On October 8, 2010, Japanese actor Ryo Ikebe died of sepsis at the age of 92.
Yoshinori Ikebe's role as Prosecutor Ito in the movie "The Hunt" has impressed Chinese audiences. Prosecutor Ito is a rather complex character, on the one hand, he stubbornly adheres to the so-called supremacy of the rule of law, indiscriminately characterizes the innocent Duchu as a criminal, on the other hand, he is also the spokesman of the Japanese right-wing forces in power, in order to prevent political opponents from using unjust, false and wrongly decided cases to win benefits, he does not hesitate to order Duchu to be killed.
At the time of the film, Ikebe was 58 years old, the oldest of all actors. Although the scenes are not much, with only a few shots, he portrays the character's scheming and sinister intentions.
Ikebe graduated from Rikkyo University in Japan with a degree in English literature, and his initial ambition was to become a film director. Because he was 1.78 meters tall and looked like a talented person, he was pulled to become an actor, and as early as 1941, he starred in his first film "Fighting Fish".
In 1942, when filming "Green Land", he was conscripted into the Army in Shandong, China, to receive non-commissioned officer training, and in 1944 he participated in the Pacific War as a captain of the health guard, as a result of which his ship was sunk by a US submarine and swam in the sea for 10 hours before drifting to Sulawesi and nearly died.
The Legend of the White Snake
After the war, Ikebe became a leading figure in the revival of Japanese literary and art films, successively starring in films such as "Breaking the Ring", "War and Peace", "Snow Country", "Early Spring" and other films, and also co-starred with Li Xianglan in four films such as "Escape from Dawn", "The Legend of the White Snake", "Nanguo Beauty" and "Tokyo Holiday".
In 1949's "Green Mountain" directed by Masashi Imai, he played a high school student at the age of 30, and since then he has gained the reputation of "immortal handsome man" in the Japanese film industry.
In 1965, the ambitious man set up his own portal and founded Ikebe Studio, hoping to realize his dream of directing, only to go bankrupt due to mismanagement less than a year ago, carrying a large amount of debt.
It was at this time that Toei asked him to assist Ken Takakura in the Renxia series "The Legend of the Showa Remnant", in which he played Shigeyoshi Kazema and Shujiro Hanada, played by Ken Takakura, changed from their initial rivals to partners of life and death.
Filmed in nine episodes over the seven years from 1965 to 1972, Showa Wasdiary was one of Japan's most influential series, and Ken Takakura and Ryo Ikebe also formed a deep friendship off-screen for starring in the "Flower and Wind" group.
《Station》
Later, in "The Hunt", "Station", and "Shoji Tavern" starring Ken Takakura, Ikebe Ryoto played a supporting role.
Yoshinori Ikebe was once president of the Japan Film Actors Association. In 1948, he married actress Toshiko Hattori, and the marriage broke down after not long. In 1960, he married Miko Matsuzaki (Ikebe Miko), who was 18 years younger than him. Miko Matsuzaki was Senkin, president of The Morinaga Group, Japan's largest confectionery and chocolate maker, and her brother Akio Matsuzaki later became the successor president. Akio Matsuzaki's daughter Akie Matsuzaki (Akie Abe) is married to former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, so Yoshiyoshi Ikebe and Shinzo Abe are related by marriage.
In his later years, Ikebe devoted himself to writing, publishing dozens of essay collections, among which "If the Wind Blows" also won the Japanese Literature Prize.