James Shigeta
Also Known As: James Saburo Shigeta, 繁田三郎
Biography: James Saburo Shigeta (June 17, 1929 – July 28, 2014) was an American actor, singer, and musician of Japanese descent. He was noted for his roles in The Crimson Kimono (1959), Walk Like a Dragon (1960), Flower Drum Song (1961), Bridge to the Sun (1961), Die Hard (1988), and Mulan (1998). In 1960, he won the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer – Male, along with three other actors. In his early career, Shigeta often played romantic male lead roles, which were almost nonexistent for an actor of Asian descent during his time, making him a trailblazer in Asian American representation in media. The Goldsea Asian-American Daily magazine listed him as one of the "Most Inspiring Asian-Americans Of All Time". Before his Hollywood career he found success as a pop singer and performer abroad, especially in Japan and Australia.
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii, USA
Adult: No
Birthday: June 17, 1929
Age: 95 years old
Gender: Male
Deathday: July 28, 2014
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Known For:
Brother
Overview: A Japanese Yakuza gangster's deadly existence in his homeland gets him exiled to Los Angeles, where he is taken in by his little brother and his brother's gang.
Genres: Crime Drama Thriller
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 2000-12-13
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Die Hard
Overview: NYPD cop John McClane's plan to reconcile with his estranged wife is thrown for a serious loop when, minutes after he arrives at her offices Christmas Party, the entire building is overtaken by a group of terrorists. With little help from the LAPD, wisecracking McClane sets out to single-handedly rescue the hostages and bring the bad guys down.
Genres: Action Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1988-07-15
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Mulan
Overview: To save her father from certain death in the army, a young woman secretly enlists in his place and becomes one of China's greatest heroines in the process.
Genres: Animation Family Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1998-06-18
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Flower Drum Song
Overview: A young woman arrives in San Francisco's Chinatown from Hong Kong with the intention of marrying a rakish nightclub owner, unaware he is involved with one of his singers.
Genres: Music Romance Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1961-11-09
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Drive
Overview: A prototype enhanced human, on the run from Chinese-hired hit men, hooks up with a dread-locked bystander, and the two of them elude their pursuers narrowly each time.
Genres: Action Adventure Science Fiction Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1997-08-06
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The Crimson Kimono
Overview: Two detectives clash over the hunt for a burlesque dancer’s killer in Los Angeles’ Japanese district.
Genres: Romance Drama Crime Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1959-10-21
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The Yakuza
Overview: When George Tanner does business with high-ranking Yakuza Tono, Tono kidnaps his daughter, and George summons his old friend, private eye Harry Kilmer, to Japan to investigate.
Genres: Crime Drama Thriller Action
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1974-12-21
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The People I've Slept With
Overview: The People I've Slept With - a promiscuous woman who finds herself with an unplanned pregnancy and needs to figure out who the baby daddy is...NOW. Angela Yang loves sex. She loves it so much she needs to make baseball cards of her lovers to help her remember where she's been. She doesn't think twice about her lifestyle until she finds out that she's pregnant. Her gay best friend, Gabriel Lugo tells her to "take care of it," but her conservative sister, Juliet persuades Angela to get married to the baby's father and lead a "normal" life like her. Angela listens to her sister, chooses to keep the baby, and goes on a quest to find the identity of the father by any means necessary.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2009-08-13
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The Questor Tapes
Overview: Project Questor is brainchild of the genius Dr. Vaslovik: he developed plans to build an android super-human. Although he's disappeared and half of his programming tape was erased in the attempt to decode it, his former colleagues continue the project and finally succeed. But Vaslovik seems to have installed a secret program in Questor's brain: He flees and starts to search for Vaslovik. Since half of his knowledge is missing, he needs the help of Jerry Robinson, who's now under suspect of having stolen the android.
Genres: Science Fiction TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1974-01-23
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Escape to Mindanao
Overview: Two American POWs break out of a Japanese jungle prison camp with their captors' secret decoding device and try to reach freedom despite being slowed by an opportunistic sea captain, his pretty daughter, and a black marketeer.
Genres: Action War TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1968-12-07
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Paradise, Hawaiian Style
Overview: Blacklisted by the major airlines for endlessly chasing female staff, pilot Rick Richards returns to Hawaii to set up a helicopter charter company with his friend Danny. Having a girl on every island is a good way to get business but it becomes clear that romance and flying don't always mix.
Genres: Music Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1966-04-23
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Home from the Eastern Sea
Overview: This documentary covers the story of Chinese-, Japanese-, and Filipino-Americans in Washington state, from their first arrivals, to the discrimination they've faced, to the modern families and communities that thrive today.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1990-01-01
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Matt Helm
Overview: In this pilot film for the later series, a former secret agent, now a private investigator, is hired to protect a beautiful film star and gets involved with black marketeers and gun runners.
