Nippon musekinin jidai

**Nippon musekinin jidai** (ニッポン無責任時代, *Irresponsible Era of Japan*) is a 1962 Japanese comedy film directed by Kengo Furusawa. It became one of the most popular comedic film in Japan with the box office earned around ¥350 million ($3,343,567.50 in US dollar). The film was shot in color and cinema scope (TohoScope)

The Crazy Cats comic jazz band and their featured singer Hitoshi Ueki did not invent the local genre of the "salaryman" comedy but were its ubiquitous face in the early 1960s. Some of the first big stars of the new medium of television they brought standing-room-only audiences to a cinema in decline. This film established Ueki's comic personality as a salaryman who would goof off at work and yet somehow always come out ahead, every so often bursting into one of his well-known Japanese folk-inflected songs while dancing something like the twist. The first in a series of "Irresponsible" films whose comic songs formed the soundtrack of Japan's high economic growth.

## Overview

This movie was shot color in and cinemascope. The musical themes are "Irresponsible Ichidai Otoko" and "Hello, Until Then". This was the first memorable movie of Crazy Movie series. The Crazy Cats, which became popular on "Shabontama Holiday" (Nippon TV) at that time, especially Hitoshi Ueki's big hit apperence on "Sudara Bushi". The series that involved were three main actresses (Sonomi Nakajima, Noriko Shigeyama, Reiko Dan), but it became unexpectedly popular, and 30 more were produced up to "Nippon ichi no shokku otoko" (directed by Takashi Tsuboshima) in 1971. In this production, Yasuo Tanami, who was an employee of the Toho Literature Club at that time, he was originally involved in planning the President's Series, wrote the draft script of the "Irresponsible Employee" as the antithesis of a loyal member of the company.

He sold it as a project for a movie starring Frankie Sakai, but the idea was scrapped due to poorly script writing ad location ideas, and when he left it as it was, producer Eizaburō Adachi asked Tanami to make a movie named after the success of Crazy Cats's music hit "Sudara Bushi", and he began to wrote the screenplay. When it was released, it was decided, and it was a scenario where Crazy Cats members were assigned to act in the film.

The salaryman film written by screenwriter Yasuo Tanami, who he wrote the screenplay for Pride of the Campus (directed by Toshio Sugie) and collbarated with another screenwriter Hiroshi Matsuki in writing the script for Buta to Kingyo (directed by Tetsuhiro Kawasaki). They also wrote the draft and script for Executive Candidate No. 1 (also directed by Kengo Furusawa). Cinematographer Takao Saito filmed the scenes with each different shots.

## Plot

In the city of Tokyo, an average salaryman named Hitoshi Taira (both Kuchihaccho and Tehaccho) overheard the story of Pacific Sake running their products at the bar called "Madrid". His first job was when he brought up the name of a senior in his hometown to the President of Pacific Sake and became a member of the general affairs department. He was to acquire the President of Toyama Shoji, a major shareholder company.

His success in the salary business cost him a single check. Then a Shimbashi geisha named Manmaru, who had been diagnosed with cholera but is good had to promote goods to the customers, and was promoted to the chief of staff is a completely easy business. She would recover from her illness two months later after joining the company. However, it was often said by another staff member, but when it was discovered that the hijacker, Yuto Kuroda, had acquired Toyama's products and Hitoshi was immediately dismissed.

Kuroda's mastermind is Ryosuke Oshima, President of Sankai Foods, but his daughter Yoko ran off with her boyfriend Takasaku Ujiie. By the way, Hitoshi met Kuroda at the new president's inauguration party, but he returned to the external director due to the skill of the entertainment and the banquet. In the meantime, it is a regrettable story for employees on the Taihei Side that traditional Pacific Sake will become a subsidiary of Sankai Foods. On the other hand, Kyoko, a female geisha, Manmaru, a female secretary of Pacific Sake, and Aiko, a female desk clerk of Sankai Foods, rushed to the boarding house of Tonton and started to guess the love.

