Mariko Okada


Mariko Okada is a Japanese stage and film actress who starred in films of directors Mikio Naruse, Yasujirō Ozu, Keisuke Kinoshita and others. She was married to film director Yoshishige Yoshida.

Biography

Okada was born the daughter of silent film actor Tokihiko Okada, who died the year following her birth, and raised by her mother's sister in her early childhood. She gave her film debut in Mikio Naruse's 1951 Dancing Girl, for whom she worked again in Husband and Wife, Floating Clouds and Nagareru. Unsatisfied with the roles she was assigned to, she left Toho studios after her contract expired, and signed with Shochiku. In the following years, she starred in Yasujirō Ozu's Late Autumn and An Autumn Afternoon, Keisuke Kinoshita's Spring Dreams and The Scent of Incense, and Heinosuke Gosho's Hunting Rifle.
The 1962 Akitsu Springs was Okada's 100th film and the first under the direction of her future husband Yoshishige Yoshida. Between 1965 and 1971, she starred in all of Yoshida's films, independently produced melodramas narrated in an avant-garde fashion, of which Eros + Massacre was the formally most radical.
In later years, she appeared in films like Juzo Itami's Tampopo and Shinji Aoyama's My God, My God, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?, her last film role to date. She also regularly performed on stage and on television.

Partial filmography

Film

YearTitleRoleNotes
1951Dancing GirlShinako
1953Husband and WifeKumiko, Shigekichi's sister
1954Samurai I: Musashi MiyamotoAkemi
1955Floating CloudsSei Mukai
1955The Lone JourneyOtaka
1955Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji TempleAkemi
1956FlowingNanako
1956Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu IslandAkemi
1957Yagyu Secret ScrollsRika
1957When It Rains, It PoursMatsuko Abe
1960Spring DreamsChizuko Okudaira
1960Late AutumnYuriko Sasaki
1961Hunting RifleMidori
1961EnrapturedSenya
1962An Autumn AfternoonAkiko Hirayama
1962Akitsu SpringsShinkoAlso Producer
1964The Scent of IncenseTomoko
1965A Story Written with WaterShizuka, Shizuo's mother
1965Illusion of BloodOiwa
1966Woman of the LakeMiyako Mizuki
1967The AffairOriko
1968Affair in the SnowYuriko Anzai
1969Eros + MassacreNoe Ito
1970Heroic PurgatoryNanako, Rikiya's wife
1977Proof of the ManKyoko Yasugi
1978The Fall of Ako CastleRiku
1982ConquestHiroko Tadokoro
1985Tampopo"Spaghetti Sensei", the etiquette coach
1987A Taxing WomanMitsuko Sugiura
1998The Geisha HouseHanaman's owner
2002Women in the MirrorAi Kawase
2005My God, My God, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?Navi

Television

Awards