Off-Topic: Yusaku Matsuda
I hope it's okay that I make a short post about Ryuhei's dad.
I recently rented 'Resurrection of Golden Wolf' which is my second Yusaku Matsuda movie. The first movie I saw him in was the one from the 1980s with Michael Douglas ('Black Rain') Matsuda-sama played one of the best bad guys I've ever seen. It was his cool, don't-give-a-sh*t attitude that is is part of the charm. But in that movie he is only a secondary character and I really wanted to see him in a Japanese movie where is the star. ROGW is really amazing. Matsuda-sama is quite incredible in it. He really was a sexy, manly guy. I must say. It's true (There is even a couple somewhat racy sex scenes, which felt a little odd to watch--it's Ryu-kun's daddy gettin' some action! Weird.) His appeal was something very universal. Besides having an extremely strong presence on screen, he really was a hell of an actor. In ROGW he basically plays two characters for most of the movie. He plays a sort of nerdy, plain office worker who moonlights as a gangster. It's a dual role even though he is playing only one person. After watching the entire first part which takes place in the office environment, I had to rewind and watch it again because when the character leaves the office and reveals his "other side" it was so shocking that I hadn't realized the guy in the office was Yusaku Matsuda!! So I had to watch the scene again because I hadn't realized what I was supposed to be watching. Does that make sense? He was completely hidden in that character. Anyway, I would recommend anyone to rent this movie if you are unfamiliar with the work of Ryuhei's dad. This is the perfect introduction to Yusaku Matsuda. It should be easy to find and the DVD has english subtitles.
Incredible to see how much Ryuhei looks like his father. He TOTALLY has his dad's body language--and let me tell you, the resemblance is striking. It's not such much the face, it's the body. Same height and frame, same long arms and big hands, same stooped way of walking, same legs. It's all there, like twins. Some facial expressions are similar, too.
Under the cut is a picture of Yusaku Matsuda in ROGW. Can you pick out which one is him?
