Josee, the Tiger and the Fish

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Movie: Josee, the Tiger and the Fish
Romaji: Joze to tora to sakana tachi
Japanese: ジョゼと虎と魚たち
Director: Isshin Inudou
Writer: Seiko Tanabe, Aya Watanabe
Producer: Osamu Kubota, Shinji Ogawa
Cinematographer: Takahiro Tsutai
Release Date: December 13, 2003
Runtime: 116 min.
Genre: Award Winning / Award Winning-Drama / Award Winning-Romance / Award Winning-Disability / Award Winning-Youth
Distributor: Asmik Ace Entertainment
Language: Japanese
Country: Japan
Soundtrack: O.S.T.: Josee, the Tiger and the Fish

Plot

Tsuneo is a university student working part-time in a mah-jong parlour. Lately the customers have been talking about an old lady who pushes a baby carriage through the streets. They say she is carrying something for a crime syndicate, and they wonder what it is she has in the carriage... Money? Drugs? One day, the owner of the mah-jong parlour sends Tsuneo out to walk his dog. A baby carriage comes rolling down a hill and crashes into a guard rail. The old lady asks him to look into the carriage, where he finds a young woman clutching a knife. This is how Tsuneo first meets the girl who calls herself Josée. Her real name is Kumiko, and she is unable to walk, so her grandmother takes her out early every morning in the old baby carriage. To thank Tsuneo for his help, they offer him breakfast, and he begins to fall under the spell of the young woman's unusual charm. Kumiko has named herself after the heroine of a novel by Françoise Sagan, and Tsuneo comes to call this strange girl by that name. He grows more and more attracted to her.

Notes

Based on short romantic novel "Joze to Tora to Sakana-tachi" by Seiko Tanabe (published June, 1984 in magazine Gekkan Kadokawa).
Related titles:
1. Josee, the Tiger and the Fish | Joze to tora to sakana tachi (2003)
2. Josee (2020)

Cast



Satoshi Tsumabuki	Chizuru Ikewaki	Juri Ueno	Hirofumi Arai	Noriko Eguchi
Tsuneo	Joze	Kanae	Koji	Noriko



Eiko Shinya	Taigo Fujisawa	Tai Kageyama	Annu Mari	SABU (director)
Joze's grand mother	Takashi	master of Mahjong Bar	woman at Mahjong Bar	man at Mahjong Bar



Koji Ookura	YosiYosi Arakawa	Yasuhi Nakamura	Shyatona Nishida	Hiroyuki Yamamoto
Mahjong Bar patron	Bookstore Clerk	Mahjong Bar patron	Mahjong Bar patron	Mahjong Bar patron



Itsuji Itao	Yoshiyuki Morishita	Sakichi Sato
manager	neighbor	senior at company

Additional Cast Members

Rio Kanno - Joze (child)

Trailers

Image Gallery

Film Festivals

2011 (15th) Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival - July 14-24, 2011 - Encore! Commemeration of the 15th

Awards

2004 (29th) Hochi Film Awards - December, 2004
- "Best Actor" (Satoshi Tsumabuki)

Comments

Z. Azort Jan 18 2023 9:04 pm Satoshi looks more handsome in old age.

ArioBimo Feb 22 2018 12:59 pm Crazy ending..i love the movie but i really hate with the ending..not happy not sad but crazy..

122am Oct 12 2017 4:54 am I have watched several Tsumabuki drama but not any of his movies. I knew I'm a fan of his work. After coming across Josee, the Tiger and the Fish mentions a few times, I knew this should be the first movie to start my Tsumabuki marathon.

After seeing Chizuru Ikewaki in "Sorry, I Love You" Japanese drama recently, I knew she has great acting talent. I also saw Juri Ueno in "Kazoku no Katachi" recently and loved her in it.

However, I didn't expect to be touched by this movie so much. It was understated, quiet as a river, but had so much going on under the surface. It also made me reflect deeply about my first love. I think movies that make you think about your true love are the ones that touch you the most, no?

Watch this show if you have time, it's not to be missed.

RamenLover Oct 08 2008 2:15 am Highbrow cinema goers might point to Chang-dong Lee's "Oasis" as one of the more touching films about handicapped persons. As much I enjoyed that film, "Josee, The Tiger, & Fish" is made more from the heart specifically for the regular folks and it is just brilliant. None of the wishy-washy Hollywood fairy tale endings in this one, but don't take this film to be an utterly depressing film. It's not. It reflects perfectly how the average person may respond to someone with a disability and regardless of how you feel towards their actions his actions strikes a nerve.

Beyond the story, you also have Satoshi Tsumabuki pre mega superstar giving as smooth of a performance as I have seen from him. But the person that will likely capture your heart in this film is Chizuru Ikewaki as "Jozee". You'll want to put her in a sack and take her home. As icing on the cake, and worth the price of admission alone, you also have Juri Ueno giving her only performance so far in her career as the evil bitch.

Brilliant film and it stays with you.

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