Articles by CEC

Going back to 1973, here’s then-25ish character actress Momo Yashima playing an applicant for a housekeeping job in the home of Felix and Oscar on the classic US sitcom, The Odd Couple. Even though lines like “how do you make those radios so small?” and “I’ll take the cute Oriental from column A ..” may not go over well in today’s more culturally-sensitive world, this scene, enhanced with Miss Hanogi’s laugh, is a gem.

As with many Asian-American actresses of the 1970s; Miss Yashima, who’s still alive and well at 66, was restricted to character roles and appeared on M*A*S*H a time or two. See her credits at her IMDb page.

Here are the opening scenes from 1992′s Kekko Kamen 2, featuring Chris Aoki (please don’t confuse with the male golfer of the same name) in the title role and Rie Nakano as Mayumi Takahashi, the hapless and nubile schoolgirl Kekko often rescues from the perilous perverted predicaments she finds herself in. Kekko’s “Muffication Squeeze” (called that even though she’s always appeared to be sans muff, in the comic books and on film) that we see her employing just after the 3-minute mark here, is her “finishing move.” Even though Miss Aoki is no female Bruce Lee, she also gives a decent display of her nunchaku skills, as that is another thing the character is known for.

A former Playboy Playmate in the magazine’s Japanese edition (now defunct), Chris Aoki was the first of the now five actresses to play Kekko Kamen. See this post at the old site for info on them and the films through 2007. Miss Aoki, who turns 47 next month, now resides in the “Whatever Happened to..?” file but at least you can see what she looked like circa 1992, without the mask at this post at the old site. For those interested, the latest entry in the Kekko Kamen franchise was 2012′s Mask the Kekkou: Reborn starring gravure-to-JAV idol Aino Kishi, who was featured at the old site in September of 2009.