Yutaka Nakajima. Photo by Brett Homenick.
On Saturday, November 23, I was privileged to meet actress Yutaka Nakajima. She has nothing to do with monster movies, and most movie fans associate her with her work at Toei Studios in the 1970s. Despite having no involvement with sci-fi films, Japanese cult movie fans nonetheless should be familiar with her films.
Born on October 5, 1952, Yutaka Nakajima (a.k.a. Doris Nakajima) co-stars alongside Sonny Chiba in The Street Fighter (1974) as Sarai Chuayut. She also can be seen in Teruo Ishii's The Executioner (1974) and The Executioner 2 (1974) as Emi, The Killing Machine (1975) as Kiku Sakamoto, and Detonation! Violent Games (1976) as Akemi.
I saw The Street Fighter (along with several other classic Sonny Chiba actioners) in my early 20s, so I was quite enthusiastic about meeting Nakajima-san. It was a true joy to spend some time in her company.
Wow! Nice recent pic of Nakajima-San! Hello Brett my name is Jesse, I am 33 years old and I am from the USA. I just stumbled upon your blog just now. I must say I am very impressed. I have always loved the Japanese culture and martial arts. Around 2008 my friend introduced me to Japanese exploitation and pinky films from the 60's-70's, And I fell in love instantly. I also love Sentai. Over the years from 2008 until now I have learned a lot about these actors/actresses.
ReplyDeleteIn 2010 I discovered Mirrorman due to me looking up info on my favorite actress Yoko Ichiji (市地洋子). I am very sad to just finding out now about Mr. Ishida-San's death, He wasn't even that old it's so sad.
It must be a pleasure and a life changing experience to meet all of these former actors/actresses from that era. Lately I have been watching episodes of Mirrorman and I love Yoko Ichiji's acting I think she should have had a bigger role. She also co-starred along side Sonny Chiba in Satsujin Ken 2. Sadly her last known credentials were in 1978.
I was disappointed that she never got bigger roles thus her career just came to a halt. She just vanished from the face of the earth. I have been searching for years on the internet for a recent pic of hers but to no avail. Nor can I find anything of what happened to her after her career. I was wondering since you go to many events and conventions, If maybe you could ask anyone if this is even possible LOL! If they know anything about her possibly Mr. Chiba himself since he worked with her. That'd be amazing if you ever see Mr. Chiba tell him he has a big fan from Florida.
I hope to one day visit Japan and get some of my items autographed. Thanks Brett for your blog it made my day. Always a fan.
Sincerely, Mister James.