my favorite actorssss

let me set the scene for you...

it's mid 2025, and i just started Chapter 13 of Yakuza: Like a Dragon, titled "Coin Locker Baby". this chapter features many scenes with an earlier antagonist in the game, Sawashiro Jo. before this, i hadn't given this character much thought. he was scummy and unlikeable, needlessly cruel to our protagonist and just not a character that intrigued me. but this chapter changed that. this chapter turned a character who i previously overlooked into my favorite out of the whole franchise.. his writing was amazing of course, but after playing it with the original japanese audio, i was really impressed with how his actor portrayed him! i've never had a voice acting performance stick out that much to me before. plus i thought sawashiro was really attractive, and i heard in the past that he was a likeness character (a character whose appearance is based on a real actor). so who was this talented man? none other than Tsutsumi Shinichi.

for a few months, i didn't do anything with this information. i didn't watch any movies he was in, any dramas, nothing. but i did think that tsutsumi was REMARKABLY cute so occasionally i would look him up on google and pinterest and just scroll through the images. but one day i decided that you know... if i was gonna go around calling him my "celebrity crush" i should probably... watch. something he's in. So I did! the first movie i watched with him being SABU's film "Postman Blues". To be honest I have no clue why I started with Postman Blues or how i found it, but i'm glad I did because not only did it get me into tsutsumi's filmography, it got me into movies as a whole! i'll always be really grateful for that. i wouldn't say he saved my life but finding him definitely improved it tenfold. i don't know where i'd be without movies!

apparently theres a character limit on here so i'll leave it at that. great actor, very cute, made my life a lot better.

favorite role: Yamazaki, Unlucky Monkey

ichi the killer was the first movie i watched with him and WOW what a great first impression. his kakihara is really something special... also he's really attractive. he's fantastic in his other roles too, i really liked him in Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl, Survive Style 5+ and Picnic!! i like his acting so much i did something that i never would do otherwise..... aka watch a marvel movie. yeah. i watched Thor only because Asano was in it. probably shouldn't have. it sucked and he's barely in it lol.

favorite role: Kakihara Masao, Ichi the Killer

many people praise takeshi kitano for his amazing directing skills but i feel like people look over what a great actor he is too! he's really good at playing (trying to think of the word) cold? violent characters in a way thats really unnerving. Side note: why does he keep playing queer abusers. For the longest time I thought he was queer in some way because of how often he plays gay/bisexual men... I cannot believe he's been married to not one but two women and has children with them. Such a good actor! I really thought he was gay!

favorite role: Kyoya Ichiro, GONIN

this one feels like cheating lol. out of all his dramas or films i've only watched Good Luck!! (yes even his voice acting roles. i have not seen a single ghibli movie.) but his acting was so impressive in it that it's half the reason i wanna get into jdramas.

favorite role: what do you think

honestly i didn't realize how much of the stuff i watched she was in until i watched Good Luck!! lol. terajima-esque in the way she's in everything i try to watch. idk i struggle to say stuff about the actors besides tsutsumi other than "they are good at acting and thats why i like them" but shibasaki really is a talented actress. she did great as Kaoru in Suspect X (and i assume the rest of the Galileo series but i havent watched them yet) and Ogawa in the aforementioned Good Luck!! was really fun but her role in Battle Royale is lowkey one of the best parts of the movie!

favorite role: Souma Mitsuko, Battle Royale

ive only watched survive style 5+ and bus panic but thats all i need man. He's a visionary.

favorite role: J, Survive Style 5+