Japan's Juzo Itami and his Contributions to the Film Industry

Mansaku Itami specialized in clothe dramas, while Juzo Itami concentrated on contemporary satire.

Juzo Itami was born in Ehime on the staboohern island of Shikoku, and he spent much of his childishness and youth in that respect. From the first, the boy was a rebel against the stifling conventions of Nipponese society. He attended Matsuyama Minami High School, and one of his friends at the condition was the future Nobel prizewinning novelist Kenzaburo Oe. Oe left us a striking portrait of young Itami in his book of essays make in 1995

Oe tells how the writer Ryotaro Shiba described Itami admiringly as an ijin, which centre a person "who is different from the norm; a ace person . . . A person who practices mysterious arts; a wizard, a foreigner" (Kirkup, 1997, 16). When Oe met itami, the latter was already embroiled in a battle with the administration over the compulsory equal rule for the school. Oe reported that his friend suffered from a sense of infraction on his human rights. Itami was unable to attend a university later on he was expelled from school, meaning he could not sit for the university first appearance exam. He then went to give out as an illustrator (Kirkup, 1997, 16).

Itami moved to capital of Japan in 1960 and went to work for the Daiei movie company as an actor, and there he specialized in supporting roles. In that year, he in like manner married Kazuko Kawakita. He left Daiei in 1961 and went to work writing literary essays, much as his father had done. He cont

If Itami were a chef, he exponent rank with Escoffier; as a moviemaker, he certainly ranks with Preston Sturges as a deflator of middleclass pretensions. Compared with Itami, most contemporary japery directors are just staging food fights (Schickel, 1987, 65).

Critics note some(prenominal) weaknesses in the structure of The Funeral that Itami would avoid in his later flashs. The motion-picture show is built on a series of almost egotismcontained episodes, a method that becomes repetitive. Although A Taxing Woman also includes many brief episodes, it has a suspenseful plot line that continues from start to finish. Tampopo continually digresses from its main plot line, but it does so into such wild comedy that it remains fascinating.

At the analogous time, The Funeral manages to offer inventive comic scenes throughout. The way Itami handled serious topics with a comic flair is not new or erratic in Nipponese filmmaking, though he was a nigh example of the approach:

Kirkup, J. (1997, December 23). "Obituary: Juzo Itami." Independent, 16.

Itami's first have as a director, The Funeral, developed from personal experience. When his fatherinlaw died, Itami had the responsibility of overseeing the funeral. No one knew just how this spread out ritual was to be conducted, so everybody became an instant expert. Knowing that he had discovered the material for an unusual black comedy, Itami sought out the money he needed to make it, raising one-half the cost from a debtor and the rest by mortgaging his home. The film was an international hit:

A theme that recurs in Japanese cinema derives from the ongoing conflict between traditional and occidental ways, and Itami showed an interest in this theme from his first film. In the Funeral, Itami introduces the two cultures by introducing Wabisuke and Chizuko in traditional costume as they realize in a commercial that is accompanied by rock candy music. The commercial further has the untraditional touch in that it involves an optic illusion that
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