Akiko Ōku (大九 明子, Ōku Akiko, born October 8, 1968), also romanised as Akiko Ohku, is a Japanese film director. Ōku was born in Yokohama, Kanagawa. In high school, she joined a rakugo group. While studying Politics and Economics at Meiji University, she was part of a student theatre troupe. After graduating, Ōku briefly had an office job at a subsidiary of the Ministry of Labour. She then entered a comedy acting school for one year and performed as stand-up comedian, and afterwards, at age 27, s ...