FUNERAL - BLU-1984-CRTIERION COLLECTION

Details

• Release Year: 1984
• Genre: Comedy
• Plot: It's death, Japanese style, in the rollicking and wistful first feature from maverick writer-director Juzo Itami. In the wake of her lascivious father's sudden passing, a successful actor (Itami's wife and frequent collaborator, Nobuko Miyamoto) and her husband (Tsutomu Yamazaki) leave Tokyo and return to their family house to oversee a traditional funeral. Over the course of three days of mourning that bring illicit escapades in the woods, a surprisingly materialistic priest (Yasujiro Ozu regular Chishu Ryu), and cinema's most epic sandwich handoff, the tensions between public propriety and private hypocrisy are laid bare. Deftly weaving dark comedy with poignant family drama, The Funeral is a fearless satire of the clash between old and new in Japanese society in which nothing, not even the finality of death, is off-limits.
• Cast: Tsutomu Yamazaki; Nobuko Miyamoto; Kin Sugai; Hideji Ôtaki; Isao Bitô; Midori Ebina; Nekohachi Edoya; Kamatari Fujiwara; Hideo Fukuhara; Hiroko Futaba; Mampei Ikeuchi; Yôsui Inoue; Masahiro Irie; Ryôsuke Kagawa; Akio Kaneda; Yoshihiro Katô; Kazuyo Kawamura; Ittoku Kishibe; Kaoru Kobayashi; Kiyoshi Kurosawa; Atsuyoshi Matsukidaira; Matsue Matsumoto; Shiho Matsunami; Hideo Nagai; Keiichiro Nakada; Mariko Nakamura; Noboru Nakayama; Hikaru Nishikawa; Eriko Ohashi; Ichirô Ohba; Koji Okoyama; Kiminobu Okumura; Kôen Okumura; Gô Rijû; Chishû Ryû; Sakihiro Sakai; Asao Sasano; Saoyoshi Satogi; Shizuo Satô; Hiroko Seki; Reiko Shinjo; Ippei Souda; Haruna Takase; Haruo Tanaka; Koji Tanaka; Yoshiharu Tojukai; Go Toneatsu; Hiroyuki Tsuchiyama; Masahiko Tsugawa; Takashi Tsumura; Tetstaro Tsuruno; Hiroyuki Yamada; Michino Yokoyama; Mitsuko Yoshikawa; Chikako Yuri; Ichirô Zaitsu; Jûzô Itami
• Director: Jûzô Itami
• Runtime: 2:04
• Company: Art Theatre Guild (ATG), New Century Productions, Itami Productions Inc., Janus Films, The Criterion Collection
• Media Format: Movie