Sing Out, Louise-san!

Yumi Yoshiyuki. Photo by Brett Homenick.

On Saturday, September 12, I attended an event in which actress-director Yumi Yoshiyuki sang a few songs, karaoke-style. Yoshiyuki-san reached out to me the other day and wanted to know if I could attend. Since I had nothing else going on, I decided to stop by and say hello.

Yoshiyuki-san has directed numerous pink eiga since the 1990s but has also appeared onscreen herself in countless roles, including director Akio Jissoji's adaptation of an Edogawa Rampo story, Murder on D Street (1998), for which she won the Best Supporting Actress Award from the Yokohama Film Festival for her portrayal of Tokiko Sunaga, as well as playing Noriko Murakami in Takashi Shimizu's V-cinema horror classic Ju-On: The Curse (2000). She can also be seen in episode 40 of Ultraman Tiga (1996-97) and episode 37 of Ultraman Dyna (1997-98).

After seeing Yoshiyuki-san's performance, we hung out for a good while, talking about her work with Akio Jissoji and a number of other topics. It was quite enlightening, but ultimately I had to cut it short and leave a bit early. But I'm looking forward to doing it again!