
May 15, 1933 · 93 years old
Jūzō Itami (1933–1997) was a Japanese actor and, later, a popular modern screenwriter and film director. Many critics came to regard him as Japan's greatest director since Akira Kurosawa. His ten feature-length movies and one short film, all of which he wrote himself, are comic satires on elements o…

A truck driver stops at a small family-run noodle shop and decides to help its fledgling business. The story is intertwined with various vignettes about the relationship of love and food.

To avoid a death sentence for her prior acts of bloodshed, the vengeful swordswoman Lady Snowblood is conscripted by the Japanese Secret Police to assassinate political dissidents.

After being discredited as a coward, a 19th century seaman lives for only one purpose: to redeem himself.

If tax evasion is an art, wheeler-dealer Hideki Gondo is Rembrandt. And so, a determined taxing woman gets the tough assignment of trying to catch him.

The orphaned Makioka sisters look for a husband for their third sister, Yukiko, as the rebellious youngest sister, Taeko, is kept waiting her turn.

A luxury hotel extorted by yakusa assigns an ordinary accountant to handle the situation. The chaotic results cause the hotel to rethink its plan.

Japanese parents hire a tutor for their foolish son and get a critic of their lifestyle.

Four high school students preparing for their university entrance exam fantasize about a classmate, and meet up with their inebriated teacher, while singing bawdy drinking songs.

A young man, haunted by his past, travels the land in search of the lyrics to a lullaby his mother used to sing to him.

Ryoko Itakura returns as the government tax agent willing to tackle the toughest cases. This time she takes on a fanatical but lucrative religious cult run by a vile lecher.

The story of a young orphan who becomes a geisha who brings luck to the men she meets, making her the target of several unscrupulous males.

A country girl visits Tokyo in search of her college heartthrob. Here she meets horny students, a psychology professor in search of the theory of shame, and Yoshioka who has become a campus nobody.

The cat of the title roams around the house of a poor schoolteacher in the late 19th century, observing the goings-on of the teacher and his neighbors.

A wistful slice-of-life drama about a college student's attempts to manage her relations with two men.

A young cat burglar begins a love triangle with a reckless older man and her on-again/off-again bonehead biker boyfriend.

A man and a little girl meet in a bicycle parking in Tokyo. The little girl says she wants to watch the sea, and their travel begins.