Genres: Action Crime Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1975-05-07
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Tomorrow's Child
Overview: The wife of a research geneticist agrees to the experimental procedure of a 'test-tube baby' by having her fetus brought to full term in a glass jar in a laboratory.
Genres: TV Movie Drama Science Fiction
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1982-03-22
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Carol for Another Christmas
Overview: Daniel Grudge, a wealthy industrialist and fierce isolationist long embittered by the loss of his son in World War II, is visited by three ghosts on Christmas Eve who lead him to reconsider his attitude toward his fellow man.
Genres: TV Movie Drama Fantasy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1964-12-28
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Lost Horizon
Overview: While escaping war-torn China, a group of Europeans crash in the Himalayas, where they are rescued and taken to the mysterious Valley of the Blue Moon, Shangri-La.
Genres: Adventure Drama Fantasy Music Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1973-03-14
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Death Walks in Laredo
Overview: Whitaker Selby, Lester Kato, and Etienne Devereaux, three eccentric gunmen, discover they are brothers. Their father left them all a mine located in Laredo, Texas. But they discover that Julius Caesar Fuller, the town's greedy landowner (who fancies himself Caesar) has taken control of their mine. They band together to fight Caesar and his black clad gunmen to repossess their mine and avenge their father.
Genres: Western
Original Language: it
Release Date: 1967-02-18
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Cry for Happy
Overview: Army photographers on leave in Japan take over a geisha house.
Genres: Romance Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1961-03-03
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Bridge to the Sun
Overview: Tells the true story of American Gwen Terasaki, who falls in love with, then marries a Japanese diplomat. When World War II breaks out they encounter animosity and trouble from both sides.
Genres: Drama Romance War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1961-10-17
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Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood
Overview: A history of anti-Asian racism and yellowface in Hollywood after the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2019-10-13
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Nobody's Perfect
Overview: This military service comedy chronicles the misadventures of the U.S.S. Bustard in Japan. The crew has stolen a Buddha statue from a Japanese village, which if discovered missing would threaten Japanese/American relations. Doc Willoughby is the ship's petty officer, whose antics are constantly getting him into trouble with his captain. On shore leave, Willoughby falls for a seemingly demure Japanese girl in a kimono shop, who actually turns out to be a Japanese/American nurse in the US Navy, Lt. Tomiko Momoyama. However, it turns out she was betrothed as a child to a traditional Japanese man named Toshi, who fully intends on enforcing tradition. Willoughby divides his time between trying to return the Buddha statue back to the Japanese village it rightfully belongs to, and trying to woo Tomiko from the traditional Japanese man she rightfully belongs to.
Genres: Comedy War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1968-01-12
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The Renegades
Overview: In this drama, undercover investigators are recruited from the streets to prevent arms smugglers from getting their weapons to street gangs.
Genres: Drama Crime Action TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1982-08-11
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Hart to Hart: Old Friends Never Die
Overview: The Harts find themselves in the middle of a dangerous murder plot, but it isn't clear if the plot it a famous author's fictional murder-mystery, or an actual murder plot, until Jonathan finds himself the unsuspecting target of a killer. It begins to look like the culprit behind the plot is an old friend, Frank Crane, but there may be a connection to a corporate takeover of Hart Industries as well.
Genres: Mystery Crime Adventure TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1994-05-06
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China Cry
Overview: Young Sung Neng Yee, who is brought as part of a wealthy Chinese family. She is eager to become part of Mao Tze Tung's "new society", but soon becomes disenchanted by the economic misery the changes bring to her family. Before long, the authorities become aware of Neng Yee's feelings and she is taken to a labour camp, overseen by the sadistic Colonel Cheng.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1990-11-02
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Midway
Overview: This war drama depicts the U.S. and Japanese forces in the naval Battle of Midway, which became a turning point for Americans during World War II.
Genres: Action Drama History War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1976-06-18
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Qigong: Ancient Chinese Healing for the 21st Century
Overview: This documentary introduces viewers to qigong, a 5,000-year-old method of cultivating and circulating the life energy called qi. It relates some of the history of qigong, as well as scientific evidence of efficacy. We also see qigong used in various contexts in modern China, and hear from Chinese doctors and qigong practitioners. The film was originally produced for the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1999-01-01
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The Slanted Screen
Overview: From silent film star Sessue Hayakawa to Harold and Kumar Go to Whitecastle, the Slanted Screen examines the portrayal Asian men in film and television, and how new filmmakers are now re-defining age-old stereotypes.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2006-01-03
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Operation Heartbeat
Overview: Lawsuits fly when a widow believes a gifted surgeon allowed her husband to die so his heart could be transplanted into the doctor's ailing mentor and friend. Operation Heartbeat was the pilot movie for the TV series Medical Center.
