
Meiko Kaji
Actor · b. 1947 · Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan
Masako Ōta, known as Meiko Kaji, is a Japanese actress and enka singer born on 24 March 1947 in Chiyoda, Tokyo Prefecture. After graduating from Yakumo Academy in Meguro in 1965, she made her debut at Nikkatsu Studios under her real name, playing supporting roles in the late 1960s. Her first notable role came in 1969 in *Nihon Zankyoden*. She gained visibility with the 1970-1971 series *Stray Cat Rock* (Noraneko Rokku), playing young rebels in five films. In the 1970s, she excelled in roles as outlaws, notably in the *Joshuu Sasori* (Prisonnière Scorpion) series at Toei, with four films, the first of which was released in 1972. She became an icon with *Lady Snowblood* (1973), which greatly inspired Quentin Tarantino in *Kill Bill*. Her other notable films include *Double Suicide at Sonezaki* (1978). She also sang for her films and released several albums and singles. She has appeared in over 100 films and series since the 1960s.
Movies23
Movie7.0ActionDramaAfter being cruelly set up and deceived by Sugimi, a detective in cahoots with the mob with whom she was whole-heartedly in love, Matsushima’s desire for revenge knows no bounds.
Movie6.2DramaActionNami is once again on the run from the law but is saved by an old classmate who works at a strip club. Through a subsequent conversation they discover they both have a score to settle with a particular crooked cop. However, Nami has doubts about ever trusting a man.
Movie7.5ActionCrimeA strikingly beautiful young woman is trained from birth to be a deadly instrument of revenge against the swindlers who destroyed her family.
Movie7.1ActionDramaAfter being used and betrayed by the detective she had fallen in love with, young Matsu is sent to a female prison full of sadistic guards and disobedient prisoners.
Movie6.8DramaActionFollowing her successful prison break, Scorpion begins this third episode in the series hiding out in a brothel. Her prostitute friend tries to keep her identity secret, but the brothel's madam discovers that Scorpion is the ex-girlfriend of the vice officer who killed her lover.
Movie7.5CrimeDramaMikami, an ex-yakuza of middle age with most of his life in prison, gets released after serving 13 years of sentence for murder. Hoping to find his long lost mother, from whom he was separated as a child, he applies for a TV show and meets a young TV director Tsunoda. Meanwhile, he struggles to get a proper job and fit into society. His impulsive, adamant nature and ingrained beliefs cause friction in his relationship with Tsunoda and those who want to help him.
Movie6.4ActionDramaLady Snowblood is caught by the police and sentenced to death for her crimes. As she is sent to the gallows she is rescued by the secret police who offer her a deal to assassinate some revolutionaries.
Movie7.3DramaCrimeRepeatedly beat to a pulp by gamblers, cops, and gangsters, lone wolf Shoji Yamanaka finally finds a home as a Muraoka family hitman and falls in love with boss Muraoka's niece. Meanwhile, the ambitions of mad dog Katsutoshi Otomo draws our series' hero, Shozo Hirono, and the other yakuza into a new round of bloodshed.
Movie5.6ThrillerActionThe series swansong, Beat '71, sees Kaji framed and sent to prison by her boyfriend's father and with the help of some hippies she strives to be re-united.
Movie7.4ActionCrimeThe seventh in the shocking "Jingi Naki Tatakai" movie series, which exposes the true lives of the yakuza that is hidden by a mask of "jingi". The next stage of this continuing drama is the Kanmon Channel where the Owada and the Kyoei groups are battling for territorial rights and drug smuggling. The Owada sends their man, Tetsu, and his friend Shuji to kill the Kyoei boss. With the promise of fame and riches, Shuji takes the fall and goes to jail for 7 years. But when he's released, he discovers that he and Tetsu have been all but forgotten by the Owada. Feeling betrayed, Shuji takes matters into his own hands and becomes an unsuspecting pawn in an internal conflict and an assassination attempt on the Owada boss. And now angered, Shuji seeks revenge...
