Kumi Mizuno

Acting

Kumi Mizuno

Born 1937-01-01 · Niigata, Japan

Kumi Mizuno (水野久美 Mizuno Kumi), born Maya Igarashi (五十嵐麻耶 Igarashi Maya), is a Japanese actress. Despite the large number of films she appeared in early on in her career, Mizuno is best known for her roles in Toho's 1960's kaiju films Matango, Frankenstein vs. Baragon, Invasion of Astro-Monster, Ebirah, Horror of the Deep, and The War of the Gargantuas. Her most iconic role is undoubtedly that of the Xilien agent Namikawa in Invasion of Astro-Monster. She became such a cult figure among kaiju fans that Toho brought her back in 2002 to play a role in Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla and again in 2004 for Godzilla: Final Wars. Mizuno also appeared in Toho's 2009 stage adaptation of its 1960 science fiction film The Human Vapor.

Acting credits

Love Is in the Green Wind poster
7.0

A youthful film depicting the sexual awakening of a boy who has just entered adolescence and his heartbreaking romance during the summer holidays with a young sprightly girl.

Love Is in the Green Wind

1974

Chûshingura poster
7.1

After their lord is tricked into committing ritual suicide, forty-seven samurai warriors await the chance to avenge their master and reclaim their honor.

Chûshingura

1962

Godzilla: Final Wars poster
7.1

Humanity finally rids themselves of Godzilla, imprisoning him in an icy tomb in the South Pole. All is peaceful until various monsters emerge to lay waste to Earth's cities. Overwhelmed, humanity is seemingly saved by a race of benevolent aliens known as Xiliens. But not all is what it seems with these bizarre visitors. If humanity wishes to survive, they must reluctantly resurrect their most hated enemy, Godzilla.

Godzilla: Final Wars

2004

Invasion of Astro-Monster poster
6.8

Astronauts Glenn and Fuji investigate Planet X and encounter mysterious aliens known as the Xiliens, who ask Earth's people to help save their world from "Monster Zero". In exchange for borrowing Godzilla and Rodan, the Xiliens offer a cure for cancer. As Glenn investigates, he develops a romance with Miss Namikawa and uncovers the Xilien's true intentions.

Invasion of Astro-Monster

1965

Ebirah, Horror of the Deep poster
6.3

Searching for his brother, Ryota stows away on a boat belonging to a criminal alongside two other teenagers. The group shipwrecks on Letchi island and discover the Infant Island natives have been enslaved by a terrorist organization controlling a crustacean monster. Finding a sleeping Godzilla, they decide to awaken him to defeat the terrorists and liberate the natives.

Ebirah, Horror of the Deep

1966

Blood on the Sea poster
NR

Four fishermen friends are caught up in a piracy plot.

Blood on the Sea

1961

Rainbow Kids poster
6.7

A wealthy matriarch is kidnapped by a gang of three. She is insulted by the amount of money they propose to demand as ransom, and a strange interchange of roles takes place.

Rainbow Kids

1991

The War of the Gargantuas poster
6.3

Gaira, a humanoid sea beast spawned from the discarded cells of Frankenstein's monster, attacks the shores of Tokyo. While the Japanese military prepares to take action, Gaira's Gargantua brother, Sanda, descends from the mountains to defend his kin. A battle between good and evil ensues, leaving brothers divided and a city in ruins.

The War of the Gargantuas

1966

Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla poster
7.5

JSDF pilot Akane has a fateful encounter when a new Godzilla emerges in Tateyama. As a countermeasure, a cyborg named Kiryu is constructed from the remains of the original. The machine is discovered to harbor the restless soul of the original monster as Akane must learn to find value in her own life as well.

Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla

2002

Frankenstein Conquers the World poster
6.7

During WWII, Germans obtain the immortal heart of Frankenstein's monster and transport it to Japan to prevent it being seized by the Allies. Kept in a Hiroshima laboratory, it is seeming lost when the United States destroys the city with the atomic bomb. Years later a wild boy is discovered wandering the streets of the city alone, born of the immortal heart.

