Annyong Yumika

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Everyone in the pink film and Adult Video business remembers where they were when they first heard about the death of Yumika Hayashi (June 27, 1970 - June 28, 2005). One of the Japanese sex film industry’s most prolific and iconic performers, she was discovered dead in her apartment on 28 June 2005 after returning home from her 35th birthday celebrations. No stranger to pornography himself, Tetsuaki Matsue attempts to discover the real figure behind Yumika's screen image in this jaunty fan portrait, interviewing those that knew and loved her including Big Tits Zombie director Takao Nakano, the pink filmmaker Shinji Imaoka who directed Yumika in Lunchbox and the actress Lemon Hanazawa who starred alongside her, and Katsuyuki Hirano, the former lover and AV director who himself made an explicit documentary about their affair.

As a behind-the-scenes look at the Japanese sex film industry, Annyong Yumika makes for revelatory and compelling for Western viewers. Things take on an even more surreal twist, however, following the unearthing of an obscure curio unmentioned in her official filmography, a micro-budget straight-to-video Korean softcore film entitled Junko: Story of a Tokyo Housewife. Matsue and crew to journey to Seoul on an obsessive quest to track down the staff of a film that arguably would have been best left forgotten.

The Annyong Yumika screening will be followed by a Q&A with the director, Tetsuaki Matsue.