Saturday, December 17, 2011

Saturday Scream Queen: Kumi Mizuno


Born on New Year's Day in 1937, began her film career appearing in thrillers and mystery films, but as the 1960s progressed, her good looks and pleasant demeanor made her a favorite of director IshirĂ´ Honda and thus she became Toho's go-to gal when it came to befriending or being menaced by aliens and monsters of all kinds, in a range of sci-fi and horror films.

Mizuno emerged from her stint with monsters as one of Japan's most popular actresses and moved away from the horror and sci-fi genres as the 1970s progressed.

With a career that has spanned more than five decades at this point, she remains much-loved among the Japanese movie-going public and continues to act in films up to the present day. While she personally never put much weight on her early career co-starring with giant monsters and special effects, she returned to face Godzilla once more in Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla (2002) and Godzilla: Final Wars (2004), two entries in the Toho Company's "Millenium" series.

2 comments:

  1. I really really identified with her as a kid. I remember watching those Japanese movies and thinking "wow, a beautiful brown-eyed actress!" because pretty much all models and actresses when I was a kid were blue-eyed except for Natalie Wood. I always thought she was so graceful and classy.

    ReplyDelete
  2. She has a sweetness about her that is very appealing. And she had some of my favorite costars in her early career! Fantastic choice, Steve!

    ReplyDelete