This article was originally featured in the December 2024 issue of Connect.
John Megow (Hyogo)
One of Japan’s most tragic and unsung directors is the dynamic Juzo Itami. Though his career was short, spanning only thirteen years and ten movies between 1984 and his premature death in 1997, his satire remains powerful and his style profound. Itami’s work both deeply criticizes and celebrates Japanese culture, so there are many recurring themes across his filmography. Let’s explore three of his films and consider the norms they play with.
Supermarket Woman: Wife and Women
Nobuko Miyamoto, Itami’s wife and frequent lead actress, is notable and ubiquitous throughout his work. Miyamoto’s characters are bold, reliable, and emotionally intelligent with overtly feminine characterizations, usually occupying gendered domains such as entertainment and homemaking. In Supermarket Woman, Miyamoto plays a single mother and supermarket expert named Hanako Inoue. She assists the owner of a small supermarket in chasing out a rival chain from their town with honest business practice and quality service.
There is a powerful trust in the status quo within Supermarket Woman. The definitions of the genders are made clear: Hanako’s superpower is her feminine tenderness and passion for groceries. The satire here does not parody these gender roles and consumerism but rather the viewer’s expectations of them. If a housewife truly is a master of the home and supermarket, then we ought to be honest about what she is: the most politically, economically, and culturally powerful force in Japan.
Woman in Witness Protection: Crime and Corruption
Itami’s films frequently deal with crime and corruption. From cult assassins to racketeering yakuza, Itami’s villains are shady members of shadier institutions. Woman in Witness Protection sees famous actress Biwako Isono as a witness to the assassination of a lawyer prosecuting a violent cult. As a result, she is placed in a witness protection program under the watchful eye of two city police officers. As the cultists continue to threaten her to stop her testimony, Biwako hardens her resolve to bring about justice at her own expense.
The plot here echoes an episode in Itami’s own life where he was placed in witness protection after an attempt on his life by the yakuza following the release of his film Minbo. In both Minbo and Woman in Witness Protection, Itami lampoons the world’s rule breakers. In his films, criminals are sniveling and pathetic in stark contrast to the typical depictions of yakuza at the time. At a time when media related to crime saw gangsters as honorable vigilantes and unorthodox Robin Hood types, Itami’s films made them the butt of every joke. Lawlessness comes only from cowardice to Itami, and he ultimately paid for his beliefs with his life.
After the release of Woman in Witness Protection, Itami was found dead. A letter written on his computer explained that killing himself was the only way of exonerating himself from an alleged affair. The death was declared a suicide. All of Itami’s family members, however, including Nobuko Miyamoto, believed the act was out of character and that foul play was involved. Roughly ten years later, an ex-member of the yakuza admitted to killing Itami due to the rumored subject of his next film.
Tampopo: Whiplash and Humanism
At times Itami’s work is childlike and sentimental; at others, it is perverse and gruesome. His films routinely cycle between tones with a ferocious abruptness. His most famous work, Tampopo, is notorious for its interludes. The story follows the titular Tampopo as an enigmatic drifter named Goro helps her restore her ramen restaurant to its former glory. Throughout the film, the camera follows background characters walking offstage, and the film substitutes its central plot for a cycle of vignettes exploring the many facets of the film’s primary preoccupation: food. The scenes vary drastically in tone, ranging from cartoonishly farcical to borderline pornographic.
In these tone shifts, Itami stirs up a unique respect for human nature. Within the narrow cultural mandates of how to engage with food, we can find vast ranges of emotion. How do you feel about table manners? How about eating candy? About epicureanism or home-cooked meals? Itami uses these customs and taboos to illustrate the widest range of experiences possible. This use of scale is perhaps the most important Itamiism. Throughout his films, the small moments of sincerity in his characters’ lives are used to contrast the moments of trauma, both bearing equal weight.
Tampopo concludes with the heroes saving the day, but this is a rarity in Itami’s catalog. His films often end inconclusively at the moment before climax. Woman in Witness Protection never sees the result of the trial. Supermarket Woman never confirms the survival of the local store. In an Itami film, the aim is not to reach the end of the story with satisfaction but rather to address each scene and element along the way with optimism. In the end, the credits roll prematurely as if to inquire, “What else could you want? They all did what they could in the face of adversity. Wasn’t that the real point all along?” Perhaps Itami would ask us to view his life through the same lens. Ignore that the hero lost; he enjoyed his victory a thousand times before his death.
John is a first-year ALT who works in rural Hyogo. His hobbies include poetry, board games, and visiting art museums. His dream is to die having lived better than he wrote.