Yūsaku Matsuda

Yūsaku Matsuda

Born: September 21, 1949
Died: November 6, 1989
in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, Japan
Yūsaku Matsuda was a Japanese actor. He was born in Shimonoseki, to a Japanese father and a Zainichi Korean mother. He became an actor when he was 23 as a rookie police officer for the 1970s Japanese TV detective drama called Taiyō ni hoero! Apart from this role, his other defining role on television was in Tantei monogatari. He featured in many other TV shows and movies. He won the award for best actor at the 8th Hochi Film Award for Detective Story and The Family Game. He specialized in physical action movies. The 1989 movie Black Rain — directed by Ridley Scott and starring Michael Douglas and Andy Garcia— opened the door for Matsuda as an international actor. However, shortly after he made this movie, he died due to bladder cancer. He was survived by his second wife and three young children.

Movies for Yūsaku Matsuda...

The Chaser
Title: The Chaser
Character: Naoya Kaneshiro
Released: October 7, 1989
Type: Movie
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Black Rain
Title: Black Rain
Character: Sato
Released: September 22, 1989
Type: Movie
Two New York cops get involved in a gang war between members of the Yakuza, the Japanese Mafia. They arrest one of their killers and are ordered to escort him back to Japan. However, in Japan he manages to escape, and as they try to track him down, they get deeper and deeper into the Japanese Mafia scene and they have to learn that they can only win by playing the game—the Japanese way.
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A Chaos of Flowers
Title: A Chaos of Flowers
Character: Takeo Arishima
Released: October 1, 1988
Type: Movie
Set in the Taisho era, which might be regarded as Japan's Hippie Phase, Hana no ran is a story about fashionable people without impulse control. Much of the action centers on a popular woman writer, the real-life poet Akiko Yosano, and her experiences among the literati of early 20th century Japan. Because of her independent, anti-war and often erotic poetry, she was a lightning rod for revolutionaries and other extremists, many of whom were destined to glamorous, yet ultimately pointless, deaths. The closest parallels might be the Byron/Shelley group or the people drawn to the Beat Generation.
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Wuthering Heights
Title: Wuthering Heights
Character: Onimaru
Released: May 28, 1988
Type: Movie
Young Kinu Yamabe is drawn to low-born Onimaru, who is vital and charismatic, but viewed by his father as a demon. After her first period, Kinu suffers the fate of any women born near the Sacred Mountain: she must leave the Mountain and serve as a priestess.
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A Homance
Title: A Homance
Character: Kaze
Released: October 10, 1986
Type: Movie
A homeless man suffering from memory loss is unbeatable in a fight. He becomes involved with the Yakuza. It is based on a manga by Carib Marley.
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Title: 追う男
Released: July 12, 1986
Type: TV
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And Then
Title: And Then
Character: Daisuke Nagai
Released: November 9, 1985
Type: Movie
Daisuke is supposed to be out looking for a respectable job and equally respectable wife. He is 30 years old and devotes his attention to music and literature; his family is wealthy and can support his interests. When his friend Hiraoka returns with his wife Michiyo, problems arise.
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Dansen
Title: Dansen
Character: Mitsuo Tajima aka Goro Tomonaga
Released: December 3, 1983
Type: Movie
Based on crime fiction novel written by Seicho Matsumoto.
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Title: Nettaiya
Released: September 9, 1983
Type: TV
It is a hot and humid summer in Tokyo. Eiji (Yusaku Matsuda), armed with a modified gun, breaks into a salaryman's finance company in Shinjuku and makes off with nearly 40 million yen and Sachiko (Kaori Momoi), the receptionist. The two, a young man from the countryside with a perverse personality and an unattractive office worker, plan a fugitive journey without a guilty conscience with a large sum of money in their hands.
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Detective Story
Title: Detective Story
Character: Shuichi Tsujiyama
Released: July 16, 1983
Type: Movie
Naomi is a university student who is leaving for the US to study in a week; Shuichi is a washed-up gumshoe who's hired by Naomi's father to bodygard his daughter until she leaves. Shuichi finds the job annoying and wants to quit. But he also has a screwed-up ex and alimony to pay. Things go from bad to worse when Naomi and Shuichi stumble upon a murder which might involve the yakuza. They decide to find out who committed the murder but God knows what it will lead to.
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The Family Game
Title: The Family Game
Character: Yoshimoto
Released: May 4, 1983
Type: Movie
A sendup of the stereotypical Japanese family: dad is a salaryman jerk, unable to relate to anyone; mom is a hopeless housewife; the older son is a moderate academic success; but the younger son is a rebellious goof-off for whom a tutor must be hired. The tutor, played by the prototypical bad boy actor Matsuda Yusaku, proceeds to blow the entire family apart.
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Shi no dangai
Title: Shi no dangai
Released: January 26, 1982
Type: Movie
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Kagero-za
Title: Kagero-za
Character: Shungo Matsuzaki
Released: August 21, 1981
Type: Movie
A 1920s playwright meets a beautiful woman who may be the ghost of his patron's deceased wife.
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Yokohama BJ Blues
Title: Yokohama BJ Blues
Character: BJ
Released: April 25, 1981
Type: Movie
BJ is a relatively unknown blues singer who scraps some bars in Yokohama. He does not earn much with it and to make ends meet he also acts as a private detective.
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The Beast to Die
Title: The Beast to Die
Character: Kunihiko Date
Released: October 4, 1980
Type: Movie
A policeman is murdered and his gun, stolen, used to commit the next crime. Detective Kashiwagi, who is leading the investigation, learns that the author of the killings “walks like a dead man”. Kashiwagi runs into Date, a former correspondent in the Vietnam War. There, Date discovered hell and something snapped in his mind.
