Rena Murakami — Acting | Biography, Movies & Career

Biography

Rena Murakami is a Japanese actress and former AV idol.

After beginning her career as a gravure idol, Murakami made her adult video (AV) debut in the March 1988 h.m.p. Miss Christine release, Hatsujō Kansen (発情感染). In December of her debut year she also had a role in Toei's mainstream drama release, Koiko no mainichi (恋子の毎日).

In addition to continuing her AV career, Murakami had another role in a mainstream drama, appearing in Bandai Visual's Shin dōtei monogatari: Hong Kong virgin boy (新・童貞物語　ホンコンバージンボーイ) in March 1990. Also in 1990 she appeared in pioneering pink film director/producer Kan Mukai's Code Name 348: Onna keiji sashiba (コードネーム３４８　女刑事　サシバ). She also had roles in a number of V-Cinema films.

Her work became popular in Hong Kong, and led to her getting roles in several Category III films of Hong Kong cinema, starting around 1991. Her most significant film there was the 1991 cult favorite, Sex and Zen. In a review of the DVD release of Sex and Zen, a reviewer described her as one of "Asian cinema's most beautiful actresses". Her last film in Hong Kong, 1/3 Lover, was released in 1993.

There was a minor scandal when news leaked that she might have had sex with the Sultan of Brunei during his visit to Japan in 1993. For several years starting in the late 1990s, she toured various strip theaters around Japan, such as the famous Asakusa Rokku-za (ロック座).

In 1997, she produced and starred in the pink film Murakami Rena: kyūkyoku meigizuma (村上麗奈　究極名器妻), through Runa Films. The film was distributed theatrically by XCes, scripted by pink film actress Kiyomi Itō, and directed by Satoru Kobayashi, director of the first pink film, Flesh Market (1962). The film was re-issued in June 2003 as 村上麗奈　極上けいれん妻.

Later, Murakami had a small part in the 2008 Japanese comedy, Serial Dad.

Since 2018, Rena Murakami has been a radio personality on a talk radio program in Osaka.