`I feel the movie may have been my `Last Samurai.' I think someone up there gave me the role as a gift-for having come so far.'

SEIZO FUKUMOTO

The `Silent Samurai'

Seizo Fukumoto has been ``killed'' more than 20,000 times in the past 44 years.

Though he's made numerous appearances in samurai movies and dramas, Japan's most versatile kirareyaku actor-a samurai cut down and killed by the hero-and sword-action specialist has never played the main character nor gotten any juicy roles.

Now, finally, after a lifetime of bit parts and stunt roles, he has hit the big time. Fukumoto, 60, is making his Hollywood debut as the Silent Samurai in the Tom Cruise historical epic ``Last Samurai,'' opening Saturday in the United States and Japan.

Tapped in August 2002, Fukumoto of course had heard that Tom Cruise was planning to produce a samurai epic. But he had banished all thought of himself having any part in it.

``I'm only a no-name bit player. Hollywood is just an impossible dream, not even worth contemplating,'' he recalls thinking.

So he was surprised when the casting agent in charge of the Japanese actors called him up out of the blue to say, ``I've recommended you to the director. Could you please come up to Tokyo?''

Almost in a daze, Fukumoto obliged, submitting himself to a screen test that included some action scenes. A week later, he found out that he had gotten the part.

The story is set in the long-ago world of Meiji-Era Japan (1868-1912), with Tom Cruise playing Capt. Nathan Algren, a U.S. Civil War cavalry veteran.

Fukumoto was cast as the Silent Samurai, who guards over the captain at all times.

Even for a veteran actor like Fukumoto, who has 20,000 deaths under his belt, the Hollywood way of movie-making, with lavish funding and tons of time devoted to each scene, came as a surprise.

About 500 Japanese extras were transported to New Zealand for the shoot, where the film crew established an authentic ``samurai village'' in the wilderness, going even so far as to dig a proper well.

But what really impressed Fukumoto, a sword-play specialist, was watching Tom Cruise wield his samurai sword.

So credible was Cruise that Fukumoto couldn't help thinking, ``What's going on here?''

Fukumoto later learned that Cruise had built a training dojo at his vacation house and had practiced moves for eight months.

Fukumoto would muse with fellow samurai actor Ken Watanabe, ``This is what a movie should be. This is how it should be made.''

The whole experience evoked the long-lost golden age of movie-making at Toei Kyoto Studios, where Fukumoto had made so many of his movies.

Still, everything must come to an end.

Once the film wrapped and he returned to Japan, Fukumoto found himself once again taking bit parts on TV samurai dramas.

A true pro, he knows his own limitations.

His craft is purely physical, but he thinks he may last a few more years.

``I feel the movie may have been my `Last Samurai.' I think someone up there gave me the role as a gift-for having come so far.''(IHT/Asahi: December 5,2003) (12/05)