Ueki Hitoshi

[Aaron Gerow]

Sports Hochi and other news services are reporting that Ueki Hitoshi, 
one of Japan's great comedians, died on the 27th at the age of 80. 
After graduating from Toyo University in 1950, Ueki began working as a 
jazz musician, working a lot with and for American soldiers. In 1954, 
he joined the City Slickers, run by another master comedian, Frankie 
Sakai, and also featuring Tani Kei. It was in 1957 that Ueki and Tani 
joined a band called the Crazy Cats with Hana Hajime and three others. 
They were signed on by the influental Watanabe Productions and their 
comic songs and antics eventually led to a movie deal with Toho, from 
which a number of Crazy Cats films emerged in the early 1960s, 
especially the "Musekinin" and "Nippon ichi" series that both 
represented and made fun of the Japan of high economic growth. In them, 
Ueki usually played an "irresponsible" salaryman who gleefully uses 
various absurd tactics to climb his way to the top. Ueki especially 
made famous such gags as "Oyobi de nai" and "Korya wa mata shitsurei 
itashimashita." The songs they sung, like "Sudara-bushi" and 
"Donto-bushi" (some written by Aoshima Yukio, later governer of Tokyo) 
became major hits (which I often sing when I go to karaoke). They also 
appeared on television, with "Shabondama Holiday" being one of the top 
variety shows of the 1960s. Especially in later years, Ueki 
increasingly appeared alone in films and TV dramas, with his most known 
role abroad probably being the grandfather in Ishii Sogo's Crazy Family.

Right after receiving a Crazy Cats CD for Christmas, I saw the great 
musical, Kimi mo shusse ga dekiru again the other week and was thrilled 
again by a brilliant cameo appearance by Ueki. Unfortunately, most of 
the Crazy Cats have passed away, with Tani Kei, Inuzuka Hiroshi and 
Sakurai Senri being the only remaining members. Ueki was truly one of 
Japan's great comedians and will be sorely missed.

Aaron Gerow
KineJapan owner

Assistant Professor
Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
Yale University

For list commands, send "information kinejapan" to
listserver at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
Kinema Club: http://pears.lib.ohio-state.edu/Markus/Welcome.html