Masato Harada

Masato Harada
Born	July 3, 1949 Numazu, Shizuoka, Japan
Occupation	Film director, film critic, actor

Masato Harada (原田 眞人 Harada Masato, born July 3, 1949) is a Japanese film director, film critic, and sometimes an actor; he is best known to foreign audiences as Omura in The Last Samurai and as Mr Mita in Fearless. In both his acting roles he portrayed the villain who wants Japan to westernize under the Meiji Restoration in the meantime trying to remove the old ways.

Early life

Harada was born in Numazu, Shizuoka and graduated from Higashi High School. In 1972 he went to London to learn English. He then attended Tokyo College of Photography and Pepperdine University, where spent number of years training as a filmmaker. He married journalist Mizuho Fukuda in 1976.

Career

Harada made his directorial debut in 1979. He collaborated and showcased his works in Europe and US and worked as an English to Japanese subtitle translator for number of American films showing in Japan.

Harada's 1997 drama film, Bounce Ko Gals, starred Hitomi Sato, Yasue Sato, Yukiko Okamoto,^[1] and Koji Yakusho.^[2]

As an actor, he appeared in Edward Zwick's The Last Samurai in 2003.^[3] and Ronny Yu's Fearless in 2006.

Style and influences

In a 2001 interview, Harada stated that Howard Hawks was his mentor.^[4]

Filmography

Director

• Farewell, Movie Friend: Indian Summer (1979)
• Uindii (1984)
• Paris/Dakar 1500 (1986)
• The Heartbreak Yakuza (1987)
• Gunhed (1989)
• Tuff 5 (1992)
• Painted Desert (1993)
• Kamikaze Taxi (1995)
• Rowing Through (1996)
• Bounce Ko Gals (1997)
• Spellbound (1999)
• Inugami (2001)
• The Choice of Hercules (2002)
• Bluestockings (2005)
• Densen Uta (2007)
• Mōryō no Hako (2008)
• Climber's High (2008)
• Chronicle of My Mother (2011)
• Return (2013)
• Kakekomi (2015)
• The Emperor in August (2015)
• Sekigahara (2017)

Actor

• Fearless (2006) as Mr. Mita
• The Last Samurai (2003) as Mr. Omura

References

1. Kehr, Dave (October 3, 2003). "Film in Review; 'Bounce Ko Gals'". The New York Times.
2. Murray, Noel (September 30, 2003). "Bounce Kogals - Film - Movie Review". The A.V. Club. The Onion.
3. Schager, Nick (December 4, 2003). "The Last Smurai - Film Review". Slant Magazine.
4. Gatto, Robin (August 15, 2001). "Midnight Eye interview: Masato Harada". Midnight Eye.

External links

• Masato Harada at the Internet Movie Database
• Masato Harada at the Japanese Movie Database (Japanese)