Monday, October 12, 2009

"Soul Red" gives us a behind the scenes look at screen legend Yusaku Matsuda

by Chris MaGee

We've dicussed the late, great Yusaku Matsuda more than a couple times here on the Pow-Wow blog. The "Japanese James Dean" defined cool on the big screen during the 70's and 80's in Japan, but sadly just as he was poised to break internationally after starring in Ridley Scott's thriller "Black Rain" he died of bladder cancer at the tragically young age of 40. It's hard to believe that it's been 20 years since his death, but it has been and to commemorate the anniversary director Osamu Minorikawa and producer (and Matsuda's widow) Miyuki Matsuda have put together a documentary on the actor titled "Sould Red: Yusaku Matsuda".

As you can see from the trailer below not only does Minorikawa talk about Matsuda's continuing influence with such contemporary movie icons as Tadanobu Asano and Terukuki Kagawa, writer/ director Kankuro Kudo, and even Matsuda's "Black Rain" co-star Andy Garcia, but the film also gives us a unique insight into the man behind the movie persona with the inclusion of excluisve taped interviews with Matsuda.

One would hope that "Soul Red" will expose a whole new audience, both Japanese and non-Japanese, to this wonderful

Check out more on "Sould Red: Yusaku Matsuda" at its official website here.

1 comment:

Katie said...

I've been waiting for subtitles on this trailer - obviously I can tell it's all praise and how influential and original he was. But I'm specifically interested in this film as there is a lot of very same-y information on Matsuda Yusaku. This should be much more in-depth...again, have to wait for subs :(