Suggested Viewing
from
Jim's Real Detroit Column
9/30/99
Juzo Itami’s films took the serious side of Japanese society and, through a mixture of slapstick and biting satire, turned them into memorable comedies. His directorial debut, 1984's The Funeral, launched his career and by poking fun at Japanese funerals and rich fee-collecting Buddhist monks, made it clear that nothing was sacred when it came to spoofing his country’s traditions.
Itami was best known for the 1986 orgiastic “noodle Western,” Tampopo. The film is the story of a Clint Eastwood-type drifter who drives a truck instead of riding a horse. He meets Tampopo (played by Itami’s wife Nobuko Miyamoto), a struggling noodle-shop owner, who is trying to make a go of it after the death of her husband. Together they embark upon a quest for the perfect noodle. Their obsession is shared by many, including an elderly noodle eater who, early in the film instructs how to make, smell, talk to, eat, and even thank, a bowl of noodles. The film uses spaghetti Western-like cinematography as it strings its mythic episodes together, culminating in a tense and funny “showdown” between noodle experts and Tampopo’s Ramen soup. Before watching Tampopo, you might want to make sure that you have some Ramen noodles handy, because much like The Big Night (1995), this movie makes you hungry.
Itami comedies were often controversial. In The Taxing Woman (1987) and A Taxing Woman Returns (1988) Miyamoto is a hard-as-nails investigator/collector who goes after tax evaders including a “love hotel.” Minbo–Or the Gentle Art of Japanese Extortion (1992) finds Miyamoto as a lawyer who takes on Yakuza extortionists. The real life Yakuza, who fancy themselves modern-day samurai, didn’t enjoy their portrayal as pathetic little bullies, and shortly after Minbo’s release five thugs slashed Itami with knives, disfiguring his neck and face. After the much lighter Supermarket Woman (1996), Itami directed his last film, Marutai no Onna (Woman of the Police Protection Program). This time Miyamoto is an actress who must be hidden after witnessing a murder. Itami’s own experience with the program after his hospitalization from the attack formed the basis for the story.
With his worldwide popularity and critical success, Itami was labeled heir to legendary filmmaker Akira Kurosawas’s throne—but it was not to be. In December of 1997, at age 64, Itami (whose real name was Yoshihiro Ikeuchi) committed suicide. He had been accused by “Flash” magazine of having an affair with a younger woman, and the story was to be published the following Monday. He left two suicide notes: one to his wife and one to his public. In the latter he claimed the woman was only a friend and stated that his death was the only way to prove his innocence. Kurosawa died the following year.
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