Yasuaki Kurata, 78-year-old action actor, reveals his “deep bond with Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan

When Jackie Chan (70) visited Japan recently, I told him, ‘I want to do another movie with him. In order to make it happen, it is essential for me to work on my body every day. I also e-mail my best friend, Samo Han Kimpo (72), every day to keep him up to date on what’s going on.

International action actor Yasuaki Kurata, 78, speaks at the Sobukan Dojo (Setagaya Ward, Tokyo), a karate dojo where he serves as dojo master.

He has appeared in many Japanese and Asian films and is known as the “Japanese Dragon. He appeared in the detective drama “G-Men ’75” (TBS series, broadcast from ’75 to ’82). He also made an impact as Detective Yasuaki Kusano in the detective drama “G-Men ’75” (TBS, broadcast from ’75 to ’82). The Hong Kong film “The Dragon Returns” was screened in 1974, and is currently being revived to commemorate the 50th anniversary of its triumphant return to Japan. The action scenes Kurata performed with Bruce Liang in the film are powerful enough to be seen even today. Kurata looks back in his own words on the hardships he faced during the filming and his life as an actor since he rode alone to Hong Kong.

The epic movie production scene in the Showa era

In the filming of “I’ve Come Back,” I had to climb 10 meters with my legs spread out between the walls of a building with Liang, who played my enemy. If our feet slipped, we would fall and get seriously injured. It was hard enough just to climb up, but we were even made to stand up in that position. There were almost no breaks during the continuous action scenes. There were no hotels or restaurants on the small island where we filmed, and we slept on the floor.

Kurata trained himself in karate, judo, and aikido, and after graduating from college, he worked part-time at a restaurant while acting, but a turning point came when he was 24 years old. He passed an audition for a major Hong Kong film company, Shaw Brothers, and quickly became a breakout star as an action actor who could handle villainous roles. He became a star in Hong Kong and other Southeast Asian countries where his films were screened, but he also had some difficulties in Taiwan.

Suddenly beaten by an extra

During the filming, I was suddenly attacked with a Japanese sword by a man who interrupted the shooting. Fortunately, I was not injured, but I was surprised at what happened. I was also attacked by an extra with a knife in the face and suddenly punched in the face. When I asked the staff why I was repeatedly targeted, they told me that in Taiwan at that time, the villain I was playing was played by the local yakuza bosses. I guess they lost their jobs and their minions came to threaten me.”

On one occasion, he was suspected by the Taiwanese tax authorities of not paying taxes and was prevented from returning to Hong Kong. At the time, Taiwan had a rule that income tax was due after a three-month stay. However, he believed the false information given to him by the staff of the film company, who told him that he could return to Hong Kong if he applied for an extension of stay.

When he was unable to leave the country due to nonpayment of taxes, he consulted an acquaintance who told him to hide in the trunk of his car and escape to Hong Kong by ferry. I tried to leave the country secretly wrapped in a Zuda bag, hoping to return to Hong Kong, but I was found at passport control just before boarding the ferry and taken back to Taiwan. After that, he worked hard at any job he chose, paid all his taxes, which amounted to about 100 million yen in today’s terms, and was finally able to return to Hong Kong about a year later.

In the 1970s, Bruce Lee captivated the world of Hong Kong cinema, followed by Jackie Chan and Samo Han Kin-po in “Burning Fat Gong. Kurata, who was active in Hong Kong at the same time, has close ties with these filmmakers.

Bruce Lee was not a big man, but he was sharp. He studied Japanese martial arts and asked me many questions. I remember spending a lot of time talking about martial arts with him, using body language and hand gestures. There is a scene in his movie where he uses nunchaku, and I was the one who gave him the real nunchaku used in Ryukyuan kobudo.”

Next to Bruce Lee acting, there was an unknown man working as a stuntman, a teenage Jackie Chan.

I was thrilled that he was such a good looking actor, even though he would become a star in his twenties after “Drunken Fist” became a huge hit. Jackie is a genius. He trained in Chinese martial arts as a child, acted, and even directed. We co-starred in the movie “The Seven Lucky Stars,” and we still talk about doing it again.”

Kurata, who worked his way up the ladder to action star in Hong Kong, has a word of advice for today’s youth: “Don’t be unreasonable.

I tell young people that they should go abroad because there are no treasures in Japan. If you dive into the unknown world alone, you will have a hard time, but there is a possibility that you will grab something out of it. I am where I am today because I took the first step to Hong Kong when I was young.

The “Japanese Dragon” who ventured out of Japan continues to evolve at the age of 78.

From the September 27 and October 4 combined issue of FRIDAY