Ranko Hanai

• Name — Ranko Hanai • Other Names — Reiko Shimizu • Born — 15 July 1918 • Birthplace — Osaka, Japan • Birth Name — Yoshiko Shimizu • Died — 21 May 1961 • Occupation — Actress • Years Active — 1929-1961

Hanai was born Yoshiko Shimizu in Osaka, Japan. As a child, she acted with the theatre troupes of Takeo Kawai and Rokurō Kitamura, and gave her screen debut under the name of Reiko Shimizu in 1929. She entered the Nikkatsu film studio in 1931 and moved to J. O. Sutajio (later Toho) in 1937. In 1946, in opposition to the union strike at Toho, Yamada sided with the anti-unionist group "Jū hito no hata no kai" ("Society of the Flag of Ten"), which consisted of Setsuko Hara, Hideko Takamine, Isuzu Yamada and others, and joined the Shintoho studio. During the 1950s, she also occasionally worked for Toho and other production companies, appearing in films of Mikio Naruse, Heinosuke Gosho, Kinuyo Tanaka and Kaneto Shindō. She died in 1961 at the age of 42.

• The Million Ryo Pot (1935, dir. Sadao Yamanaka) • Fallen Blossoms (1938, dir. Tamizō Ishida) • Sanshiro Sugata (1943, dir. Akira Kurosawa) • Ginza Cosmetics (1951, dir. Mikio Naruse) • Repast (1951, dir. Mikio Naruse) • Life of a Woman (1953, dir Kaneto Shindō) • Love Letter (1953, dir. Kinuyo Tanaka) • Where Chimneys Are Seen (1953, dir. Heinosuke Gosho) • Onna no Koyomi (1954, dir. Seiji Hisamatsu) • The Shiinomi School (1955, dir. Hiroshi Shimizu) • A Wife's Heart (1956, dir. Mikio Naruse)