Akiko Wakabayashi

Akiko Wakabayashi
Wakabayashi, as Aki in the movie You Only Live Twice.
Born	13 December 1939 (1939-12-13) Ōta, Tokyo
Occupation	Actress

In this Japanese name, the family name is "Wakabayashi".

Akiko Wakabayashi (若林 映子, Wakabayashi Akiko, born 13 December 1939) is a Japanese actress, best known in English-speaking countries for her role as Bond girl, Aki in the 1967 James Bond movie You Only Live Twice. Before this, she had made many movies in her native Japan, especially Toho Studio's monster movies such as Dagora, the Space Monster and Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (both of which were also released under various other titles).

When production of You Only Live Twice began, Wakabayashi was originally slated to play the role of Kissy Suzuki whilst her co-star Mie Hama played Suki, one of Tiger Tanaka's top agents. When learning English proved to be a major hurdle to Hama, the women switched roles, with Hama now playing the smaller part of Kissy and Wakabayashi playing the larger part of Suki.

At her suggestion, the character of Suki was renamed Aki. This is probably partly because^{[citation needed]} in 1966, Woody Allen took the Japanese action film International Secret Police: Key of Keys (in which both Mie Hama and Wakabayashi starred), re-edited, re-dubbed, re-plotted, and renamed it What's Up, Tiger Lily?. In the film, Wakabayashi's character was "Suki Yaki" whereas her You Only Live Twice co-star Hama played "Teri Yaki".

Wakabayashi made only one more film (and a guest TV appearance) before disappearing from both the big and small screen. In an interview in G-FAN magazine (No. 76), Wakabayashi said she retired from acting owing to injuries sustained while making a movie.

Filmography

• Song for a Bride (花嫁三重奏 Hanayome sanjuso) (1958)
• What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1965)
• You Only Live Twice (1967)

External links

• Akiko Wakabayashi at the Internet Movie Database