Junko Takada
Details
Alternate Names: 高田顺子
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Career
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Full Biography
Junko Takada (高田順子) is a Japanese actress born on January 19, 1962, in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.
She is most widely recognized for her powerful performance in the critically acclaimed 1983 film The Ballad of Narayama (Narayama bushikô), directed by Shōhei Imamura. In this haunting adaptation of Shichirō Fukazawa's stories, Takada portrays the character Matsuyan (sometimes credited as "Matsu"). Her role is central to one of the film's most devastating sequences, where her character is buried alive by the community as a severe punishment for her family's theft of food during a period of extreme scarcity.
The film earned international prestige, winning the Palme d'Or at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival. While Takada’s filmography is primarily defined by this iconic role, her contribution to Japanese cinema remains linked to this masterpiece of the "New Wave" era.
