2022 Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival will open on November 2nd. The Festival announces this year’s first Director-in-Focus, the late Japanese master Juzo Itami. With the efforts of a decade, and the generous assistance by the distributor Itami Production, Itami’s wife and actress Nobuko Miyamoto, the Asia distributor Nihon Eiga Broadcasting Corp., and the Taiwan distributor Distribution Workshop (BVI) Ltd., the Festival will proudly present ten classics by Itami, all 4K digitally restored with newly translated subtitles. Nine out of the ten films will be world premieres.

Juzo Itami’s father is the renowned director Mansaku Itami. Juzo started out as an actor and worked with Kon Ichikawa, Nagisa Oshima and Yoshimitsu Morita. He made his directorial debut at the age of 51 with THE  FUNERAL (1984), which showed his astonishing talent and won the Best Film for the Japan Academy Film Prize. Among his filmography, Juzo made ten masterpieces as a director, all of which bear the artistic and entertaining characteristics, and all starred his talented wife Nobuko Miyamoto.

Juzo Itami ridicules the conflict and contradiction between cultures old and new, to epitomize the many faces of humanity – greed, hatred, love, lust – in modern society with absurd, exaggerated dark humor. THE  FUNERAL reflects on the ugly truth of reality with the cumbersome traditions. Tampopo (Dandelion) (1985) creatively combines the western genre with Japanese raman culture.  A TAXING WOMAN (1987) and A TAXING WOMAN'S RETURN (1988) turn to the twisted value of “Money Talks” under the bubble economy of Japan. A-Ge-Man X Tales of Golden Geisha (1990) satirizes how the Japanese patriarchy society materializes women, with the Geisha who is believed to bring good luck. The following film MINBO OR THE GENTLE ART OF JAPANESE EXTORTION 

(1992), depicting how a female lawyer stands against the mafia, drew unwanted attention and led to physical attacks on Juzo himself.

However, the violence didn’t stop Juzo from creating; he transformed the observations at the hospital into the thought-provoking THE LAST DANCE (1993), followed by the tranquil piece A QUIET LIFE (1995), an adaptation from the work of Nobel Prize winner Kenzaburo Oe, Juzo’s brother-in-law. SUPERMARKET WOMAN (1996) was inspired by the dazzling sale tricks in Japanese supermarkets, to emphasize the difference between integrity and boast. Itami’s last work MARUTAI (1997) is a criminal comedy lied on the tension between the policemen and the star who witnessed the murder by evil sect.

After three decades or so, Juzo Itami’s works are still bold and daring to this day. After his sudden passing in 1997, the complete directorial filmography has been sought-after as a dream list by cinephiles. With the rare presentation of ten 4K digitally restored films by Itami, nine of which are world premieres, the Golden Horse would like to invite the audiences to witness his unique humor and courage in these timeless classics on the big screen.

The 2022 Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival will be held between November 2nd and November 20th. Audiences’ Guidebook event is on the evening of Friday, October 21st; tickets on sale at 1 PM on October 22nd on the official website.