Masaharu Take

is a Japanese film director.

Take began working in the film industry without any formal training. Among his first contributions to film productions as an assistant director were Gonin (1995) and Gonin 2 (1996, both directed by Takashi Ishii). After some more years as an assistant director, his first own film as director followed in 2006. After that he worked for several years as both director and assistant director. An important role model for Take at that time was the director Kazuyuki Izutsu for whom Take worked as assistant director in many films, 100 Yen Love is about a woman working as a shop assistant in a 100-yen shop who takes up boxing. In 2017, Take revisited the theme of combat sport in , a film about wrestling.

from 2018 is Take's first and to date only film for which he also wrote the script. It is based on Fuminori Nakamuras debut novel of the same title from 2002. The Gun is about a university student who accidentally comes into possession of a handgun. In a review, a critic compared the film to Japanese New Wave cinema and Nagisa Ōshima, and praised the performance of main actor Nijirō Murakami. Another critic praised the film for illustrating the phantasmatic nature of the phallus and the role it plays within male subjectivity.

In 2019, Take directed a television series for the first time (The Naked Director). His 2018 film was so successful that a sequel followed in 2020, also directed by Take.

As his influences and personal favourites, Take names the directors Yūzō Kawashima, Martin Scorsese and the aforementioned Kazuyuki Izutsu, as well as actress Ayako Wakao.