Tetsuya Matsui: Nippon actor in local showbiz

Forget about the Abu Sayyaf and their terroristic tactics. Here is one foreigner who won’t allow them to rob him of the pleasure visiting the Philippines offers. Japanese actor-director Tetsuya Matsui, 30, has decided to pack his bags and spend one month in Manila to look at the possibilities of making an action movie here. The fearless Tetsuya goes around in Robinsons Makati by his lonesome, and has explored such tourist destinations as Matabungkay, Bacolod and Tagaytay.

He has yet to meet someone who poses a threat to his life and limb in his solitary trips to these places.

If Tetsuya is always on the look-out for action, it is because he has been flirting with danger on camera for many years now. He made his debut as a star of action films in 1986, when he signed a contract with Golden Harvest Films to work with Samo Hung in Boho Promotions’ Ten Lucky Stars. It won approval in the movie industry.

Tetsuya was only 19 then.

Close on its heels was Chinese Warriors in 1987, where Tatsuya had James Bond girl Michelle Yeoh no less as leading lady.

Those movies were shown in Hong Kong, where Tetsuya went after high school. Toei Films of Japan, impressed by the well-built Tetsuya’s expertise in gymnastics and daring in action movies (he shuns doubles), asked him to return to Japan and star in Shinjuku Love Story.

Oblivious to danger and risk, Tetsuya has had his share of accidents on the set. He injured his head after he accidentally rammed into an escalator. Thankfully, an immediate CT scan showed no scary results and Tetsuya was back in action in no time at all.

He’d think nothing of jumping from a height of 20 meters without any assurance of a safe landing in any of the mats waiting for him below. All he knows is he loves the thrill of the high jump and the adrenalin rush it gives him.

All right, the guy’s insured. But what will you do if your ribs are broken and every inch of your limbs hurting like mad?

Tetsuya does not even think about it. He’d rather damn the torpedoes and go full steam ahead.

Taking a cue from good friend Cynthia Luster, who made waves when she appeared in a couple of movies in the Philippines, Tetsuya decided to spread his wings further by targeting the Filipino movie market. He has been going around the country lately, picking up a few Filipino phrases like Magandang hapon while looking at the possibilities of making a movie or producing a TV show here. Watching Filipino action movies like those of Bong Revilla’s has made Tetsuya an instant fan of local films in this genre. He says that gun and blasting scenes are better in Filipino movies than those in Japan, where the police keep a sharp eye on those making action films.

As much a child of television as he is of the silver screen, Tetsuya was the main character in Akileta Dekka, a TV series produced by Nippon TV in Japan. He was also a regular character in Kamien Rider Black RX, another series produced by TV Asahi.

As actor and action director, Tetsuya has two films to his credit: Blood Two Eagle and Juvenile. As producer, he churns out one big-budget movie and two pictures on a shoe-string financial resources yearly.

Hopefully, Tetsuya will channel his expertise – as actor, director, producer – to a crisis-wracked Filipino movie industry. Then maybe good actors and directors hungry for a job in this lean season for the showbiz industry, will finally get one.

And all because there is this one guy who dares look a little further to test the limits of his talent.