is a Japanese film

Cinema of Japan

The has a history that spans more than 100 years. Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world – as of 2009 the fourth largest by number of feature films produced. Movies have been produced in Japan since 1897, when the first foreign cameramen arrived...

 actress, born on 30 November 1985, in Okinawa, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. She began her career in 1997 as a teenage idol

Japanese idol

In Japanese culture, are media personalities in their teens and early twenties who are considered particularly attractive or cute and who will, for a period ranging from several months to a few years, regularly appear in the mass media, e.g...

 singer in the J-pop

J-pop

, an abbreviation for Japanese pop, is a musical genre that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1990s. Modern J-pop has its roots in 1960s music, such as The Beatles, and replaced kayōkyoku in the Japanese music scene...

 groups Folder and Folder 5

Folder 5

Folder 5 was a five-girl Japanese pop idol group on the avex trax label. The group, consisting of Okinawa-natives, was known for singing Eurobeat-style music.- History of Folder 5 :...

. She made her acting debut in Rebirth of Mothra II

Rebirth of Mothra II

Rebirth of Mothra II, released in Japan as , is a 1997 Kaiju film, second in Toho's Mothra Trilogy, which began with Rebirth of Mothra in 1996...

 in 1997, but did not start acting regularly until 2005. She appeared in manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

-based thriller film Death Note

Death Note (film)

is a series of two live-action Japanese films released in 2006 and based on the Death Note manga and anime series by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata. The films primarily center on a university student who decides to rid the world of evil with the help of a supernatural notebook that kills anyone...

 in 2006 and the controversial drama Love Exposure

Love Exposure

is a 2008 Japanese film written and directed by Sion Sono. The film gained a considerable amount of notoriety in film festivals around the world for its four-hour duration and themes including love, family, lust, religion and the art of upskirt photography. The first version was originally six...

, directed by Sion Sono

Sion Sono

is a controversial Japanese filmmaker and poet. He was born in Toyokawa, Aichi, Japan, and is best known for his films as well as avant-garde poetry performances.-Early career:...

, in 2008. Her performance in Love Exposure brought her to critical attention and won several awards. Since then she has had starring roles in Kakera: A Piece of Our Life (2009) and Sawako Decides (2010), directed and written by Yuya Ishii (aged 27), which eventually led to her marriage to him in late 2010.

Filmography

• Motra II: Kaitei no Daikessen / Mothra 2: The Undersea Battle- (1997)
• Death Note
  Death Note (film)
  is a series of two live-action Japanese films released in 2006 and based on the Death Note manga and anime series by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata. The films primarily center on a university student who decides to rid the world of evil with the help of a supernatural notebook that kills anyone...
  
   (2006)
• Death Note: The Last Name
  Death Note (film)
  is a series of two live-action Japanese films released in 2006 and based on the Death Note manga and anime series by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata. The films primarily center on a university student who decides to rid the world of evil with the help of a supernatural notebook that kills anyone...
  
   (2006)
• Exte
  Exte
  is a 2007 Japanese horror film written and directed by Sion Sono, and stars Chiaki Kuriyama, Ren Osugi, and Megumi Satō. The title is a Japanese slang shortening Romanization of the English term "extension" from "hair extension"....
  
   / Exte: Hair Extensions (2007)
• Boku no kanojo to sono kareshi ~Drop in Ghost~ (2007)
• Shaolin Shojo / Shaolin Girl (2008)
• Ai no Mukidashi / Love Exposure (2008)
• Pride (2009)
• Chanto tsutaeru / Be sure to share (2009)
• Kuhio Taisa
  Kuhio taisa
  -Awards:31st Yokohama Film Festival* Best Actor - Masato Sakai* Best Supporting Actress - Sakura Andou-External links:*...
  
   / The Wonderful World of Captain Kuhio (2009)
• Kakera / Kakera: A Piece of Our Life (2009)
• Shokudo Katatsumuri / Rinco's Restaurant (2010)
• Kawa no soko kara konnichi wa / Sawako Decides (2010)
• Akunin
  Akunin
  Akunin may refer to:* Boris Akunin , the pen name of Grigory Shalvovich Chkhartishvili, a Georgian-Russian writer* akunin means "person who commits chaos, violence and repeat evildoing", "villain" in Japanese...
  
   / Villain (2010)
• Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai
  Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai
  is a 2011 Japanese 3D drama film directed by Takashi Miike. It was produced by Jeremy Thomas and Toshiaki Nakazawa, who previously teamed with Miike on 2010's 13 Assassins. The film is a 3D re-imagining of Masaki Kobayashi's 1962 film Harakiri. It premiered In Competition at the 2011 Cannes Film...
  
   / Ichimei (2011)
• Tormented
  Tormented (2011 film)
  is a 2011 Japanese horror film directed by Takashi Shimizu. The film involves Kiriko and her younger half-brother Daigo who are haunted by a large rabbit-doll...
  
   / Rabbit Horror 3D (2011)
• SMUGGLER (2011)

Television

• Ultraman Max
  Ultraman Max
  was an Ultraman TV series which started airing on 7 July 2005, and produced by Tsuburaya Productions and Chubu-Nippon Broadcasting Co., Ltd.. The show tried to return to the true formula of new monsters every week and being a fast paced show like previous series with the exception of Ultraman Nexus...
  
   (2005)
• Beni no monshô (2006)
• Kaette kita jikô keisatsu (2007)
• Kekkon sagishi (2007)
• Kamen Rider Den-O
  Kamen Rider Den-O
  is the seventeenth installment in the popular Kamen Rider Series of tokusatsu programs. It is a joint collaboration between Ishimori Productions and Toei. It premiered January 28, 2007 on TV Asahi, and concluded airing on January 20, 2008...
  
   (2007)
• Hitomi (2008)
• Uramiya honpo reboot (2009)
• Bloody Monday
  Bloody Monday
  Bloody Monday was the name given the election riots of August 6, 1855, in Louisville, Kentucky. These riots grew out of the bitter rivalry between the Democrats and supporters of the Know-Nothing Party. Rumors were started that foreigners and Catholics had interfered with the process of voting...
  
   (2010)
• Moteki (2010)
• Dazai osamu tanpen shôsetsu shû 3 (2010)
• Ohisama (2011)
• Soredemo, Ikite yuku (2011)
• Kaitakushatachi (2012)

Awards

She has won the following awards for her performances:

Fant-Asia Film Festival

• 2009 - Jury Prize: Best Female Performance - Love Exposure

Hochi Film Awards

• 2009 - Best New Talent - Love Exposure, Pride, The Wonderful World of Captain Kuhio

Kinema Junpo Awards

• 2010 - Best Supporting Actress - Love Exposure, Pride, The Wonderful World of Captain Kuhio

Mainichi Film Concours

• 2010 - Sponichi Grand Prize: New Talent Award (shared with co-star Takahiro Nishijima) - Love Exposure

Yokohama Film Festival

Yokohama Film Festival

The is a noticed yearly awards ceremony held in Japan. The festival was started as a small affair by fans and film critics, and first held on February 3, 1980. Ten films are chosen as the best of the year, and various awards are given to personnel...

• 2010 - Best New Talent - Love Exposure, Pride, The Wonderful World of Captain Kuhio

External links

• Official blog