A work in constant progress (and occasional regress).
Birthplace:
Nihonbashi, Tokyo, Japan
From an early age Mak Takano was heavily influenced by the work of the legendary Japanese film icon, Ken Takakura. Mak had the privilege of being invited by his mentor, Ken-san, to the screenings of his films such as "Antartica", "Eki (Station)", and many others. Mak got his start in Hollywood movies in 1988, soon after graduating from the University of Redlands in California, where he got his Masters degree. By fate, his first acting job was to be in Ridely Scott's "Black Rain" (Paramount), starring Michael Douglas, Andy Garcia, and mentor Ken Takakura. Mak auditioned for director Ridley Scott in L.A. and was able to surprise Ken-san on the set as a Yakuza (Japanese gangster). Mak's acting career continued with a pivotal recurring role on the groundbreaking TV series "Twin Peaks" for director David Lynch. In 1992, Mak landed a co-starring role in the Tom Selleck vehicle "Mr. Baseball" (Universal) for director Fred Schepisi. Destiny would have it that the film again co-starred the great Ken Takakura! The following year, Mak co-starred in the hit movie, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III" (New Line Cinema). Other notable roles include Robert Zemeckis' sci-fi thriller "Contact" (Warner Bros), starring Jodie Foster, Mathew McConaughey, Angela Bassett and John Hurt. And guest appearances on hit TV series "Alias" and "Sabrina, The Teenage Witch". Mak has had classical training in London, England, and has studied with the late Herbert Berghof at HB Studio in New York City. Mak also works with several top acting coaches in Los Angeles. Mak's extensive Martial Arts, and MMA background makes him the go to Asian face of Hollywood!
Stunts:
1989 Black Rain
Most data and links to images for the Movies section come from TheMovieDB (TMDB).
Additional data for Film Titles come from The Open Movie Database (OMDb).
At least one plug-in comes from IMDb.
Data are -- hey, it's a plural -- subject to the limitations of their sources. (For example, TMDB search results currently max out at 20.) I am limiting myself to free data sources for now. (No, a "free trial" is not free.)
While much of the above data are retrieved directly from outside APIs and other such sources, data from American Film Institute (AFI) and British Film Institute (BFI) were manually entered the old fashioned way into a MySQL database. Re BFI I took the following liberties:
Regarding profile removals and data corrections:
Filtering is applied here to film projects flagged as "adult" by TheMovieDB. Pending "popular demand" I am contemplating a login and profile system with preferences (such as whether to allow adult images to appear) and permissions (such as data entry).
Whereas the overall purpose of this website is to serve as a personal demo/portfolio/workshop of web and data skills, this Movies section is not meant to compete with or substitute for far more definitive movie websites.
Whether or not he still clings to an award which he won in 1986 as a film critic for his college's newspaper, Jeffrey Hartmann is not responsible for the texts of overviews and biographies supplied by external data sources.