Sunday, August 25, 2019

A Trio of Great Guests!

Yoko Takahashi. Photo by Brett Homenick.

On Saturday night, I had the privilege of attending a fun dinner event with three very special guests, one of whom was a surprise. They were actresses Yoko Takahashi and Rie Yokoyama, as well as director Toru Murakawa.


I've met Takahashi-san several times over the years. She was a prolific actress in the 1970s, with her best-known work in the West being the Oscar-nominated Sandakan 8 (1974). She also can be seen in Kon Ichikawa's The Devil's Ballad (1977).

Rie Yokoyama. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Yokoyama-san appears in Nagisa Oshima's Diary of a Shinjuku Burglar (1969), Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion (1972), episode 10 of Horror Theater Unbalance (1973), Zatoichi's Conspiracy (1973), and Kinji Fukasaku's New Battles without Honor and Humanity: Last Days of the Boss (1976).


I briefly met Yokoyama-san earlier this year, but this time I had a bit more time to spend in her company, which naturally I was happy to do.


Toru Murakawa is a director best known for his many collaborations with actor Yusaku Matsuda. Murakawa-san directed the films The Resurrection of the Golden Wolf (1979) and The Beast to Die (1980), both of which star Matsuda.


On the small screen, he directed episodes of Daitsuiseki (1978) and Tantei Monogatari (1979-80). However, I know Murakawa-san best as the chief assistant director of the Japanese scenes of Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970).

And there you have it! The guests were great, and I had a wonderful time. Let's do it again soon!

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