Helen's Blog /

Revenge Of The Pearl Queen.

55 years after a very young Japanese actress became a big hit in her native country upon revealing a scantily-wrapped magnificent figure, Udine Fareast Film Festival has spotlighted another Shintoho vintage treasure movie this morning, at the Visionario Cinema.

Although Maeda Michiko, the star of the 1956 film, directed by Toshio Shimura, was expected to come to Udine in person, for this tribute to one of Japan's most cherished early 'erotic' movie actresses, she finally declined the offer, but sent a beautiful letter expressing surprise that after 55 years, a festival in Italy would be showing the film her partial nudity made shock waves with.

She asked forgiveness for "her apprehension of travelling to such a distant land at her age, even though she was gratefully fit, following experiencing many ups and downs in her life" and complimented the Fareast Udine event for organising such cross-culture encounters, she hoped would continue, ended her message with "wishes of happiness and health for all."

Maeda Michiko plays within the true story background of 19 Japanese men discovered on Anatahan, a tiny island in the Marianas Group in 1951. Refusing to accept Japan's defeat in the Pacific War, they lived as savages, haggling over the one woman marooned with them until she had escaped from the island. In the picture, there are only 5 dirty old men after her, except for 2, and they kill the others as they start making strong advances to the poor young girl who was thrown overboard an ocean liner on a business trip to the USA, by her lecherous trader boss.

After some graceful deep-diving without snorkel nor tank, the beauty discovers some unusual shells containing priceless pearls, that the 3 survivors then commercialize following rescue, becoming immensely wealthy and in a position to seek revenge on the powerful former boss who has had her fiance framed for a safe-cracking crime he did not commit. As the "Pearl Queen ," under a new identity as Helen, she collects facts to free her former boyfriend Kizaki - and arranges to financially ruin her former boss on the stock exchange. The film is called an erotic thriller but that appellation is far from what the title suggests, due to Maeda's classy, regal-like bearing throughout the film.

After becoming known as the first Japanese actress to appear in a nude scene in a mainstream film, she did a series of other diving films, popular at that time, and is mostly remembered for displaying her opulent figure. For Shintoho Co., Maeda appeared in a string of female pearl-diver films which exploited similar nude scenes, ending in 1957.

While acting in the film "Konpira Riseiken " for director Goro Katano, Maeda refused to do a scene in which she was to lift her slip for the camera.

The resulting scandal became known and made headlines in international news. As a result of her refusal to obey the director, Maeda was dismissed from Shintoho and banned from the film industry. Her exile from Japanese cinema lasted for four decades.