• Rinko Kikuchi looking forward to the red carpet again

  Japan Today - Found Oct. 4, 2009 Actress Rinko Kikuchi, 28, greeted admiring crowds at the recent 23rd Wine Country Music Festival, where the Japanese film Sideways (directed by

• Rinko Kikuchi in Opening Ceremony Tokyo store opening

  Diane, A Shaded View on Fashion - Found Aug. 30, 2009 Rinko Kikuchi is wearing Opening Ceremony's Fall/Winter 2009 double front zip pleated dress and Chloe Sevigny for Opening Ceremony buckle wedges.

• Japanese actress Rinko Kikuchi promotes the film "Map of the Sounds ...

  CHINAdaily - Found Aug. 27, 2009 ... actress Rinko Kikuchi promotes the film 'Map of the Sounds of Tokyo' in Barcelona (Agencies) Updated: 009-08-8 09:9 Japanese actress Rinko ...

• A Sideways look, from East to West

  The Independent - Found Nov. 19, 2009 The girls they meet, Mina and Mayuko (the former is played by Rinko Kikuchi, who was Oscar-nominated for her part in Babel), are both Japanese...

• Film Review - The Brothers Bloom

  CathNews - Found Nov. 17, 2009 Broadcasting (click below for full review) Starring: Rachel Weisz, Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo, Rinko Kikuchi, Robbie Coltrane, and Maximillian...

• Sideways Japanese remakes of Hollywood hits hardly the way forward

  Japan Times - Found Nov. 5, 2009 ... of 'The Seven Samurai,' (1954). Sideways Isn't America nice: Katsuhisa Namase, Fumiyo Kohinata, Kyoka Suzuki and Rinko Kikuchi in 'Sideways'

• Japanese remakes of Hollywood hits hardly the way forward

  Japan Times - Found Nov. 5, 2009 Seven Samurai," (1954). Isn't America nice: Katsuhisa Namase, Fumiyo Kohinata, Kyoka Suzuki and Rinko Kikuchi in "Sideways" � 2009 TWENTIETH...

• Movie review:THE BROTHERS BLOOM

  Urban CineFile - Found Nov. 9, 2009 Bloom has had enough but Stephen, with his sidekick Bang Bang (Rinko Kikuchi) persuades him to do one last spectacular job - to lure the...

• The Brothers Bloom

  Brisbane Times - Found Nov. 8, 2009 Stephen (Mark Ruffalo) and their accomplice Bang Bang (Rinko Kikuchi) play their parts and then celebrate in a bar full of Berlin decadents. Explore All

  Sydney Morning Herald

Rinko Kikuchi (菊地 凛子 Kikuchi Rinko)
Rinko Kikuchi
Born	Yuriko Kikuchi January 6, 1981 (1981-01-06) (age 28) Hadano, Japan
Official website

Rinko Kikuchi (菊地 凛子, Kikuchi Rinko^?), born Yuriko Kikuchi (菊地 百合子, Kikuchi Yuriko^?), January 6, 1981, is a Japanese film 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.

Life

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 acclaimed¹ 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}

Filmography

Television

Awards and nominations

References

External links

• Official site
• Rinko Kikuchi at the Internet Movie Database

Bibliography

• Morris, Jerome C. "Exposed! Interview with Riko Kikuchi", in Asian Cult Cinema, #55.