[KineJapan] Kishi Keiko

[Aaron Gerow]

One of the last great stars of postwar Japanese cinema, Kishi Keiko, passed away on August 7 at the age of 93. Her death was announced today. 

Born in Yokohama and debuting as an actor in 1951, she starred in one of the defining postwar melodramas, Kimi no na wa, in 1953-1954. She appeared in films by many of Japan's masters, including Ozu, Kinoshita, Gosho, Ichikawa, Kobayashi, and Toyoda, but it was her appearance in the 1957 French-Japan co-production, Typhon sur Nagasaki, that led to her marriage to the director Yves Ciampi. She thus led an international life, traveling back and forth between Europe and Japan. 

With Arima Ineko and Kuga Yoshiko, she formed the production company Ninjin Club--considered the first Japanese production company headed by a team of women—that made such masterworks as The Human Condition, Pale Flower, and Kwaidan (the latter bankrupted the company). 

She individually won many awards, including commendations from both the Japanese and the French governments. One of my favorites of her films is her role in Saito Koichi's Yakusoku, where the plays a middle aged woman with a criminal past pursued by a young punk played by Hagiwara Ken'ichi. She also penned a number of books about her life and her experiences in France. Kishi Keiko was indeed an incredibly important figure in Japanese film history. Gassho.

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/7e6fa0d2ddc39e6aa4d2eb41528e25b5d163362c

Aaron Gerow
Yale
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