, who, in the early part of her career performed under the name , is a Japanese actress, model, former

gravure idol A model is a person with a role either to promote, display or advertise commercial products (notably fashion clothing in fashion shows) or to serve as a visual aid for people who are creating works of art or to pose for photography. Thou ...

and

AV idol An or is a type of pornographic film actress in Japan. It is a sub-category of the idol culture in Japanese pop entertainment. AV idols work in the pornographic business, often both as an actress as well as a model as the video performances ...

Life and career

Asami was born in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, Japan on September 19, 1985. At age 19, she appeared in the theatrical film , directed by

Naoyuki Tomomatsu is a Japanese film director and screenwriter who has worked in the pink film and horror genres. Life and career Tomomatsu was born in Osaka, Japan in 1967. He was interested in manga and film from high school and started working as an office a ...

and released March 12, 2005 by TMC. She also made a gravure (non-sex) video in March 2005 titled ''Wash Me!'' and she made her debut as an adult video (AV) actress in the April 2005 Kuki Tank release ''In Love''. She continued working for Kuki through 2005, most often with director Harry Sugino, before moving on to other studios. Outside the adult video field, Asami appeared in several

V-Cinema Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, TV series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strategy was p ...

releases and theatrical films including starring in the February 2006 film , directed by

Noboru Iguchi (born June 28, 1969) is a Japanese film director, screenwriter and actor. He has worked as a director in adult video (AV) as well as in the horror and gore genres. Life and career Iguchi was born on June 28, 1969. In an interview he said he wa ...

, where she played a boy with a girl's face who decides to join a girls' school. One reviewer commented that she is "a woman playing a boy playing a girl. Which isn't easy to pull off. However, she actually does a thoroughly decent job of it." In 2008, she also had a lead role playing the title heroine's sidekick Miki in

's gore-fest ''

The Machine Girl is a 2008 Japanese action comedy horror film written and directed by Noboru Iguchi, and starring Minase Yashiro, Asami, Kentarō Shimazu and Honoka. The plot follows an orphaned Japanese schoolgirl whose life is destroyed when her brother i ...

'' which premiered at the

Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival The , also sometimes called YIFFF, is held in a resort-like environment in the small town of Yūbari on the northernmost Japanese island of Hokkaidō. From 1990 to 1999, the festival was known as the Yubari International Fantastic Adventure Fil ...

in March 2008. She reprised her role (billed as Asami Sugiura) in the January 2009 V-Cinema sequel '' Shyness Machine Girl'', although no new footage of her was shot for the short. In between, she also had a part in Yūdai Yamaguchi's horror film ''Tamami: The Baby's Curse'' released in August 2008. For her performances in such '' pink film''s as '' Female Prisoner Ayaka: Tormenting and Breaking in a Bitch'', Asami won third place in the "Best New Actress" category at the

Pink Grand Prix The or is an annual Japanese film award ceremony which recognizes excellence in the pink film genre. Referred to by Miho Toda as the "Academy Awards of the Pink Film", the ceremony attracts a diverse audience of industry personnel, film scholar ...

for the year 2008. Her performance in director Tsukasa Satō's won Asami the Best Actress award at the ceremony for 2009. Asami's November 2008 adult video with three other actresses, ''Three Sisters Ninja Sex'', a period costume female ninja (

kunoichi is a Japanese cant term for . In popular culture, it is often used for female shinobi or practitioner of ninjutsu (''ninpo''). The term was largely popularized by novelist Yamada Futaro in his novel ''Ninpō Hakkenden'' (忍法八犬伝) in 1964 ...

) piece, was the Kasakura entry for the 2009

AV Grand Prix AV Open is a major awards contest for the Japanese adult video industry. It went from a limited sales contest in 2006 to become, via its successor the AV GrandPrix, the major Japanese AV award with nearly 100 participating companies competing for t ...

contest. At the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009, Media Station's Bazooka label released three elaborate historical cosplay AVs starring Asami. Asami announced her retirement from the AV industry November 8, 2008 to devote herself to mainstream acting as Asami Sugiura. Sugiura continued her association with director

, whom she credits with giving her the chance to do mainstream film work, with a role in his 2009 film RoboGeisha. In 2010, she starred in the action films directed by Shin'ichi Okuda, and its sequel with the blood and gore effects for both films provided by

Yoshihiro Nishimura is a Japanese film director, special effects and makeup effects artist, and a screenwriter who has worked predominantly in the horror genre. Nishimura has been described as "a legendary director and effects artist" and "the Tom Savini of Japan ...

