Ittoku Kishibe (岸部 一徳, Kishibe Ittoku^?, born 9 January 1947 in Kyoto) is a Japanese actor. The veteran of over 115 films, he won the Best Actor Japanese Academy Award for Shi no toge in 1991, and was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor award in 1994. He is currently playing Yotsuya for the live-action drama of Maison Ikkoku.

Tadanobu Asano (浅野 忠信, Asano Tadanobu^?), born Tadanobu Sato (佐藤 忠信, Satō Tadanobu^?, born November 27, 1973) is a Japanese actor. He is known for his roles as Dragon Eye Morrison in Electric Dragon 80.000 V, Kakihara in Ichi the Killer, Mamoru Arita in Bright Future, Hattori Genosuke in Zatoichi, Kenji in Last Life in the Universe, Aman in Survive Style 5+, Ayano in The Taste of Tea, Temudjin in Mongol, and Hogun in the film Thor, based on the Marvel Comics character. Most recently Asano appeared as Captain Nagata in Battleship, based on the Hasbro game.

Asano was born in Yokohama to a Japanese father and a mother of Japanese and Navajo ancestry (his maternal grandfather was a Navajo from Kentucky).

His father, an actors' agent, suggested he take on his first acting role in the TV show Kinpachi Sensei at the age of 16. His film debut was in the 1990 Swimming Upstream (Bataashi Kingyo), though his first major critical success was in Shunji Iwai's Fried Dragon Fish (1993). His first critical success internationally was Hirokazu Koreeda's Maboroshi no Hikari (1995), in which he played a man who inexplicably throws himself in front of a train, widowing his wife and orphaning his infant son. He also worked with Koreeda in the pseudo-documentary Distance in 2001. His best known works internationally are the samurai films Gohatto (1999) and Zatoichi (2003), as well as the critically acclaimed film Akarui Mirai (Bright Future).

Saburo Ishikura (石倉 三郎 Ishikura Saburō, born December 16, 1946 in Kagawa, Japan) is a Japanese actor that has acted in several movies directed by Beat Takeshi. He appeared as Takeshi's first advisor in Takeshi's Castle but was later fired with Sonomanma Higashi taking over his place. He has also appeared in a few of Takeshi's recent films which include Zatoichi (2003) as Boss Ogi and Asakusa Kid (2002). He has also made an appearance in Gaki No Tsukai Batsu, "Hotel Man" as a man in a golf bag.

Takeshi Kitano (北野 武, Kitano Takeshi^?, born January 18, 1947) is a Japanese filmmaker, comedian, singer, actor, film editor, presenter, screenwriter, author, poet, painter, and one-time video game designer who has received critical acclaim, both in his native Japan and abroad, for his highly idiosyncratic cinematic work. The famed Japanese film critic Nagaharu Yodogawa once dubbed him "the true successor" to influential filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. With the exception of his works as a film director, he is known almost exclusively by the name Beat Takeshi (ビートたけし, Bīto Takeshi^?). Since April 2005, he has been a professor at the Graduate School of Visual Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts. Kitano owns his own talent agency and production company, Office Kitano, which launched Tokyo Filmex in 2000.

Some of Kitano's earlier films are dramas about Yakuza gangsters or the police. Described by critics as using an acting style that is highly deadpan or a camera style that approaches near-stasis, Kitano often uses long takes where little appears to be happening, or editing that cuts immediately to the aftermath of an event. Many of his films express a bleak or nihilistic philosophy, but they are also filled with a great deal of humor and affection for their characters. Kitano's films leave paradoxical impressions and can seem controversial. The Japanese public knows him primarily as a TV host and comedian, and he is well remembered for the leading role of the comedy show Oretachi Hyōkin-zoku (1981–1989)^{[citation needed]} and for the game show Takeshi's Castle (1986–1989). His portrayal of Zatōichi in the 2003 movie is his biggest domestic commercial success.^{[citation needed]}

Shinya Tsukamoto (塚本 晋也, Tsukamoto Shin'ya^?, born January 1, 1960) is a Japanese film director and actor with a considerable cult following both domestically and abroad.

Tsukamoto started making movies at the age of 14, when his father gave him a Super 8 camera. He made a number of films, ranging from 10-minute shorts to 2-hour features, until his first year at college when he temporarily lost interest in making movies. Tsukamoto then started up a theatre group, which soon included Kei Fujiwara, Nobu Kanaoka, and Tomorowo Taguchi, all of whom would continue to work with Tsukamoto up through the filming of Tetsuo: The Iron Man.

One of their theatre productions at this time was Denchu Kozo no boken. At the end of the production, Tsukamoto did not want to waste all the effort they had put into building the set, so he decided to shoot a film version.

Tsukamoto's early films, Futsu saizu no kaijin (A Phantom of Regular Size) and Denchu Kozo no boken (The Adventures Of Electric Rod Boy) made in 1986/87, were short subject science fiction films shot on colour 8 mm film. His black & white 16 mm feature Tetsuo: The Iron Man, made in 1988. Tsukamoto has stated he has a love-hate relationship with Tokyo, and in the end the characters of this film set out to destroy it. Tetsuo is considered the definitive example of Japanese cyberpunk.