While Sorting through my bookshelves full of my Japanese Shashinshuu of Idols, Models and Actresses, I came across a small book wedged into the back corner of my shelf that I had forgotten ALL ABOUT- the picture book was called Piacere, and the idol was a Miss Sae Isshiki. Sae Isshiki! Why, I hadn’t thought of this girl in years and YEARS! Holding the book and thinking about it, I realized I hadn’t seen nor heard anything about her in over 15 years!
I’d first discovered Sae Isshiki in a rather unusual way- by watching all the NG clips of her older shows including the cute Yuki Uchida drama Junanasai, and, most famously, Sono Toki, Heart wa Nusumareta (featuring a young Kimura Takuya)… with all of them being kids, LOTS of bloopers were made and a good portion of the NG specials were crammed full of stuff from these shows- enough that I began to like Sae Isshiki even though I hadn’t even seen any of her dramas! Besides her very cute demeanor, she was absolutely rocking the “Jennifer Connelly” look, Oh man, soooo darn pretty!!!
It wasn’t until the drama OMIZU NO HANAMICHI (starring one of my very favorite actresses, the awesome and fun actress Naomi Zaizen) that I FINALLY got to see Sae in a drama proper, and it was in the best possible way- with a Caba-club (Hostess Bar) as the backdrop where we got to see these ladies in the sexiest and most elegant of dresses, in a cool turn, Sae’s part was of the main “Bad” girl who leads the stereotypical group of gaggling gals (of which whom a pretty Nanako Fujisaki was part of, BTW), each week it was such a thrill to see her going head-to-head with Naomi as her "Arch enemy" of sorts, and soon enough I was in love with Sae all over...
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| As Main Rival Satsuki in Omizu No Hanamichi |
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| with her girls, including Nanako Fujisaki and Harumi Inoue(!) |
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| ...and battling her arch-rival Naomi Zaizen for the favors of a guest.... |
In a happy coincidence, it was at the time that I was in full Omizu No Hanamichi mode that a new used Japanese Bookstore opened down the street from my workplace, and it was one evening perusing the shelves when I happened to see an older Sae Isshiki Photobook stocked right up there with the other Wani Books of the day! I had to have it!
Seeing Sae in that photobook was a complete contrast to her svelte and catty character on Omizu No Hanamichi show as the pictorial featured a very young and innocent 15 or 16 year old Sae, but it was interesting to see how she had changed form this cute young thang into such a beautiful woman! Oh, and the photobook even came with a fold-out poster, funny, it being a second-hand book, I had to laugh when I saw that the poster had pinholes in each corner where the original owner had pinned Sae up on his (or her) wall in admiration years ago, LOL!!
Funny, after getting that book and finishing watching the drama, I don’t think I ever saw her again in anything, which is why she completely fell off of my radar and that book ended up being edged out of the way til It became a virtual bookend to my other books, but I have to say, flipping through Sae’s photobook again, I can see why I thought she was so doggone cute- she really had that look!
