Discovered, along with actors Akira Takarada and Yu Fujiki, in Toho's sixth annual New Face Contest in 1953, Momoko Kochi was immediately cast in her first film, A WOMAN'S HEART RELEASED. Two pictures with Toho's veteran director Kajiro Yamamoto followed the next year. It was probably in his mentor Yamamoto's films that younger director Ishiro Honda saw her and chose her to play the female lead in his classic GOJIRA (1954). Kochi's excellence in GOJIRA led to typecasting in several more such roles, both in monster movies and in other genres. By 1959. Kochi decided the only thing keeping her from better roles was her lack of formal training, which she immediately commenced. A turn in a Shakespeare play on stage soon followed, and Kochi began to pursue a stage career, her income fortified by work in TV commercials.(imdb) Watch drama online for free.