Tak Sakaguchi rose to fame with the 2001 cult favorite Versus, a movie that managed to combine the low-budget charms of Evil Dead-like horror with blistering martial arts and gunplay. The actor later scored another cult hit with Battlefield Baseball, but has most recently hitched his wagon to the Sushi Typhoon production company.
In April of 2013, new broke out that Tak was retiring from acting, which left an unknown fate for his recently announced role in Death Trance II, not to mention a long-rumored sequel to Versus.
In late 2014, Cityonfire.com was contacted by director Yuji Shimomura (Death Trance) with breaking news that Tak was out of retirement to make Re:Born, which the actor calls his “very last” and “most superb” action movie:
“After I retired, I found myself having a passion for action that was still smoldering inside of me. After a conversation with action director Yuji Shimomura, I wanted to thrive one more time and create the very last and most superb action movie with my utmost power and passion for the sake of a closure to my entire career. I am convinced that I have to give my very best one last time. That is how I feel about this project. I didn’t realize how many people chose to support a person like myself until after I retired. I hope this movie will be satisfying enough for them to feel absolutely alright for me to go. This is for them.”
Updates: Shimomura provided us with an “audition” video (Part 1) for Re:Born featuring Tak in some intense sparring action. | Footage (Part 2) of Sakaguchi getting in shape for Re:Born. | 3rd chapter of promo footage (Part 3) for Tak Sakaguchi’s “Ultimate Action Movie” Re:Born.
New “training” footage (Part 3.5) has just been sent to us by director Yuji Shimomura. This new video features supervision from Tak’s one and only master, Yoshytaka Inagawa, who has established the “Zero Range Combat” technique. ”Tak mastered it in months when one does in years,” says Inagawa, who will be handling the film’s action choreography.
- See more at: cityonfire.com | Movie News & Developments | Asian, Action, Martial Arts & Cult