Inventive chronicler of modern-day Japanese culture, known for his robust satires of sacred national topics such as burial rites (The Funeral), food (Tampopo), and money (A Taxing Woman). A descendant of Samurai and the son of Mansaku Itami, a pioneer Japanese director, he was an accomplished artist, essayist, talk-show host, and actor, before he first dared, at age 50, to follow in his father's footsteps. He scored a huge critical and commercial success with his debut film, The Funeral (1984), and an international triumph with Tampopo (1986). His works, which are highly popular in Japan and in Western art-house circles, are both highly artful and entertaining. Their structure may be influenced by such diverse sources as Luis Buñuel and Akira Kurosawa, while the attention to Japanese family life recalls Yasujiro Ozu. A few days after the premiere of The Gangster's Moll, a satire of the Japanese yakuza or crime syndicate, he made international headlines when his face and neck were slashed by alleged members of the yakuza. Itami writes his own scripts. His actress wife, Nobuko Miyamoto, is his favorite interpreter.