Directed by Juzo Itami • 1992 • Japan
Starring Nobuko Miyamoto, Yasuo Daichi, Takehiro Murata
An upscale Japanese hotel hires Mahiru (Nobuko Miyamoto), a lawyer adept at dealing with the yakuza, to help them rid their hotel of the local gangsters so they can get a contract for a meeting of important foreign officials. With this raucous farce—an enormous box-office hit in Japan—director Juzo Itami dared to satirize the yakuza and paid dearly for it; shortly after the film’s release, his face was slashed in an attack by vengeful mobsters, and his mysterious death, five years later, was alleged to have been further payback.
Directed by Juzo Itami • 1993 • Japan
Starring Rentaro Mikuni, Masahiko Tsugawa, Nobuko Miyamoto
Director Juzo Itami applies his unfailingly light touch to that most serious of topics—death—in this slyly self-reflexive, bittersweet comedy. Buhei Mikai (Rentaro Mikuni) is a successful Japanese mo...
Directed by Juzo Itami • 1995 • Japan
Starring Atsuro Watanabe, Hinako Saeki, Masayuki Imai
Based on a novel by Nobel prizewinner Kenzaburo Oe (the brother-in-law of director Juzo Itami) this radically empathetic melodrama—inspired by the story of the writer’s own children—evokes the world of a ...
Directed by Juzo Itami • 1996 • Japan
Starring Masahiko Tsugawa, Nobuko Miyamoto, Ryunosuke Kaneda
In this vibrant comedy, failing supermarket manager Goro (Masahiko Tsugawa) hires Hanako (Nobuko Miyamoto), an old classmate, to help him compete with the new rival grocery store in town. Soon, Han...
