For the Ladies: Japanese Actors in Commercials Pt. 2

I'm not exactly focusing on actors this time per se, but now it's notable Japanese actresses that grabbed my attention. Finding commercials starring great actresses was a little trickier as they seem to be a bit more scarce, but what I could find was very interesting. Maybe the difficulty of finding commercials may be in part of the classic gender roles of what's expected of women that what's expected from men. In a country that for years was incredibly male dominated, even work in a commercial for a female may have been difficult.

Let me start this with my favorite of these commercials starring the beautiful Mariko Kaga (Pleasures of the Flesh (Etsuraku) (1965)) with her large, cartoon like eyes struggling to wake-up before goofily squeezing out White Lion toothpaste and brushing her teeth intensely. A little bit on the Richard Lester tip in humor and with the dental equivalent of A Hard Day's Night's (1964) collage shots of The Beatles:


(Uploaded onto YouTube by user Vintage50D)

Gettin' Paid, Gettin' Paid: Japanese Actors in Commercials Pt. 1

It's not weird to see your favorite Hollywood actors pushing products on Japanese television (Lost in Translation (2003) had a whole plot point revolving around the idea). If you want to see any, do a search on YouTube and you can find several featuring actors like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nicholas Cage, John Travolta, Audrey Hepburn and even the great Orson Welles. As an example, here's a favorite of mine in a series of commercials for Suntory Whiskey where Peter Falk (A Woman Under the Influence (1974), Wings of Desire (1987)) plays a bartender:


(Uploaded onto YouTube by user callfromthepast3)

But Japanese actors pull in their own work too. It might not offer the room to stretch their acting chops and show off their abilities, but if it means a paycheck, then why not have some fun and do a few commercials?