Yūsaku Matsuda

Acting

Yūsaku Matsuda

Born 1949-09-21 · 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.

Acting credits

Black Rain poster
6.6

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.

Black Rain

1989

Proof of the Man poster
7.8

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.

Proof of the Man

1977

No Grave for Us poster
6.3

A plot to steal money from gangsters leads to trouble...

No Grave for Us

1979

The Beast to Die poster
5.8

A Nietzschean journalist who covered the Vietnam War, Lebanese Civil War and other conflicts becomes mentally unstable and goes on a spree of robbery and murder.

The Beast to Die

1980

Kagero-za poster
6.6

A 1920s playwright meets a beautiful woman who may be the ghost of his patron's deceased wife.

Kagero-za

1981

The Family Game poster
6.9

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 proceeds to blow the entire family apart.

The Family Game

1983

The Execution Game poster
7.4

The third movie in Tōru 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.

The Execution Game

1979

Ameyuki-san poster
NR

This film focuses on the dramatic life of Waka Yamada, who rose from a prostitute in Seattle, USA to a female critic during the Taisho and Showa eras.

Ameyuki-san

1979

Wuthering Heights poster
6.8

Young orphan Onimaru is adopted by the wealthy Yamabe family and moves into their estate, Wuthering Heights. Soon, the new resident falls for his compassionate foster sister, Kinu. The two share a remarkable bond that seems unbreakable until Kinu, feeling the pressure of social convention, suppresses her feelings and marries Mitsuhiko, a man of means who befits her stature. Onimaru vows to win her back.

Wuthering Heights

1988

Yokohama BJ Blues poster
7.8

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.

Yokohama BJ Blues

1981

The Assassination of Ryoma poster
4.8

Story of the last three days in the life of Sakamoto Ryoma (1836-1867), the imperial loyalist who tried to unite the Choshu and Satsuma clans and prepared the way for the Meiji Restoration (1868).

The Assassination of Ryoma

1974

The Resurrection of the Golden Wolf poster
6.3

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.

The Resurrection of the Golden Wolf

1979

The Most Dangerous Game poster
6.2

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.

The Most Dangerous Game

1978

Detective Story poster
6.7

A private detective and a college student find themselves in hot water while investigating the murder of a night club owner.

Detective Story

1983

And Then poster
7.2

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.

And Then

1985

Rape Hunter: Target Woman poster
3.6

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".

Rape Hunter: Target Woman

1980

The Killing Game poster
7.5

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?

The Killing Game

1978

The Classroom of Terror poster
6.3

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.

The Classroom of Terror

1976

The Chaser poster
8.0

No synopsis available yet.

The Chaser

1989

The Four Roughnecks poster
5.0

Gimme gimme gimme! Yusaku Matsuda and his gang are on the hunt for women, money and more money! 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.

The Four Roughnecks

1974

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Sakurako wa warau: Last emperor ni shikakerareta ayashii onna no wana

1988

Horror of the Wolf poster
7.3

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.

Horror of the Wolf

1973

A Chaos of Flowers poster
7.5

Set in the Taisho era, 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.

A Chaos of Flowers

1988

Target poster
10.0

Two killers revenge a wirepuller of the underworld in Yokohama.

Target

1980

Behind the camera