Nikkatsu When famed
Nikkatsu S&M actress
Naomi Tani retired in 1979, the studio tried a number of replacements for her including starlet Takakura who was next in line after
Nami Matsukawa. Takakura began her career at Nikkatsu with the August 1983
Beauty in Rope Hell, part of Nikkatsu's
Roman Porno series, written by noted
S&M author
Oniroku Dan and directed by
Genji Nakamura. Some moviegoers complained that Takakura was too thin for bondage work because the ropes didn't make enough of a visible impression, but
pink film critics Thomas and Yuko Weisser cite her as one of the best S&M actresses. However, by this time Nikkatsu was at a low point and would close its doors in a few years, and the S&M genre films which had supported the studio for a number of years were becoming formulaic and trite. Takakura retired from the
pink film scene after starring in five
Roman Porno films written by Oniroku Dan, her final movie for Nikkatsu being the January 1985
Double Rope Torture to which the Weissers give only a one-star rating, calling the film a "stillborn project".
After Nikkatsu Takakura later pursued a film and TV career, becoming one of the rare
Roman Porno actresses (such as Terumi Azuma and
Junko Asahina) who were successful in mainstream media. She had a role in the February 1985 mainstream comedy
Capone Cries a Lot, directed by
Seijun Suzuki who had also started his career at Nikkatsu (but in the pre-
Roman Porno era). Takakura also had a small part in
Paul Schrader's 1985
biographical drama film
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters as the second girl in "The Temple of the Golden Pavilion" segment. In 1987, she appeared in the second of the long series of
Yakuza Wives gangster films from
Toei. She also had a role as a novelist in the June 1995 comedy
Tenshi no wakemae. Takakura released a 96-page nude photobook in December 1993 titled
South Fairy Tale photographed by Kenji Ishiguro and published by Scola. She married
tarento Nobuo Harada in 1995. Four of Oniroku Dan’s stories, originally published in Japanese in 1997, were published in English in 2010 by
Vertical, Inc. The collection of these stories is titled
Season of Infidelity; the collection’s last story, "Bewitching Bloom", is a telling of Dan’s relationship with
Naomi Tani, and also includes notes about three subsequent Nikkatsu "Queens"; Takakura,
Izumi Shima, and
Junko Mabuki. ==Filmography==