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Itami Juzo

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In Reply to: Any Juzo Itami fans? posted by croft on February 18, 2004 at 20:37:48:

Itami Juzo was undoubtedly murdered for revealing a little too much of the rotten core of Japanese society
His 1997 "suicide" where he was frogmarched off the top of a building was pure fiction preceded by a magazine scandal revealing his affair with a younger woman, (which was just as much of a fiction)
Watch; Minbo No Onna (Mob Woman) and you will see the filmmaker totally demythologising the Japanese Yakuza from their typical screen persona of the latter day samurai/robin hood to the cheap scheming vermin they really are; Juzo had his face slashed by an angry mobster after this films debut screening; cinema screens were slashed by mobsters all over Japan where this film played and he received death threats all the rest of his life for making this (its wonderful, BTW!)
Here was a filmmaker that was immensely brave and talented, who undoubtedly died for his craft; his themes are well researched, his actors are the best
Don't know where you will find any other than the handful of his films that are available subtitled or dubbed, I live in Japan and get asked this question all the time
Graham

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Follow Ups:

Re: Itami Juzo - croft 21:54:16 02/18/04 (1)
Hi Graham,
Thanks very much for the post.
I do have the said film on VHS and only last year read about the sad death of Mr Itami.
I also think he was one of the best directors from Tokyo.
I first saw a taxing woman on terestrial tv and it was so well written and used clever photography'I was hooked.
I admire the way the plots of Juzos films have a clever twist and you always feel like you know the stars themselves.
Tampopo is another classic,Simple story and concept but done in such a fantastick way.
I think its such a shame to loose a man that created a capsule of time that was Tokyo in the 1980,s.
I did manage to get the soundtrack to a taxing woman on cd,It is brilliant.
I never new that Nabuko was his wife in real life?
I wonder if the Tampopo stars are still making films these days,Gondo was such a great character.
Thanks for the post,
Really great to hear from you,
Regards,
Ian(UK).
- Yes Nabuko was his wife (really!) - grinagog 23:16:41 02/18/04 (0)
  and the star in all his films from Tampopo on. The illusion of familiarity with the characters is so well done it draws you right into his films; I don't know quite how he achieves this beyond the excellence of the actors themselves but its definitely there as a factor in all his films
  Most of the actors still appear on Japanese TV shows from time to time but Nabuko I haven't seen in anything since he died (I have lived in Japan for over a decade)
  Cheers Ian; Good to hear from another fan of the man!
  Graham

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