Kiki Sugino

Acting

Kiki Sugino

Born 1984-03-12 · Hiroshima, Japan

Kiki Sugino, born as Seo Yeong Hwa, is an actress and producer. Sugino was born in Hiroshima, Japan to Korean parents (Japanese-born Koreans are known in Japan as "Zainichi Koreans"). She made her debut as an actress in Korea in the 2005 film "One Shining Day". Kim Ki Duk cast her in a small role in his 2006 film "Time". Sugino later returned to Japan where she made her acting debut with Tetsuo Shinohara's 2008 film "Clearness". Sugino has gone beyond being only a performer and has become a producer, starting her own company Wa Entertainment and producing her most recent films. Besides Magic and Loss, Sugino has also produced and starred in Tokyo-based Malaysian director Edmund Yeo's short film Exhalation and Koji Fukada's feature Hospitalité, both 2010 films.

Acting credits

Town Without Sea poster
8.0

It is a youth film about the boys in their late teens spend before they become adults. Sho and Tiaga, who grew up in the same neighborhood since they were little, are in their last year of high school. They are also the duo who beat the drums at town festivals. However, Taiga announces that he will not play drums this year to prepare to go to college. Sho, who has no plan of his future, cannot think straight. Like The Blue Bird by Maurice MAETERLINCK, the film tells the story of the youth realizing that happiness is not far away.

Town Without Sea

2020

One Shining Day poster
4.7

Episode 1. Mie comes to Korea in search for a keepsake, which her grandpa left behind when going back to Japan from Jeju Island due to Korean Liberation. She and her friend, Eiko meet a variety of Korean on their journey to Jeju Island. Episode 2. Jong-hwan defrauds people of money with a laptop-computer to make money for meeting his mother who lives in Japan. Episode 3. On arriving at the airport, Ishida starts running to catch the flight to Japan. He ends up missing his flight by bumping against Go-ny, working at a duty-free shop at the airport. After a while, they get to meet up once again at the airport and spend some time together.

One Shining Day

2006

Odayaka poster
5.7

Saeko and Yukako live together in a small apartment complex in Tokyo. After the Tohoku earthquake in 2011, both live in a state of unease. Saeko, who is in a divorce, is worried that her daughter is exposed to radiation. Yukako is also afraid of radiation and tries to convince her husband to move. The two become friends after Yukako tries to save Saeko after a suicide attempt.

Odayaka

2012

Tiger is Strolling Around poster
2.0

Katsumi is feeling blue. While walking through a ghost Japanese town, she can see signs that her life has reached the point of no return. When she decides to end this misery, Magic Tiger appears. Can he save her?

Tiger is Strolling Around

2021

Two Rabbits in Osaka poster
NR

An unknown calamity is killing off ninety-percent of mankind. There is no cure, no hope and no future. A man and woman, who are laden with suffering and anxiety, are drawn together. They spend their final days, and perhaps the final days of the planet, together in a different environment somewhere in central Japan of the near future.

Two Rabbits in Osaka

2011

Kinki poster
3.8

A teacher is sexually involved with an underage student. She visits her father's home and discovers a boy who's been kept as a sex slave. The teacher continues harboring the boy out of fear and begins to feel sexually attracted to him.

Kinki

2014

Exhalation poster
5.4

A young woman returns to her birthplace for an ex-classmate's funeral. She and a friend lose themselves in melancholy.

Exhalation

2010

Snow Woman poster
6.2

One snowy night, in a mountain hut, Minokichi, a hunter, sees a snow woman killing his mentor Mosaku. “Should you tell anyone, I will take your life” she says, then drifts off. A year later, Minokichi meets and marries a beauty named Yuki. She bears him a daughter, Ume. 14 years pass and Ume blossoms into a radiant lady who befriends the sickly Mikio, the village leader’s son and Mosaku’s distant relative. Mikio soon dies in the same hut as Mosaku, with his body showing the same frostbite scars. Minokichi is reminded of that horrid night, and wonders what it was that he saw, and who Yuki really is.

