All of his films are great and it's a shame that there aren't many films in the same style as his anymore - but I suppose that's what you get when you're considered the next best Japanese director after Kurosawa. The closest director I can think of that achieves the same dynamics is probably Koki Mitani, and even then he is a bit different due to his work being much more theatre-inspired.
I always found it inspiring that Itami did not become successful until he hit the age of 50. Hard to believe that in such a short span of 14 years he managed to pump out ten movies that are all quality watching. A shame that his life was cut so short during his peak (I loved one of his latter movies, Supermarket Woman).
Supermarket Woman was really great. It was much like rest of his work and followed same paterns but I only take that as a plus when it comes Itami. It was also the last film I watched in my marathon and it was a good choiche since his later movies got bit more darker then his early works (not counting funeral). Supermarket Woman was light hearted comedy for all ages and it really brought smile to my face. Perfect way to end the marathon.
Tampopo remains as my favorite. Main story line was great and all the short stories told during the film were also pure geniuse (food sex scene really came out nowhere
). I won't even rank rest of his films since they were all good in their own ways. Funeral stands out as the most different film and doesn't really work as satiric comedy but still superb film, I wouldn't start with it since it might not be for everyone.
edit: Well, Taxing Woman 2 was tad disappointing, mainly because ending felt so rushed and I really didn't understand what was going on. I couldn't figure out identity of the
and it seems like it was something important
Also I didn't really get what happened to everyone who were charged. And while many of the cast returned for this movie it lacked the chemistery of the first film, Hideki Gondô was such a neat bad guy. It did give good look on how Yakuza scared of tenants out of their houses during the housing bubble but other then that not so interesting film.
Next I will watch The Family Game and one of my old-time favorites Man Who Stoled the Sun (watch it!). I'm also in process of tracking down Seijun Suzuki films, I have seen the popular ones but still many that I have missed.
On a new movie frontier I just watched Bayside shakedown 3. I don't know why but I do like these movies, maybe because I was such a huge fan of the TV show back in the days and the films do justice for the series. It wasn't great or anything but it didn't get boring and I enjoyed it as it was.
