Haruma Miura

One can hardly forget Haruma Miura. Played as Bito Tatsuya in Crows Zero II, he was portrayed as that silent guy who never talked or showed his skill too much. He would just stride calmly with cold gaze as to conclude the seemed never ending fight scenes of this favorite youthful action film. Just a little role in one or two scenes, but surprisingly noticeable.

He was a talented artist.

Not to mention two other films, Koizora " Sky of Love" (2007) and manga adapted movie "Kimi Ni Todoke" (released later in 2010) where Miura played as a leading role. Those two (films) marked his capability as one of promising actor who could dig every character seamlessly.

Miura made his acting debut in the television drama adaptation of the novel Agri when he was seven years old. He was enrolled at the Tsukuba branch of Actors Studio and was a member of the boy band Brash Brats with two other students. Following the closure of Actors Studio, the three signed to Amuse Inc. As Brash Brats went on indefinite hiatus in 2005, Miura continued his acting career (Sports Hochi & Japan Times, via Wikipedia, 2016)

After that, numerous films, television drama, and theater acts have been listed under his filmography. Later in 2019 and early 2020 he too continued chasing his long-left passion in music by debuted as a singer with the single "Fight for Your Heart", which was followed by "Night Diver".

Outside the entertainment life, he was well known as a nice person. He sometimes shared daily life on his Instagram account. There's a short video of him thanking fans, how he wished he could meet them in person, or a little message which he tried to remind us to always keep smile, see the good in life.

More serious themed movies had him too as a cast. "A Banana? At This Time of Night" was one of them. A film based on a prize-winning Japanese non-fiction book that detailed the life of a protagonist with muscular dystrophy and the volunteers who support him. The films ask what it means to be alive. Another one "Tokyo Koen" told the story of a college student and an aspiring photographer, he takes photographs of families at a park in Tokyo partly because he lost his mother when he was young.

In "Little Nights, Little Love" (2019) Miura had a chance to partner again with Mikako Tabe who played together with him in Kimi Ni Todoke.

Japanese films distinguish themselves mostly through the emphasize of the deepness of the story and beautiful complex details that oftentimes being missed by the viewers. Nevertheless, this aspect builds the film as a whole and gives impression that the film was thoughtful made. This requires a hard work, passion, and more than ordinary acting skill.

In past centuries, acting as part of theater show, its story line, brainstorming of ideas had got one artist through a deep thinking, oftentimes consumed alone by observing nature, humans, figuring out how one works like that simply for its own sake. The players would rehearse night and day, submerge the character inside. 

As to the writer thousand ideas could come in just one night and sometimes one work could take months even years. There wasn't any urgency to fulfill the "contract" as to nowadays in most of entertainment business, as they could change jobs without being viewed as failed artist. One artist can be an ordinary human, an ordinary human can be an artist because the core of art is to express one feeling or thought in most human way, therefore, a subjective. There's no such thing as failed art.

That lack of understanding in today's entertainment business makes it hard for them who make a living from this industry (not as a hobby). "Art industry" itself felt so wrong in so many ways. That just describes the demand of being productive to produce as much as possible art products (music, film, paintings, poems). That would feel just like an office work but two times harder because you get not only brain work out of yourself but also feelings. And it's not something you can force.

One article says " we make art because there's something in ourselves that need to be gotten out (express). Otherwise, that something would become a poison inside. A beautiful art often comes from pain and suffer. That makes people wonder why most artist is a complex person"

"Art is not about how good you are but rather how much you love doing it"

 

*Haruma Miura died on July 18, 2020. He was one of great actor with so many great works. He will be missed not only by his families, friends and colleagues, but also his fans worldwide.

 

References:

 

"Teman Baru", the Japan Foundation Kuala Lumpur Bi Monthly News Letter, September- October 2019 Edition

(can be accessed on  www.jfkl.org.my) 

Happiness is a State of Mind: Joy and Despair in Japanese Cinema. The Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2020

(can be accessed on www.broadway.org.uk )

 

/en.wikipedia.org/

serikatnews.com

twitter.com/airyzx05

twitter.com/ArtEisenhower

webfiles.pardo.ch

 

This writing can also be read on my personal blog