Rinko Kikuchi is a Japanese actress who shot to international fame with her Oscar-nominated performance in the 2006 film Babel. A model since the age of 14, Kikuchi began her career as an actress in television commercials. Small roles in TV dramas and feature films led to a leading role in Sora no ana (2001, also called Hole in the Sky). Her work in little-known but "edgy" movies didn't make her a star in Japan, but her turn in Babel as a tragic teenage deaf-mute earned rave reviews in Europe and the United States, and Kikuchi was thrust into the limelight alongside the film's stars, Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. On the international awards show circuit her dyed-blonde hair and urban-chic glamour made a splash, and her 2007 Oscar nomination for a best supporting actress award sparked hometown pride back in Japan.
In some of her early roles she is billed as Yuriko Kikuchi.
Career Highlights: The Brothers Bloom, Babel, Map of the Sounds of Tokyo
First Major Screen Credit: Babel (2006)
Biography
Actress Rinko Kikuchi has been bewitching the camera with her enigmatic presence since she was a teenager, working as a model and appearing in commercials in her native Japan. Despite the demands of her education and blossoming career, Kikuchi developed tremendous skills in the arts of traditional Japanese dance and archery, as well as horseback riding and motorcycling. The well-roundedness of her life seemed to imbue her with a realness and believability, and she landed her first film role in 1999's Ikitai. Directed by veteran filmmaker Kaneto Shindo, the film followed two Japanese families along different timelines, exploring the way Japan's changing traditional values have effected family life.
Kikuchi was just 18, but Shindo was so pleased with her performance that he had her return for the next year's Sanmon Yakusha, a biopic about character actor Taiji Tonoyama. The exposure was dynamite for Kikuchi, who next found a starring role in 2001's romantic drama Sora no Ana, playing a street-smart waif who unexpectedly falls in star-crossed love with a fast-food worker. Set against the backdrop of the Japanese countryside, the poignant film was a hit, garnering her a slew of supporting roles in films like 2004's Cha no Aji and 2005's Taga Tameni.
In 2004, Kikuchi found herself faced with a serious challenge as a performer. Her agent told her about the role of Chieko, a deaf, mute, and emotionally disturbed character in Alejandro González Iñárritu's upcoming film Babel. As the star of one of the film's three interconnected storylines, Kikuchi would be tackling teenage Chieko's emotional turmoil over her mother's recent suicide, her emerging sexuality, and her place in the film's overall message -- all without the use of her voice. Kikuchi was determined to win the role, and so she enrolled in a sign-language school. A year-long audition process followed, and though the film's casting agents had planned to cast an actual deaf actress, she was given the part. The young actress was placed on the Hollywood radar as soon as the film hit theaters, and she was praised for delivering compellingly raw emotions through a subtle performance, and for submerging herself completely into the role. She was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, but despite the free pass this bought her into American film, Kikuchi remained interested in both American and Japanese film, considering projects from both nations. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide
Rinko Kikuchi(菊地 凛子,Kikuchi Rinko?), born Yuriko Kikuchi(菊地 百合子,Kikuchi Yuriko?), January 6, 1981, is a Japanesefilm actress. Kikuchi is the first Japanese actress to be nominated for an Academy Award in 50 years. She is Japan's only living female Academy Award nominee in acting categories, since Miyoshi Umeki, who won in 1957 for Sayonara.
Kikuchi was born in Minamigaoka, Hadano City, Kanagawa Prefecture. She debuted in 1999 under her birth name, Yuriko Kikuchi, with the Kaneto Shindo-directed film Ikitai(生きたい?).[1] Soon after, in 2001, she starred in the acclaimed Kazuyoshi Komuri-directed film Sora no Ana(空の穴?), which was featured across several international film festivals, including the Rotterdam Film Festival.[1] In 2004, she appeared in the critically acclaimed Katsuhito Ishii-directed film Cha no Aji(茶の味?), which was selected for the Cannes Film Festival.[1]
In 2006, she appeared in the critically-acclaimed Alejandro González Iñárritu-directed film Babel, where she played Chieko Wataya, a deaf-mute teenage girl, in a role for which she was critically acclaimed[1] and nominated for numerous awards, including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.[2] She won several, such as the National Board of Review Award for Best Breakthrough Female Performance (tying with Jennifer Hudson) and the Gotham Award for Best Breakthrough. Kikuchi is also the fifth actress in Academy Award history to be nominated for an award for a role in which they do not speak a word. (The others were Jane Wyman, Patty Duke, Holly Hunter, and Samantha Morton.) Her emotionally intense role in Babel has led to her being noticed by many international directors, such as Rian Johnson, auteur director of Brick. She starred in his second film, 2009's The Brothers Bloom, which was her first fully English-language feature. Though she plays a main character, she only speaks three words in the film; her character is said to only know three words of English.
She was mentioned in an episode of the TV show Robot Chicken on the Adult Swim network in a parody of the popular movie-themed Lego play sets.
Kikuchi is a fan of Chanel and its designer Karl Lagerfeld. She is constantly being outfitted by the label, and says that she only wears something if she "digs it" and "...Chanel is how I feel right now."[citation needed]
