Masatoshi Nagase

Masatoshi Nagase (永瀬 正敏, Nagase Masatoshi; born July 15, 1966) is a Japanese actor and singer.^[1] He is best known in the West for his roles in Friðrik Þór Friðriksson's Cold Fever and Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train.^[2]

Masatoshi Nagase
Nagase at Opening Ceremony of the Tokyo International Film Festival, 2017.
Born	(1966-07-15) July 15, 1966 (age 59) Miyakonojō, Miyazaki, Japan
Occupation(s)	Actor, singer
Years active	1983–present
Spouse	Kyōko Koizumi ​ ​ (m. 1995; div. 2004)​

Nagase was described by Todd Brown of Twitch Film as "one of the great unsung heroes of Japanese film, a hugely reliable character actor with seemingly unerring taste in projects who - despite a huge body of work - remains largely unknown by name."^[3]

Career

Nagase co-starred in Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train (1989) with Youki Kudoh.^[4] He has starred in films such as Sion Sono's Suicide Club (2001),^[5] Shinji Aoyama's Mike Yokohama: A Forest with No Name (2002),^[6] and Yoji Yamada's The Hidden Blade (2004).^[7]

Filmography

Film

• P.P. Rider (1983)
• Miyuki (1983), Masato Wakamatsu
• Mystery Train (1989)
• Bakayarou! 3: Hen na Yatsura (1990)
• My Sons (1991)
• Autumn Moon (1992)
• Tora-San Makes Excuses
• Original Sin (1992)
• The Most Terrible Time in My Life (1993)
• Outobai Shoujo (1994)
• The Stairway to the Distant Past (1994)
• Powder Road (1994)
• Cold Fever (1995)
• Flirt (1995)
• Berlin (1995)
• Trap (1996)
• Gakko II (1996)
• Niji o Tsukamu Otoko (1996)
• Ullie (1996)
• Abduction (1997)
• Beautiful Sunday (1998)
• Three Businessmen (1998)
• Gojoe (2000)
• Party 7 (2000)
• A Closing Day (2000)
• Electric Dragon 80.000 V (2001)
• Chloe (2001)
• Luxurious Bone (2001)
• Pistol Opera (2001)
• Stereo Future (2001)
• Suicide Club (2002)
• Getting Wild with Our Monkey (2002)
• Mike Yokohama: A Forest with No Name (2002)
• The Sea Is Watching (2002)
• Dead End Run (2003)
• The Loved Gun (2004)
• The Hidden Blade (2004)
• Gina K (2005)
• Ubume no Natsu (2005)
• The Blossoming of Kamiya Etsuko (2006)
• Sakuran (2006)
• Funuke Show Some Love, You Losers! (2007)
• Dreaming Awake (2008)^[8]
• R246 Story (2008)
• Gelatin Silver, Love (2009)
• Kaasan, Mom's Life (2011)
• Smuggler (2011)
• The Sea Is Watching (2012)
• A Road Stained Crimson (2012)
• A Woman and War (2013)
• Kano (2014) – Hyōtarō Kondō
• Sweet Bean (2015)
• Black Widow Business (2016) – Honda
• Jūjika (2016) – Shunsuke's father
• Happiness (2016) – Kanzaki
• 64: Part I (2016)
• 64: Part II (2016)
• Paterson (2016)
• Radiance (2017)
• The Blue Hearts (2017)
• Red Snow (2018)
• Vision (2018)
• Butterfly Sleep (2018)
• Punk Samurai Slash Down (2018)
• Talking the Pictures (2019)
• We Are Little Zombies (2019)
• Love's Twisting Path (2019)
• Hotel New Moon (2019)
• They Say Nothing Stays the Same (2019)
• The First Supper (2019)
• Fancy (2020)
• Sakura (2020) – Akio Hasegawa
• Just the Two of Us (2020)
• Under the Stars (2020)
• Living in the Sky (2020)^[9]
• Bolt (2020)
• Tracing Her Shadow (2020)
• Malu (2020)^[10]
• A Day with No Name (2021)
• A Madder Red (2021) – Nakamura^[11]
• Hotel Iris (2021)^[12]
• Noise (2022)^[13]
• Just Remembering (2022) – Jun^[14]
• A Hundred Flowers (2022)^[15]
• The Three Sisters of Tenmasou Inn (2022) – Kiyoshi Ogawa^[16]
• Brats, Be Ambitious! (2023) – Makio^[17]
• Mountain Woman (2023)^[18]
• Goldfish (2023) – Ichi^[19]
• Jigen Daisuke (2023) – Takeshi Kawashima^[20]
• Family (2023)^[21]
• Last Shadow at First Light (2023)^[22]
• Daisuke Jigen (2023)
• The Box Man (2024)^[23]
• Adabana (2024)^[24]
• Gosh!! (2025)^[25]
• Kokuho (2025) – Gongorō Tachibana^[26]
• I Live in Fear (2025)^[27]
• Hokusai's Daughter (2025) – Hokusai^[28]

Television

• Abunai Deka (1987)
• Waru (1992)
• The Private Detective Mike (2002) – Mike Hama
• Bullets, Bones and Blocked Noses (2021)^[29]

Awards

• 1992: 16th Elan d'or Awards - Newcomer of the Year^[30]
• 1992: 15th Japan Academy Film Prize - Best Supporting Actor and Best Newcomer (My Sons)^[31]
• 2008: 29th Yokohama Film Festival - Best Supporting Actor (Funuke Show Some Love, You Losers!)^[32]
• 2010: Japanese Film Critics Awards - Best Actor (Mainichi Kaasan)^[33]
• 2016: 37th Yokohama Film Festival - Best Actor (An)^[34]
• 2022: Nippon Connection - Nippon Honor Award^[35]