Filmography (as Director)
Rubberband Gun - Unknown year - mentioned in this interview with Donald Ritchie:
Ososhiki (Funeral Ceremony/The Funeral/Death - Japanese Style/Zazambo) (1984) Fox Lorber R1(DVD File); Geneon R2 (Japan) with English subtitlesItami knew my films quite well. At that time, he was an actor going with a girl I was seeing a lot -- Kazuko Kawakita, whom he eventually married. He emulated one of my films in the first film he made -- a 16 mm film called "Rubberband Gun." He and Kazuko made it, and it had my sense of humor in it, a very funny little film.
Tampopo (Dandelion) (1985) Fox Lorber R1 DVD Talk; Kung Fu Cult Cinema; DVD Beaver with Geneon R2 (Japan) disc with English subtitles
Marusa no onna (A Taxing Woman) (1987) Fox Lorber R1; Geneon R2 (Japan) with English subtitles available in 1 or 2-disc editions
Marusa no onna II (A Taxing Woman II; A Taxing Woman's Return) (1988) Geneon R2 (Japan) with English subtitles
A-ge-man (Tales of a Golden Geisha) (1990) Geneon R2 (Japan) with English subtitles
Minbo no onna (Minbo/Gentle Art of Japanese Extortion/The Anti-Extortion Woman) (1992) Geneon R2 (Japan) with English subtitles
Daibyonin (The Last Dance) (1993) Geneon R2 (Japan) with English subtitles
Shizukana Seikatsu (A Quiet Life) (1995) Geneon R2 (Japan) with English subtitles
Sunna no onna (Supermarket Woman) (1996) Geneon R2 (Japan) with English subtitles
Marutai no onna (Woman in Witness Protection) (1997) Geneon R2 (Japan) with English subtitles
Two boxsets of Juzo Itami films were available in Japan, a 'Tatakau Onna' (Tough Woman) set of the five 'onna' films and the remaining five films in a 'Gambaru' set. Both were limited editions and now seem to be out of print.
Web Resources
Films
Juzo Itami on DVD
Career overview
The Screen Bug on Juzo Itami
Review of The Funeral by Vincent Canby from The New York Times
Roger Ebert review of Tampopo
Review of Tampopo from Hanami Web
The Aspect Ratio on Tampopo
Scenes from Tampopo on YouTube, (2), (3)
Driven By Uncontrollable Passions: A Taxing Woman. Review by Richard Schickel in Time
Review of A Taxing Woman
Review of A Taxing Woman Returns
The Screen Bug on Minbo no Onna
Review of Minbo no Onna
Japan Times article about attack on Juzo Itami after release of Minbo no Onna
Review of Supermarket Woman
Searching for information I came across the Capcom video game from 1989, Sweet Home, (2), which is said to have been the genesis of survival horror games such as Capcom's later Resident Evil series. A film of the same name was made at the same time produced by Juzo Itami and directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa.
Archive reviews of three Juzo Itami films from the Siskel and Ebert show. From the link, click the director's name to find reviews of the two Taxing Woman films and Tampopo.
General information
IMDB page on recent two hour documentary, Juzo Itami: The Man With 13 Faces
Kenzaburo Oe: Laughing Prophet and Soulful Healer - article on the novellist and brother-in-law to Itami. A Quiet Life was based on a novel by Oe, and Oe's 1999 novel Changeling is said to be a response to Itami's death.
