Jun Ichikawa, 1948 - 2008.

Japanese director Jun Ichikawa, 59, died after collapsing at lunch on Friday and being rushed to a nearby Tokyo hospital.... The morning of his death Ichikawa was editing his last film, buy a suit, which is skedded to preem on October 18 in the Japanese Eyes of the upcoming Tokyo International Film Festival.... His biggest prize winner... was Tony Takitani, a 2004 drama based on a Haruki Murakami short story about an introverted illustrator (Issei Ogata) with a fashion-crazed wife (Rie Miyazawa) that won the Special Jury Prize, Youth Jury Prize and FIPRESCI Prize at the Locarno fest, as well as many honors elsewhere, including a nom for Best Foreign Film at the 2006 Independent Spirit Awards.

Mark Schilling, Variety.

Update, 9/24: "No assessment of Ichikawa's work can ignore the influence of Yasujiro Ozu, whom the younger director idolised," writes Ronald Bergan in the Guardian. "What Ichikawa shared with Ozu was the intimate scale, understated humanism, economy of shot composition, low camera placement, deliberate pace - and the dominance of the family as a theme."

Posted by dwhudson at September 19, 2008 12:59 AM