Jun Ichikawa

25.11.1948, Tokio, Japan - 19.09.2008, Tokyo, Japan

 

Director
Ichikawa is a Japanese director and screenwriter. He started to work as a producer of TV commercials and in 1981 quit and became an independent director. He shot many commercials and his first feature film was Bu su (1987), drama about a high-school girl who wants to become a geisha. Afterwards he made Tugumi (1990), Byoin de shinu to iu koto (Dying at a Hospital, 1993), Tôkyô kyôdai (The Tokyo Siblings, 1995), Tokyo yakyoku (Tokyo Lullaby, 1997), Osaka monogatari (Osaka Story, 1999), Tokyo Marigold (2001) and Tony Takitani (2004), love story about a boy and a girl who is addicted to shopping. The film is the first feature film adaptation of a story by Haruki Murakami and it won the special jury award and the FIPRESCI award at the Film Festival in Locarno in 2004. Afterwards, he directed the dramas Aogeba tôtoshi (2006), Ashita no watashi no tsukurikata (How to Become Myself, 2007) and the short feature Tokyo rendering kashu (2009).

Filmography


Films by this director

Tsugumi

(1990)

Directed by: Jun Ichikawa
PHOTOGRAPHY: Kôichi Kawakami
Synopsis:

Tugumi is a spoiled and selfish 18 year-old girl prone to sicknesses. One summer she meets Kyoichi who works in the local gallery and falls in love with him. Tugumi’s former boyfriend, a jealous leader of a delinquent gang, attacks Kyoichi and kills Tugumi’s dog. Tugumi comes up with a revenge plan.

color, 105 min

Osaka Story

(Ôsaka monogatari, 1999.)

Directed by: Jun Ichikawa
PHOTOGRAPHY: Tatsuhiko Kobayashi
Synopsis:

This is Ichikawa’s homage to Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story (1953). The main character is the fourteen-year-old high-school student Wakana whose parents are professional comedians. Even though they are a couple in their private and professional life, they are not happy. The father is constantly cheating on the mother and when his latest lover gets pregnant, they decide to divorce. However, they continue their professional collaboration but soon the father starts to fail on that front as well and soo...

35 mm, color, 120 min
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