Career
Sato left home during his high school years and entered the film department of Tama Art Academy, a vocational school attached to Tama Art University, but dropped out after one year. In 1980, while still in school, he was invited by an acquaintance of his father to make his acting debut in the NHK TV series Sequel to the Case, starring Tomisaburo Wakayama, and the following year he made his film debut in the movie The Gate of Youth. When he saw this film in the movie theater and saw his own image on the screen, he made a renewed decision to live his life as an actor.
His acting ability was recognized early on, and he went on to win a string of awards for the films he appeared in. For The Gate of Youth, he won Japan Academy Film Prize for Newcomer of the Year and the Blue Ribbon Award for Best Newcomer. He won the Blue Ribbon Award for Best Actor for KT and Utsutsu in 2002 and Best Supporting Actor in 2023. He is the first actor since his father, Rentarō Mikuni, to win three Blue Ribbon Awards for individual awards.
Sato said that his encounter with the two directors was a major turning point for him. The two directors are Shinji Sōmai, director of the 1983 film The Catch and Junji Sakamoto, director of the 1994 film Tokarev. Director Somai taught him, "Sadness and anger are not one thing. Try to express your anger in ten different ways. You are not sad because you cry, but you laugh because you are sad."
In Sakamoto's Tokarev, Sato played the role of an infant kidnapper, and he discussed the character of this villain with the director, expressing his opinions. The director acknowledged Sato's opinion, and they worked while discussing, which Sato said was very stimulating for him to act. He and Sakamoto hit it off and became a regular actor in Sakamoto's films and appeared in many of his films, including Face, KT, Children of the Dark, and Human Trust. Debates about acting can get heated, and Sato and Sakamoto once got into a fight in a bar and were interceded by Yoshio Harada, who was there. In 2023, Sato and his son Kanichiro co-starred in Sakamoto's film Okiku and the World.
Sato also said that his encounter with director Kōki Mitani opened up a new path for him. Sato took on the challenge of a full-fledged comedy in The Magic Hour, a 2008 film directed by Mitani, in which he had never acted before. The scene in which he plays Murata, an unsuccessful actor, comically keeps jumping on a trampoline and licks a knife "with a bizarre look on his face" as described in the script written by Mitani was so impressive that the scene was even imitated by a impersonator. This role, played by Sato, who had a strong image as a serious actor, became a topic of conversation, and the film led Sato to broaden his acting range into the field of comedy.
