[1] Following his father's early death and his mother's remarriage to a Japanese American,[1] he immigrated in 1957 to Honolulu, Hawaii where he graduated from Kaimuki High School.

He quickly landed a good position at a prominent local design firm, but the job lasted barely six months before he was drafted into the U.S. Army.

An avid movie fan since childhood, Narita decided to go into filmmaking rather than go back into graphic design upon his return to San Francisco in the mid-sixties.

In the following years, he was the Director of Photography on successful films like Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Dirty Pictures, The Rocketeer, and James and the Giant Peach.

Narita served as Director of Photography on the 1997 Live Action Short Film Academy Award winning Visas and Virtue.