Popular movie director Ichikawa Kon died Wednesday of pneumonia at a Tokyo hospital. He was 92. The recipient of awards at such international film festivals as Cannes and Venice, he is perhaps best known outside Japan for 1965’s art-documentary “Tokyo Orimpikku” (Tokyo Olympiad) and “Biruma no Tategoto” (The Burmese Harp), which was recognized at the Venice festival in 1956 and nominated for an Oscar the following year. Often photographed with a cigarette in his mouth, he continued to work into his 90s, his final project in 2006 being a remake of his 1976 hit “Inugamike no Ichizoku” (The Inugamis).
Born in Mie Prefecture in 1915, he joined an animation studio straight from high school and made his directorial debut shortly after the end of WWII. In 1948 he married Wada Natto, an assistant at the Toei Studio who also became the screenwriter for most of his works until her death from cancer in 1983. Ichikawa joined the major Toho studio in 1951, and in the mid-1950s made a series of adaptations of literary works. Among these were “Biruma..”, “Kokoro” (The Heart, 1955) and “Kagi” (The Key), which received a Golden Globe and the Jury Award award at Cannes in 1960. His film of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics was a sensation and has been called one of the best sports documentaries ever made. He later moved away from making large-scale projects, returning only in 1976 to make “Inugamike…”, the first feature by Kadokawa Pictures, which had risen from the ashes of the major Daiei studio. Ichikawa’s other notable works include “Ototo” (Younger Brother, 1960) and “Sasame Yuki” (The Makioka Sisters, 1983). He was recognized by the government for his cultural contributions in 1994.
• A lawyer has sued publisher Shogakkan and mangaka Inoura Hideo for stealing the ideas used in a popular manga series. The “Big Comic Original” magazine has been running Inoura’s “Bengoshi no Kuzu” for three series, with a fourth due to start this month. The strip was also adapted into a TBS drama series starring top actor Toyokawa Etsushi in 2006. But lawyer Uchida Masatoshi says that the story has copied major elements from his non-fiction books published in 2001 and 2005, and he filed a suit at the Tokyo District Court ordering Shogakkan to remove the series.
• Former top Takarazuka star Wao Yoka is to make her “Broadway” debut. She was introduced on stage after a performance of “Chicago” in New York on Tuesday, though she will be playing the lead role of Velma Kelly at the Akasaka Act Theater in Tokyo from October. It’s Wao’s first musical role since retiring from the famous all-female theatrical revue in 2006.