Juzo Itami

Juzo Itami, a top Japanese filmmaker who directed biting satires on tax evasion and organized crime, apparently jumped to his death from the roof of an eight-story building, a studio spokesman said. He was 64. Itami, director of the internationally acclaimed film "Tampopo," died at a Tokyo hospital Saturday evening, said Toho Co. spokesman Masahiko Suzuki. He said that police had determined that Itami's death was a suicide.

Juzo Itami, a top Japanese filmmaker who directed biting satires on tax evasion and organized crime, apparently jumped to his death from the roof of an eight-story building, a studio spokesman said. He was 64. Itami, director of the internationally acclaimed film "Tampopo," died at a Tokyo hospital Saturday evening, said Toho Co. spokesman Masahiko Suzuki. He said that police had determined that Itami's death was a suicide.

Juzo Itami got edgier as his directing career grew. Just think about "Tampopo" or "A Taxing Woman." In those movies, his humor can be sardonic to the point of serrated as he grins at a Japan co-opted by the West. But in his first picture, "The Funeral," Itami was more subdued, even reflective. The 1984 serio-comedy (which screens Friday night as part of UC Irvine's "Off the Beaten Path" series) is reined in, as if Itami is trying very hard to be thoughtful.

Juzo Itami got edgier as his directing career grew. Just think about "Tampopo" or "A Taxing Woman." In those movies, his humor can be sardonic to the point of serrated as he grins at a Japan co-opted by the West. But in his first picture, "The Funeral," Itami was more subdued, even reflective. The 1984 serio-comedy (which screens Friday night as part of UC Irvine's "Off the Beaten Path" series) is reined in, as if Itami is trying very hard to be thoughtful.

With "Tampopo" (1986), the movie that brought him some celebrity in the United States, Juzo Itami took the story of a student noodle-maker and turned it into a sensual and ticklish look at Japanese society. It's an excellent film, with all the small comic elements tuned just right to Itami's vision. Itami followed "Tampopo" with "Marusa No Onna" ("A Taxing Woman") in 1987. It didn't do as well in this country, most likely because it lacks something of its predecessor's flavorful eccentricity.

The world's greatest economic powerhouse is staffed by some of the world's weakest men. From that simple but stark assumption, Japan's movie-directing sensation of the 1980s has fashioned "Ageman," the film he hopes will carry his momentum into the 1990s. "Japan has not yet invented fatherhood as a part of its culture," filmmaker Juzo Itami said. "So where most societies have three main figures--father, mother and child--Japan has only two, and men grow up to be children."

In a defiant letter written Monday from the hospital bed where he is recovering from a Mafia-style stabbing, film director Juzo Itami called on the Japanese public not to back down in the fight against gangsters. " Yakuza (gangsters) must not be allowed to deprive us of our freedom through violence and intimidation, and this is the message of my movie," wrote Itami, one of Japan's most popular filmmakers.

Even before gangsters, outraged by his last movie, attacked him, director Juzo Itami had started thinking about death. * "There won't be that many more movies I can do," said Itami, who just turned 60. "There is no possibility of doing dozens more--at most, five or so. Or in that range. The time that is left starts weighing on one's mind." That's why, he said, he began planning his latest movie a year and a half ago--a comedy about death. A comedy? "Well, movies are a business," observed Itami.

Another Attack: Popular Japanese film director Juzo Itami, attacked last year by gangsters who were outraged at his anti-gangster film "Mimbo no Onna (Mob-Fighting Woman)," has come under attack once again for the work. During a showing of Itami's latest film, "Daibyonin (Very Sick Patient)," a young man who police said belonged to a small rightist organization that had opposed the distribution of "Mimbo no Onna," slashed a movie screen in Tokyo while 400 filmgoers watched.

Following are capsule reviews of today's screenings in the American Film Institute Los Angeles International Film Festival at the Cineplex Odeon Century Plaza Cinemas: 'A Taxing Woman's Return' Japan, 1988, 127 minutes 9:00 p.m. Once again Nobuko Miyamoto plays that most implacable of tax inspectors, but this time her husband Juzo Itami's comedy is actually more accessible than the original. Instead of spoofing the specific foibles of the inscrutable Japanese tax system Itami this time comments with pitch-dark, fatalistic humor on widespread corruption at the highest levels of government.

