Shido Nakamura

Although Shido Nakamura was born into a famed Kabuki family, he did not get many roles even in his 20's, though he started Kabuki acting at the age of 9. His father, Shido Nakamura Sr., quit Kabuki early on to devote his time to help his famous brother (Shido Jr.'s uncle), Kinnosuke Yorozuya, who also quit Kabuki to concentrate on movies. With no back up from his father's generation, his early career in Kabuki was rather mediocre.

So one day he found a newspaper ad about the audition of a movie "Ping Pong" (2002), one of the popular manga filmization project, circa 2001. He got the role as Dragon, a skin-headed master of high-school table tennis. His strong character in this film gave such an impact that his movie career all of a sudden started to bloom. In 2004, Shido played the gentle soul husband who is suffered from neurosis, impressively different character from Dragon, in mega-hit 'pure-love' film "Be With You". He married the actress Yuko Takeuchi, who played his wife in this movie, in real life, afterwards.

Just like Honda and Sony who got their fame overseas first and then flourish domestically after that, his Kabuki jobs started pouring in after he established his fame in movie circle. Now he is considered up-and-coming hopeful in his homeground as well.

In the recent big hit war-time flix "YAMATO", Shido plays one of the two main characters Mamoru Uchida, a soldier on the warship Yamato which was sunk by Americans in WWII. At the premiere event of "YAMATO", when asked his impression of the role, he answered, "imagine how tough it was to leave the loved ones behind, to protect them, for almost a sure death..." with tears, as a new father of a baby just born a few weeks ago.

In 2006, he will appear in Hong Kong/China movie "Fearless" as a Judo master who rivals Jet Li in the multi-national martial arts match. According to Chinabe Cinema, it is rumored that the director asked him to shave his hair (inspired by "Ping Pong"?) but his management office refused this time.

Even with his hair or without, Shido remains the maverick in the Kabuki-movie combo world.

(December, 2005)