Yomigaeru Matsuda Yusaku ! (Revives Yusaku Matsuda): Eiji Ohshita
Yusaku's biography written by a reporter. It shows his life in detail.

Matsuda Yusaku Honoh Shizukani (Flame Quietly): Takeshi Yamaguchi
Written by movie reporter and critic. Making of "Black Rain" was especially valuable.

Eien no Chouhatsu (Eternal Provocation): Mami Matsuda
Written by his ex-wife who studied screenplay and aimed to be a writer.

Shikyu no Kotoba (Womb's words): Miyuki Matsuda
His wife's essay. Point of view as a mother, a wife, a person of sensibility. This book is not only about Yusaku, however her words are very poetic and unique.

Mandara [Kadokawa shoten]
Yusaku's photo album. There are other picture books of his films, but this is his own picture book.

Taiyou ni hoero Meibamensyu (Great scenes photo book) [NTV]
Pictures from TV series and episodes data. These are some versions because it continued 13 years.

Yomigaere! Tantei-monogatari (Revive! Tantei-monogatari) [NTV]
Great pictures from TV series, interview of staffs and casts, and details of each episode.

Tantei-monogatari CD-ROM [Toei]
It shows pictures, music, and all episodes advance billings.

Yusaku Talk : Takeshi Yamaguchi Edition
His words from interviews for magazines. >>>Go to INTERVIEWS

Matsuda Yusaku + Maruyama Shoichi Mihappyou Scenario-syu: Shoichi Maruyama
Yusaku and screenplay writer Mr. Maruyama created lots of stories. This book has 6 scenarios which have not been made as movies, and the memories of 5 people who knew Yusaku.

Ikou (Manuscript which was left)- Matsuda Yusaku: Takeshi Yamaguchi Edition
Yusaku left a lot of writings. This book show us a Play script, Poems, Essay, and some his photographs on stage and at the set of TV commercial. Especially his theatrical activities report is rare and valuable.

Matsuda Yusaku Chronicle: Kinema Junpou-sha
Published by historic film magazine's company. It contains Yusaku's memories (by producer, director, and co-stars), details of his works (not only films & dramas but also concerts, TV commercial, and stages) and many pictures. Excellent book!

Eiga Geijutsu Bessatsu Matuda Yusaku Again: Eiga Geijutsu-sha
Published by maniac film magazine's company. It contains back number's copy which already sold out. This book is excellent, too. Good for movie fans.

Matsuda Yusaku Densetsu: Yukichi Igarashi
Newspaper's scrapbook and awful cartoon. Worthless.

Kaze Hirugaeru: Yoshihiro Takaiwa
Poor cartoon. Worthless.

Mami met Yusaku at the acting class. She kept in touch with him after their divorce. He told her, "If you'd like to be a writer, write about me first." She followed his advice. She wrote of love and hate during their 21-year relationship.

He put impact to the line, but it has nuance of the dialect which he had tried to wipe out. I'm sure every Japanese can imitate this sequence!

Yusaku and Mami got married on his birthday. She was surprised his birth year was 1950 on his family registration (official record), because he was always saying he was born in 1949. He explained that his mother registered one year later on purpose, and did not submit the paperwork until 1952. It is odd, although his family had complicated problems. In November, he had an operation to remove a benign tumor in his ear. Six months later, in spite of a private settlement, the fight case was prosecuted. Two months after the judgment, he came back to the screen.

In April of 1977, he flew to New York for shooting Ningen no Shyoumei. He spent a year in the States when he was seventeen. He said, "That was a miserable experience. I was discriminated against in the school. I couldn't get along well with my aunt. I had to undergo an appendectomy after I started living alone at the apartment. Every day I was thinking only of returning to Japan. I thought I would never go back there, but maybe it's my destiny." Troubles were waiting for him again this time. He never read dialogue out loud at home; he just read silently or thought about it. In this film, he had to talk with Mr. George Kennedy in English. He had lessons for pronunciation, but he made lots of mistakes in front of the cameras. When he came back temporarily, he read the script to me, and asked, "You majored in English literature; how should I read this line to express the nuance that I'm thinking?" That was too much for me. Pronunciation can be corrected by practice, but what he wanted to do would be difficult even for native speakers. I just suggested that he express by body language or the look in his eyes.

Yusaku wasn't satisfied with his acting in this film. He was unhappy with troubles between American and Japanese crews. This big budget movie resulted in good business; however, he said, "I prefer small program pictures like hand-made." As you know hand-maid crafts (=program pictures) are more unique and refrecting the craftman's indevisuality crealy than factry products (big badget movies).

Yusaku called a typecast actor "the guy who lives on interest." It means they are satisfied to only maintain what they have, they never make any progress. He often spoke of Mr. Robert DeNiro because he was the exact opposite of a typecast actor. He never had a certain image; he was always changing like a chameleon. People said an actor should be changed by make-up, not real weight control, but Yusaku was different. (He loved the same kind of approach as DeNiro.)

The media reported that Yusaku risked his life in order to appear in Black Rain, that he chose the film rather than trying to prolong his life. He knew about the cancer, but his close friends say it was not resigne to die that just postpone the treatment. Yusaku believed that Black Rain was just the first step of his career in America. Even though his condition worsened, he struggled against the disease. He never gave up. He tried to return to filmmaking.

