R.I.P. Jun Ichikawa 1948 – 2008
Jun Ichikawa 
who directed “Tony Takitani” an adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s short story, passed away. (Read more here)
Ichikawa: In Tony Takitani I was thinking about flipping a page from left to right as if I was reading the novel. (via Master class)
Tony Takitani
From Master class by Jun Ichikawa,
Jun Ichikawa loved Ozu films, wanted to make his “Wild Strawberries” (Ingmar Bergman).
Like Akira Kurosawa who started out with painting, Jun Ichikawa was doing oil painting as a student.
Q: Did you always know you wanted to go into film?
Ichikawa: I was doing oil painting as I wanted to stufy in the National Art University. I drew a lot and tried to enrol but failed each time. A friend discovered that I can draw good storyboards for commercials, and I joined a commercial production company, which started to employ me to make commercials. The commercials I made were well accepted by the public, and one day someone came and approach me to make movies. So in a sense I was fortunate.
Loneliness is a condition to have a good movie. I watched a lot of 70s American movies like Taxi Driver, and I was influenced by those movies made after the Vietnam War, which has a lot to do on loneliness inside.