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Target
Title: Target
Character: Yûsaku Matsuda
Released: April 19, 1980
Type: Movie
Two killers revenge a wirepuller of the underworld in Yokohama.
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Rape Hunter: Target Woman
Title: Rape Hunter: Target Woman
Character: Insurance Salesman
Released: February 2, 1980
Type: Movie
Fuyuko, a married woman filled with grief after a miscarriage, has an affair with a younger man and finds herself involved in a robbery plot. For Fuyuko, who is at an impasse, there is no longer "family", "love" and "freedom".
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The Execution Game
Title: The Execution Game
Character: Shohei Narumi
Released: November 17, 1979
Type: Movie
The third movie in Tôru Murakawa's Game trilogy about a hitman. Narumi is set up by a mysterious woman. Abducted and tortured, Narumi is forced to take on a difficult job. The target is a veteran killer as good as him.
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Title: Detective Story
Character: Shunsaku Kudo
Released: September 18, 1979
Type: TV
After five years of service as a cop in San Francisco, Shunsaku Kudo becomes a private detective.
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The Resurrection of the Golden Wolf
Title: The Resurrection of the Golden Wolf
Character: Tetsuya Asakura
Released: August 4, 1979
Type: Movie
A seemingly run-of-the-mill corporate salaryman leads a double life as a vicious criminal by night. In a delicious scheme of payback, he seeks to dominate the corporation that employs him by day.
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No Grave for Us
Title: No Grave for Us
Character: Katsuo Shima
Released: May 26, 1979
Type: Movie
A plot to steal money from gangsters leads to trouble...
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Murder in the Doll House
Title: Murder in the Doll House
Character: Toshio Katsu
Released: April 28, 1979
Type: Movie
Yūsaku Matsuda plays the part of a private detective in this modern day "who dunnit" mystery, full of suspense, thrills and chills.
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The Killing Game
Title: The Killing Game
Character: Shohei Narumi
Released: December 2, 1978
Type: Movie
The second movie of Tôru Murakawa's "Game" trilogy. After making a sensational hit, a hitman has gone into hiding for five years. When he comes back he bumps into two women that he has spared five years ago. Two rival yakuza bosses hire Narumi to kill the other. Will Narumi's sense of chivalry entrap him again?
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The Most Dangerous Game
Title: The Most Dangerous Game
Character: Shouhei Narumi
Released: April 7, 1978
Type: Movie
The first movie of Tôru Murakawa’s “Game” trilogy, in which an assassin hired to recover a kidnap victim becomes embroiled in a vicious power struggle between two large corporations over a sizable government defence contract.
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Proof of the Man
Title: Proof of the Man
Character: Detective Munesue
Released: October 8, 1977
Type: Movie
When an American is murdered in a Japanese inn, Tokyo police detective Munesue follows the trail of the killer to New York. There he is joined by a New York City detective named Shuftan and together they sort out the crime.
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Murderer!
Title: Murderer!
Character: Futago Rokube
Released: October 16, 1976
Type: Movie
A cowardly samurai is sent as an official executioner targeting the clan's former sword instructor, a man whose sword and spear skills are second to none.
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The Classroom of Terror
Title: The Classroom of Terror
Released: July 1, 1976
Type: Movie
Yusaku Matsuda plays an ex-boxer who killed an opponent during a fight. He is brought into a school to deal with a gang of disruptive students led by Hiroshi Tachi.
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The Four Roughnecks
Title: The Four Roughnecks
Released: November 22, 1974
Type: Movie
Gimme gimme gimme! Yusaku Matsuda and his gang are on the hunt for women, money and more money! The late legendary actor, Yusaku Matsuda, stars in this explosive motion picture about the hedonistic lifestyles of four roughnecks directed by Yukihiro Sawada. Takeo Natsuki (Yusaku Matsuda) was just released from prison. He was the leader of three rascals; all they did was cause trouble. When they meet a girl whose father is resisting a forced eviction to make way for a construction site, they come up with their own plans to solve the problem.
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Title: Akai Meiro
Released: October 4, 1974
Type: TV
Akai Meiro is a Japanese television series starring Ken Utsui, Momoe Yamaguchi, Yusaku Matsuda, and Ryoko Nakano. It was broadcast from 1974 to 1975 on the TBS channel. It was the first of the "Akai" series of television dramas.
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The Assassination of Ryoma
Title: The Assassination of Ryoma
Character: Yûta
Released: August 2, 1974
Type: Movie
Story of the last three days in the life of Sakamoto Ryoma (1836-1867), imperial loyalist who tried to unite the Choshu and Satsuma clans and prepared the way for the Meiji Restoration (1868).
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Tomodachi
Title: Tomodachi
Released: July 24, 1974
Type: Movie
Shinta is a sixth grader in Kawasaki City a troublemaker that dreams to become a soccer player. Yoshiko, a classmate who moved to Kawasaki from Iwate Prefecture two years ago, is a gloomy girl who suffers from asthma due to the polluted air in Kawasaki and is ostracized by her class. Shinta is placed next to Yoshiko in class and their stories will take a turn.
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Horror of the Wolf
Title: Horror of the Wolf
Character: Dō Haguro
Released: March 9, 1973
Type: Movie
Enigmatic teenager Akira Inugami is, by night, a powerful werewolf, who falls for a beautiful young teacher, and copes with a ruthless teen gang leader, whose yakuza father murdered Akira's parents years before.
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Title: Bark at the Sun
Character: Shibata Jun (Jeapan)
Released: July 21, 1972
Type: TV
The detectives of Nana-magari station investigate a wide variety of crimes in 70s Japan, ranging from the mundane to the absolutely bizarre.