
Ryuhei Matsuda
Born May 9, 1983 · Suginami, Tokyo, Japan
Ryuhei Matsuda (松田 龍平, Matsuda Ryūhei, born 9 May 1983) is a Japanese film and television actor. Matsuda's best known film roles include the young and desirable samurai Sōzaburō Kanō in Taboo and the rock star Ren Honjo in Nana. At age 15, Matsuda was offered the role of the desirable young samurai Kanō Sōzaburō in Nagisa Ōshima's 1999 film Taboo. The role helped boost him from an entirely unknown actor to a film star, earning him a Japanese Academy award "Newcomer of the Year", as well as "Blue Ribbon", "Kinema Junpo", and "Yokohama Film Festival" Awards for the "Best New Actor". Since appearing in Taboo, Matsuda has played a wide range of roles, from the high school student Kujo in the 2001 film Blue Spring to the rock star Ren Honjo in the 2005 film Nana. In February 2013, it was revealed that Matsuda would play the part of a Japanese gangster in the sequel to the 2012 Indonesian film The Raid, named Berandal. In 2020 portrayed Ryūnosuke Akutagawa in the film A Stranger in Shanghai. It depicts Akutagawa's time in as a reporter in the city. Since then, Matsuda has continued to work steadily across film and television. His notable award-winning period remains centered on his earlier career — most notably his Best Actor win at the 37th Japan Academy Film Prize in 2013 for The Great Passage, alongside a Best Actor win at the 2nd Hainan Island International Film Festival in 2019 for the film Shadow. More recently, his credits include the films Ichigeki (2023), Who Were We? (2023–2024), and Transcending Dimensions (2025). On television, he starred in the Netflix drama Asura (2025), based on Kazuo Kikuta's play, and in Tokyo Salad Bowl (2025). His film Disaster was released on February 20, 2026, and was also selected for the competition section of the San Sebastián Film Festival. In January 2026, Matsuda took on his first-ever leading role in a TV Asahi drama with Hey Detective, Your Backpack Is Open! He also appeared in UNDERGIRL a first movie from UNDERCOVER production, a superhero film released in Shibuya.
Notable Appearances
Movies
TV Shows

My Dear Exes

Quartet

Tada's Do-It-All House

Hey Detective, Your Backpack is Open!

Asura

Tokyo Salad Bowl

Natsuko Kira

Weakest Beast

0.5 Man

Kita Yoshio's Tomorrow

Hagetaka: Road to Rebirth

Uzukawamura Incident

Smoking

Give My Regards to Kenshirō

Distorted Ripples

Chain Story Omameda Towako wo Shiranai Otokotachi

Dōki

歪んだ波紋
More Movies

9 Souls

Transcending Dimensions

Beneath the Shadow

Phone Call to the Bar

The Scythian Lamb

Nightmare Detective

Karaoke Terror

Age 17

ZOKKI

Otakus in Love

Demon Pond

The Secret Battlefield

The Last Shot in the Bar

The Great Passage

大パルコ人①メカロックオペラ「R2C2~サイボーグなのでバンド辞めます!~」

The Day of Destruction

The Foreign Duck, the Native Duck and God in a Coin Locker

Tada's Do-It-All House

Disconcerto

Kurara: The Dazzling Life of Hokusai's Daughter

Boys on the Run

A Chorus of Angels

Detective in the Bar

Bye Bye Love: Detective Is in the Bar

The Tokyo Night Sky Is Always the Densest Shade of Blue

The 300 million yen robbery

Nightmare Detective 2

Nobody To Watch Over Me

Collage of Our Lives

Love Ghost

A Farewell to Jinu

The Vulture

Tokyo Serendipity

SOUL RED Yusaku Matsuda

Okehazama: Oda Nobunaga Birth of the Overlord

Synesthesia

My Little Sweet Pea

Run Ichiro Run

The Suicide Song

Who Were We?

Ichigeki

Life Can Be So Wonderful

Wolf's Calling

The Mohican Comes Home

Photographing Mt. Tsurugi: 873 days of fierce fighting at an altitude of 3,000 meters

Chosyu Five






















