Ryo Kase

Ryo Kase (加瀬 亮) is a Japanese actor.

Early Life
Kase was born in Yokohama, Kanagawa prefecture. He moved to Bellevue, Washington in the United States soon after his birth, due to his father's job being transferred. His father Yutaka Kase, was former chairman and representative director of Sojitz, a major Japanese general trading company.

Career
Kase made his screen debut in Sogo Ishii's Gojoe: Spirit War Chronicle in 2000.

That same year, Kase received his major break when he starred in the critically acclaimed film I Just Didn't Do It (2007), directed by Masayuki Suo, for which he won the Best Actor Award at the 31st Japan Academy Prize and the 2nd Asia Film Award, among other domestic and international film awards.

In 2010, Kase played a yakuza mobster in Takeshi Kitano’s highly anticipated return to the crime genre Outrage (アウトレイジ, Autoreiji) which competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. The film was a major success,  grossing 634 million yen at the Japan Box office, leading to two sequels.

In 2023, Kase reunited with Takeshi Kitano in the Japanese film Kubi about the Honnō-ji Incident. In the film, Kase portrayed the historical figure, Oda Nobunaga, a charismatic military leader revered and feared as a demon king in Japan. His wildly mad-like performance was highly praised by many journalists at the Cannes Film Festival. In Japan, this portrayal of Nobunaga, which diverges greatly from his public image of being cold yet violent but also deeply human and virtuous, has sparked debate. Some audience members felt that the character setting demeaned the historical figure, while others believed the acting was so realistic it seemed to overwrite the actual image of Nobunaga himself. When director Takeshi Kitano shared this original idea with the late director Akira Kurosawa, he was told that if Kitano were to make it, it could become a masterpiece on par with Seven Samurai. This work won several awards at the 47th Japan Academy Prize, including Excellence in Cinematography, Excellence in Lighting, Excellence in Art Direction, Excellence in Sound Recording, and Excellence in Editing. Ryo Kase, who played Nobunaga, also won the award for Excellent Supporting Actor.

International Films
From the beginning of his career, Kase took advantage of his English fluency and participated in international films from various countries in Asia, Europe, and America.

His first American film was Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) directed by Clint Eastwood, where he delicately portrayed a complex character of a former military policeman turned young soldier. He made his Cannes Film Festival debut with Abbas Kiarostami's Like Someone in Love (2012). He has also appeared in Michel Gondry's Tokyo! (2008), Gus Van Sant's Restless (2011) with Mia Wasikowska, Hong Sang-soo's Hill of Freedom (2014), and Martin Scorsese's Silence (2016). In Paul Weitz's Bel Canto, he starred alongside Julianne Moore and Ken Watanabe. In the film Minamata, inspired by a photo collection of Japan's pollution lawsuit taken by the late photographer Eugene Smith, he co-starred with Johnny Depp and Hiroyuki Sanada. In 2014, when Hong Sang-soo's Hill of Freedom was released, he was selected as the Best Actor by CINE21, a Korean film magazine, despite being a foreigner. In Kiyoshi Kurosawa's To the Ends of the Earth (2019), he won the Best Supporting Actor award at the 14th Asia Film Awards.

Television

 * Penance (2012)
 * Zoku. Saigo Kara Nibanme no Koi (2014)
 * Kono Machi no Inochi ni (2016)
 * Mozart in the Jungle (2018)
 * Anpan (2025), Yutaro Asada

Writings
"Minna no Ozu-kai" in Ozu Yasujiro Taizen (The Complete Book of Ozu Yasujiro) by Matsuura Kanji and Miyamoto Akiko (Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. 2019) ISBN 9784022515995

2004

 * 14th Japan Film Professional Awards Best Actor

2007

 * 17th Japan Film Professional Awards: Best Actor for I Just Didn't Do It
 * 81st Kinema Junpo Award: Best Actor for I Just Didn't Do It
 * 21st Takasaki Film Festival: Best Supporting Actor

2008

 * 31st Japan Academy Prize: Best Actor (nomination) for I Just Didn't Do It
 * 32nd Hochi Film Award: Best Actor for I Just Didn't Do It
 * 50th Blue Ribbon Awards: Best Actor for I Just Didn't Do It
 * 29th Yokohama Film Festival: Best Actor for I Just Didn't Do It
 * 3rd Osaka Cinema Festival: Best Actor for I Just Didn't Do It
 * 2nd Asian Film Awards: Best Actor for I Just Didn't Do It
 * 27th Zenkoku Eiren Awards: Best Actor for I Just Didn't Do It

2010

 * 1st Nippon Theater Staff Film Festival: Best Supporting Actor

2013

 * 67th Mainichi Film Award: Best Supporting Actor for Beyond Outrage