Nearly two years have passed since he closed his days. He's gone, but he's never far away. My daughter's genes that she inherited from him are continuing to grow and develop. Sometimes I feel depressed by these similarities. He will never become only a memory to me. Yusaku Matsuda was too dangerous to put into a frame called memory.

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Miyuki Kumagai was a fashion model who became an actress. Yusaku met her when she appeared on his TV series Tantei-monogatari as a guest. At that time, he already had a family and she was just a girl of eighteen. After that first appearance, they worked together a few more times and fell in love gradually. The media treated their relationship as a scandal, but in his responses to the media Yusaku always tried to protect his wife and Miyuki, as well as his daughter. Shortly thereafter Miyuki quit acting. They were married in 1985, when she was twenty-three years old. Miyuki wrote a book three years after her husband's death. Today she continues to raise their three children, and she has returned to acting.

He was an actor. I'm wondering how he survived as long as he did because he was interested in nothing but filmmaking. His whole life was like a screen test, even in daily life when he was eating or sleeping. He had the courage to enter the fictional world of acting but, on the other hand, maybe he was more ignorant than I when it came to ordinary living. He could change the atmosphere around him. He was like a chameleon when he was concentrating on a character but, in his everyday life, he had an inner face which hated to be watched. He never got used to the embarrassment of living together. Whispering or making love is sweet and easier than being watched while brushing your teeth.

Miyuki wrote that when Yusaku started to play a new role, even the air around him seemed to change. Yusaku expected her not to disturb him. Most actors leave their character on the set at the end of the day; Yusaku brought the character home to live with them. Yusaku gave more of himself to a role than just acting ability. The most important thing was to understand what was going on with the character's mind and body. An actor plays various characters by using his body, and creating a new person while maintaining a balance between his role and the whole film. While he was working, Yusaku needed Miyuki to be patient and also to respect the privacy he required for his creative process, even in their private lives.

It began about one month before his new project. The air around him changed as if it were, itself, a living thing. Movies were lover and mistress to him -- painful but filled by passionate roses. He became an adulterer before my eyes, without attempting to hide anything. When he reached that point, his face shone just like he tasted ripened fruit. He allowed himself total freedom, verifying his sensibility to play which is glamorous like a woman (more glamorous than women?). His boyish heart became excited like the moment he meets a long-awaited dulcinea. I was jealous of the way he truly came to life only when he was acting, and I was jealous of the monster named "movies."

She had to be careful to give him plenty of space. He was strict with himself as well as with others. He was glad to find new talent. He kept watching and encouraging the person even if they had a falling out.

He loved to help rising talents, and he loved such people as fellow soldiers. He was always starved for love, even though he was giving affection to others. His passing from one role to the next was a solitary process. Not knowing if the choices he is making are correct, an actor's insecurity can be immeasurable. Yusaku always continued to encourage friends and watch their progress, even if they were estranged from him. He was as happy about their success as he was about his own, even though they were no longer close. It was part of his charm and gentleness to be sympathetic to friends.

Yusaku had to rid himself of one character and prepare to play another character. And that it was a solitary process; one that no one could help him with. Since an actor can never be certain if what he is doing is right (appropriate) until after the film is completed, the insecurity of acting is immeasurable.

Yusaku took care of their two sons by himself around the time of the birth of their daughter. He took them to kindergarten, prepared their lunch boxes, and enjoyed housekeeping for a few weeks.

He hated to be watched or bothered by visitors when he was making films. However, he never showed off in daily life. He was still shy though he didn't care how he looked in private life. He wasn't interested in a luxurious life.

He came to a big turning point. All too soon, books started about science, the universe, and the human organism began to appear on his bookshelf. He began Zen meditation, too. He tried to rid himself of attachments and was seeking to know himself.

If someone can tell about him truly, it might be movie fans who loved Yusaku as an actor. But he was the only person who understood my words more than I did.

Few more comments by Miyuki

He watched his own work objectively because he was not only an actor, but also he had some element of a producer. It was difficult for him. Some staffs disliked him, but he had a capacity to get even such people to follow him. He dragged people along strongly, sometimes roughly, though he was full of affection. He had a very strong aura. He could purify the atmosphere. He had an ability to allow everyone to focus on filmmaking.

Yusaku at work and Yusaku at home were exactly the same. No difference as an actor from as a husband. He loved co-actors the same as wife, and he loved staffs the same as children. He was good at bringing invisible things out which are ordinarily covered by common sense or daily living. He always found hidden talent like a treasure. [Yomigaere! Tantei-monogatari]

A long time after Yusaku was gone, I found some scenarios written by him and Mr. Maruyama inside of our bookshelf. I was clearing some stuff out of my house to make some space, and trying to get on with my life. I thought I would take those scenarios back to Mr. Maruyama, because they certainly didn't belong to me. But Mr. Maruyama wanted me to keep them. He said "If those scenarios weren't there, then those moments of my life would also disappear." I was afraid of not moving on, but I decided to keep them. Those scenarios represent the times which Yusaku and Mr. Maruyama spent together, and also my time with Yusaku. I think nobody ever loved movies as much as Yusaku. However, Yusaku was a more beautiful person than he appears in his films. [Matsuda Yusaku + Maruyama Shoichi Mihappyou Scenario-syu]

Special Thanks : Annie