moon

In memory of Tatsuya Nakadai (December 13, 1932 - November 11, 2025). "When I was in my 20s, Mr. Kurosawa crushed my confidence as an actor in Seven Samurai and I was determined to never be in another Kurosawa film. Just around then, I was fortunate to be chosen to be in Human Condition. We filmed the first and second part of the film during the first half of a year, and prepared to shoot the third and fourth part during the rest of that year. Around that time, Mr. Kurosawa appointed me to be in Yojimbo. I was so sure I would never want to be in his film that I turned down the offer at first. But he sent me the script, and it was so interesting. Even though my character was going to be slain by Mr. Mifune, it was an interesting role. But I was obstinate and turned the offer down again and again. Then it turned out that Mr. Masaki Kobayashi, the director of Human Condition, was friends with Mr. Kurosawa. I had a half-year blank between filming the first and second parts and third and fourth parts, so Mr. Kurosawa asked Mr. Kobayashi if he could borrow me during that time. The roles were entirely different; in Human Condition, my character had a strong sense of justice, but Unosuke in Yojimbo was a complete rascal. Mr. Kobayashi encouraged me to go, but I kept on running away from the opportunity. Then Mr. Kurosawa talked to me directly. He was famous worldwide by then. I asked him if he remembered me – he responded, “I am asking you because I remember you!” So that’s how I came to appear in Yojimbo. When we were in the process of costume fitting, Mr. Kurosawa saw me and said, “Your neck is so long. Samurais are supposed to have short necks; long necks don’t look good in armor. What should we do?” There happened to be a red scarf lying around, and he told me to wrap it around my neck, which made my neck look shorter [laughs]. After the film was released, people talked about this and said there were no scarves back in the Sengoku Period, so that style aroused a lot of curiosity." — Tatsuya Nakadai interviewed by Anthony Al-Jamie for Tokyo Journal in 2019, published in Issue #279