. Both films made their world premier at the 2010

and were released theatrically a week apart in May 2010. Other features include co-starring with

AV Idol An or is a type of pornographic film actress in Japan. It is a sub-category of the idol culture in Japanese pop entertainment. AV idols work in the pornographic business, often both as an actress as well as a model as the video performances ...

Saori Hara is a former Japanese AV idol, model and actress who has also used the name and most recently . Early life Saori Hara was born in Hiroshima Prefecture to a Japanese mother and a father of mixed German-Japanese parentage. Mai Nanami Hara star ...

in the 2010 gory sex comedy ''

Horny House of Horror is a 2010 Japanese horror parody film directed and written by Jun Tsugita. The film is about three men, Nakazu (Yuya Ishikawa), Toshida (Wani Kansai) and Uno (Toushi Yanagi) who enter a brothel in Japan to allow Nakazu to have the experience pay ...

'' and a small role in ''

Mutant Girls Squad is a Japanese film by Noboru Iguchi, Yoshihiro Nishimura and Tak Sakaguchi. The film is about Rin, a sixteen-year-old mutant girl who meets a gang of rebel mutants who aim to take revenge on humans for persecuting their race. The film had its inte ...

'' (directed by Iguchi,

, and

Tak Sakaguchi is a Japanese actor, director, fight choreographer, stuntman and martial artist. He is best known for his role in Ryuhei Kitamura's cult film, '' Versus''. Since his debut, Sakaguchi has worked with Kitamura several times, often appearing alo ...

). She appears in the original version of Nishimura's 2010 film ''

Helldriver is a 2010 Japanese splatter film directed by Yoshihiro Nishimura. It stars Yumiko Hara and Eihi Shiina, and was written by Nishimura and Daichi Nagisa. Synopsis A girl named Kika and her father hide from her mother, Rikka, who has gone insane an ...

'', but her scenes were removed from the international cut of the film. In 2011, she co-starred with

Maria Ozawa is a Japanese model and a former pornographic film actress of Canadian and Japanese ancestry. Early in her career as a model, she also used the name . Biography 1986–2002: Early life Ozawa was born in Hokkaido, Japan. Her mother is Japanese ...

's science fiction

release ''Karei naru erogami-ke no ichizoku: Shinsō reijō wa denki shitsuji no yume o miru ka'' which was also released with English subtitles as ''Erotibot''. Sugiura also appeared in two more comic horror films for

, the September 2011 ''

Zombie Ass A zombie (Haitian French: , ht, zonbi) is a mythological undead wikt:corporeal, corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. The term comes from Culture of ...

'' and the July 2012 ''

Dead Sushi is a 2012 Japanese comedy horror film directed by Noboru Iguchi. The film involves Keiko (Rina Takeda) who is the daughter of a famous sushi chef. She leaves home for an inn where she is bullied by the president of Komatsu Pharmaceuticals. A Koma ...

''. Sugiura traveled to

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

, Texas in May 2014 to make her first North American convention appearance to promote her 2014 action film '' Gun Woman'' by director Kurando Mitsutake. The film had won the Special Jury Prize in its debut at the 2014

and Sugiura was given a special mention at the festival for her performance as the heroine.

Partial filmography

* (February 2006) * (March 2008) * (September 2008) (''pink film'') * (October 2009) * (May 2010) * (September 2010) * (September 2010) * (January 2011) * (September 2011) * (July 2012) * (July 2014) * (May 2014) * (September 7, 2016)

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * *

External links

* * * , - ! colspan="3" style="background: #DAA520;" ,

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Sugiura, Asami Japanese female adult models Japanese gravure idols Japanese pornographic film actresses Pink film actors Actresses from Tokyo 1985 births Living people