Shin Koyamada is possessed of a rare naiveté, and the kind of blind enthusiasm which makes a fool of some and a success of others. Lucky for Koyamada, fate has funneled him into the latter category. Raised in a small town in Japan, Koyamada was nursed on American and Hong Kong action movies, a steady diet of heavy artillery, clever punch lines and well-placed karate kicks.

“My father and I watched action movies all the time,” remembers Koyamada, “and one day I said to him, ‘I’m going to be an action star when I grow up.’”

Koyamada’s father wasn’t exactly thrilled with his son’s aspirations.

“He said, ‘No, you’re going to go to school and get married and have children,” says Koyamada. “I said, ‘I’m sorry, but that’s just not me.’”

Keeping true to his promise and defying his family’s expectations, Koyamada left home at 18 and headed straight for Hollywood.

“I had to decide between Hollywood and Hong Kong,” Koyamada remembers, “and I decided that English would be easier to learn than Chinese. So I came here.”

When Koyamada arrived he had one bag of clothes and little idea of what he had gotten himself into. “I got off the plane and I took the subway to Sunset and Vine,” he recalls, “I didn’t know where I was and I didn’t speak any English. It wasn’t very easy for me.”

Koyamada found his way to a seedy hotel on Santa Monica Boulevard, a spot more infamous for muggings and prostitution than for the discovery of fresh screen talent. The surroundings, however, did little to damper his enthusiasm. He enrolled in English classes and began a strict regimen of language instruction and martial arts training.

“It was very lonely at first,” admits Koyamada. “I practiced for five hours a day and took my classes at night. But eventually my English and my martial arts got much better.”

Good enough, in fact, for Koyamada to brave an open call for Edward Zwick’s upcoming epic, The Last Samurai. Against all odds, and amidst a mob of thousands of hopefuls, Koyamada won the part.

“I still don’t know how it happened,” he says. “But I knew that I could do it. And I think they saw that, as well.”

For the role of Nobutada, Shin suddenly found himself on the set of one of the biggest films of the year, practicing his karate chops with none other than the film’s star and producer, Tom Cruise.

“Tom was great,” says Koyamada. “He taught me a lot about acting and about how to work on a film set.”
Only three short years after his arrival, it seems Koyamada has made his boyhood fantasy into adult reality. He is finally an action star.

My parents are coming to the premiere and they feel much different about things now,” he laughs, “And I tell them, ‘This is only the beginning. Just watch me and see where I go!’” MM