Hitoshi is fluttering with Aiko's fierce kisses. Around that time, Kuroda, who visited Oshima's residence, cut out the marriage story of his daughter Yoko and found out that she had her boyfriend, Takasaku Ujiie. Hitoshi's next job is to buy hops from Hokkai Bussan, a Pacific liquor business corporation. He captured the President of the North Sea, Ishikari, who couldn't eat even if it was boiled or baked, with a pink film and a tatami nude room. However, Hitoshi, who just doesn't wake up when he falls, urges the President of Ujiie to return to work when he learns that Oshima and Kuroda are hurt by Yoko's marriage. Who knows that Hitoshi, who appeared in a black-tie at the wedding ceremony of the Ujiie and Oshima families on that day, is the new president of Hokkai Busan!

## Cast

* Hitoshi Ueki as Hitoshi Taira (Average salary man & main character)
* Hajime Hana as Yusaku Ujiie (President of Pacific Sake)
* Kei Tani as General Manager of General Affairs Department Yata (Director of "Pacific Sake")
* Sonomi Nakajima as Kyoko Asada (Madam of the "Madrid" Bar)
* Noriko Shigeyama as Aiko Sano ("Ohira Western Liquor" President's Secretary)
* Reiko Dan as Manmaru (Geisha)
* Yôko Fujiyama as Yoko Oshima (daughter of Ryosuke)
* Tôru Minegishi (credited Kenji Mine) as Takasaku Ujiie (son of Yusaku)
* Takashi Inagaki as Uemura (Yoko's matchmaking partner)
* Jun Tazaki as Yūjin Kuroda (President of "Kuroda Busan" → New president of "Ohira Yoshu")
* Tôru Yuri as Kumagoro Ishikari (President of "Hokkaido Bussan")
* Tatsuo Matsumura as President Toyama (main shareholder of "Pacific Sake")
* Gen Shimizu as Ryosuke Oshima (president of "Sankai Foods")
* Asami Kuji as Tokiko Ujiie (Yusaku's wife)
* Chieko Nakakita as Sakiko (housewife in a pension)
* Hiroshi Inuzuka as Otsuka ("Ohira Western Liquor" employee)
* Êtarô Ishibashi as Sakura (〃)
* Senri Sakurai as Aoki (〃)
* Shin Yasuda as Yasui (〃)
* Kenzô Tabu as Detective in plain clothes
* Akira Hitomi as Kenkichi (pension master)
* Hiroyo Miyata as Traffic police officer
* Daisuke Inoue as Haruki (bartender)
* Shiro Tsuchiya as Uemura's father
* Yasuzo Okawa as Driver of President Ujiie
* Yaeko Izumo as Apartment neighbor
* Hiromi Mineoka as Hana (maid of Ujiie family)
* Yuki Shimizu as Ohira Western liquor employee
* Terumi Oka as Employees chasing volleyball
* Sumie Miyagawa as Corner of a Café Hall
* Yutaka Oka as Funeral receptionist
* Yasuo Araki as Incense thief
* Yoshie Kihira as restaurant lady Nakai
* Chie Sugiura as Oshima family maid
* Wakako Tanabe as Madrid hostess
* Kazuko Ejima as Restaurant costumer
* Kazuko Tani as Madrid waitress
* Hiromi Terazawa, Kiyoko Hara as Two geishas
* Shizuka Yoshida as Madrid costumer
* Saburō Kadowaki as Ohira Western Liquor Employee
* Eisaburo Komatsu as Guest at Madrid
* Kiyoshi Kodama as News announcer (non-credited)
* Yoshio Ouchi, Akinori Kuchina, Yoshio Yasumoto as Takasaku's bandmates
* Jun Kuroki as Public bath guest

## Staff

* Producers: Eizaburō Adachi, Shin Watanabe (entertainment producer)
* Executive Producer: Shin Morita
* Screenwriters: Hiroshi Matsuki (screenplay), Yasuo Tanami (screenplay)
* Director: Kengo Furusawa
* Cinematographer: Takao Saitô
* Music Composer: Yoshiyuki Kozu, Hiroaki Hagiwara (music arrangement), Yukio Aoshima (songwriter)
* Production Designer: Kazuo Ogawa
* Second Unit Director or Assistant Director: Yoshimitsu Banno (second assistant director), Masanobu Deme (third assistant director, Ken Sano (chief assistant director)
* Sound Department: Akira Saitô (sound recordist), Hisashi Shimonaga (sound effects editor)
* Stunt Coordinator: Ryû Kuze
* Photographer: Masao Soeda

## Theme songs / Insert songs

* All the lyrics are written by Yukio Aoshima and composed by Hiroaki Hagiwara.

