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5) FILM, TV, VIDEO, THEATRE
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Leave to Remain

1987

Film - Directed by Les Blair: Channel 4

This film deals with visa marriage. Directed by Les Blair. Kazuko was the second main character (but not too much acting).

Club Monkey

1987

Stage musical directed by Barry Edwards and Charlie Hanson

Samurai spectacles, geisha ghosts and kabuki kung fu - it was all happening in the Mong Municipal Morgue (aka Watermans Arts Centre, Brentford). Also starred Judy Pascoe (ex-Circus Oz) as the crazy Chinese kyonshee with the sentimental streak who just can't help jumping in and out of control. Loosely based on the ancient Chinese legend of The Monkey King, Club Monkey featured songs from the album of the same name. "Turn on to the haunting high of Dead Dog, tune in to the underworld show-stopper Night Drain - drop out to Club Monkey - the night spot everyone's dying to get into!", they said.

James Bonk and Matt Black Finger

1989

Short: Channel 4

Made by Kazuko's and Andrew Bremer's group Japanese American Toy Theatre of London. With wind up Godzilla, tin chicken which lays rubber eggs, plastic shark, etc. Grand 10 minute musical. Kazuko appears as a club singer in the Blade Runner-ish environment in the last sequence. A lot of toys and a lot of anarchy. Broadcast on Channel 4 and won the prize in Tokyo Video Festival 1989.

Kazuko's Karaoke Klub

1989

TV series: Channel 4

Chat show inviting people for the interview and forcing them to sing karaoke after the interview. Kazuko became the first ever Japanese presenter in British TV history. Also she was the first ever chat show presenter whose question people couldn't understand. The partner for Frank Chickens at that time Kamura (the former member of the first female Japanese rock band Mizutama Syoboudan (= Polka Dot Fire Brigade) appeared as a mysterious punk geisha.

90 Days Tottenham Pub

1991

TV series: Uplink for Fuji TV

Kazuko appears as a Frank Chicken. She is married to a gay aristocrat for visa. It's set in Tottenham where Kazuko lives and has a story of three Japanese women who run pub there. Extraordinary story.

The Good Wife of Tokyo

1993

Film - Directed by Kim Longinotto: 20th Century Vixen/Channel 4

This was supposed to be a documentary about Japanese contemporary women, however it ended up as Kazuko's mother's promo video. It has Kazuko's mum's song and dance and Frank Chickens 1992 Japan tour.

IOU Theatre Company: The Boundary

1993-1994

Arts Council-funded alternative English theatre group based in Yorkshire, working since 1970's. Big scale visual plus high quality music plus charming eccentricity. Kazuko loves to work with them. She loves so much she tried to stay in Yorkshire when she was working for their show The Boundary by breaking her leg. (She truly broke it before the show, and they accommodated her in plaster for the show).

The Evidence Room

1995

Leeds Metropolitan University Gallery & The Studio Theatre

An installation and performance work by IMPOSSIBLE THEATRE in collaboration with Paul Grundy, Kazuko Hohki, Shaheen Merali, Clive Bell and Christian Weaver.

The Guardian said: "Kazuko Hohki floats like an alluring digital angel", but they've never seen her trying to work out the timer on a video...

I Love London

1996

Film by Nick Turvey

Two women, a Japanese tourist (guess who) and a Swiss au-pair (Sandrine Blancke), get lost together while looking for Buckingham Palace. With only a few English pop songs as a common language, a more profound and wordless communication gradually develops. While one learns tolerance, the other acquires confidence. It's a film about mothers and daughters, the beauty of mistakes, and the importance of the right pair of shoes.

Click here to find out more.

Toothless

1998

Solo Theatre Show

Premiered as work in progress at the Operadix Festival in London's Union Chapel in 1996, Kazuko explores her relationship with her mother and Japan as a daughter, artist and exile. Kazuko will be touring the show from March 1998. Click here for more about the show and details of dates.

6) BOOKS, PUBLICATIONS

London No Yukasita (Underfloor London)

1994

Book: Kyuryudo Publications (Earth Books)

Collection of Kazuko's essays which she has been writing for past 5 years for Shiseido magazine called Hanatsubaki. Shiseido is a very famous prestigious cosmetic company in Japan. Since she published this book Kazuko gets asked to shake hands with the most beautiful looking women on the Tokyo street. Usually when she is carrying horse radish for the evening meal's miso soup and wearing woolly hat.

London Kai Kai (London Joy Joy)

1996
Book: Fusou Publishing

Second collection of Kazuko's essays.

Deep London

1998
Book: Bungeishunjyu Nesko Publications

Chickens alternative guide book. From how to buy a car to how to buy SM gear in London. It's a most useful and entertaining guidebook for Japanese tourists who don't want to be Japanese tourists. (If you are the lucky one to have got one of the first edition of 8,000, you will have extra pleasure in finding some spectacular spelling mistakes).

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