[5][11] As Nanami, she also played the female lead in another mainstream movie that was due to be released in Japan in 2006 but had its debut at the American Film Market in Santa Monica, California in November 2005 as Deep Sea Monster Reigo.

[12][13] After a long hiatus, she re-emerged as Saori Hara in August 2008 and appeared in a non-nude gravure video titled Clear Water.

[2][5][14] The next month, in September, she posed nude for the first time in the Japanese men's magazine Sabra, and it was announced that she was contracted to the Soft On Demand (SOD) adult video studio.

[22] Not long after her AV debut, Hara had a role in the Nikkatsu sex comedy about the porn industry, Lala Pipo, written by Tetsuya Nakashima, which reached theatres in February 2009.

[17][18] Her book is one of a number of autobiographical publications by actresses about the AV industry going back to Ai Iijima's million-selling Platonic Sex and including Mihiro's partially fictional May 2009 work nude and Honoka's tell-all Biography of Honoka: Mama, I Love You published in January 2010, which adult media reporter Rio Yasuda sees as marking a trend in which the AV industry is losing its stigma and being assimilated into Japanese popular culture.

According to a 2010 article in Shukan Post, Hara and Maria Ozawa were the two most downloaded AV actresses in China[5] and in August 2010, it was announced that Hara was cast with fellow SOD actress Yukiko Suo (周防ゆきこ, Suō Yukiko) for the US$3.2 million 3-D Hong Kong erotic film 3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy produced by Stephen Shiu who was the executive producer of the Category III film Sex and Zen.

Hara reportedly went through a nervous breakdown following the March 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and decided to retire from show business, subsequently terminating her contract with SOD.

[47] In 2011, Complex magazine ranked her at #19 in their list of “The Top 50 Hottest Asian Porn Stars of All Time.”[48] After an absence of more than two years, in February 2014, Hara announced her return to the entertainment industry under the performing name Miyabi Matsunoi, given to her by actor Lily Franky (リリー・フランキー).