend

Nakadai Tatsuya is one of the most important actors in Japanese film history. The multi-award-winning actor appeared in over 120 films, mostly portraying complex and multi-layered characters.

Born on December 13, 1932 in Tokyo, Nakadai attended performances of the Haiyûza theater group after graduating from school, and was accepted into the group himself in 1952. In 1954, he made his film debut as an extra in The Seven Samurai, which marked the beginning of a long-standing partnership with Kurosawa Akira: Nakadai played leading roles in Yojinbô or Tsubaki Sanjûrô and shone as the protagonist in the great epics Kagemusha and Ran. He also worked closely with other renowned directors such as Kobayashi Masaki, Okamoto Kihachi and Teshigahara Hiroshi.

In 1975, together with his wife and fellow actor Miyazaki Yasuko, Nakadai founded a school for young actors called Mumei juku, which was attended by numerous talents, including Yakusho Kôji (known from Perfect Days, among others).

The dazzling range of characters portrayed by Nakadai extends from samurai, criminals and university professors to painters and family fathers, to whom he lent depth and intensity with subtle nuances.

Nakadai Tatsuya died of pneumonia on November 8, 2025 at the age of 92.

The film series takes place in cooperation with the film festival
Nippon Connection in Frankfurt (02. - 07.06.2026).

As part of the festival's retrospective, the
DFF - Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum will show eight films
with NAKADAI Tatsuya from the archive of the Japan Foundation in Tokyo.

Further information at https://nipponconnection.com/