Akinobu Ogata

When Paul Schrader cast Ken Ogata in the title role of Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985), the American director, an aficionado of Japanese cinema, knew that although the actor bore only a vague resemblance to the novelist, playwright, actor and bodybuilder, he had enough charisma to carry it off. Ogata, who has died of liver cancer aged 71, also brought to the production an air of mystique that he had earned in the several chambara (sword fight) films he had made with Hideo Gosha, and in five of Shohei Imamura's psycho-erotic dramas, notably Vengeance Is Mine (1979).

In this latter movie, although Imamura undercuts any concentration on a single main character, Ogata, as a brutal serial killer, is the fulcrum on which the whole plot turns. He creates a monster, conveying passivity and rage that nevertheless has tragic dimensions. Considered his greatest performance in the west - where Vengeance Is Mine was given a release and is available on DVD - it is arguably surpassed only by his role in The Demon (1978), directed by Yoshitaro Nomura, but little known outside his native Japan.

Here, Ogata plays another monster, though arguably of a lesser kind - let's say he has murderous intent - who, notwithstanding, earns the audience's sympathy by the end. There are fewer more poignant scenes in cinema than Ogata begging his five-year-old son's forgiveness for having tried to kill him. In another remarkable Nomura melodrama, The Castle of Sand (1974), Ogata, although in a smaller role as a dead man (and seen only in flashback), is again justifiably the centre of attention.

Born in Tokyo as Akinobu Ogata, he joined the theatrical troupe Shinkokugeki (New National Theatre) in his early 20s, where he performed in both western and Japanese classics. In 1965, he became well known to the public at large through his appearances as a warlord in the period television series Takoki. He would return to television over the next few decades, mostly in Taiga dramas (historical fiction).

After he had starred in 10 features, his association with Imamura gave Ogata international exposure, beginning with Vengeance Is Mine. This was followed by the less successful Why Not? (1981), a colourful period piece (the last chaotic days of the shogun system) seen through the eyes of Genji (Ogata), who has been stranded in the US for several years.

Then came The Ballad of Narayama (1983), winner of the Cannes Palme d'Or, in which Ogata plays a widower who has to take his mother to the top of Mt Narayama and tearfully leave her there, thus carrying out the custom of a remote mountain village. As one of the conditions of the ascent is to maintain silence, the final 30-minute sequence is a brilliantly executed, heartbreaking wordless sequence of ravishing images, in which the emotions are eloquently expressed by Ogata and Sumiko Sakamoto, as the mother.

In contrast, Imamura's black satire The Pimp (1987) saw Ogata in a quasi-comic role as a fervent patriot who sets up a string of brothels to serve the emperor's forces abroad. The last film Ogata made with Imamura (who died in 2006, also of liver cancer), was one of 11 segments of 11'09"01 - September 11 (2002), in which he portrayed a Japanese soldier who thinks he is a snake, and concludes by saying, "There is no such thing as a holy war."

Besides his work on Schrader's Mishima (which has never been released in Japan because of opposition from Mishima's widow), Ogata's only other film made with an English-speaking director was Peter Greenaway's exquisitely exotic The Pillow Book (1996). In it, Ogata plays a master calligrapher who paints a traditional blessing on his daughter's face every birthday. The casting of Ogata was especially apposite because he was a talented calligrapher in his own right, and held his first public exhibition in 1991.

Ogata, who was a recipient of the Japanese government's Medal with Purple Ribbon for his contribution to the arts, had recently completed a TV drama series in which he played the role of a gerontologist. It was broadcast a few days after his death.

He is survived by his two sons, Kanta and Naoto, both actors.