Reika Kirishima: Queen Of The Desperate Wives

 Seems like whenever you need someone to play the evil mistress, cheating wife or obsessively overprotective Mother, you get the elegant but haunting-looking Reika Kirishima for the job!
I had mentioned way back in Papakatsu that Reika always seemed to get these dour, morose roles, and when she appeared in the recent Haruki Murakami movie “Drive My Car” as another preternaturally depressed wife I thought I just HAD to make a post to point it out!
On the surface it seems she and her husband (Hidetoshi Nishijima) are a happy couple, but beneath lies a deep sadness over losing their child at a young age. This leads to the wife losing herself in indiscreet affairs behind his back with someone like young protege Takastuki (Masaki Okada)...

This at once brought back my memories of her in “Papakatsu” where she and husband (played by Atsuro Watabe) had ALSO lost their child at a young age.  And just like Drive My Car, her character escapes grief  within adulterous affairs (both of which, it seems, the husband knows about)..

Made me think of all the morose/unhappy/dark roles she’s played over the years! Samayou Yabai, Oh My Boss, Yoru ga Dorehodo Kurakutemo, Final Cut, Dele, etc, it seems if they needed a beautiful woman who was slightly flawed or internally maligned, it was Reika they called upon!

Samayou Yabai as a mother sheltering an accused child....

dele, as a wife with something in her mind...

Yoru ga Dorehodo Kurakutemo as a murdered victim :(

As an angry talent agent in "Oh My Boss!"

 a witness to a horrible crime in Final Cut

and another overprotective mother in Hakui No Senshi

This isn’t the first Haruki Murakami Movie Reika’s done as she played Reiko in “Norwegian Wood”, a performance I thought was fine though at the time I wished they cast someone older.

This isn’t the first time she appeared with Masaki Okada either, as both appeared in “Okitegami Kyoko no Biboroku” together! In fact, this was the first time I ever saw Reika Kirishima, and as a suspicious and stand-offish criminal suspect, it was the first taste of the kind of roles I would be seeing her in from then on!

Such a gorgeous woman, I'm always waiting for that ONE special role that will make Reika Kirishima a household name, and preferably one which she gets to be kind and happy for a change, LOL! Actress Yuka Itaya is also someone frequently cast as grieving mothers/slighted wives, but she manages to balance them with some bright and happy roles, too...would love to see more happy Reika!

PS: Looks like "Drive my Car" is up for "Best Picture" at this year's Oscars. What an very odd choice, considering how weird Haruki Murakami stories are (and that this was based on a VERY short story, besides!), but I guess it wouldn't be the first time something this unusual was nominated! 

An OK movie (which some seem to be raving about!)...Will surely be a lot of people's first taste of Murakami's strangeness!