The Funeral
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.
Blu-Ray Special Edition Features
- High-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- New interviews with actors Nobuko Miyamoto and Manpei Ikeuchi
- Creative Marriages: Juzo Itami & Nobuko Miyamoto, a short program produced by the Criterion Channel
- Commercials for Ichiroku Tart by director Juzo Itami
- Trailers
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by author Pico Iyer, along with excerpts from Itami’s 1985 book “The Funeral” Diary and from a 2007 remembrance of Itami by actor Tsutomu Yamazaki
New cover by Tatsuro Kiuchi
Blu-Ray Special Edition Features
- High-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- New interviews with actors Nobuko Miyamoto and Manpei Ikeuchi
- Creative Marriages: Juzo Itami & Nobuko Miyamoto, a short program produced by the Criterion Channel
- Commercials for Ichiroku Tart by director Juzo Itami
- Trailers
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by author Pico Iyer, along with excerpts from Itami’s 1985 book “The Funeral” Diary and from a 2007 remembrance of Itami by actor Tsutomu Yamazaki
New cover by Tatsuro Kiuchi
Cast
- Tsutomu Yamazaki
- Wabisuke Inoue
- Nobuko Miyamoto
- Chizuko Amamiya
- Kin Sugai
- Kikue Amamiya
- Hideji Otaki
- Shokichi Amamiya
- Ichiro Zaitsu
- Satomi
- Nekohachi Edoya
- Ebihara
- Manpei Ikeuchi
- Jiro
- Haruna Takase
- Yoshiko Saito
- Chishu Ryu
- Priest
Credits
- Director
- Juzo Itami
- Writer
- Juzo Itami
- Cinematographer
- Yonezo Maeda
- Production designer
- Hiroshi Tokuda
- Composer
- Joji Yuasa
- Editor
- Akira Suzuki
- Executive producer
- Shogo Hosogoshi
- Producer
- Yasushi Tamaoki
- Producer
- Yutaka Okada
- Associate producer
- Juzo Itami
Trailer for The Funeral
