Meiko Kaji
Birthday: 1947-03-24
Place of Birth: Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan
Biography: Masako Ōta, known as Meiko Kaji, is a Japanese actress and enka singer born on 24 March 1947 in Chiyoda, Tokyo Prefecture. After graduating from Yakumo Academy in Meguro in 1965, she made her debut at Nikkatsu Studios under her real name, playing supporting roles in the late 1960s. Her first notable role came in 1969 in *Nihon Zankyoden*. She gained visibility with the 1970-1971 series *Stray Cat Rock* (Noraneko Rokku), playing young rebels in five films. In the 1970s, she excelled in roles as outlaws, notably in the *Joshuu Sasori* (Prisonnière Scorpion) series at Toei, with four films, the first of which was released in 1972. She became an icon with *Lady Snowblood* (1973), which greatly inspired Quentin Tarantino in *Kill Bill*. Her other notable films include *Double Suicide at Sonezaki* (1978). She also sang for her films and released several albums and singles. She has appeared in over 100 films and series since the 1960s.
Movies
Lady Snowblood
Yuki's family is nearly wiped out before she is born due to the machinations of a band of criminals....
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Wandering Ginza Butterfly
Gang leader Nami (cult film legend Meiko Kaji) kills a member of a yakuza group and goes away to pri...
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Women's Police
Around Ginza there is a night-city of bars and cabarets, hostesses, customers. Assisting to keep ord...
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Tale of the Last Japanese Yakuza
Yakuza drama with Meiko Kaji directed by Masahiro Makino...
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Vermillion Sword: Scabbard Code Sword Amidst the Swirling Cherry Blossoms
Beginning of the Showa era, Takasaki City in Joshu (Gunma Province). Gambler Inufushi Yoichi continu...
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The Lawyer of Shimane
The story is set in the Shimane Prefecture, which supposedly has the fewest lawyers in all of Japan....
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Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable
Following her successful prison break, Scorpion begins this third episode in the series hiding out i...
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The Blazing Continent
A youthful Nikkatsu drama about a Japanese painter who travels to Australia and falls in love....
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Cherry Blossoms in the Air - The Suicide Raiders - Oh, Buddies!
In 1943 Japan is facing defeat. This makes Shinkichi, a straight, selfless student-patriot, ever mor...
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Stray Cat Rock: Delinquent Girl Boss
A wandering tough biker girl aids a female delinquent gang in their battles against an all-male Seiy...
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Yakuza Graveyard
A police investigator cracks down on yakuza business, but once he realizes the police are in negotia...
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Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter
Mako and her girl friends enter a dispute with rival street gangsters The Eagles, a band of racist m...
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Stray Cat Rock: Machine Animal
Two Japanese men help a Vietnam war deserter escape from Japan for Sweden. They plan to fund the esc...
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Jeans Blues: No Future
Hijiriko makes off from the bar she works at with money and a car that isn't hers. Meanwhile, Jiro K...
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Stray Cat Rock: Wild Jumbo
Wild young people kidnap a wealthy woman and she becomes attracted to one of them. When she tells th...
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Whirlwind Of Love
A young woman in Hokkaido gets cold feet during her marriage ceremony and runs to Tokyo with her fri...
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Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41
After being used and betrayed by the detective she had fallen in love with, young Matsu is sent to a...
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Lady Snowblood 2: Love Song of Vengeance
Lady Snowblood is caught by the police and sentenced to death for her crimes. As she is sent to the ...
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Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion
After being cruelly set up and deceived by Sugimi, a detective in cahoots with the mob with whom she...
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Female Prisoner Scorpion: #701's Grudge Song
Nami is once again on the run from the law but is saved by an old classmate who works at a strip clu...
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Wandering Ginza Butterfly: She-Cat Gambler
Meiko Kaji reprises her role as Nami, a vengeful female gang leader, in the second installment of th...
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Confession of a girl: The Forbidden Fruit
A unique youth masterpiece depicting the awakening of male and female sexuality with a refreshing to...
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Morning Fog
Kyoko and her mother Yuki returned to their hometown of Fukui. Yuki runs a dressmaker's store in the...
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Kill or Be Killed
When Yakuza decides to take avenge his brother, the war shall begin....
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Onihei Crime Files Special: Okatsu from Yamabukiya
Heizo's cousin Senemon Misawa and his son Katsuzo visited Heizo's home. Heizo learns that Senemon ha...
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Onihei Crime Files Special: Bandits
An old thief, Kuhei Sagiwara, used to visit his hometown at the foot of the Kurikara Pass in Kaga Pr...
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Onihei Crime Files: Unibrow
Heizo "The Demon" investigates the shop of Toshimaya the swordsmith, where 280 ryo was stolen and tw...
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Onihei Crime Files: The Inside Woman
Edo town thief called "Acrobatics boy" has been rampant in town, just that time, spy, Goro of Otaki ...
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Onihei Crime Files: Bungoro Amabiki
Heizo "The Demon" deals with an arson thief gang known as "Bungoro" the fire thief who leaves a call...
