The ambitious Kadokawa production Proof of the Man (Ningen no Shomei, 1977) first partnered Matsuda with an American actor more than a decade before Black Rain. Character player George Kennedy, then in his disaster movie phase, guest-starred as a New York cop investigating the murder of an American boy in a Tokyo hotel, with Matsuda as his local sidekick. Directed by Junya Sato, Proof of the Man was the kind of high-concept project producer Haruki Kadokawa became famous for in the late 70s and early 80s. Stepping into the void left by the floundering major studios, Kadokawa used his family's publishing fortunes to start a film company with the aim of beating Hollywood at its own game, resulting in such lavish widescreen spectacles as Kinji Fukasaku's Virus (Fukkatsu no Hi, 1980) and Mitsumasa Saito's Black Magic Wars (Iga Ninpo-cho, 1982).
The Family Game (Kazoku Gemu) (1983) | updated
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