Snow Woman

2016

21st Century Girl poster
7.2

21st Century Girl is an omnibus feature that is of the girls, by the girls and for the girls. The work of 15 women directors under the age of 30, each of whom contributed an 8-minute film, the package highlights a range of genres, visions and thematic concerns.

21st Century Girl

2019

Time poster
6.9

Consumed by jealousy, a woman takes an extreme step and undergoes surgery for a new face. Although her lover of 2 years misses her, he falls in love with the new face, not knowing it's the same woman.

Time

2006

Chigasaki Story poster
NR

Whimsical film in which students and teachers come together during a weekend for a wedding. The film flutters back and forth between the various characters and their feelings until the wedding starts. Shot in the old beach hotel where the great Ozu wrote his screenplays. © iffr.com

Chigasaki Story

2014

A Picture With Yuki poster
6.8

A married couple move to Bulgaria in order to start in vitro procedures. Both of them happen to take part in a tragic incident in which a child loses it's life.

A Picture With Yuki

2019

Taksu poster
5.4

Chihiro is depressed and obsessed with his own mortality. Him and his wife, Yuri (Yoko Mitsuya), decide to take a trip to Bali, Indonesia to see his pregnant sister, Kumi (Kiki Sugino). They hope the trip can bring about change.

Taksu

2014

Au revoir l'été poster
6.3

After failing her university entrance exam, Sakuko is invited by her aunt Mikie to spend summer vacation in a beautiful seaside town. Sakuko gets to know the people of the town, including Takashi, a shy relative of her childhood friend.

Au revoir l'été

2014

Kyoto Elegy poster
NR

Kyoto in April. A timid and shy student, Watabe, is struggling to make friends and spending lonely days in a university. Concurrently, student life for Satomi Kumahori has also been hard, due to her overweight appearance. For Satomi, it is only Watabe who talks to her kindly and does not make fun of her. One day she takes advantage of Watabe and starts to live off him, literally like a parasite. While Satomi is using him as a slave, he falls in love with Nako, a girl he meets at work. At the same time, he accidentally learns about Satomi's past.

Kyoto Elegy

2014

The Intermission poster
7.0

A unique black comedy set in Ginza Cinepathos, a long-established movie theater that closes at the end of March 2013 while being familiar to movie fans with its retro appearance and unique lineup. Unique guests visiting the theater draw a human pattern during breaks.

The Intermission

2013

Love Mooning poster
7.0

Hiroshi, who runs a mental clinic, has never recovered from the shock of his wife’s suicide. One day, Ayako, a mysterious patient comes to his clinic….

Love Mooning

2021

I Want to Be Loved poster
NR

Ten years ago, on an island located near Hiroshima, a seventeen-year-old student named Miyuki committed suicide by jumping from a cliff near where she lived. Bullied everyday at school, she was in love with a fellow student named Takuma. Ten years later, Takuma returns to the island where he was born and where Miyuki died. Although ten years have flown by and Miyuki died long ago, she still loves Takuma.

I Want to Be Loved

2020

Gunjōiro no, tōrimichi poster
7.0

A man, who moved to Tokyo to become a musician, returns to his hometown for the first time in 10 years. He sees the beautiful scenery of his childhood years and the kind people who supports him.

Gunjōiro no, tōrimichi

2015

Short Plays poster
5.1

Football seen through the eyes of some of the best directors of the world.

Short Plays

2014

Kalayaan poster
5.0

Julian is a soldier stationed on a remote island in the Philippines. He has finished his three months of service on the island and is ready to leave, but news of a coup d’état in Manilla forces Julian to stay on the island longer. All Julian has is a walkie-talkie, radio and TV. Meanwhile, Julian senses someone watching him. When Julian loses contact with the main base, soldiers Lucio and Eric are sent to the island. The soldiers then talk about a soldier previously stationed on the island and his encounters with a mermaid.

Kalayaan

2012

Hospitalité poster
5.9

In this black comedy the lives of a timid small-time printer and his young wife are turned inside out by the arrival of a stranger who moves in and takes over their world. Set in a village-like outpost in the heart of Tokyo, this is a wry commentary on Japanese xenophobia. Kiki Sugino heads a spritely ensemble cast.

