Directing

Jūzō Itami

Born 15 May 1933 · Kyoto, Japan · Died 20 December 1997 at 64

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 of Japanese culture. He died under suspicious circumstances in December 1997 and may have been murdered by the yakuza.