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The Silent Sword: Loyalty and Honor
Keinosuke (Masakazu Tamura) is a ronin (wandering samurai) who lives on the streets although he is a...
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Gambling is My Destiny
Shadowed and alone. Today, a melancholy guitar sobs in a wandering seaside town.... To make amends, ...
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Greatest Boss Of Japan
A man who became the third boss faces off against delinquent foreigners and villains vying to rule t...
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Zeno: Unlimited Love
Zeno: Kagirinaki Ai ni is a movie about life and work of Brother Zenon Żebrowski, a Polish missionar...
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Secret Zone of Tokyo
The third installment of the "Night front line" series. An erotic entertainment action in which two ...
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Mini-Skirt Lynchers
The group led by Teruko was the most famous in the port city of Yokohama. One day, however, a group ...
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Onihei Crime Files: Sutegoro Takahagi
Takahagi Sutegoro is highly skilled at casing locations for thieves so that he can sell detailed flo...
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Onihei Crime Files: Conscience of a Worm
Detective Onihei better known as "Heizo the Demon" heads a group of skilled officers, however, one o...
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Gambling Den Desire
In a small town on the Kasumigaura coast in the early Showa period, the Masukawa clan from Tokyo is ...
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Cold Current
Set against the backdrop of a bitter power struggle between the faction of the chairman of the board...
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Blind Woman's Curse
Akemi is a dragon tattooed leader of the Tachibana Yakuza clan. In a duel with a rival gang Akemi sl...
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Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Deadly Fight in Hiroshima
Repeatedly beat to a pulp by gamblers, cops, and gangsters, lone wolf Shoji Yamanaka finally finds a...
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Adventure With Him
Mitsuo Hayama, who is preparing for his entrance examinations, secretly plans to take a trip with hi...
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In Tears
Hiroshi is the second officer on board the Hakuromaru. Lead by his captain, he heads out to town to ...
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Your Life
A moodo/akushon yakuza picture with heavy emphasis on poignant seishun romance....
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Showdown in the Red Valley
Ken Watanabe, a young man from Tokyo, comes to the great plains of Rumo, Hokkaido to see his hometow...
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Till We Meet Again
College life starts off great for Michiko. She and her friend join the Italian Culture Research Club...
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I Shall Not Forget
Hearing that his friend Yosuke Tsumura had died, Shiro Okabe returned to Kyoto. He felt that Yusuke'...
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The Code of Man
Tetsuya Watari, a modern youth idol, co-stars with Tetsuro Tamba for the first time, and a young man...
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Yabanjin no Nekutai
Motozo Imamura, a.k.a. Gen, grew up in an upper-class family, but he never went to school and spent ...
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Monument to the Girl's Corps
In 1943, critical developments in the Pacific War have placed Japan at a disadvantage, although the ...
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Women of the Night - Butterfly Flower
A flower is a woman or a man is a butterfly... Love and melancholy bloom wildly in the nighttime gar...
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Capone: Roppongi Renkin no Teio
With the help of the real-life pachislot gambling group "Capone," the film depicts the friendship be...
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Aruhi watashi wa
The four kinds of love that Yuriko experiences, namely, a childhood longing love, a dream of marriag...
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Oh-Oku: The Women Of The Inner Palace
The year is Seitoku 2 (1712), and Japan has a new ruler. But Ietsugu, the 7th Tokugawa shogun, is on...
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若い川の流れ
The story follows Misako Kitaoka, a junior college graduate and Nitto Lease sales department employe...
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Gokudô Petenshi
A group of one-hit wonder scam artists led by the troubled "Kanpai," dealing with impotence, embark ...
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Inu to Asachan
A daughter from an island in the Seto Inland Sea takes a job as a nanny in Tokyo. She thrills the he...
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Stray Cat Rock: Beat '71
The series swansong, Beat '71, sees Kaji framed and sent to prison by her boyfriend's father and wit...
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Lullaby of the Earth
The story of an orphan girl, brought up in naive, rustic innocence by an elderly relative, who is su...
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Tree Without Leaves
Haru, an aging scriptwriter, has isolated himself somewhere in the woods of Nagano to work on his fi...
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Double Suicide of Sonezaki
Suicide has long been used as a form of social protest in Japan. In this film, set in 1703, samurai ...
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Love or Duty: Samurai Rebellion
In the Edo period of Japan, a samurai’s life belonged to his lord. On the battlefield or in the home...
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The Homeless
Two inmates are simultaneously released from jail, but go their separate ways, only to cross paths a...
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Love and Desire in the Night Mist
A film from Nikkatsu's "moodo akushon" (mood/action) subgenre....
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Retaliation
Emerging from a stint in prison, yakuza lieutenant Sumukawa discovers that his gang has disintegrate...
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Onihei's Detective Records
A criminal syndicate wants detective Onihei dead, but the resolute hero proves to be hard to kill....
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Onihei Crime Files: A Bandit Wedding
Thieves broke into Yamashiroya, a drug wholesaler, and stole 780 ryo. In the storehouse, there was a...
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The Inugami Clan
In 1940s Japan, the wealthy head of the Inugami Clan dies, setting off a chain of bizarre, gruesome ...
