March 2002

Continued from November 2001

Tanpopo （タンポポ）
Released on November 23, 1985

A truck driver stops by a faltering Chinese noodle shop. He is attracted by the beautiful widow, who runs the shop by herself. He and others try to make the shop the best Chinese noodle shop in town. 13 short stories concerning food are inserted. This is a unique way of constructing a film? The film was called "Ramen Western," and it was a big hit in New York and Paris. (Pia Cinema Club Japanese Film Data Base, 2000-2001, translation mine)

Unlike A Taxing Woman or Minbo, this film deals with a rather ordinary Japanese woman whose husband has died, and who manages her son's life as well as her own. Itami's image of women was not one pattern alone; he created different kinds of women through his films. However, he always tried to show women's independence. Itami did not finish the film's story with Tanpopo marrying one of the men who helped her. Many men helped Tanpopo to be successful, but they respected her independence.

Despite the praise that was given to the uniqueness of inserting many short stories while the main story of Tanpopo was going on, those short stories might be disturbing to some. The inserted short scenes seemed like commercials from food companies and restaurants.

A Taxing Woman's Return （マルサの女2）
Released on January 15, 1988

This film is "A Taxing Woman" Part 2, directed by Juzo Itami. Ryoko Itakura, a special investigator from the National Tax Bureau, who was given the case of tax evasion by a land shark, finds that a gigantic gangster organization and a religious corporate body are related. The gangsters had been using the religious group, which is not taxed at all even though they make a huge amount of money, as a cover. Ryoko, at first, keeps an eye on and then starts investigating Onizawa, who is the president of the land shark. (Pia Cinema Club Japanese Film Data Base, 2000-2001, translation mine)

Ryoko has become an even tougher woman than she was in A Taxing Woman, the first film of the series.

Ryoko, who is crazy about her work, is very attractive as a working woman, although she could never be called beautiful. We cannot believe that Miyamoto Nobuko, who plays the role of Ryoko, is the same actress as the one who played the role of the cute lady Tanpopo in Tanpopo. Miyamoto Nobuko reminds us of Lea Thompson who played the role of the mother in Back to the Future and Back to the Future 2; Miyamoto Nobuko performed as well as Lea Thompson in changing her appearance.

In this film, Itami focuses on three things: 1) the ill behavior of religious organizations, 2) the reality of the Japanese economy and 3) different kinds of Japanese women.

The madness of Aum Shinrikyo requires no commentary. Seeing this film, we can very easily imagine the terrorist acts of Aum. However, The gas attack in a subway station in Tokyo happened in March 1995, but the film was directed in 1988. We can say that Itami had predicted that this kind of attack might happen seven years earlier than the real incident occurred.

The Japanese economy now is very sluggish, but when the film was made, many Japanese people were exultant about their livelihood. Onizawa, played by Mikuni Rentaro, says that he is trying to raise land prices to attract direct investments from abroad, otherwise Japan's economic position and status would soon be taken away by Hong Kong. It has been 10 years since the bubble inflated economy of Japan burst. Itami analyzed the economy well.

Itami introduced not only a hard working strong woman, Ryoko, but also several different kinds of Japanese women: a 15-year-old girl who is used as collateral by her father, whose life reminds us of the poor period of Japan before the War when farmers sold their daughters; a woman who works for a soap land, a Japanese brothel, and sends money to her beloved father in the countryside in Kyushu; a woman who works for a hostess bar and is attracted to Onizawa, believing that he is a good person.

The background music is also well composed. It makes us feel courage and makes us imagine the Internal Revenue Service in the US, which has the reputation of being stricter than the FBI.

Minbo （ミンボーの女）
Released on May 16, 1992

A female lawyer, who specializes in dealing with Minbo (the violence that interferes with civil laws), such as blackmailing and extortion, is hired by a top ranking hotel. She teaches hotel employees how to protect the hotel from gangsters? Itami, film hit maker, shows us the film with roller coaster speed? (Pia Cinema Club Japanese Film Data Base, 2000-2001, translation mine)

Itami was attacked by five gangsters with knives near his house right after the film was released. He was seriously injured, in the face and other places. The suspects, the leaders of the gangsters, were convicted.

This film taught us that even an ordinary citizen can drive gangsters away, and that we do not need to be afraid of them. This method of defense against gangsters was so practical that Itami was attacked. I am very angry. We should never forgive this kind of sordid activity. And at the same time, I would like to pay my sincere respect to Itami. (Marusa-no-Heya. Translation mine)

Similar to A Taxing Woman and A Taxing Woman's Return, in this film also an elite woman fights against wrongs in society. A big difference between this film and A Taxing woman is that Ryoko, in A Taxing Woman, grows up as the story develops, but Mahiru in Minbo is a brave lawyer from the beginning. However, in A Taxing Woman's Return, Ryoko fights against gangsters, therefore we can observe that these three films are a trilogy; a heroine develops from a mere young woman to a superwoman who fights against the cancer of society, even risking her own life in so doing.

Itami risked his life for his film, but still did not give up producing the film; we can see that Itami's policy in life is congruent with that reflected in his films. "One can only assume that Itami must have gotten pretty close to the truth or he wouldn't have been attacked." (Amazon.com)

In both this film and A Taxing Woman, the enemies of Mahiru and Ryoko scornfully say to them, "You are a woman, aren't you?" Those women, in the end, defeat powerful men.

Throughout Itami Juzo's films, we can reconfirm that he tried to reveal society's shortcomings and exposed the human honne or real mind. Itami also believed in women's ability and wanted to promote their position in society. For Itami's belief in women, we can be further sure of this due to the fact that Itami used his wife, Miyamoto Nobuko, to play different kinds of women. All these characters tell us of Itami's strong belief in women: their independence and strength. He trusted and believed in his wife's ability as an actress. This is a respectable attitude for a husband. In revealing wrongness in society, Itami's approach to film making is similar to Oliver Stone's. However, Oliver Stone's films are generally very heavy and serious while Itami made his films rather humorous.

If you are interested in seeing these Itami films, you can borrow the videos with English subtitiles from me.

Masayoshi Ohtani
masayoshiohtani@aol.com

Posted on March 2002 in the following categories: Opinions, Stories and Information | TrackBack(121)