Another Attack: Popular Japanese film director Juzo Itami, attacked last year by gangsters who were outraged at his anti-gangster film "Mimbo no Onna (Mob-Fighting Woman)," has come under attack once again for the work. During a showing of Itami's latest film, "Daibyonin (Very Sick Patient)," a young man who police said belonged to a small rightist organization that had opposed the distribution of "Mimbo no Onna," slashed a movie screen in Tokyo while 400 filmgoers watched.

Even before gangsters, outraged by his last movie, attacked him, director Juzo Itami had started thinking about death. * "There won't be that many more movies I can do," said Itami, who just turned 60. "There is no possibility of doing dozens more--at most, five or so. Or in that range. The time that is left starts weighing on one's mind." That's why, he said, he began planning his latest movie a year and a half ago--a comedy about death. A comedy? "Well, movies are a business," observed Itami.

Food. When all else fails, it's there for us. When dating is slow or the relationship is sputtering, it beckons, steadfast and willing. You don't have to ask; food just gives and gives. Juzo Itami, perhaps Japan's most inventive and curiously disposed young filmmaker, understands food, the reverie of it, its sensual essence.

In a defiant letter written Monday from the hospital bed where he is recovering from a Mafia-style stabbing, film director Juzo Itami called on the Japanese public not to back down in the fight against gangsters. " Yakuza (gangsters) must not be allowed to deprive us of our freedom through violence and intimidation, and this is the message of my movie," wrote Itami, one of Japan's most popular filmmakers.

With "Tampopo" (1986), the movie that brought him some celebrity in the United States, Juzo Itami took the story of a student noodle-maker and turned it into a sensual and ticklish look at Japanese society. It's an excellent film, with all the small comic elements tuned just right to Itami's vision. Itami followed "Tampopo" with "Marusa No Onna" ("A Taxing Woman") in 1987. It didn't do as well in this country, most likely because it lacks something of its predecessor's flavorful eccentricity.

The world's greatest economic powerhouse is staffed by some of the world's weakest men. From that simple but stark assumption, Japan's movie-directing sensation of the 1980s has fashioned "Ageman," the film he hopes will carry his momentum into the 1990s. "Japan has not yet invented fatherhood as a part of its culture," filmmaker Juzo Itami said. "So where most societies have three main figures--father, mother and child--Japan has only two, and men grow up to be children."

Food. When all else fails, it's there for us. When dating is slow or the relationship is sputtering, it beckons, steadfast and willing. You don't have to ask; food just gives and gives. Juzo Itami, perhaps Japan's most inventive and curiously disposed young filmmaker, understands food, the reverie of it, its sensual essence.

Don't be put off by the title of "The Funeral" (at the Century City 14), for it is the wise, compassionate and slyly amusing debut film of Juzo Itami, writer-director of the phenomenally popular "Tampopo." Like "Tampopo," "The Funeral" stars Itami's actress-wife Nobuko Miyamoto and Tsutomu Yamazaki and has a truly universal appeal; you don't have to be an aficionado of the Japanese cinema to enjoy it thoroughly. You don't even have to like sushi.

Following are capsule reviews of today's screenings in the American Film Institute Los Angeles International Film Festival at the Cineplex Odeon Century Plaza Cinemas: 'A Taxing Woman's Return' Japan, 1988, 127 minutes 9:00 p.m. Once again Nobuko Miyamoto plays that most implacable of tax inspectors, but this time her husband Juzo Itami's comedy is actually more accessible than the original. Instead of spoofing the specific foibles of the inscrutable Japanese tax system Itami this time comments with pitch-dark, fatalistic humor on widespread corruption at the highest levels of government.

Don't be put off by the title of "The Funeral" (at the Century City 14), for it is the wise, compassionate and slyly amusing debut film of Juzo Itami, writer-director of the phenomenally popular "Tampopo." Like "Tampopo," "The Funeral" stars Itami's actress-wife Nobuko Miyamoto and Tsutomu Yamazaki and has a truly universal appeal; you don't have to be an aficionado of the Japanese cinema to enjoy it thoroughly. You don't even have to like sushi.