Whipped Cream Difficulties

Sally Kirkland, actress.

Other credits include “Supertrain”, the good “Hawaii Five-0”, “Bronk”, and an uncredited role in “Blazing Saddles”.

Tatsuya Nakadai, Japanese actor.

The film writer Chuck Stephens, in a 2009 essay for the Criterion Collection, which issued many of Mr. Nakadai’s films on DVD and Blu-ray, said Mr. Nakadai was so prominent in Japanese films of the 20th century that he deserved the title “The Eighth Samurai.”

He did a lot of work with Akira Kurosawa, including the lead role in “Kagemusha”. He was also the lead character in “Ran”, Kurosawa’s version of “King Lear”.

Early in his career, Mr. Nakadai often worked opposite Toshiro Mifune, one of Japan’s best-known acting exports. They could not have been less alike: Mr. Mifune, untrained as an actor but with wild energy, often presented a gruff, overtly physical persona, while Mr. Nakadai took on vastly different characters and delivered subtly intricate performances.
They usually played adversaries. In “Yojimbo” (1961) and “Sanjuro” (1962), both directed by Mr. Kurosawa, and “Samurai Rebellion” (1967), directed by Mr. Kobayashi, the two meet in climatic duels, with Mr. Mifune’s character winning each time with a horizontal slash to the midsection. In “Sanjuro,” the fatal cut released a towering fountain of blood.

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Mr. Nakadai also worked with other seminal postwar Japanese directors, including Mikio Naruse, Masaki Kobayashi, Kihachi Okamoto and Kon Ichikawa. He also appeared on television, in roles large and small, and in several plays.