Kaneshiro is about a million times hotter and more charismatic than Orlando Bloom in Accuracy of Death, Lavender, Chungking Express and House of a Flying Daggers. I’ve yet to be impressed by any of Bloom’s performances – except when he parodied himself on Extras for being a poor man’s Johnny Depp, which is true – and generally wish he would go away. The only way they are similar is that Kaneshiro is often called “Asian Johnny Depp” but then so is Tadanobu Asano so take that with a grain of salt.
I will say that I enjoyed Kaneshiro in Red Cliff a lot more than I’ve enjoyed Bloom in…well, anything. As for being a MILLION times hotter I don’t know. You’d probably know better than I. They’re both a little feminine and if you type “Bloom and Kaneshiro” into Google and look at the first two pictures they look very similar. Different ethnicities, of course, but similar. More so than Johnny Depp anyways. Looks aside, the characters were similar, as well as, dialogue delivery and mannerisms (especially the "I’m-thinking Squint).
If you could recommend me one of Kaneshiro’s films, what would it be?
Kaneshiro is overflowing with charisma, which Bloom is sorely lacking.
Chungking Express – he’s one among many other actors but it’s the best film. House of the Flying Daggers is also quite entertaining and, I’m not going to lie, Accuracy of Death (aka Sweet Rain) is strictly a meh chick flick. When I went to see it the audience was clearly full of guys who were dragged their by their girlfriends, groups of girls and gay men (I actually went with my gay BFF). I think I saw a movie of his with Love in the title or something that I also quite enjoyed – it was a weepie. But yes you’re right, Kaneshiro has a bit more screen presence in his favor than Bloom.
Thanks for the recommendation. I’ll check it out and let you know. In the meantime you should check out Flesh Gordon…the only thing that would’ve made it better is Kaneshiro! (Not really, you might hate me if you do…)
I’m in the ‘Kaneshiro is hot, Bloom is not’ camp. And the bonus for Kaneshiro fans is that he can appear in Chinese and Japanese productions. Kaneshiro trumps Bloom, I think. Which is not was the OP was getting at, I realise, and I kind of get what he’s saying about the Legolas’s and Zhuge Liang’s 1000-yard squint. But I doubt the blond pixie was Kaneshiro’s model – far more likely the enigmatic scholar heros of classic wu xia pian. As for the MUBI quote, I’d say that Kaneshiro just recognises his limits as an actor. He’s been in his share of bobbins chick flicks, but nonetheless has acquitted himself well in one or two of the most interesting films of the late 20th century, doing what he does best, which is oozing boyish charm. Bloom, on the other hand, after LOTR, has been a dud.
chad bentley
Did Takeshi Kaneshiro’s Zhuge Liang (Red Cliff) remind anyone else of Orlando Bloom’s Legolas (Lord of the Rings) ?
To be fair, I’ve only seen Kaneshiro in Red Cliff so I can’t say that his acting is the same. I’ll have to watch a few more to make that claim but I’ll be damned if their acting/ characters weren’t similar in these two movies (Red Cliff and LOTF).
Connect with nature and use it to understand the overall picture. Always in deep thought with the same squinting facial expression. Speak with a mysterious voice in poetic language. Neither seem like they have an evil bone in their body. Even in scenes where he didn’t say anything and simply walked across the screen I was reminded of Orlando Bloom.
I found his MUBI quote to be somewhat interesting:
“A melody can be made with only a few notes, right? In acting, it’s the same, there are only a limited number of characters and a limited number of ways to play them.”
Seems like an odd thing for an actor to say but from what I’ve seen of Bloom he seems to follow the same guidelines.
Does anyone else see this resemblance? Any other movies where this seems to be the case?