Frankenstein Conquers the World

1965

Till Tomorrow Is poster
8.0

Natsuko’s daughter Saori is born blind in 1941, just before her father is drafted. Despite an attempted surgery and years of struggle, her condition proves permanent. Growing up, she faces stigma and danger but eventually finds hope and love with a fellow blind student.

Till Tomorrow Is

1962

Matango poster
6.7

Five vacationers and two crewmen become stranded on a tropical island near the equator. The island has little edible food for them to use as they try to live in a fungus covered hulk while repairing Kessei's yacht. Eventually they struggle over the food rations which were left behind by the former crew. Soon they discover something unfriendly there...

Matango

1963

Gorath poster
6.3

In 1976, a drifting star named Gorath is discovered to be on a collision course with Earth. Although it is smaller than Earth, its enormous mass is enough to destroy the planet totally. A mission sent to observe Gorath is destroyed after the ship is drawn into the star, with a later mission barely escaping the same fate. However, Astronaut Tatsuma Kanai is left in a catatonic state due to his near death experience. Unable to destroy the invading star, Earth's scientists undertake a desperate plan to build giant rockets at the South Pole to move the planet out of Gorath's path before it is too late.

Gorath

1962

I Want to Be a Shellfish poster
10.0

On a post-war peaceful day in Japan, Toyomatsu Shimizu, a barber as well as a good father and husband, is suddenly arrested by the Prefectural Police as a war criminal and sued for murder.

I Want to Be a Shellfish

1959

Challenge to Live poster
9.0

An employee at an oil cartel (Mihashi) is haunted by an act years before when he euthanized a fellow soldier when the two were adrift at sea during the Pacific War. Matters are complicated further when he falls in love with the soldier's younger sister (Tsukasa).

Challenge to Live

1961

Taking a Success Course poster
NR

1961 Japanese movie

Taking a Success Course

1961

The Other Woman poster
6.3

The real mother of the two children of a respectable university professor is not his wife, but his mistress, the hostess of a Ginza bar the family frequents.

The Other Woman

1961

Night Train poster
3.7

A woman faces betrayal, which tests her love.

Night Train

1987

Kaito Ruby poster
7.0

Toru Hayashi is an unremarkable bachelor who lives with his mother, until one day a young woman named Rumi moves in in the apartment upstairs. Rumi is a self-proclaimed master thief, but she needs socially awkward Toru's help to actually kickstart her so-called career.

Kaito Ruby

1988

Care Nin poster
NR

Kei Omori did not have anything he wanted to do with his life. Without any specific reasons, he enrolled in a special nursing school. After his graduation, he begins work at a small-size multi-functional facility as a care worker. He has a hard time communicating with the elderly people with dementia. For the first time, he is placed in charge of 79-year-old Keiko Hoshikawa who has dementia. With the help of the staff and trial-and-error, he develops a relationship with Keiko.

Care Nin

2017

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

The Three Treasures poster
5.5

The legend of the birth of Shintoism. In Fourth Century Japan, the Emperor's son Ouso expects to succeed his father on the throne, but Otomo, the Emperor's vassal, prefers Ouso's stepbrother, and conspires to have Ouso die on a dangerous mission he has contrived. But Ouso prevails in the mission and returns to his father's castle under a new name, Prince Yamato Takeru. Otomo plots to have the Prince sent into even greater danger, but Otomo is unaware that the gods have favored the Prince and the outcome is far from what any of them expected.

The Three Treasures

1959

The Merciless Trap poster
8.0

Taut thriller about a too-perfect criminal case against an ex-convict that makes a nosy detective suspicious.

The Merciless Trap

1961

Interpol Code 8 poster
7.5

Agent Jiro Kitami attempts to stop a smuggling ring from shipping arms to Vietcong guerrillas.

Interpol Code 8

1963