Movie6.3CrimeHorrorAkemi is a dragon tattooed leader of the Tachibana Yakuza clan. In a duel with a rival gang Akemi slashes the eyes of an opponent and a black cat appears, to lap the blood from the gushing wound. The cat along with the eye-victim go on to pursue Akemi’s gang in revenge, leaving a trail of dead Yakuza girls, their dragon tattoos skinned from their bodies.
Movie5.5ActionCrimeThe 224-minute compilation edition of Battles Without Honor and Humanity compiles these four movies: Battles Without Honor and Humanity, Deadly Fight in Hiroshima, Proxy War, Police Tactics.
Movie7.3CrimeMysteryEiji Akutsu is a newspaper reporter. He is working on unsolved case that took place 30 years ago. The case involved a group of people extorting several companies for money. The group sent cassette tapes to the companies. Eiji Akutsu comes across a mysterious cassette tape. Meanwhile, Toshiya Sone lives in Kyoto and runs a tailor shop. He discovers a cassette tape among his late father's possessions. He plays the cassette tape and hears his voice from his childhood days.
Movie6.1DramaRomanceKenji is overjoyed when his usually thrifty boyfriend takes him on a trip to Kyoto for his birthday, but the trip ends up uncovering a painful topic.
Movie6.3ThrillerActionTwo Japanese men help a Vietnam war deserter escape from Japan for Sweden. They plan to fund the escape by selling LSD pills. After word of the drug deal gets spread around they find themselves fending off rival gangs.
Movie6.4DramaThe story of an orphan girl, brought up in naive, rustic innocence by an elderly relative, who is suddenly exposed to the brutality, greed and deceptiveness of the outside world when her grandmother dies.
- Movie8.5HistoryDrama
Keinosuke (Masakazu Tamura) is a ronin (wandering samurai) who lives on the streets although he is a nobleman. There’s just one woman in this world that he loves, Shiho (Emi Wakui) but when he meets her again, she is already someone else’s wife. Her husband is a key person in the Chushingura incident. Love reignites between Keinosuke and Shiho but they get caught up in the spiral of fate of the Chushingura incident...
Movie6.3CrimeDramaSuicide has long been used as a form of social protest in Japan. In this film, set in 1703, samurai culture is being transformed by the emergence of a new merchant class. Elements of the social contract are beginning to unravel, and some unscrupulous people took undue advantage of these changes before the social order was re-created. In this story, a rich merchant gives his clerk an I.O.U. instead of wages. When the impoverished clerk presents the paper to the merchant at the agreed upon time asking for payment, the man flies into a rage and pretends he never wrote it and claims the clerk is trying to defraud him. Then he sets his henchmen on the clerk to administer a beating.
MovieDramaCrimeThe third installment of the "Night front line" series. An erotic entertainment action in which two young men come to Tokyo and meet face-to-face with a nocturnal organization that controls women with sex and violence.
Movie6.0DramaCrimeA wandering tough biker girl aids a female delinquent gang in their battles against an all-male Seiyu group over a fixed boxing match.
Movie6.8ActionThrillerNami "The Red Cherry Blossom" returns to her old stomping ground in the seedy Tokyo district of Ginza after a stint in prison for killing a yakuza boss. She soon settles in, living in her uncle's pool hall and working at the local hostess club. But when ruthless yakuza Ōwada attempts to take control of the club, Nami and her uncle devise a plan to take him down.
Movie7.0CrimeDramaIn the roaring 1970s, a man who has left the world of the yakuza to become the owner of a sushi restaurant decides to rise up again when he sees his former family being overrun by a modern yakuza group from the Kansai region.
Movie7.7ActionDramaMeiko Kaji reprises her role as Nami, a vengeful female gang leader, in the second installment of this high-action series that casts a new actor -- martial arts legend Sonny Chiba -- in the role of Nami's loyal friend Ryuji. This time around, Nami is looking for Hoshiden, the man who murdered her father and shattered her once-hopeful childhood. But living under an assumed name, Hoshiden could stay hidden forever.
