
Yoko Shimada
Acting
Biography
Kumamoto City-born Shimada Yoko is best known in the west as Mariko from the 1980 mini-series Shogun. The lady-in-waiting role created an interest in Japan and its culture overseas and introduced Japanese history to foreign audiences. She won the Golden Globe For Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series - Drama category and was nominated for a Prime-time Emmy Award for her work on the serial in 1981. Shimada, who spoke some English for the serial, had been acting for years prior to Shogun however. She began learning ballet since age three and wanted to become a ballerina until her high high school days. Her family had moved to Tokyo when she was eight. She obtained an agent and began acting while in junior high school. The TV serial Zoku Hyouten made her famous beginning 1970. She released a nude photo book, called Kir Royal, in 1992. She was 39 and the photo book became a bestseller shifting half a million copies. At 57 she starred in an 'AV' pornography video called Mikkai in 2011. This was a tribute to her body even at that age. Shimada has a reservation for a space burial.
Known For

An English navigator becomes both a player and pawn in complex political games in feudal Japan.
Shōgun

Luzon Sukezaemon is a merchant who imports vases from the Philippines. The vases are highly valued as tea utensils and he makes a huge profit. This was the first taiga drama to concentrate on the lives of commoners and the reviled merchant class of the Tokugawa period. It documents the rise and fall of the merchant city of Sakai, as seen by its most famous resident, the semilegendary Luzon.
Ōgon no Hibi

"Tuesday Suspense Theater" was broadcast every Tuesday from 21:00 to 22:54 ( JST ) on the Nippon Television network for 24 years from September 29 , 1981 to September 27, 2005. It was a two-hour drama slot. As a general rule, suspense dramas with one complete episode (very rarely, two parts) were broadcast every week from 21:00 to 22:54 ( JST ). It is a broadcast frame. Some episodes also aired horror, historical dramas, and special effects dramas.
Tuesday Suspense Theater

A powerful trading company uses all means to obtain the uranium enrichment technology.
Fushoku no kōzō

Paul Racine, a high-powered American business executive in Japan, is catapulted into a maze of danger and intrigue after he and his sexy companion are the targets of assassins hired by the ruthless Kinjo. To survive, Racine must join forces with a powerful samurai and together they will fight the force of evil in an awesome battle rooted in centuries of brutal conflict.
The Hunted

A serial killing occurs at a port town brothel.
Labyrinth Romanesque

A lethal assassin for a secret Chinese organisation, who sheds tears of regret each time he kills, is seen swiftly and mercilessly executing three Yakuza gangsters by a beautiful artist. She is captivated by the grace of his kill and later falls in love with him. An intense power struggle for the leadership of the Yakuza Clans ensues as they seek vengeance for the death of their leader.
Crying Freeman

When a tycoon passes away, he unexpectedly leaves the family fortune to outsider Tamayo on the condition that she marries one of the grandsons, pitting blood against blood.
The Inugami Family

Film company engineer Kohei is on his way home one night when he sees a woman taken ill at a train station. He ensures that she gets home safely, at which point the woman, Fumi, tells him, she has conceived, birthed, and raised his child.
Sunflower on the Hill

Two detectives are tasked to investigate the murder of an old man, found bludgeoned to death in a Tokyo rail yard.
The Castle of Sand

Elite college graduates commit perfect financial crimes though loopholes in the law during the 1950s.
Dead Angle

Momojiro comes to the rescue of beautiful Akiko who struggles to run a ranch on her own.
Truckster Goes to Hokkaido

A 1970s Toho coming-of-age film.
First Love

The Shocker Organization sends two of its Inhumanoids to destroy an atomic plant, but their plan is foiled by an invisible barrier that surrounds the complex. Because of this, they abduct a top soccer player and convert him into Tokageron, a lizard Inhumanoid capable of kicking a 5 kg bomb to destroy the plant's barrier. Kamen Rider must once again combat the Shocker and prevent them from destroying the atomic plant.
Go Go Kamen Rider

From Hokkaido to Tokyo, hunting dog Goro embarks on a long and grueling journey to reach home. With the loss of his master who held a secret to a weapons smuggling case and the corruptions of those who are involved, Goro's adventure unfolds.
Dog of Fortune

One evening, when the monk Saito Musashibo Benkei was luring for his sword number 1000 at Gojo bridge, Shanao (later Yoshitsune), a young man of small and fragile stature passed by. He wore a nice sword and played the flute.
Minamoto Yoshitsune

A film adaptation of Seicho Matsumoto's novel of the same title, starring Muga Takewaki and Yoko Shimada. Set in Japan at the end of the war, the film depicts the fate of a diplomat who abandoned his country, his wife and children, and risked everything to save his country from ruin, and the bond between father and daughter.
Kyukei no Koya

Shinku is a compelling drama that focuses on the strange relationship that develops between two people who find their lives irrevocably changed as a result of a horrible multiple homicide. The first person traumatized is the lone survivor of the terrible family bloodbath, a girl who grows up to be a pretty college student. The second person affected by this heinous crime is the daughter of the murderer, a young girl who ends up becoming a tattooed bartender. A full decade after the crime, the killer is finally going to be executed, and the surviving member of the massacre decides to reach out and befriend the murderer's daughter. A tentative, odd sort of friendship blossoms between these two people, both of whom seem to have little in common personally, and every reason in the world for not wanting to meet. Yet they do, but not without reservations. And really, is this friendship quite what it seems? Or is it all part of some twisted plan for vengeance?
The Deep Red

Ai Kishimoto, Yukari Miyazawa and Akane Kishimoto are sisters. The sisters live apart in Kanazawa, Toyama and Tokyo, but they gather together to attend their grandmother's funeral. There, they learn about their mother whom they know as deceased. While seeking out the the truth about their mother, the sisters face their own problems, but take a courageous step forward.
Kanon

Nakadai is an English teacher at a local school. He’s put-upon like the patron figure of dozens of films and televisions shows. Viewers who are especially fans of Nakadai will appreciate how the actor comically rants about here. His home life is almost disastrous, with a ditzy (but attractive) wife, three young children, a loud school nearby that’s controlled by a corrupt businessman he loathes, and frequent visits from layabout friends. And the grey-furred, green-eyed cat!