Juzo Itami

Template:Nihongo, born Template:Nihongo, was a Japanese actor, screenwriter and film director. He directed eleven films (one short and ten features), all of which he wrote himself.

He is the namesake of the Juzo Itami Award, founded in 2009 to honor his legacy.

Early life

Itami was born Yoshihiro Ikeuchi in Kyoto.<ref name="TI">Template:Cite news</ref> The name Itami was passed on from his father, Mansaku Itami, a renowned satirist and film director before World War II. In his childhood, he went by the name Takehiko Ikeuchi (池内 岳彦).<ref name="museum">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

At the end of the war, in Kyoto, Itami was chosen as a prodigy and educated in a Template:Ill ("special scientific education class"), where he began to be trained as a future scientist who was expected to defeat the Allied powers. Among his fellow students were the sons of Hideki Yukawa and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga. The program was abolished in March 1947.<ref name="sawa">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="kanazawa">Template:Cite journal</ref>

He moved from Kyoto to Ehime Prefecture when he was a high school student. He attended the prestigious Matsuyama Higashi High School, where he was known for being able to read works by Arthur Rimbaud in French. Due to his poor academic record, he had to remain in the same class for two years; it was here that he became acquainted with Kenzaburō Ōe, who later married his sister.

When he was unable to graduate from Matsuyama Higashi High School, he transferred to Matsuyama Minami High School and graduated thereafter.Template:Citation needed After failing the entrance exam for the College of Engineering at Osaka University, Itami worked at times as a commercial designer and writer, illustrator, television reporter, and essayist.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He was also the editor-in-chief for the 1980s psychoanalytic magazine Mon Oncle.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In his early acting days, Itami lived in London. By the time he became a director, he spoke English near-flawlessly, although preferred to use an interpreter during interviews.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Itami was the brother-in-law of Kenzaburō Ōe and an uncle of Hikari Ōe.

Acting career

File:1992 Juzo Itami Nobuko Miyamoto.jpg

Itami and Miyamoto in 1992

Itami studied acting at an acting school called Butai Geijutsu Gakuin in Tokyo. In January 1960 he joined Daiei Film and was given the stage name Template:Nihongo by Masaichi Nagata. In May 1960, Itami married Template:Ill, the daughter of film producer Nagamasa Kawakita. He first acted on screen in Ginza no Dora-Neko (1960). In 1961 he left Daiei and started to appear in foreign-language films such as 55 Days at Peking. In 1965 he appeared in the big-budget Anglo-American film Lord Jim. In 1965 he published a book of essays which became a hit, Yoroppa Taikutsu Nikki ("Diary of Boredom in Europe"). In 1966 he and Kazuko agreed to divorce.

In 1967, when working with director Nagisa Ōshima on the set of Sing a Song of Sex (Nihon Shunka Kō) he met Nobuko Miyamoto. He and Miyamoto married in 1969 and had two sons in the following years.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Around this time, he changed his stage name to "伊丹 十三" (Itami Jūzō) with the kanji "十" (ten) rather than "一" (one), and with 十三 meaning "thirteen", and worked as a character actor in film and television.

In 1968 he played Saburo Ishihara, the father of Takeshi and Koji during the second season of the children's series Cometto-san. He became well known for this role in many Spanish-speaking countries, along with Yumiko Kokonoe who played the lead role.

In the 1970s, he joined the TV Man Union television production company and produced and presented documentaries for television, which influenced his later career as a film director. He also worked as a reporter for a TV program called Afternoon Show.

In 1983, Itami played the father in both Yoshimitsu Morita's The Family Game and in Kon Ichikawa's The Makioka Sisters, roles for which he won the Hochi Film Award and Best Supporting Actor at the Yokohama Film Festival.

