Masanobu Ando This talented actor was born May 19, 1975 in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. He made his breakthrough when he won the Film Academy of Japan's Best New Actor Award for starring in Takeshi Kitano's Kids Return in 1996.
Ando has since played an impressive assortment of roles: mentally challenged (Ao no jidai, Innocent World), a thief (Space Travelers, Adrenaline Drive), a surgeon (Transparent), a ninja and samurai (Red Shadow), and even a corpse (Monday). Such diverse roles and Masanobu's quirky and eccentric personality have earned him the occasional title of "Japan's answer to Johnny Depp".
More recently he can be seen in the films Synesthesia (Gimme Heaven), Takashi Miike's Big Bang Love Juvenile A with frequent co-star Ryuhei Matsuda, Sakuran starring Anna Tsuchiya, and Sukiyaki Western Django - a role which required him to speak entirely English.
Out of all of Ando's projects, he is probably most admired for his enigmatic and startling portrayal of Kazuo Kiriyama: the 'heartless', psycho/sociopathic killer in the controversial film, Battle Royale.
In additon to acting, Ando has taken part in several Japanese ad campaigns for the popular snack food Pocky, Toyota, and DoCoMo mobile phones. In 2003 he directed his first film, Adagietto.Schhr langsam, starring actress Kumiko Aso. The short is included in a collection released by Peacedelic titled "Short Films".
It is reported that in his spare time he enjoys photography and shopping.