She was first discovered in the late 1960s by Japanese director Masahiro Makino, and she worked with him in a few films before going on to stardom in different film franchises. One of them, Noraneko Rokku (Stray Cat Rock), dealt with young people in trouble with the law.
Her star-making role was in Lady Snowblood, a 1973 thriller in which she starred as a woman who sought revenge against those who raped her mother and killed her father and brother. Another notable film was 1976's Yakuza Graveyard, about organized crime in Japan.
Her portrayal of a prostitute in a star-crossed romance film, 1978's The Love Suicides at Sonezaki, was a departure from her usual fare, but it earned her four awards for Best Actress in her home country.
Meiko Kaji has worked more on Japanese television in recent years, and she's also a singer with twenty-two singles and thirteen albums to her credit, her most recent LP, Aitsu No Suki Sona Burusu (His Favorite Dream Blues), released in 2011. She turned down offers to appear in Hollywood movies because she is uncomfortable acting in any language other than Japanese.
Fun fact: American director Quentin Tarantino used two of Meiko Kaji's songs in his 2003 martial arts movie Kill Bill: Volume 1.
No comments:
Post a Comment