Kimiko Yo
Birthday: 1956-05-12 Place of Birth: Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan
Synopsis
Kimiko Yo was born in Yokohama, a city just south of Tokyo to a Japanese mother and Taiwanese father on the 12th of May 1956. Her cousin was actress Bunjaku Han. She became active in front of the camera in 1987 and has been a feature of Japanese television and cinema ever since. She had begun acting on the theatre stage in 1976. Audiences may mostly know her for her supporting role in Shin Gojira, as a sympathetic colleague in the 2008 films Departures, which won an Oscar, and kind wife and waitress in Ramen Girl, but she has almost 200 credits to her name. These include an abnormal neighbour in The Drugstore girl and serene presence in Café Lumière where she was directed by a Taiwanese director in Japan. Dear Doctor (2009) propelled her name forward in Japan and was an award winner. She has several Japan Academy prizes to her name. Like most celebrities she pushes products and has done commercials for telephone companies, shampoos and cosmetics manufacturers. Yo is married to a man who at the time was a NHK employee in 2006 and is managed by the Alpha Agency.
Acting
Dream Team
The former female members of a high school basketball club have gathered for a party in memory of their basketball coach Ando Katsuhito. 39-year-old Enoki Kana, 53-year-old Tsuruga Yuko and 27-year-old Mishiro Akane are noticeably unhappy. Each of them has just suffered an unforeseen incident, prompting them to say with a touch of self-derision that their prime was during high school. Kana’s image as the “perfect stay-at-home wife” has shattered with the exposé on her husband’s affair. Yuko has not only suddenly fallen from the fast track at her company due to allegations of sexual and power harassment, but also discovered that her boyfriend is cheating on her. Akane has been acting as a girl who has it all on social media but become the target of a huge backlash. While the three women belong to different generations and have different personalities, the one thing that they have in common is that they are former captains of the same basketball club.
AI Amok
In 2030, AI is everywhere including the medical field, finance and security. Artificial intelligence has become essential in people's lives. They have come to completely trust AI, but artificial intelligence becomes out of control and it causes disaster.
Hotel Royal
Set at the Hotel Royal, situated in the marshland of Hokkaido, Japan, and follows the guests, the family that runs the hotel, and the hotel's staff. Masayo Tanaka is the only child of the family that runs Hotel Royal. She failed to enter an arts school and she now works at the hotel. She does not show her emotions to anyone.
Any Crybabies Around?
A man is caught on live national TV naked and drunk in the middle of the sacred Namahage festival, where men dressed in ogre-like costumes visit homes to scare kids into behaving during the next year. Tasuku, a young father, is ostracized for shaming the village and its tradition and flees to Tokyo alone. Two years later, he returns to his hometown to make it up to his ex-wife and their little daughter, only to find himself faced with a very difficult situation.
Mr. Housekeeper, Mitazono
Kaoru Mitazono (Masahiro Matsuoka) is a talented housekeeper with an usual secret. Kaoru is actually a guy! Besides cooking, cleaning and babysitting Kaoru Mitazono has the unusual habit of discovering secrets held within the family of her employers.
Replay & Destroy
Funny stories about freeter Kaname Yokoyama, who dreams of becoming a movie director, and his housemates.
Soup Opera
Sakai plays Rui, a 35-year-old single woman forced to live alone after the aunt who raised her suddenly decides to get married and move out. Through an unexpected set of circumstances, she winds up becoming roommates with an aging ladies’ man named Tony and a timid younger man named Kosuke.
Air Doll
A life-size, inflatable sex doll suddenly comes to life one day. Without her owner knowing, she goes for a walk around town and falls in love with Junichi. She starts to date Junichi and gets a job at the same store where he works. Everything seems to be going perfectly for her until something unexpected happens.
The Ramen Girl
An American woman is stranded in Tokyo after breaking up with her boyfriend. Searching for direction in life, she trains to be a râmen chef under a tyrannical Japanese master.
Departures
Daigo, a cellist, is laid off from his orchestra and moves with his wife back to his small hometown where the living is cheaper. Thinking he’s applying for a job at a travel agency he finds he’s being interviewed for work with departures of a more permanent nature – as an undertaker’s assistant.
Asako in Ruby Shoes
Asako in Ruby Shoes succeeds in providing yet another challenge to views of a homogeneous South Korea by presenting to us the Asian side of modern globalization. The film jumps back and forth from Korea and Japan, with each main character feeling out of place in their respective homes.
The Brutal Insanity of Love
A policewoman (Megumi Yokoyama) investigates the apparent suicide of a college coed. The prime suspects include the girl's professor, who may have been having an affair with her, and the professor's wife, who frequents lesbian bars. Gruesome axe murders and mutilations ensue, leading Yokoyama to a shocking discovery.
A Night in Nude
Jiro is a Tokyo man who offers a stand-in service where he'll do "anything". A woman claiming to be from Fukuoka wants to be shown around Tokyo and see the sights. What Jiro doesn't know is that this woman isn't who she says she is. She's on the run from her Yakuza boyfriend, and Jiro is going to be unwittingly entwined in the situation.
Hiruko the Goblin
A school was built on one of the Gates of Hell, behind which hordes of demons await the moment they will be free to roam the Earth. Hiruko is a goblin sent to Earth on a reconnaissance mission. He beheads students in order to assemble their heads on the demons' spider-like bodies. Hieda, an archaeology professor, and Masao, a haunted student, investigate the gory deaths and eventually battle Hiruko.
