1. Juzo Itami, born Yoshihiro Ikeuchi, was a Japanese actor, screenwriter and film director.
21 Facts About Juzo Itami
1. 2.
Juzo Itami directed eleven films, all of which he wrote himself.
3.
Juzo Itami is the namesake of the Juzo Itami Award, founded in 2009 to honor his legacy.
4.
The name Itami was passed on from his father, Mansaku Itami, a renowned satirist and film director before World War II.
5.
Juzo Itami moved from Kyoto to Ehime Prefecture when he was a high school student.
6.
Juzo Itami attended the prestigious Matsuyama Higashi High School, where he was known for being able to read works by Arthur Rimbaud in French.
7.
Juzo Itami was the editor-in-chief for the 1980s psychoanalytic magazine Mon Oncle.
8.
Juzo Itami was the brother-in-law of Kenzaburo Oe and an uncle of Hikari Oe.
9.
Juzo Itami studied acting at an acting school called Butai Geijutsu Gakuin in Tokyo.
10.
In May 1960, Juzo Itami married Kazuko Kawakita, the daughter of film producer Nagamasa Kawakita.
11.
Juzo Itami first acted on screen in Ginza no Dora-Neko.
12.
Juzo Itami became well known for this role in many Spanish-speaking countries, along with Yumiko Kokonoe who played the lead role.
13.
Juzo Itami worked as a reporter for a TV program called Afternoon Show.
14.
In 1983, Juzo Itami played the father in both Yoshimitsu Morita's The Family Game and in Kon Ichikawa's The Makioka Sisters, roles for which he won the Hochi Film Award and Best Supporting Actor at the Yokohama Film Festival.
15.
Juzo Itami's following film A Taxing Woman was again highly successful.
16.
Juzo Itami directed the anti-yakuza satire Minbo: the Gentle Art of Japanese Extortion as his sixth feature.
17.
On May 22,1992, six days after the release of the film, Juzo Itami was attacked, beaten, and slashed on the face by five members of the Goto-gumi, a Shizuoka-based yakuza clan, who were angry at Juzo Itami's film's portrayal of gang members.
18.
Juzo Itami's subsequent stay in a hospital inspired his next film Daibyonin, a grim satire on the Japanese health system.
19.
Juzo Itami frequently re-cast actors whom he had worked with on previous films.
20.
Juzo Itami died on December 20,1997 in Tokyo after falling from the roof of the building where his office was located.
21.
However, no one in Juzo Itami's family believed that he would have taken his life or that he would be mortally embarrassed by a real or alleged affair.