Along with his acting career, he translated several English books into Japanese, including Papa, You're Crazy by William Saroyan, The Kitchen Sink Papers: My Life as a Househusband by Mike McGrady, and The Potato Book by Myrna Davis and Truman Capote.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Director

Itami's debut as director was the movie The Funeral (Osōshiki) in 1984, at the age of 51. This film proved popular in Japan and won many awards, including Japanese Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. However, it was his second movie, the 1985 comedy film, or self-described "noodle western" Tampopo, that earned him international exposure and acclaim.<ref name=NYT>Template:Cite news</ref>

His following film A Taxing Woman (1987) was again highly successful. It won six major Japanese Academy awards and spawned a sequel A Taxing Woman's Return in 1988. The central character, played by his wife Nobuko Miyamoto who appeared in all his films, became a pop culture heroine.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> This was followed by his fifth film A-Ge-Man: Tales of a Golden Geisha.

Itami directed the anti-yakuza satire Minbo: the Gentle Art of Japanese Extortion as his sixth feature. On May 22, 1992, six days after the release of the film, Itami was attacked, beaten, and slashed on the face by five members of the Goto-gumi, a Shizuoka-based yakuza clan, who were angry at Itami's film's portrayal of gang members. In an interview with the New York Times, he described the attack, saying, "They cut very slowly; they took their time. They could have killed me if they wanted."<ref name=":0">The New York Times</ref> This attack led to a government crackdown on the yakuza.<ref name=":0" />

His subsequent stay in a hospital inspired his next film Daibyonin (1993), a grim satire on the Japanese health system.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> During a showing of this film in Japan, a cinema screen was slashed by a right-wing protester.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Before his death, he directed another three films: A Quiet Life (based on the Kenzaburō Ōe novel), Supermarket Woman, and Woman in Witness Protection.

Recurring cast members

Itami frequently re-cast actors whom he had worked with on previous films.

Recurring cast members in Juzo Itami's works

Template:Diagonal split header 2	Template:Verth	Template:Verth	Template:Verth	Template:Verth	Template:Verth	Template:Verth	Template:Verth	Template:Verth	Template:Verth	Template:Verth	Template:Verth	Template:Verth	Template:Verth	Template:Verth	Template:Verth	Template:Verth	Template:Verth	Template:Verth	Template:Verth	Template:Verth
The Funeral	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No
Tampopo	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes
A Taxing Woman	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No
A Taxing Woman's Return	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
Tales of a Golden Geisha	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes
Minbo	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No
The Last Dance	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No
Template:Ill	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No
Supermarket Woman	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No
Template:Ill	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No

Death

Itami died on December 20, 1997<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> in Tokyo after falling from the roof of the building where his office was located. On his desk was found a suicide note written on a word processor<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> stating that he had been falsely accused of an affair and was taking his life to clear his name. Two days later, a tabloid magazine published a report of such an affair.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

However, no one in Itami's family believed that he would have taken his life or that he would be mortally embarrassed by a real or alleged affair. In 2008, a former member of the Goto-gumi yakuza group told reporter Jake Adelstein: "We set it up to stage his murder as a suicide. We dragged him up to the rooftop and put a gun in his face. We gave him a choice: jump and you might live or stay and we'll blow your face off. He jumped. He didn't live."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The attack is thought to have been due to the topic of Itami's next film, which was rumored to have been focusing on connections between the Goto-gumi and the cult-like Soka Gakkai religious group.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Tributes

His brother-in-law and childhood friend Kenzaburō Ōe wrote The Changeling (2000) based on their relationship.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

There is a Juzo Itami museum in Matsuyama. The memorial museum was designed by architect Yoshifumi Nakamura and contains a special exhibition, rotating its displays every 1–2 years, a permanent exhibition, divided up into thirteen sections to reflect the "thirteen" meaning of Itami's name, and an outdoor courtyard. It also houses a cafe named "Café Tampopo" after the film.<ref name="museum" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Filmography

