Biography

Masanobu Ando is a Japanese actor and director. For his second film, in 1996, he won the Film Academy of Japan’s Best New Actor Award, starring in Takeshi Kitano’s Kids Return.

Ando has extensive experience in both Japanese television drama and film and has played a large variety of different roles: mentally challenged (Ao no jidai, Innocent World), bank robber (Space Travelers, Drive), doctor (Transparent), ninja and samurai (Red Shadow), even a corpse (Monday). Out of all of Ando’s characters, he is best known for his role as Kazuo Kiriyama, the heartless, psychotic killer in the controversial film, Battle Royale (2000). He has been called Japan’s answer to Johnny Depp.

As well as acting, Ando has been in Japanese ad campaigns for the popular Japanese snack food, Pocky, Toyota, and for DoCoMo mobile phones. In 2003, he directed his first film, Adagietto.Schhr langsam, starring Japanese actress, Aso Kumiko. The short is included in a collection released by Peacedelic called Short Films. In it, he also stars in the short, 県道スター (loosely translated to “Prefectural road star”).

Masanobu Ando is a promising new actor in Japan. As a young actor, he has already gained a lot of acting experience. Famous directors whom he has worked with before include Kitano Takeshi, Motohiro Katsuyuki and Fukasaku Kinji. Ando’s acting range is very wide. From the insane killer in Battle Royale to the tragic genius in Transparent, he has demonstrated his ability in acting convincingly.

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