Ryūhei Matsuda

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.

Early life Matsuda was born on 9 May 1983 in Tokyo, to Yūsaku Matsuda, a Japanese actor of partial Korean ancestry, and Miyuki Matsuda (née Kumagai), a Japanese actress. He has two younger siblings, a younger brother, Shota Matsuda, who is also an actor, and a younger sister, Yuuki Matsuda, who is a singer, and one older half-sister by his father's first marriage. His father died from bladder cancer in 1989, when Ryuhei was six years old. He attended Horikoshi High School, a Japanese high school that caters to celebrity students, but did not graduate.

Career 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.

Personal life Matsuda is married to Mala Morgan, a British-Japanese model with whom he has a fourteen-year age gap. The two wed on 20 October 2021 after dating for three years and have one son together, born 12 March 2022.

Matsuda was previously married to Russian-Japanese actress and model Rina Ōta. They have one child together, a daughter, born 4 July 2009. They wed on 11 January 2009 and divorced in December 2017.

Filmography

Films

Taboo (1999) Shibito no Koiwazurai (2001) Hashire! Ichiro (2001) Blue Spring (2002) Collage of Our Life (2003) 17 Sai (2003) 9 Souls as Michiru (2003) Hachigatsu no Kariyushi (2003) Showa Kayo Daizenshu (2003) Cutie Honey (2004) Izo (2004) Otakus in Love (2004) Yasha no Ike (2004) Nana (2005) Gimmy Heaven (2005) Rampo Noir (2005) Demon Pond (2005) Big Bang Love, Juvenile A (2006) Nightmare Detective (2006) Chosyu Five (2006) Sekai ha Tokidoki Utsukushii (2007) Purukogi (2007) Koisuru Madori (2007) Ahiru to Kamo no Koinrokkâ (2007) Densen Uta (2007) Nobody to Watch Over Me (2008) Nightmare Detective 2 (2008) Mt. Tsurugidake (2009) The Cannery Ship (Kanikosen) (2009) Hagetaka: The Movie (The Vulture) (2009) Boys on the Run (2010) Phone Call to the Bar (2011), Takada Tada's Do-It-All House (2011) The Great Passage (2013) Mugiko-san to (2013) Detective in the Bar (2013), Takada The Raid 2 (2014) Jinuyo Saraba: Kamuroba Mura e (2015) The Magnificent Nine (2016) My Uncle (2016) The Tokyo Night Sky Is Always the Densest Shade of Blue (2017) Before We Vanish (2017) The Last Shot in the Bar (2017), Takada The Scythian Lamb (2018) Isle of Dogs (2018) (German-American film) The Miracle of Crybaby Shottan (2018), Shōji Segawa Noroshi ga Yobu (2019) Beneath the Shadow (2020) Hakai no Hi (2020) Zokki (2021) Who Were We? (2024) Transcending Dimensions (2025) Unreachable (2025), Yuki Tsunaga (voice) Sai: Disaster (2026), Shin'ichiro Kuramoto Bye Bye Love: Detective Is in the Bar (2026), Takada The Secret Battlefield (2026), Hirohito Hara o Kukutte (2027)

TV dramas San Oku-Yen Jiken (2000), Roku Hagetaka (2007), Osamu Nishino Ashita no Kita Yoshio (2008), Heita Yashiro Tenchijin (2009), Date Masamune Mahoro Ekimae Bangaichi (2013), Haruhiko Gyōten Amachan (2013), Takuma Mizuguchi Quartet (2017), Tsukasa Beppu Kurara: The Dazzling Life of Hokusai's Daughter (2017), Zenjirō Kemono ni Narenai Watashitachi (2018), Kosei Nemoto Smoking (2018), Masayuki Sakakibara Yuganda Hamon (2019), Masahiko Sawamura Idaten (2019), Kenzō Tange A Stranger in Shanghai (2019), Ryūnosuke Akutagawa Okehazama (2021), Shibata Katsuie My Dear Exes (2021), Hassaku Tanaka Uzukawamura Jiken (2022), Iwamori Tokyo Salad Bowl (2025), Ryo Arikino Asura (2025), Katsumata Simulation: Defeat in the Summer of 1941 (2025), Hirohito Sai: Disaster (2025), Shin'ichiro Kuramoto and Nikkan Sports Film Award for the "Best Actor" in the 2013 film The Great Passage.