Yumika Hayashi

was a Japanese AV idol and pink film actress. She earned the title of "Japan's Original Adult Video Queen" during a 16-year career in which she starred in nearly 200 AVs and appeared in over 180 films. Hayashi was also a prominent pink film actress; she was the subject of a 1997 documentary Her death on June 28, 2005, one day after her 35th birthday, ended one of the longest careers in the AV field and made front-page news in Tokyo.

Life and career Yumika Hayashi was born in Tokyo on June 27, 1970. Her parents divorced when she was in 5th grade, elementary school, and Hayashi was on her own by the time she was in high school. Hayashi's mother managed a popular ramen chain.

Hayashi made her adult video debut in the bishōjo genre with the June 1989 h.m.p. Miss Christine release. She made her pink film debut the same year, and her starring debut with the Xces studio release, in October 1990.

Cult director Hisayasu Satō chose Hayashi for a major role in his 1993 film Real Action: Drink Up!, and continued an association with the actress in several films. In his entry in the Molester's Train series, Molester's Train: Dirty Behavior Birthday Hayashi had a role in a film whose "austere tone" was in direct contrast to the light, comic tone of the previous films in the series, started by Academy Award-winner Yōjirō Takita in 1982. In 1995, Hayashi played a role in a TBS television series featuring Taro Miyako Nishimura's fictional detective, Inspector Totsukawa.

By mid-1996, another V&R Planning director, Katsuyuki Hirano (who was married) had replaced Company Matsuo as Hayashi's lover and later in 1997 edited a mainstream documentary on the trip entitled Yumika. Hayashi received credit for the shooting of the film, and Hirano was Hayashi's co-star. Hayashi also appeared in director Yōichirō Takahashi's drama Nichiyōbi wa Owaranai (日曜日は終わらない) which originally aired on NHK TV as a High-Definition satellite TV broadcast on October 21, 1999. It was subsequently shown as Sunday's Dream (1999) at the 53rd Cannes Film Festival, and won the FIPRESCI Prize at the Chicago International Film Festival. In their review of the film, midnighteye.com commented, "The big surprise is that former porn star Yumika Hayashi is also very good as the happy-go-lucky Sachiko".

As one of the top erotic actresses of her day, Hayashi was invited to the Cinequint theater in Shibuya to speak at a woman's-only night showing of pink films in March 2002. Similar events had attracted a large audience of young women. On the subject of women viewing her films, Hayashi told the weekly Shūkan Bunshun, "To be honest, I've never really thought about whether my movies were being watched by men or women. We always presume that only guys are going to turn them on... Still, this'll be a great chance for girls to get to know about the porno movie industry. I think the most enjoyable part of the night is going to be the questions asked after the films are over. I wonder what the girls are going to ask me?"

At the 17th Pink Grand Prix awards, for the year of 2004, Hayashi won the "Best Actress" award for her performance in .

Death When director Katsuyuki Hirano became concerned that Hayashi had not reported for work for a couple of days, he, another AV worker and Hayashi's mother went to her apartment on the morning of June 29, 2005, two days after Hayashi's 35th birthday. There they discovered her dead body in bed.

Hayashi's last film, (2005), directed by Yumi Yoshiyuki, was released in September 2005. Yoshiyuki and co-star Sakurako Kaoru participated in the memorial ceremony for Hayashi at the film's opening at the Ueno Okura theater. The film received a standing ovation. Hayashi's posthumous work was chosen as the fifth best pink release of the year 2005 at the Pink Grand Prix. Yoshiyuki Hayashida, founder of the pink film magazine P*G and the Pink Grand Prix co-authored a 382-page biography of Hayashi in 2006 entitled . In 2009, Japanese-Korean director Tetsuaki Matsue filmed a documentary on Hayashi. Titled , the film includes appearances by Hayashi's former colleagues actress Lemon Hanazawa and directors Company Matsuo and Katsuyuki Hirano.