**Skinny Manbushi** (やせがまん節, *Yase gaman-bushi*)

* An original movie song played when Hitoshi goes to the Ujiie family at night. Later sung in "Sudara Gaiden". In the trailer, it was "Skinny Manbushi", but in the OP credit, it was written as "Skinny Patience Bushi".

**Don't Clause** (ドント節, *Donto-bushi*)

* Hitoshi, who went to the Ujiie family, robs Takasaku of his guitar and sings.

**Sudara Section** (スーダラ節, *Sūdara-bushi*)

* Use number 2. After returning to the boarding house, Hitoshi throws out the betting ticket while climbing the stairs and sings while cleaning his suit.

**Fifty Thousand Verses** (五万節, *50, 000-Setsu*)

* Hitoshi, who saw a pair of Takasaku and Yoko at the bar, muttered, "Well, when I was a student," and first sang one phrase with a cappella, followed by a shout of "Ah, that!" With BGM, and was a guest at the same bar. Sing with Otsuka, Sakura, Aoki and Yasui. All lyrics are movie original.

**Hello, Until Then** (ハイそれまでョ, *Haisoremade~yo*)

* Hitoshi sings at the inaugural meeting of President Kuroda, and Otsuka, Sakura, Aoki, and Yasui act as back dancers. He used No. 1 and No. 3, but the lyrics have changed in the latter half of both. At first glance, it seems to be a stage, but in fact, it is a production peculiar to Furusawa movie, that is, at the inaugural meeting.
* In the trailer, it is "High Until Then", but in the opening credit is written as "High Until Then".

**Irresponsible First Generation Man** (無責任一代男, *Musekinin ichidaiotoko*)

* The theme song of this work. It was played twice in total, and the second time, Hitoshi sang instead of congratulations at the wedding ceremony of Takasaku and Yoko, and Otsuka, Sakura, Aoki, and Yasui danced.

## Location

* Sarugaku Bridge

* In front of Ebisu station

* Ebisu Station South
* Daiwa Securities Co.Ltd. HQ (Used for the "Pacific Sake" building. A familiar place in the "Shacho series")
* Yokohama Prince Hotel (used for Takasaku and Yoshiko's wedding ceremony)
* Hibiya Park
* Aoyama Funeral Hall
* Benkei Horibata
* Sukiyabashi Intersection

## Anecdotes

* After the film was released, Nagisa Oshima saw the double screening of this work and "Let's Meet in Our Dreams" one and a half times (or two), and asked Nobuhiko Kobayashi (the pseudonym at that time was Yumihiko Nakahara) "Why what's so? interesting? It will be. "(From Nobuhiko Kobayashi's" Japanese Comedy ").
* In "Nippon musekinin shin sedai," which was a stage play performed at the Theater Creation in Tokyo in 2011, the protagonist Taizo Harada played the role of "Hyakudai," the grandson of "Average" played by Hitoshi Ueki.
* The thing that Akashiya pacific saury played by Ueki was broadcast on the control "Take-chan Man" in Fuji TV "Ore Tachi Hyokin-zoku", but the content was completely different.

## Simultaneous screening

"Kigeki ekimae onsen" (喜劇 駅前温泉, *Comedy Station Square Hot Spring*)

* Screenplay: Kihan Nagase / Director: Seiji Hisamatsu / Starring: Hisaya Morishige / Distributor: Tokyo Eiga Co., Ltd.

The fourth installment of the "Ekimae Series". Since then, Industrial Spy Free for All (directed by Takashi Tsuboshima), "Mahjong Madness" will be coupled eight times in total with the Crazy Movie and "Ekimae Series".