is a Japanese actress known especially for her roles in

Nikkatsu is a Japanese entertainment company known for its film and television productions. It is Japan's oldest major movie studio, founded in 1912 during the silent film era. The name ''Nikkatsu'' amalgamates the words Nippon Katsudō Shashin, literally ...

Roman Porno in its broadest sense includes almost any Japanese theatrical film that includes nudity (hence 'pink') or deals with sexual content. This encompasses everything from dramas to action thrillers and exploitation film features. The Western equi ...

series of films in the early 1980s.

Life and career

Kazama was born in

Nagasaki Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Nagasaki Prefecture has a population of 1,314,078 (1 June 2020) and has a geographic area of 4,130 km2 (1,594 sq mi). Nagasaki Prefecture borders Saga Prefecture to the northeast. N ...

, Japan on May 25, 1956. She began her acting career at least as early as December 1979 with the

Shintōhō Eiga is a Japanese pink film production company and film distributor located in Tokyo, Japan which has been among the most influential studios in the pink film genre since its beginnings. Foundation The first Shintōhō, or "New Toho", also known a ...

pink film directed by Kaoru Umezawa. During the first half of 1980 she made several more pink films for

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and other studios including , directed by

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and co-starring

Shirō Shimomoto is a Japanese '' pink film'' actor and director from Osaka, Japan. He has been called "one of the most individual actors" in the world of pink film. Life and career Shimomoto was born in Osaka, Japan on August 14, 1948. He started his career as ...

released by

in March 1980. She appeared in her first film for

in July 1980, the

release directed by Shōgorō Nishimura. Pink film critics Thomas & Yuko Mihara Weisser credit Nishimura, who wrote and directed several of her features, with discovering and nurturing Kazama as a Nikkatsu actress and claim that though not a beautiful woman, she "smells of sex." Two months after this film, Nishimura directed Kazama in a vehicle suited to her talents in an attempt to give Nikkatsu a new star to replace

Naomi Tani is a Japanese pink film actress who is best known for her appearances in Nikkatsu's '' Roman Porno'' films with an S&M theme during the 1970s. Life and career Early Born October 20, 1948, in the Hakata ward of Fukuoka, Naomi Tani moved to Tokyo ...

who had retired in 1979. The film, , was the first of the four-part "Woman Who ..." series all starring Kazama.Weisser p.513 The second film in the series, , directed by Akira Katō, was released in November 1980. The third entry in the series '' Woman Who Exposes Herself'' came out in January 1981. Kazama's acting in this film won her the award for Best Actress at the 3rd Yokohama Film Festival. The final film in the series, the June 1981 , was directed by

Masaru Konuma is a Japanese film director known for his '' Roman Porno'' films for Nikkatsu during the 1970s. Life and career Early life Masaru Konuma was born in Otaru, Hokkaidō, on December 30, 1937. Konuma retains no memories of his father who was a te ...

, who had also directed ''Woman Who Exposes Herself''. The Weissers comment that throughout the series "Kazama's acting ability always shines through." By this time, according to the Weissers, Kazama had become Nikkatsu's "biggest actress of the '80s." In September 1981, Kazama was paired with Nikkatsu director Takashi Sugano in another film tailor-made for her, , where she plays a sexually aggressive woman who finds ecstasy in witnessing a murder. Kazama worked with director Sugano once more in April 1982 in in which she again plays a wayward wife. The Weissers consider this film and the earlier ''Poaching Wife: Frustrated Inside'' to be two of her best efforts. The

Japanese Movie Database The , more commonly known as simply JMDb, is an online database of information about Japanese movies, actors, and production crew personnel. It is similar to the Internet Movie Database but lists only those films initially released in Japan. Y. ...

lists the July 1982 release as Kazama's last film for Nikkatsu, a movie in which she plays only a minor role. Kazama also had small parts in two 1982 mainstream movies, ''

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'' and ''Weekend Shuffle''. In April 1987, Kazama married comedian Susumu Kimura and settled in

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Filmography

* (Dec. 1979,

) * ' (Mar. 1980,

) * (July 1980,

) * (Sept. 1980, Nikkatsu) * (Nov. 1980, Nikkatsu) * '' Woman Who Exposes Herself'' (Jan. 1981, Nikkatsu) * (Mar. 1981, Nikkatsu) * (May 1981, Nikkatsu) * (June 1981, Nikkatsu) * (Sept. 1981, Nikkatsu) * (Nov. 1981, Nikkatsu) * (Dec. 1981, Nikkatsu) * (Feb. 1982, Nikkatsu) * (Feb. 1982, Nikkatsu) * (Apr. 1982, Nikkatsu) * (June 1982, Takahashi Prod.) * (July 1982, Nikkatsu) * (Oct. 1982, Joypack)

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kazama, Maiko 1956 births Living people Japanese film actresses