Shimizu Misa

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Misa Shimizu (清水美砂, born 25 September 1970 in Tanashi, Tokyo, Japan) is an actress. She made her screen debut by winning the heroine audition for 1987 film Shōnan Bōsōzoku. She starred in NHK's morning drama series Seishun Kazoku in 1989. She portrayed Keiko, the female protagonist, in Palme d'Or winning The Eel directed by Shohei Imamura. She also makes regular appearances in Masayuki Suo's films.

In 1998, she got married to an enlisted US Army soldier stationed in Japan, and moved to the USA. She gave birth to a daughter in April 2003, and a son 2 years later. She lived in Maryland with her husband and two children, until they returned to Japan in 2005.

[edit] Filmography

(partial list)

Sumo Do, Sumo Don't (シコふんじゃった, Shiko funjata) (1992)
Okoge (1992)
Shall We Dance (1996 film) as Natsuko
The Eel (film) (1997) [Japanese: "Unagi"] Misa Shimizu shot to worldwide fame as the heroine in the 1997 Cannes Film Festival, Palme d'Or winning film The Eel. The same year Misa was awarded the prestigious Fumiko Yamaji Prize and the following year she won the Japan Academy's Leading Actress award, again for The Eel.
Dr. Akagi (1998)
Warm Water Under a Red Bridge (2001) [Japanese: 'Akai Hashi no Shita no Nurui Mizu"] Ms. Shimizu plays a woman with a rather bountiful problem - she fills up with water and the only way to get rid of it, is to make love...
The Sea is Watching (2002) - [Japanese: "Umi wa Miteita"] A charming story about samurai-era working girls in a small seaside town brothel. Shimizu plays the slightly older, diffident prostitute, Kikuno, a big sister to the younger girls in the house. Kimuno has two regular customers - an abusive middle-aged yakuza type and a tender elderly widower who asks her to move in with him - but she weaves her own mysterious and forlorn story. A funny, bittersweet, but warm film about the power of the heart, written by the late Akira Kurosawa.
Paper Moon Affair (2005) Ms. Shimizu stars as "Keiko," an enigmatic Japanese beauty, married to a domineering Chinese husband, forced to find herself while lost in a small town in the remote Pacific Northwest.