
Jun Ichikawa
Directing
Biography
Jun Ichikawa was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. He was first a director of television commercials before adding filmmaking to his creative activities. His most famous film outside of Japan was Tony Takitani, an adaptation of a short story by Haruki Murakami. He died of a cerebral hemorrhage after suddenly collapsing at a restaurant, shortly before his latest film, Buy a Suit, was to premier at the Tokyo International Film Festival.
Known For

Tsutsui, an office worker, marries Hitomi, who has a son from a previous marriage. However, one day, he realizes that something is missing in the life he chose.
Haru, Bânîzu de

Director Jun Ichikawa spins this affectionate portrait of the people who populate Shimokitazawa, a bohemian corner of Tokyo filled with small theater companies and smoky coffeehouses.
The Whispered City

A reclusive illustrator falls in love with a young woman who addictively shops for clothing.
Tony Takitani

Tsugumi, who lives in a small seaside town, has been in delicate health from birth. Her parents spoiled her and she is rough and selfish. However, a few people are attracted by her beauty and unique character.
Tsugumi

Mugiko, an 18-year-old attempts to escape her unhappiness with village life by going to Tokyo to live and work in the geisha house run by her aunt. The daughter of a once great geisha, Mugiko is entitled by blood to train in the geishas' ancient art of classical Japanese song and dance.
BU・SU

A film based on two short stories by Shiina Makoto. Tadon is the story of a cab-driver who spends his days listening to his passengers' conversations. Chikuwa is about a writer who faces a creativity bottleneck.
Tadon and Chikuwa

Kin chan no Cinema Jack is an anthology film starring Yuen Biao and produced by Jackie Chan
Kin chan no Cinema Jack

There still stands a famous apartment building where such prominent manga artists as Tezuka Osamu, Shotaro Ishinomori and Fujio Akatsuka once lived, worked, and shared experiences.
Tokiwa: The Manga Apartment

Film about Sakamoto Ryōma. The focus is on Oryo, the maid who became Ryoma’s wife and lived with him for one year before his death.
Ryoma's Wife, Her Husband and Her Lover

Young Wakana is the daughter of a husband and wife comedy act, who have worked together for 20 years without any big success. Wakana’s parents quarrel constantly, and her mother often threatens to leave. When one day her father disappears, Wakana sets out to find him.
Osaka Story

A hard-working section chief, fast approaching retirement and beset by stress from all directions, joins a jazz band and reignites his youthful passion for the music, giving him a chance to set things right in his life.
Kaisha monogatari: Memories of You

Juri, an elementary school girl, loses sight of her true self while acting out a false self to play along with her friends. Kanako, a classmate who used to be the popular girl but has been bullied lately, tells Juri that the girl she is now is not her true self, and Juri sympathizes.
How to Become Myself

The story of a group of boys who become transfixed with the latest video game, the Legend Of Life King IV.
No Life King

Filmed in a documentary style, six patients in six wards of different ages and circumstances await death at a hospital in Japan. The sterile and dismal environment is contrasted against the emotional being of the patients, their visitors and relatives and the outside world, which they will never again survey.
Dying at a Hospital

Behind-the-scenes making-of for "Tony Takitani". The film "Tony Takitani" was shot in a vacant lot in Yokohama for about two weeks. The camera follows the interaction between director Ichikawa and the stars Issey Ogata and Rie Miyazawa, as well as the staff running around the set. It captures the process of the film being completed.
Sunny Home

Eriko – lonely, aimless and self-absorbed – falls for Tamura. Despite knowing that he is waiting for his girlfriend to return from overseas, she requests to enter into a relationship with him for just one year.
Tokyo Marigold

Mortality and death seen through the eyes of a lonely student who has an morbid and albeit naive fascination with death. His teacher, Koichi is also grappling with the issue of mortality as he deals with the impending death of his ailing father, who has decided to spend his final days in the family home. As the story progresses, Koichi finds unexpected solace from his grief by letting his troubled student visit and meet with his father in the hopes that he will understand the meaning of life and death.
Aogeba Tôtoshi

When Koichi Hamanaka returns after his mysterious disappearance years earlier, journalist Asakura who befriended Hamanaka's wife during his absence, tries to piece together the reasons for his departure.
Tokyo Lullaby

An anthology exploring the meaning of the Japanese greeting goaisatsu.
Goaisatsu

Living in an old Tokyo district, Kenichi works at a second-hand bookshop to support his sister, Yoko, a high school student. When Yoko graduates, she starts work at a photo shop. By the time, Kenichi's girlfriend has decided to marry someone else as she is tired of waiting for him. When Yoko starts dating Kenichi's best friend, Makoto , he is strangely resentful, but when Makoto is involved in a fatal accident, brother and sister resume their routine life.