Rinko Kikuchi
☼ Born on 6 December 1981, in Hadano, Japan
BiographyRinko was born Kikuchi Yuriko in Hadano just south of Tokyo. The town is known mainly for its green tea and public baths. She is the youngest of three siblings. After being scouted on the street, she began modeling in her hometown and subsequently began acting under her birth name before switching to Rinko. She appeared in the cult film The Taste Of Tea, but came to mainstream audiences' attention for her role in Babel, for which she had learned sign language. She played a deaf-mute. She was the first Japanese actress to be nominated for the Oscars in 50 years, since Miyoshi Umeki. Other than that she had appeared in commercials, including ads for Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent, as well as Japanese soap operas. As a result, her popularity rose outside her native country. She moved to New York City and lived for a time with director Spike Jonze, whom she had met in Tokyo at a film festival in 2009. That's when she began taking English lessons. While she had appeared in the acclaimed film version of Norwegian Wood, her later American were mostly popcorn flicks like 47 Ronin and Pacific Rim. Her success and foray into American entertainment continued with her castings in Kumiko, and Westworld. Rinko married Japanese actor Sometani Shota in 2014 and gave birth to a son in October 2016. She is a capable rider of horses and motorcycles and grew up watching samurai films.
In the role of actor
Pacific Rim: Uprising (23/03/2018)
The war between the Kaiju and Jaegers resumes in Pacific Rim: Uprising. A decade has passed since the end of the war and Jake Pentecost (John Boyega) lives in the shadow of his war hero father and has fallen into a life of crime. After being apprehended along with teenage genius Amara Namani (Cailee Spaeny) following a […]
Terraformars (17/07/2016)
A group of desperate individuals fly to Mars to rid the planet of mutant cockroaches in Terraformars. In the year 2599, scientists have succeeded in terraforming Mars to make it fit for human emigration. However, the planet must first be rid of cockroaches, who have evolved into human-like form and are known as Terraformars. Eccentric […]
Pacific Rim (11/07/2013)
After five years of mostly producing/writing gigs, Guillermo del Toro returns with his latest directorial effort in the form the “monsters vs. robots” epic Pacific Rim. A breach has opened deep within the Pacific ocean, which has given rise to waves of reptilian monsters, known as Kaiju. When the monsters become too numerous for traditional […]
The Brothers Bloom (25/05/2009)
After over eight months of waiting, I finally got to check out the The Brothers Bloom. Was it worth the wait? Yeah, I would say so. It’s a more lighter film than, director Rian Johnson’s previous film, Brick and I thought it was a fun little con film. Most of the comedy in the film […]