SUPERMARKET WOMAN (SU-PA- NO ONNA). Viewed on Streaming. Cinematography/editing/lighting = eight (8) stars; music/score = five (5) stars; sound = five (5) stars; subtitles = five (5) stars. Director Jûzô Itami (also credited as the sole writer) has concocted a high-speed, often hilarious tale of no-holds-barred retail warfare between two local supermarkets with widely differing business models and the impacts thereof on employees and customers. On one side, Itami shows a business where profits come first and shoppers last (and owners and managers look and act like movie yakuza types). This is in sharp contrast to the other store where the reverse philosophy is emerging. The latter is spearheaded by a recently-hired and recently re-acquainted high-school flame of the owner. She is an innovative ball of lightening who is bent on upending traditional worker roles while running a full-blown customer charm offensive in order to save a dying enterprise and its disillusioned owner who seems to have never before faced real completion as a food seller. By instituting a policy of selling only super fresh food, she serially and seriously angers de facto department heads who don't want to change their "traditional" ways. The competition, though, has no qualms about selling re-cycled food as discounted fresh food with the ultimate objective of eliminating it's rival and then jacking up prices (sound familiar?). The plot is a variation on the favorite zero-to-hero theme, but this time out it's a business rather than an individual! Filled to the brim with silliness, this film might work even better as a zany, light-weight TV series so typical of the era. (There's a lot of that type of TV still around!) The movie serves as a showcase for manic leading actress Nobuko Miyamoto (the wife of the Director) who appears to have an endless supply energy (and amphetamines?). Music is jaunty with a Latin beat except when is goes off the rails with surging violins for comical semi-romantic scenes. Dialog is strictly Kensai-ben (especially the Kyoto flavor) making subtitles (although a bit long but otherwise close enough) practically imperative to fully comprehend what's happening. Cinematography (semi-wide screen, color) and lighting are very good. Camera work (with some assist from editing) is both dynamic and super smooth (a superior combination!). Monaural sound is okay. Fully funny! WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.
Review of Supermarket Woman
