Kirin Kiki

Kirin Kiki was a Japanese actress who worked in Japanese movies and on television. She started her acting career in the early 1960s as a member of the Bungakuza theater troupe using the stage name Chiho Yūki. She later changed her name to Kirin Kiki after auctioning off her first stage name on a television show. She gained fame for performing uniquely comedic and eccentric roles on such television shows as Jikan desu yo and Terauchi Kantarō ikka and in television commercials. She also worked with many of Japan's leading directors, such as Hirokazu Kore-eda, Naomi Kawase, and Yoji Yamada. She won several awards, including the best actress Japan Academy Prize for Mom and Me, and Sometimes Dad in 2008, the best supporting actress award from the Yokohama Film Festival for her work in Kamikaze Girls and Half a Confession in 2004, and the best supporting actress Blue Ribbon Award for Still Walking in 2008. She was diagnosed with cancer in 2004 and underwent a mastectomy. She continued to act until her death in 2018, appearing in films such as Shoplifters, which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. She was married twice, first to actor Shin Kishida, and then to musician Yuya Uchida, with whom she had a daughter, Yayako Uchida, who is also an actress and musician. She was also the grandmother of actress Kyara Uchida, who appeared with her in two films, I Wish and Sweet Bean. Kirin Kiki was known for her candid and unconventional personality, as well as her devotion to the craft of filmmaking. She was widely respected and loved by the Japanese public and the film industry.