Ken Takakura and Conspiracy Encyclopedia

Contents 1 Life and career 2 Partial filmography 3 Honours 4 References 5 External links

Life and career

Takakura was born in Nakama, Fukuoka in 1931. He attended Tochiku High School in nearby Yahata City where he was a member of the boxing team and English society. It was around this time that he gained his streetwise swagger and tough-guy persona watching yakuza movies. This subject was covered in one of his most famous movies, Showa Zankyo-den (Remnants of Chivalry in the Showa Era), in which he played an honorable old-school yakuza among the violent post-war gangs. After graduating from Meiji University in Tokyo, Takakura attended an audition on impulse in 1955 at the Toei Film Company while applying for a managerial position.

Toei found a natural in Takakura as he debuted with Denko Karate Uchi (Lightning Karate Blow) in 1956. In 1959 he married singer Chiemi Eri, but divorced in 1971. His breakout role would be in the 1965 film Abashiri Prison, and its sequel Abashiri Bangaichi: Bokyohen (Abashiri Prison: Longing for Home, also 1965), in which he played an ex-con antihero. By the time Takakura left Toei in 1976, he had appeared in over 180 films.

He gained international recognition after starring in the 1970 war film Too Late the Hero as the cunning Imperial Japanese Major Yamaguchi, the 1974 Sydney Pollack sleeper hit The Yakuza with Robert Mitchum, and is probably best known in the West for his role in Ridley Scott's Black Rain (1989) where he surprises American cops played by Michael Douglas and Andy García with the line, "I do speak fucking English". He again appeared to Western audiences with the 1992 Fred Schepisi comedy Mr. Baseball starring Tom Selleck.

He appeared in three films since 2000: Hotaru (ホタル, Firefly?) in May 2001, Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles, by Chinese director Zhang Yimou, in late December 2005, and Yasuo Furuhata's Anata e (To You) in late August 2012, after a six-year hiatus. He died of lymphoma on November 10, 2014. Shintaro Ishihara described him as "the last big star (in Japan)." Partial filmography A Fugitive from the Past (1965) Abashiri Prison (1965) The Drifting Avenger (1968) Too Late the Hero (1970) Golgo 13 (1973) The Homeless (1974) The Bullet Train (1975) The Yakuza (1975) Kimi Yo Funnu no Kawa o Watare (1976) Mount Hakkoda (1977) The Yellow Handkerchief (1977) Never Give Up (1978) A Distant Cry from Spring (1980) Station (1981) Izakaya Chōji (1983) Antarctica (1983) Black Rain (1989) Mr. Baseball (1992) Poppoya (1999) Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles (2005) Anata e (2012) Honours Japan Academy Prize for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role 1978 – as Yusaku Shima, in The Yellow Handkerchief 1981 – as Kōsaku Tajima, in A Distant Cry from Spring 1982 – as Eiji Mikami, in Station 1999 – as Otomatsu Satō, in Poppoya Blue Ribbon Awards 1977 – as Yusaku Shima, in The Yellow Handkerchief 1999 – as Otomatsu Satō, in Poppoya Person of Cultural Merit (2006) Order of Culture (2013)

Conspiracy Encyclopedia and Ken Takakura

The encyclopedia was positively reviewed in The Guardian, where it was referred to as a "beautifully-produced tome". It received both a positive and a negative review from two different writers in The Times. In 2008 the encyclopedia was listed as required reading in a course on conspiracy at Harvard University.

Contents 1 Contents 2 Reception 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

Contents

Burnett notes that the German term "Verschwörungsmythos" means "Conspiracy Myth", and has value as a descriptive label. "Perhaps the conspiracy world is an updated version of ancient myths, where monsters and the gods of Olympus and Valhalla have been replaced by aliens and the Illuminati of Washington and Buckingham Palace," writes Burnett.

Three hundred and sixty-five conspiracy theories are discussed in the work, and the majority of these are political in nature. Topics discussed include the moon landings conspiracy theories, the Bilderberg group, the Illuminati, the Warren Commission and the Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories, the views of David Icke, and chupacabras. The encyclopedia has a section on assassinations, and those discussed include the deaths of Kenneth Bigley in 2004, Danny Casolaro in 1991, John F. Kennedy in 1963, and Tutankhamun in 1323BC. Reception

In a review of the encyclopedia for The Guardian, Andrew Mueller called it a "beautifully-produced tome", and commented that the work "succeeds, as was probably intentional, in offering some fascinating tours of the byways of history and providing a tantalising alternative universe in which much of what you know may not be what it seems." John Cooper reviewed the encyclopedia for The Times, and described it as "an entertaining compilation of ideas ranging from who was the 'real William Shakespeare' to the BCCI case and al-Qaeda." Cooper noted "The most fascinating section relates to "Assassinations" ... an unusual fairytale book for Christmas." Martin Samuel also reviewed the encyclopedia for The Times, and gave a more critical review, commenting "For all the encyclopedia's pretence at sifting the evidence in search of a verdict, if the truth is out there, the authors are damned if they can find it."

Conspiracy Encyclopedia was listed as required reading in a 2008 course on conspiracy at Harvard University. Writing in Conspiracy Theories & Secret Societies For Dummies, authors Christopher Hodapp and Alice Von Kannon comment that Burnett asserts "the spirit of our times has had the crap kicked out of it by global domination". The encyclopedia is recommended for further reading by David Southwell and Sean Twist in their book Unsolved Political Mysteries. Writing for The Star, James Mitchell observed, "There's a huge amount packed in here, simply presented." Mitchell concluded, "Read the Conspiracy Encyclopedia, and you'll either have your worst fears confirmed that there's a grand, unified conspiracy affecting everything ... or less exciting, that most of the time, vanilla rules: What you see is what you get!" See also Cabal Conspiracy (crime) Encyclopedia of the Central Intelligence Agency List of conspiracy theories
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