In several James Bond movies you hear reference to other "00" agents - 006, 008 - and occasionally you'll see one of them briefly, sitting near 007 himself. We have to assume that they're as sexy, tough, charming and resourceful as James Bond himself, but we just never hear about them. They're the unsung heroes of the superspy world in the same way that Masato Harada is the unsung hero of Japanese film. He's the 006 of Japanese directors. 

Mentored by American director Howard Hawks, Harada moves pretty comfortably between Japan and America, directing his sci fi flick GUNHED (1988) in Japan, then going to Skywalker Ranch to try to work on the soundtrack, having Toho botch the Japanese release, then meeting with James Cameron who's a fan of the film in Hollywood. He's made more than his fair share of mistakes (read this Midnight Eye interview to hear how he turned down Peter Falk, Samuel Jackson, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon for roles in his movies - whoops!) but he keeps directing and for every beautiful but lifeless dud like INUGAMI he turns out an amazing, perfectly realized film like BOUNCE KO GALS. 

To my mind, his best films have been BOUNCE KO GALS which is just about as perfect as a movie about friendship can be, CHOICE OF HERCULES which is a blow-by-blow reenactment of the 1972 stand-off with the Red Army terrorists in a Nagano mountain lodge, and SPELLBOUND (JUBAKU) about a corporate banking scandal. All three movies feature Japan's everyman, Koji Yakusho, and they're all sprawling stories with a great eye for detail and a hard-marching narrative. They're occasionally criticized for being a little anonymous or stylistically bland, but that's Harada's style: story first, then style. He's the craftsman director in the gray flannel suit.

Now, two new Harada-helmed movies are ready to hit screens. The first is SUICIDE SONG, a horror movie about a pop song that causes people to kill themselves. Inspired by Hungary's so-called suicide song, "Gloomy Sunday" it opened in Japan in September and is based on a story by the writer of ONE MISSED CALL. While it sounds like warmed-over J-horror a few things give one hope besides Harada in the director's chair. Ryuhei Matsuda, one of Japan's best young actors (see his performance of the titular character in Shinya Tsukamoto's NIGHTMARE DETECTIVE for proof), is starring; the lead character is a third-rate gossip mag publisher and Harada has always had a good eye for off-the-beaten-track, hermetic workplaces (the schoolgirl porno industry in BOUNCE KO GALS, the family papermaking factory in INUGAMI, the workings of a terrorist cell in CHOICE OF HERCULES); and three, the trailer. After a bog standard start it warms up and turns into something lush and evil. Also, speaking of bogs, there was a seriously hardcore advertising campaign for the movie (Japanese title: DENSEN UTA) that took place in toilets all over town. Now that's marketing!

The second new movie from Harada is MORYO NO HAKO, a horror mystery based on a series of books by Natsuhiko Kyogoku. Starring Hiroshi Abe (the hypnotist from SURVIVE STYLE 5+) the film is about a bunch of mysterious boxes, stuffed with dead girls, that start showing up all over town in post-war Tokyo. There's a psychic who prays to them, a building shaped like the boxes, and a writer, a cop and a private detective who team up to figure out what's going on. Harada's historical films like CHOICE OF HERCULES are impeccable and the trailer for MORYO NO HAKO bears this out. It's set for a December 22 release in Japan.

(MORYO NO HAKO trailer on the official website. Click on the second button from the left and a trailer window will open. Click on the two characters to the right in the middle of the screen and it will play.) 

(SUICIDE SONG trailer) 

(BOUNCE KO GALS on English-subtitled DVD)