Genres: Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1969-04-17
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Manila, Open City
Overview: War drama set in the closing stages of World War Two. As Allied Forces are nearing the defeat of the Japanese Army in Manila, the Japanese Empire's soldiers begin attacking innocent civilians. A brutal month-long battle ensues.
Genres: History Action War Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1968-01-13
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Midnight Man
Overview: When the police start a crackdown on Yakuza activities, a killer starts killing the cops forcing a martial-arts officer to fight back.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1995-05-09
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Walk Like a Dragon
Overview: California, 1870s. The cowboy Lincoln 'Linc' Bartlett finds out there's a slave auction of Chinese women in San Francisco and he intervenes and purchases the Chinese Kim Sung from the auction with the intent of setting her free. But it doesn't occur to Linc that setting her free isn't enough. Where is she going to go? Kim doesn't speak English and she's just going to be exploited by somebody else. Linc takes Kim home to serve as a housekeeper. Ma Bartlett Linc's mother, is not happy that a Chinese girl is living in her home, and even less happy when Kim and her son fall in love. Their affair also arouses the jealousy of Cheng Lu, a Chinese immigrant.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1960-06-01
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Hollywood Chinese
Overview: Hollywood Chinese is a captivating look at cinema history through the lens of the Chinese American experience. Directed by triple Sundance award-winning filmmaker, Arthur Dong, this documentary is a voyage through a century of cinematic delights, intrigues, and treasures. It weaves together a wondrous portrait of actors, directors, writers, and movie icons who have defined American feature films, from the silent era to the current new wave of Asian American cinema. At once entertaining and enlightening, Hollywood Chinese reveals long-untold stories behind the Asian faces that have graced the silver screen, and weaves a rich and complicated tapestry, one marked by unforgettable performances and groundbreaking films, but also by a tangled history of race and representation.
Genres: Documentary History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2007-03-18
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The Young Lawyers
Overview: Attorney Michael Cannon leaves his Boston law firm to become director of the Neighborhood Law Office, where he guides three law students on a case involving two visiting musicians accused of robbing and beating up a cab driver. TV-pilot that was an ABC Movie of the Week in October of 1969 and then became a TV-series as part of the 1970-71 season.
Genres: Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1969-10-28
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Slaying the Dragon
Overview: A highly critical documentary about the history of Asian-American actresses in Hollywood. Features interviews with pioneering Asian-American actresses and clips from classic films such as "The Thief of Bagdad", "The Good Earth", and "The World of Suzie Wong", interspersed with Asian/feminist sociological commentary.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1988-11-04
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Enola Gay: The Men, the Mission, the Atomic Bomb
Overview: The story of Col. Paul Tibbets and his crew who flew the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, bringing World War II to a close.
Genres: War History TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1980-11-23
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Cage II: The Arena of Death
Overview: After being tricked into thinking his best friend, and caretaker is dead, Vietnam Vet, and mentally disabled person has no other choice but to enter The Arena Of Death!
Genres: Action Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1994-12-14
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Space Marines
Overview: Space pirates, led by diabolical Colonel Fraser, take over a cargo ship carrying anti-matter explosive and an important official. Space marines, led by Captain Gray, must stop their evil plans.
Genres: Action Science Fiction
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1996-01-01
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Samurai
Overview: Lee Cantrell, a young San Francisco attorney by day, at night becomes a samurai warrior, and battles a crazed multi-millionaire who is planning to destroy the city with an earthquake machine.
Genres: Action Crime Adventure TV Movie Science Fiction
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1979-04-30
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Cage
Overview: A GI in Vietnam saves his buddy's life, but in the process is shot in the head. The injury results in brain damage to the point where he basically has a child's brain in a (very large) man's body. When they get out of the army the two open up a bar together, but some local gangsters make things tough for them after they refuse to take part in brutal "cage" matches where fighters battle to the point of serious injury and/or death.
Genres: Action Drama Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1989-09-01
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The Killer Who Wouldn't Die
Overview: After his wife is killed in a mysterious bomb explosion, a cop leaves the department and starts a charter boat service. When an undercover agent who is a close friend is killed, he is asked to look into it, and discovers a web of espionage and murder.
Genres: Drama Thriller TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1976-04-04
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Yorktown: A Time to Heal
Overview: Having escaped capture by the Klingons, a damaged Starfleet reconnaissance probe crashes undetected on the planet Pahl III. Hikaru Sulu, serving as first officer on the retrofitted USS Yorktown, is sent by Admiral Nogura on a secret mission to help locate the missing spy drone.
Genres: Science Fiction
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2022-04-05
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The Hardy Boys: The Mystery of the Chinese Junk
Overview: The Hardy Boys become owners of the Chinese junk Hai Hau. They head to New York City and go spelunking to break up a gang of criminals.
Genres: Adventure Mystery TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1967-09-08
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