Actresses

Zero Woman

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Miki Sugimoto

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.(For those that want more information on these movies and the actresses who starred in them, you can find a lot of it here. If anyone still wants additional details and a Google search doesn’t provide them, send me an e-mail and I will be happy to do what I can.)

Zero Woman - Red Handcuffs (1974)
Original poster for the 1974 film, Zero Woman – Red Handcuffs that starred Miki Sugimoto, whose short acting career spanned from 1971-1977.

Zero Woman 2 (1995)
After 21-year hiatus, Rei reappeared in the form of actress/singer/model Natsuki Ozawa in the simply-titled Zero Woman.

Zero Woman - Final Mission (1995)
Naoko Iijima starred as Rei in the second 1995 release, Final Mission.

Zero Woman - Assassin Lovers (1996)
Described by one reviewer as “a cross between Susan Sarandon and Rosamund Kwan,” Kumiko Takeda took on the role in 1996’s Assassin Lovers.

Zero Woman - The Accused (1997)
The 1997 film, The Accused featured Mai Tachihara, who was the lowest-profile actress to play the part.

Zero Woman - The Hunted (1997)
Mikiyo Ono, who was a member of the J-Pop singing group “Coco,” starred in the second 1997 Zero Woman film, The Hunted.

Zero Woman - Dangerous Game (1998)
Personal favorite Chieko Shiratori (not to be confused with pro wrestler Chikako Shiratori) nicely filled the role of Rei in 1998’s Dangerous Game.

Zero Woman Returns (1999)
1999’s Zero Woman Returns featured Saori Ono, another actress who hasn’t seemed to have appeared in much else.

Zero Woman (2005)
Maiko Tohno (also spelled Maiko Tono) starred in 2005’s Zero Woman. The second one in the franchise with no subtitle.

Zero Woman R (2007)
The 2007 and most recent exploit of Rei, Zero Woman R featured Atsuko Miura.

Which actress looked best as
“Zero Woman” Rei?
 

 

  
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0 thoughts on “Zero Woman”

  1. I have to say that Chieko Shiratori is my favourite too, as well as one of my all time fave J-girls – her body is just sensational. I’ll have to do a post on her one of these days.

  3. Chieko Shiratori! I remember her from Tokyo Blue! I was a bigger fan of Tomomi Kuribayashi I also remember PB-82, with Harumi Inoue who was quite pretty. Mamiko Tayama too. I had completely forgotten about these types of movies.

  6. Miki Sugimoto- Those 1970s breasts, the 1970s hair, the 1960s wood trim around that mirror…I like that first picture.

  7. Great post, CEC. I remember checking out a Zero Woman and Tokyo Blue from a video store in San Francisco years ago. I recall them being great fun.

    I don’t know if the local places here in St Augustine carry this kind of stuff, but you have given me the urge to go find out.

  11. Let me get this straight… if I go to Tokyo and commit an “underworld” crime, I can get one of these beautiful women to come after me?

    You have to love that. My resistance would be futile.

  12. Not knowing the term I googled the phrase ‘pink film’ and discovered it also referred to ‘pinku’ films. At first I thought it might be a reference to bloodbaths (as opposed to ‘blue’ films) which most probably feature in Zero Woman.
    The site
    http://www.helium.com/items/669655-pinku-eiga-an-introduction-to-japanese-hardcore-grindcore

    offers a potted history of not only pinku films (hardcore-grindcore – the last term there isnt that clear, to me anyway) but the development of porn in Japan.
    Quite interesting.
    Wonder if more Daughter of Zero Woman movies will be made. I’d enjoy a Pulp Fiction treatment to the first one, what apparently is supposed to be a classic.
    Oh and thanks for the links to AS’s collection of these women.
    Saori Ono looks delicious, as does Chieko.

  13. longtrack, while I may be mistaken, I thought “pink film” referred to soft core porn, for example the Roman Porno films.

  16. Bigfoot Dean. A quote from the site I posted:

    “Although pinku films are considered soft-core, the subject matter they present is far from “soft.” ”

    I don’t speak Japanese but maybe ‘pinku’ and ‘pinku eiga’ define the genre precisely. Perhaps we shouldn’t be sidetracked by referring to them as ‘pink’ – the colour – but that’s beside the point.
    Read the site; it explains it better than I could.
    As for Roman Porno, the only one I can think of is Caligula which doesn’t have pixilated genitalia like we see in many Japanese pornos.

  18. Natsuko Ozawa seems to be seared into by brain. I might have stood, fixated, looking at a VCR (!) cover with her on it or somethingwhen I was a useless 20 year old. The first one actually seems perty good looking, most of the others, too, have something special (to me). Thanks for the culture, T. I’ll be looking this one up.

  19. Thanks Bigfoot Dean.

    You aren’t sure how complete that list is???
    Holy mackerel, what a list!
    Days, weeks, months to get through them, and they are video’s not DVD’s? Would need a warehouse not to mention a VCR player.
    Some, going by the plot summaries, look VERY interesting, to say the least. And the TITLES!!
    Still perplexed by the ‘Roman’ part of the genre though. Thinking togas here, roman orgies too, but Japanese style 😉

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