Hospitalité

2011

CLEARNESS poster
NR

Sakura is a 20-year-old college student who has sex for money to fund her shopping addiction. After her customers leave her apartment, she spends her time spying on Leo, a young, beautiful, and (dyed) blond-haired boy, who works at a male escort service across the street. One day, Leo pays her a visit, and so starts an unlikely friendship. But Leo has a troubled past. He is the son of a prostitute who worked for his current pimp and died before she could repay money that she owed. He himself entered the business when he graduated from junior high school. Though Leo refuses to make love to Sakura (he has a policy of not having sex outside of work), the two fall in love and become inseparable until Leo gets into a fight with Sakura's boyfriend and gets him into a car accident. Leo turns himself in, and Sakura moves to Okinawa to wait for him at their dream destination.

CLEARNESS

2008

Magic and Loss poster
4.0

A dreamlike drama produced by and starring Sugino Kiki, a rising star in the independent film world. Two women who meet on a mysterious resort island become captivated by its allure and venture into an ethereal realm. It is the second feature directed by Malaysian filmmaker Lim Kah Wai. Japanese Kiki (Sugino) and South Korean Kkobbi (Kim Kkobbi) arrive on Hong Kong's Lantau Island. They have both rented rooms at a hotel near the Mui Wo forest, but when they enter the lobby, the only other person around is a bellboy.

Magic and Loss

2010

Behind the camera

Odayaka poster
5.7

Saeko and Yukako live together in a small apartment complex in Tokyo. After the Tohoku earthquake in 2011, both live in a state of unease. Saeko, who is in a divorce, is worried that her daughter is exposed to radiation. Yukako is also afraid of radiation and tries to convince her husband to move. The two become friends after Yukako tries to save Saeko after a suicide attempt.

Odayaka

2012

Kinki poster
3.8

A teacher is sexually involved with an underage student. She visits her father's home and discovers a boy who's been kept as a sex slave. The teacher continues harboring the boy out of fear and begins to feel sexually attracted to him.

Kinki

2014

Exhalation poster
5.4

A young woman returns to her birthplace for an ex-classmate's funeral. She and a friend lose themselves in melancholy.

Exhalation

2010

Snow Woman poster
6.2

One snowy night, in a mountain hut, Minokichi, a hunter, sees a snow woman killing his mentor Mosaku. “Should you tell anyone, I will take your life” she says, then drifts off. A year later, Minokichi meets and marries a beauty named Yuki. She bears him a daughter, Ume. 14 years pass and Ume blossoms into a radiant lady who befriends the sickly Mikio, the village leader’s son and Mosaku’s distant relative. Mikio soon dies in the same hut as Mosaku, with his body showing the same frostbite scars. Minokichi is reminded of that horrid night, and wonders what it was that he saw, and who Yuki really is.

Snow Woman

2016

Taksu poster
5.4

Chihiro is depressed and obsessed with his own mortality. Him and his wife, Yuri (Yoko Mitsuya), decide to take a trip to Bali, Indonesia to see his pregnant sister, Kumi (Kiki Sugino). They hope the trip can bring about change.

Taksu

2014

Kyoto Elegy poster
NR

Kyoto in April. A timid and shy student, Watabe, is struggling to make friends and spending lonely days in a university. Concurrently, student life for Satomi Kumahori has also been hard, due to her overweight appearance. For Satomi, it is only Watabe who talks to her kindly and does not make fun of her. One day she takes advantage of Watabe and starts to live off him, literally like a parasite. While Satomi is using him as a slave, he falls in love with Nako, a girl he meets at work. At the same time, he accidentally learns about Satomi's past.

Kyoto Elegy

2014

Love Mooning poster
7.0

Hiroshi, who runs a mental clinic, has never recovered from the shock of his wife’s suicide. One day, Ayako, a mysterious patient comes to his clinic….

Love Mooning

2021

Short Plays poster
5.1

Football seen through the eyes of some of the best directors of the world.

Short Plays

2014