As an actor

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1960	Ginza no dora-neko
1961	A False Student	Soratani (as Ichizō Itami)
1961	Her Brother	Son of Factory Owner	Uncredited
1961	The Big Wave	Toru
1961	Ten Dark Women	Hanamaki
1963	Onna no tsuribashi	Saburô Ôki	(Episode 2)
1963	55 Days at Peking	Col. Shiba
1964	Shûen	Takuji Yoshii
1965	Lord Jim	Waris
1966	Otokonokao wa rirekisho
1967	Sing a Song of Sex	Ôtake
1967	Choueki juhachi-nen: kari shutsugoku
1968	Shôwa genroku Tokyo 196X-nen
1968	Ah kaiten tokubetsu kogekitai
1968	Ah, yokaren	Miyamoto
1969	Kinpeibai	Hsi Men Ching
1969	Eiko e no 5,000 kiro
1969	Heat Wave Island	Iino
1970	Hiko shonen: Wakamono no toride	Ishizaka
1971	Yasashii Nippon jin
1973	Kunitori Monogatari	Ashikaga Yoshiaki	TV series
1973	Shinsho Taikōki	Araki Murashige	TV series
1974	Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance	Ransui Tokunaga
1974	Imôto	Kazuo Wada
1974	Waga michi
1975	Wagahai wa neko de aru	Meitei
1979	Collections privées		(segment "Kusa-Meikyu")
1979	No More Easy Life	Takamizawa - Landlord
1979	Grass Labyrinth	Principal / Priest / Old man	Short
1980	Yūgure made	Sasa
1981	Slow na boogie ni shitekure	Lawyer
1981	Shikake-nin Baian	Sahei Oumiya
1981	Akuryo-To	Ryuhei Ochi
1982	Kiddonappu burûsu (Kidnap Blues)
1983	The Makioka Sisters	Tatsuo Makioka, Tsuruko's husband
1983	The Family Game	Mr. Numata, the father
1983	Meiso chizu	Itakura
1983	Izakaya Chōji	Kawara
1984	Make-up	Kumakura
1984	MacArthur's Children (Setouchi shonen yakyu dan)	Hatano
1985	The Excitement of the Do-Re-Mi-Fa Girl	Professor Hirayama	<ref>Fandango.comTemplate:Full citation needed</ref>
1985	Haru no Hatō	Itō Hirobumi	TV series
1989	Sweet Home	Yamamura	(final film role)

As director

Year	Title	Notes
1962	Rubber Band Pistol	Short film
1984	The Funeral
1985	Tampopo
1987	A Taxing Woman
1988	A Taxing Woman's Return
1990	Tales of a Golden Geisha
1992	Minbo
1993	The Last Dance
1995	Template:Ill	"A Quiet Life"
1996	Supermarket Woman
1997	Template:Ill	"Woman in Witness Protection"

Awards

• 1985 Japan Academy Prize for Director of the Year—The Funeral
• 1988 Japan Academy Prize for Director of the Year—A Taxing Woman

External links

• [https://www.imdb.com/{{#if: 0411631

 | name/{{#if:{{#invoke:ustring|match|1=0411631|2=^nm}}
   | Template:Trim/
   | nm0411631/
   }}
 | {{#if: {{#property:P345}}
   | name/Template:First word/
   | find?q=%7B%7B%23if%3A+%0A++++++%7C+%7B%7B%7Bname%7D%7D%7D%0A++++++%7C+%5B%5B%3ATemplate%3APAGENAMEBASE%5D%5D%0A++++++%7D%7D&s=nm
   }}
 }}{{#if: 0411631  {{#property:P345}} | {{#switch: 
 | award | awards = awards Awards for | biography | bio = bio Biography for
 }}}} {{#if: 
 | {{{name}}}
 | Template:PAGENAMEBASE
 }}] at IMDb{{#if: 0411631{{#property:P345}}
 | Template:EditAtWikidata
 | Template:Main other

}}{{#switch:{{#invoke:string2|matchAny|^nm.........|^nm.......|nm|.........|source=0411631|plain=false}}

 | 1 | 3 =  Template:Main otherTemplate:Preview warning
 | 4 = Template:Main otherTemplate:Preview warning

}}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:IMDb name with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|showblankpositional=1| 1 | 2 | id | name | section }}

• Template:Jmdb name
• Juzo Itami's grave
• Itami Juzo Museum Template:In lang
• Template:Rotten Tomatoes person