Juzo itami biography of michael
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Deep Focus: Tampopo
A gleefully sensual and inventive comedy, Tampopo was an art-house smash in Director Juzo Itami drew on American noirs and gangster films and Westerns and probably comic books, too, to come up with a quintessentially Japanese lark that blissed out audiences around the world. More than wacky and funny, it’s flavorful. If Itami had managed to revive AromaRama or Smell-o-Vision, or had come up with scratch-and-sniff cards to match the scents of soy, onion and wasabi, the movie might never have stopped running. Instead, it fell into neglect—until now. In a new 4K restoration, Tampopo is more vivid and seductive than ever: a garden of sensual delights that plays like a romp through a surreal amusement park.
“Revenge is a dish best served cold,” goes the old Sicilian proverb, but in Tampopo, the story of a plucky widow who learns how to cook and sell the best ramen in Tokyo, revenge is best served in a steaming hot broth, with noodles that are left standing o
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Michael Weening: a few pictures
On a recent tour, near this street we heard all about Juzo Itami.
Standing at the bottom of the building where he “committed suicide”, we heard the story about how this Japanese spelfilm maker made fun of the establishment and organized crime:
On May 22, , six days after the release of his anti-yakuza satire Minbō no Onna, Itami was attacked, beaten, and slashed on the face by fem members of the Goto-gumi, a Shizuoka-based yakuza clan, who were angry at Itami&#;s film&#;s portrayal of yakuza members as craven, dishonorable bullies. This attack led to a government crackdown on the yakuza. His subsequent stay in a hospital inspired his next film Daibyonin, a grim satire on the Japanese health system.
Looking down the alley, our guide explained his “death”:
He purportedly committed suicide on December 20, [1] in Tokyo, by leaping from the roof of the building where his office was located, after a sex scandal he was allegedly involved in
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What&#;s it all about, Alfie?
There are times when eating is simply about fueling up the body for whatever is to come next.
Then there are those other times&#;
Juzo Itami&#;s Tampopo is a film that never forgets the sensual side of food and eating.
The movie takes its name from that of its heroine, who runs a roadside ramen stand in rural Japan. Her desire is to have the best ramen shop in the area, but unfortunately, her noodles simply aren&#;t all that good. Enter itinerant trucker Goro (Tsutomu Yamazaki) and his sidekick Gun (Ken Watanabe), who stop in one evening as a break from the road. After Goro stops her son from being beaten by three of his school mates then takes a beating himself while defending her from harassing local Pisken, he awakens the next morning to find that she has taken him in and cleaned and bandaged his wounds.
When it turns out that Goro knows more than a thing or two about the proper cooking of ramen, Tampopo begs him to train her so that she can