Masato Harada Climbs High

Masato Harada gave us two of the defining Japanese films of the 90’s: “Kamikaze Taxi” which blended a traditional yakuza revenge tale with serious commentary about “foreign Japanese” or people of Japanese heritage who return to Japan as immigrants, and “Bounce KO Gals” about high school girls involved in enjou kosai or “subsidized dating”. During this decade though Harada has kept a lower profile directing for Japanese television, but also acting in Hollywood blockbusters like “The Last Samurai” and Jet Li’s “Fearless”.

Well, come this May Japanese audiences will be able to see Harada’s latest big screen effort “Kuraimâzu hai (Climber’s High)”. Based on the book by Hideo Yokoyama it chronicles the true story of Japan Airlines Flight 123 that in 1985 crashed on Mount Takamagahara killing 520 passengers. Shin’ichi Tsutsumi (Always: Sunset on Third Street, One Missed Call) stars as a newspaper reporter and amateur mountain climber sent to cover the disaster.

You can check out the trailer at the official site for the film here: http://climbershigh.gyao.jp/