The Girls of the "Rape Zombie: Lust of the Dead" Trilogy

What could be a better piece for Halloween than a feature on the female cast of another zombie splatter movie from Japan? A feature on the the female cast of a zombie splatter movie trilogy* from Japan. Naoyuki Tomomatsu's Rape Zombie: Lust of the Dead trilogy, the first part of which was featured at the 2012 Yubari Fantastic Film Festival, is as wonderfully gory and tasteless as the title implies and it should go without saying that the cast is chock-full of JAV (Japanese Adult Video) alumnae.

There are over a dozen former and current gravure, pink film, and JAV idols who appear in this 2012-2013 three-part splatterfest (some in "blink-and-you'll-miss-her" parts), but the focus here will be on the four ladies in the more prominent roles and a few honorable mentions. The "nurse" at the forefront of all three of the above posters for the films, is the trilogy's main heroine, played by JAV idol Alice (Arisu) Ozawa.

*So far, this is a trilogy. There could be a part 4 in the works and possibly an intent to make this a franchise, but as of this writing, the "Rape Zombie" movie count stands at three.

Japanese Female Celebs' Final Acts

There have been many comparisons made between Japanese and Korean cultures. One such comparison is the how changes, pressures, and social stigmas of modern life has effected the two, and who are more prone to commit suicide due to the aforementioned factors. In recent years, several top Korean entertainers have committed suicide when it seemed like they had everything to live for. Money, fame, family, friends. Yet, they still felt like they needed to end it all and checked out at young ages. I wrote this piece on that Korean "cultural phenomenon" back in October of 2008 and have updated it several times since, every time another Korean female celeb has taken her own life.

In the almost four years since I wrote that entry, I've been asked how the celebrity (more specifically female celebrity) suicide rate in Japan compares with that of Korea. I'm, in no way, going to present any analogies or official statistics of this, but since it's news whenever a famous person dies (by whatever means), all it took for me to find out how female celeb suicide rates compare between Korea and Japan, was some Internet research. In short, Korean female celebs have been more prone to take their own lives in recent years (the "trend" beginning in February, 2005 with actress Lee Eun-joo's death) but the suicides of Japanese female celebs started two decades earlier. Also, the Japanese ladies seem to be a bit more creative than their Korean counterparts when it comes to the method to end it all, sometimes employing the use of toxic chemicals while the Koreans overwhelmingly favor hanging as the preferred means.

In my initial search for Japanese female celeb suicides in recent decades, I came up with six names. However, I later found out that one lady, whose cause of death was reported by most sources as heart attack, was actually a suicide, so that made the count seven. Of those names, the suicide of the one who was best-known occurred 26 years ago and the ones since weren't all exactly household names in Japan (as Choi Jin-sil was in Korea). The most recent being gravure idol Miyu Uehara (above), who was found hanged in her apartment on May 12, 2011. She left no note but was apparently unhappy with her chosen career, despite becoming quite popular in her field, and with over 400 television appearances to her credit.

Satomi, Risa, and Marina for Wrist Cutter G

Here are the late gravure idols Satomi Shigemori, Risa Inoue, and Marina Kanda (RIP) advertising "Wrist Cutter G," which became the hottest cutter for Japanese students belonging to extracurricular wrist-cutting clubs, soon after this spot aired in early 2008.

Unfortunately, the promotional events that were scheduled to follow the national release of this commercial never happened due to the girls' untimely deaths ....which was proof that they actually believed in and used the product they so enthusiastically endorsed.

Japanese Santa's Helpers

For this year's Christmas-themed piece, here are a bevy of Japanese beauties appropriately attired for the season, beginning with JAV idol Kirara Asuka (above) shown here on the DVD cover of Chri Chri Merry Christmas. Definitely not a holiday movie for the kids. 

Japanese AV and Gravure Idols do Horror

Halloween is horror movie time and if you've watched a low-budget Japanese horror/gore flick in the last few years and wanted more info on the sexy actress in the lead role, finding it shouldn't be difficult. Chances are, a simple Google search is all it will take to see a lot more of her because most of the ladies seen in such gems were chosen from the very large talent pool of AV and gravure idols Japan has to offer. Above, we see how nicely JAV alumnae Sora Aoi, Risa Kasumi, and Mari Sakurai fill out their roles in Big Tits Zombie (in 3D!).

Zero Woman

The main character of the "Zero Woman" series is Special Undercover Agent Rei (her family name's never been revealed), who works for "Section Zero" of the Tokyo Police Department. Her risky assignments require her to infiltrate the criminal underworld where, even though she often finds herself in "compromising" positions, she always manages to come out on top.

The role of Rei has been played by a total of 10 different actresses over the years, the first of whom being 70s pink film queen Miki Sugimoto (above). See the others after the jump.

Pretty Pitchers

April 4th was opening day for the 2010 Major League Baseball season and if you've ever been to a ball game in Japan or Korea, where a well-known person has opened the game with a ceremonial first pitch, I'm sure you appreciated it if the well-known person was an attractive female celebrity, which it usually is.

While the Korea Baseball Organization almost always has mainstream actresses and singers doing the honors, Nippon Professional Baseball often has less conservatively-dressed gravure idols and models take the mound, such as Satoko Miyata (above and allegedly aka Akiko Miyata), who impressively did get it across the plate from the pitcher's rubber at the Tokyo Dome last summer. What follows are  some examples of what you might see at the opening of a KBO or NPB game, if you're lucky.

Motivational Posters

Since the original "hang in there, baby" image of a kitten struggling to hold on to a tree branch, started appearing on walls over 40 years ago, motivational posters have been created to inspire us to persevere when the going gets tough. Demotivational posters have since shown up as a parody.

Either way, I've noticed that quite a few photos of well-known Asian ladies have appeared on Internet versions over the last several years, such as this famous shot of Sunghi Lee (above) from her 1996 milk photo shoot that she did for Playboy's Book of Lingerie.

Risa Kudo as Zombie Hunter Rika

In keeping with the spirit of Halloween, here's popular gravure idol Risa Kudo (as well as the supporting cast) of the 2008 gore-fest Zombie Hunter Rika, a movie that proves when it comes to comedy/horrors with awful scripts, high-school special effects, and bad acting from beautiful, buxom young ladies, the Japanese definitely do not take a back seat to their counterparts in Hong Kong.

Kekko Kamen

The creation of Japanese animator Go Nagi, Kekko Kamen first appeared in a popular Japanese manga series saying such memorable lines as "Nobody knows my face, but everybody knows my body" and "I don't mind showing my body in the name of love and justice!"

The comic book eventually led to an original video animation series and several movies with four different actresses filling the role as the sexy masked superheroine over the years. The best-known being JAV idol Maria Ozawa, above.

Kaori Ohara for Denroku

Surprisingly, Japanese gravure idol, Kaori Ohara, whose bouncy "Choco Party" commercial (above) can be found floating all over the Internet, is almost 31. According to her bio, she was born February 17, 1976 in Tokyo. She hasn't done any nudes as far as I know but with a body like this, one can always hope that she'll reconsider in the future.

By the way, in the chocolate commercial, she says; "Denroku! (the name of the company) Choco Party, Good! Good!" three times in an adorable voice while she's bouncing around, then looks down at her boobs and chides, "What are you looking at?"