Junko Miyashita - Career

Career

Junko Miyashita was born in Tokyo on January 29, 1949. She was working as a waitress at a coffee shop when she was recruited to work in Pink films. Her debut film was in July, 1971 with That's How I Lost (私はこうして失った?). Her work in Nikkatsu's Roman Porno genre included eight entries in the Apartment Wife series from 1972 until 1974. She worked with leading pink film director Kōji Wakamatsu, and some of the best directors in Nikkatsu's Roman Porno films, including Noboru Tanaka, and Tatsumi Kumashiro. Among the highlights of her early career were starring roles in Tanaka's Showa Trilogy (A Woman Called Sada Abe (1975), Watcher in the Attic (1976), and Beauty's Exotic Dance: Torture! (1977)). An exceptionally good actress for the genre, she was nominated for a Japanese Academy Award for best new actress in her roles in Kihachi Okamoto's film, Dynamite Bang Bang and Hideo Gosha's Bandit vs. Samurai Squad (both 1978). She was awarded the Blue Ribbon Award for both of these roles. She was again nominated for a Japanese Academy Award in 1979 for best actress for her role in Woman with Red Hair, and won the Hochi News award for both this role and for Wet Weekend. The following year, she was given a special award for her career at the Yokohama Film Festival.

From the 1980s, she began working more in mainstream films, including two award-winning films for Mitsuo Yanagimachi: Fire Festival (Himatsuri) (1985) and About Love, Tokyo (Ai ni tsuite, Tokyo) (1992). Commenting on his work with Miyashita, director Noboru Tanaka later said, "I liked her natural manner. She always looks very natural, but you can feel the great power and strength that she has. She had a very traditional and conservative Japanese style, but her determination could be seen on the screen... she was a traditional Japanese beauty who also had energy and strength, and that was what I liked about her."