Age: 51
male
Masanobu Ando (安藤 政信, Andō Masanobu, born May 19, 1975 in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan) 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 (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, psychopathic killer in the controversial film, Battle Royale (2000). He also played an art forger in the low-budget Battle Royale parody Tokyo 10+01 (2003). 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. Sehr langsam, starring Japanese actress, Kumiko Aso. The short is included in Hiroyuki Nakano's Peacedelic compilation called Short Films. In it, he also stars in the short, 県道スター (loosely translated to "Prefectural road star"). In his spare time, he enjoys photography and shopping Description above from the Wikipedia article Masanobu Ando, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia
Kazuma Kiryu, a former member of the Yakuza clan, is released from prison after ten years in prison, taking the blame for a crime he did not commit. Returning to Kamurote, he learns that his former Tojo clan is falling apart, and his childhood friend Yumi is missing. Things get complicated when the hunt for 10 billion yen stolen from the clan begins on the streets. Kiryu finds himself at the center of a conspiracy, where he encounters betrayal, old enemies, and Shimano's mad dog, Majima Goro. To protect his loved ones and restore justice, Kiryu will have to plunge back into the cruel world of the Yakuza.