Series16
TV8.5ComedySMAP×SMAP was an ongoing weekly Japanese variety show on Kansai TV and Fuji TV starring the members of SMAP. The show began on April 15, 1996 and it aired from 22:00 to 22:54 every Monday. The show's usual ratings were higher than 20%, which is considered high since most variety shows range from 10-20%. Each episode begins a variety of skits, comedic performances, and/or games. These are followed by Bistro SMAP, in which the SMAP members compete against each other to impress celebrity judges with their gourmet cooking. Last is a musical performance by SMAP which may include celebrity guests, as well.
SMAP×SMAP
1996 · 2 votes
TV7.8DramaAction & AdventureHasegawa is a chief police of big heart who leads a band of samurai police and cultivates reformed criminals as informants to solve difficult crimes.
TVDramaAfter her family breaks apart and she ends up behind bars, a defiant teen fights her way back into the world through rhythm and rebellion, driven by a dream to start a band and rewrite her life.
TV8.2ComedyDramaA brilliant chocolatier who's afraid of making eye contact meets an heir who can't touch others — but somehow, they're immune to each other.
TV7.5DramaSci-Fi & FantasyAfter a selfless act costs him his life, teen delinquent Yusuke Urameshi is chosen as a Spirit Detective to investigate cases involving rogue yokai.
TV7.1ComedyLawyer Shiro pours his heart into home-cooked meals for his partner, hairstylist Kenji, as they navigate life as a middle-aged gay couple in Tokyo.
TV6.8DramaThis seven-episode anthology features a cast of leading actors and depicts various forms of "love," such as love almost forgotten, love between sons and mothers, and love that transcends borders.
TV10.0Continuing the tradition of the Yojimbo movies, Mifune Toshiro stars as Toge Kujuro, a wandering ronin searching for his own fame and happiness. With a sense of justice, he travels the countryside, with his motley collection of outcasts - a pistol-carrying ronin, a two-bit con artist and woman seeking revenge, following close behind, unwittingly righting wrongs and protecting the common man.
TV6.5ComedyDramaKamiwatari Kotone is a geisha in Kyoto. While she is sleeping after a night of drinking, her fellow geisha is killed. Kotone Kamiwatari is falsely accused of her murder and is sent to prison. There, she is bullied by other prisoners, but Kotone relies on her training from senior geishas to persevere. She also learns why she was framed for murder and sent to prison.
TV6.8Comedy"Kekkon Shinai" follows the lives of single people in their 30's and 40's.
TVComedyA romantic comedy set in a high school in Kamakura. Ekiden Club member Yutaro Takagi and Beth Green, an exchange student from the US enrolled in the same class, are married internationally due to certain circumstances, which puts them in a difficult position, and the drama depicts their lives and the various events that occur at the school.
TV10.0Set against the backdrop of the reign of the 11th Tokugawa Shogun, Ienari Tokugawa, this drama is a masterpiece of action period drama that broke the mold of traditional detective stories and attracted a great deal of attention.
TV8.0DramaAfter 2 years of completely isolation in mountains, Musashi comes back in order to live a normal life. However, after his duel against Kojiro Sasaki he has many enemies who want to kill him...
TV7.0MysteryDramaAzusa the wife, Otaro the husband, and their only daughter Suzu. They live in a little public dwelling in Tokyo. They're a fairly ordinary family of three living a normal but happy life. That is, until they move into that house. Then all sorts of frightening experiences escalate and involve the entire family, developing into incidents that will give goosebumps. Would you be able to defend your precious family if a major disaster should suddenly occur? The topics in this series are family and life itself, the ultimate topics for everyone. This drama uses the form of a horror suspense show to depict the bonds within a family. --Fuji TV
TVDramaSet in the Sengoku Period, a time of turmoil and upheaval, this action period drama follows the solitary life of Sae, the "Hagure Kiba," who takes on dangerous jobs for hire.
TVAction & AdventureDramaIt is the Edo period during the ninth Shogun Ieshige's reign. Orin's father was falsely accused of attempting to assassinate the former Shogun Yoshimune and in accordance with her father's wishes, Orin joins the secret assassination group Tegusari-nin, headed by Uemura Doestsu. In the organization, Orin fights through many dangers. But one day, she realizes she is being used by Doetsu in order to advance his ambition.