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Samurai Justice: A Duel at Takadanobara
Edo is rocked by the news that a duel to the death is to be held at Takadanobaba, the famed site of ...
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Samurai Justice: The Female Bodyguard
A chance encounter on the road leads to the unusual need for a female bodyguard to protect the grand...
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Flickering Flames
In the early hours of April 13th, a five year old hemophiliac child was kidnapped by someone from Ta...
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Battles Without Honor and Humanity: The Complete Saga
The 224-minute compilation edition of Battles Without Honor and Humanity compiles these four movies:...
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Youth A Go Go!
Kenichi and Satoru join up with three other electric music lovers to form their own band, "The Young...
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Lone Wolf & Child: Assassin on the Road to Hell
The tale of Ogami Itto and his son Daigoro has come full circle with the greatest sword actor of all...
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Main Line to Terror
Akiyama is an intern, disgusted with the noise pollution caused by the bullet trains and the heart a...
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No Greater Love
In 1943, Japan is amidst the Pacific War. Sobei Sonoda is one of the wealthiest landowners of the Sa...
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Song of Farewell
After her mother's funeral, Yuriko, dressed in mourning clothes, sees off her lover Shintaro as he l...
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I'll Never Cry!
The rehabilitation of a delinquent on leaving reformatory. Her redemption comes through a boy in a w...
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New Battles Without Honor and Humanity 2: Head of the Boss
The seventh in the shocking "Jingi Naki Tatakai" movie series, which exposes the true lives of the y...
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There Was a War When I Was a Child
An award-winning Japanese film about a child's experiences during the Second World War....
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Yakuza of the Present
In the roaring 1970s, a man who has left the world of the yakuza to become the owner of a sushi rest...
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Samurai Justice: Assistance in a Duel
The samurai Akiyama Daijiro is asked to help a young boy who tries to bring the man who murdered his...
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Samurai Justice 2: Mother & Daughter
Master swordsman Akiyama Kohei’s simple life in retirement is jarred into violent sword action when ...
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Bad Girls of Japan
Are bad girls casualties of patriarchy, a necessary evil, or visionary pioneers? By tracing the conc...
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Step on the Gas!
Yūji, fresh out of prison on parole, meets a stranger named Nao that asks for his assistance......
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Blood for Blood
The Akiba and Shimura crime families run the streets of “K City”. With the construction of new build...
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Melody of Rebellion
The disbandment of the Tanno clan left gang member Tetsu to stray from the crime family's fold. He r...
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Outlaw: Gangster VIP 2
Goro (Tetsuya Watari) wants to put his dark past behind. He heads to Hirosaki City to offer his cond...
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The Stormy Man
A remake of the 1957 classic "Man Who Raised a Storm" with Watari Tetsuya in the title role....
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Blood Shed
Ginjiro was born to a family of nobility, though he yearned for freedom. To earn this freedom, he a...
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The Rule for a Vagabond
A brave warrior fights to restore peace to a town riddled by crime, one sword at a time, in this his...
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The Wicked
A selfish playboy uses rich women to pay off his debts. Divorcing his wife and marrying the woman he...
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A Warm Misty Night
When Toru Sagara (Yujiro Ishihara) returns home from a foreign cargo route, he proposes to his belov...
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Bounty Hunter Muyonosuke
Takahashi Hideki stars as Muyonosuke, the one-eyed ronin who makes his living as a bounty hunter who...
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The Voice of Sin
Eiji Akutsu is a newspaper reporter. He is working on unsolved case that took place 30 years ago. Th...
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Magistrate Toyama: Conspiracy of a Beautiful Woman! Rampage in Kanhashu
The meeting of the two greatest legends in Japan - Magistrate Toyama, the crime-fighting official wi...
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The Killer
A former gang leader and lone wolf who has left the organization works behind the scenes in a new ci...
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Gambler's Dilemma
The love story between a traveling guest and a geisha who inadvertently becomes the leader of her fa...
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Onna no Iji
2 years ago, Kumi broke up with Shuhei and decided to forget everything about him for good. However,...
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What Did You Eat Yesterday?
Kenji is overjoyed when his usually thrifty boyfriend takes him on a trip to Kyoto for his birthday,...
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Detective Kyosuke Kozu's Murder Reasoning 8
President Ito, a major apparel maker, was poisoned in the president's office. Kenzo (Baku Ohwada), w...
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Under the Open Sky
Mikami, an ex-yakuza of middle age with most of his life in prison, gets released after serving 13 y...
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The Fearless Brotherhood Duet of Kanto
The beginning of the Showa period. A town in the Kanto region. During the autumn festival, a car fro...
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My Neighbor's Masala
Sawaki Tatsuya is a fledgling photographer. He returns to his hometown Fukuoka to take care of his s...
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Nezunoban
In Japan, the passing of a loved one is marked by 'night watch': staying up all night with the decea...
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My Sweetheart
It had been a year and four months since Mitsuo was last on a movie set. Welcomed back by director I...
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Women of the Night - Woman of Seniority
A tragic love story about the heiress of the Kitakyushu Tagawa family who becomes a hostess in Osaka...
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