Ranko Hanai
Other namesReiko Shimizu
Birth date15 July 1918
Birth placeOsaka, Japan
Birth nameYoshiko Shimizu
Death date21 May 1961 (aged 42)
OccupationActress
Years active1929-1961

Ranko Hanai (花井蘭子, Hanai Ranko, 15 July 1918 – 21 May 1961) was a Japanese actress[1] who appeared in about 200 films between 1929 and 1961.[2][3]

Biography

Hanai was born Yoshiko Shimizu in Osaka, Japan.[1] As a child, she acted with the theatre troupes of Takeo Kawai and Rokurō Kitamura,[4] and gave her screen debut under the name of Reiko Shimizu in 1929.[2][4] She entered the Nikkatsu film studio in 1931 and moved to J. O. Sutajio (later Toho) in 1937.[1] In 1946, in opposition to the union strike at Toho, Yamada sided with the anti-unionist group "Jū hito no hata no kai" ("Society of the Flag of Ten"), which consisted of Setsuko Hara, Hideko Takamine, Isuzu Yamada and others,[5] and joined the Shintoho studio.[1] During the 1950s, she also occasionally worked for Toho and other production companies, appearing in films of Mikio Naruse, Heinosuke Gosho, Kinuyo Tanaka and Kaneto Shindō.[3] She died in 1961 at the age of 42.[1]

Selected filmography

References

  1. ^ "花井蘭子" (in Japanese). Kotobank. Archived 17 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
  2. ^ "清水玲子" (in Japanese). Japanese Movie Database. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
  3. ^ "花井蘭子" (in Japanese). Japanese Movie Database. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
  4. ^ "花井 蘭子" (in Japanese). Kotobank. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
  5. ^ Hirano, Kyoko (1992). Mr. Smith Goes to Tokyo: Japanese Cinema Under the American Occupation, 1945–1952. Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press. ISBN 1-56098-157-1.