A Taxing Woman
by Juzo Itami
from Itami Productions
English subtitles, Japanese language, Full Frame, All Region Import. Ryoko Itakura is a government tax agent who has just landed a big promotion. Her first assignment is to catch wheeler-dealer Hideki Gondo. She has a tough job, since in Japan tax evasion is an art and Gondo is, in effect, Rembrandt. Her job is complicated by a growing sympathy for the rogue and by political pressure to lay off.
Tampopo
by Juzo Itami
from Fox Lorber
Like seeds of a dandelion blowing in the wind, the plot of Tampopo wanders in several directions, following the lives of a quirky collection of characters. At the heart of this film is a young widow named Tampopo (Nobuko Miyamoto), who is struggling to make ends meet by running a noodle restaurant. Goro (Tsutomu Yamazaki), a truck driver, saves Tampopo's young son from being beaten by a group of school girls and is rewarded with a bowl of very bad ramen (noodles). Goro tells Tampopo the awful truth about her cooking and she asks for his help. Together they search for the perfect ramen recipe.
Intersecting this part of the plot are several smaller and less well-realized stories. Koji Yakusho, who stars in Shall We Dance, appears as a sensuous gangster who would rather play with his food than eat it. Then there's the mysterious Noodle Master who lives with a group of street vagabonds and a young executive who knows how to order food from a French menu, but not how to preserve the dignity of his superiors.
While the film as a whole feels somewhat disjointed, writer-director Juzo Itami manages to infuse Tampopo (which means "dandelion") with a sense of Japanese joie de vivre that is worth experiencing. Take notes during the "soup scenes" and see what you can cook up for yourself. --Luanne Brown
Supermarket Woman
by Juzo Itami
from Itami productions
Japanese language, English subtitles. A new supermarket 'Bargains Galore' opens, and threatens the longer-established 'Honest Goro' with its aggressive price cutting. The owner of 'Honest Goro' (Goro, played by Masahiko Tsugawa) inspects the new store, and bumps into an old classmate he hasn't seen for years (Hanako, played by Nobuko Miyamoto). She uses her 'housewife's know' to show him why his supermarket is performing so badly. He resolves to make his supermarket the best in Japan, and gives her a job as head cashier.
The Funeral
by Juzo Itami
from Itami productions
JUZO ITAMI'S ''Funeral'' is a series of joyous contradictions. Here's a robust comedy whose subject is death, a film that is quintessentially Japanese though it recalls (without in any way imitating) the work of the quintessentially French Jean Renoir, and a tough-minded satire that is almost always sweet. The movie is about the mad scramble of the members of one affluent, bourgeois family to honor ancient traditions in a Japan that worships its high technology, fast foods, instant replays, automobiles and labor-saving appliances as much as it does its ancestors.
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