Akira Takarada supplied Toho's monster films with capable, credible men in the path of trouble. We rate his straightforward leading-man assurance, though Godzilla also shows how stiff the human exchanges around him could be.
Fi1m perspective
In Godzilla (1954), Akira Takarada plays Hideto Ogata, a diver: a practical man facing something no practical man could be ready for. That casting points towards the quality we value in him, a straightforward leading-man assurance. It is an unfussy kind of appeal, well suited to the heroic and professional parts that recur through his monster films. There is a limitation here too: some of the original film's human exchanges are stiff, and a handsome, capable lead cannot make them less so.
Ishirō Honda gives the destruction enough weight to make those shortcomings bearable. We were frightened by Godzilla because the damage feels painful rather than merely spectacular. The careful model-work helps, as does Akira Ifukube's mournful score, which makes room for grief alongside the fear. Takarada gives us someone human to follow through it, and his straightforward presence is well matched to the material. This is the place to appreciate him within a film, without pretending he is its chief attraction.
The 1960s made repeated use of that dependability. As a Toho contract player, Takarada played reporter Ichiro Sakai in Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964) and astronaut Kazuo Fuji in Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965). The occupations change, but the casting keeps returning to men expected to act competently under extraordinary pressure. His work was not confined to creatures and spacecraft: The End of Summer (1961) placed him with Yasujiro Ozu, while the sophisticated urban men elsewhere in his Toho work suggest an appeal that the monster-film label only partly explains.
After the studio system's decline in the 1970s, stage musicals, television and supporting film parts took more of his working life. Later returns to the series included Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992) and Godzilla: Final Wars (2004), the latter casting him as UN Secretary General Naotaro Daigo. He was playing different characters, not simply bringing Ogata back for another emergency. For a first encounter, choose Godzilla rather than one of the later reunions.
Biography
Akira Takarada was a Japanese actor. Born on 29 April 1934 in Chongjin, then under Japanese rule in Korea, he lived for a time in Harbin, China, before moving to Japan in 1948. He joined Toho's New Face programme in 1953 and made his film debut in a small role in And Then the Liberty Bell Rang (1954).
His breakthrough came the same year as navy diver Hideto Ogata in Godzilla (1954). He appeared in several later entries in the series, including Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964) as Ichiro Sakai, Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965) as Kazuo Fuji, Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966) as Yoshimura, Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992) as Joji Minamino and Godzilla: Final Wars (2004) as Naotarō Daigo. He also acted in other Toho films and appeared in television dramas, quiz shows and commercials. He was married to model Akiko Kojima from 1966 to 1984.
