Veteran Action Film Star Ozawa Hitoshi: “Authenticity Is the Name of the Game”

Ozawa Hitoshi, center, in a scene from Bad City. (© 2022 Bad City Production Committee)

Yamaguchi Yoshiyuki has costarred with Ozawa in a number of films. (© 2022 Bad City Production Committee)

Ozawa Hitoshi.

Clockwise from top life: Lily Franky as the head of the Gojō industrial conglomerate; Katase Rino as the female head of the Korean gang; and Motomiya Yasukaze, center, as her right-hand man. (© 2022 Bad City Production Committee)

Ozawa as outlaw police inspector Torada. (© 2022 Bad City Production Committee)

Sakaguchi Taku, right, plays an assassin sent by the Korean mafia. (© 2022 Bad City Production Committee)

Torada and his team fighting the bad guys. At left is Sakanoue Akane. (© 2022 Bad City Production Committee)

Ozawa says that he practiced for two years with special forces in the Philippines to learn how to wield a gun.

Even after suffering countless fractures, Ozawa at 60 years old continues to do his own stunts. (© 2022 Bad City Production Committee)

Ozawa describes his early influences as Charlie Chaplin, Bruce Lee, and later, Sylvia Krystel, who starred in the iconic French erotic film Emmanuelle.

Ozawa says his first movie part was in a 1984 erotic film. Although confident going into the project, he recalls with amusement that the director yelled at him that his moves in bed were all wrong.