Word: samurais
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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American-made jeeps still predominate, but Japanese variations are making inroads with a 23.1% share of the market in 1986 that is projected to reach 31.9% by the end of this year. The Suzuki Samurai, the best-selling Japanese "toy jeep," has scored a 110% increase in sales over 1986. Its basic list price is under $7,000, considerably less than the $10,600-to-$25,000 range for American models. (A word of caution: the rear seat is just one of some 50 options.) Sales Manager Tony Pacheco of Cerritos Suzuki in Los Angeles County explains the popularity...
...Fujisawa Municipal Gymnasium (1982) exemplifies the impeccable craft of his best work since then. Like much Japanese architecture of the past 25 years, it has a sci-fi quality: one section of the building resembles some enormous otherworldly blimp, the other calls to mind a high-tech samurai helmet. But unlike the slicker gimmicky UFO architecture (Kurokawa's earlier work, for instance), Maki's gym is restrained and sober, a mature fantasy. The flawless, parabolic stainless-steel skin is 1.6 acres in size but just about one-sixtieth of an inch thick...
...luck changes when a Clint Eastwood-esque stranger named Gun (Tsutomu Yamazaki) struts into her restaurant. She entreats him to teach her the finer points of noodle cooking. He consents, and puts her on a rigorous training regimen. He assembles, Seven Samurai-style, a group of gourmands to educate her in each different aspect of noodle cooking...
What is doubly remarkable about the movie is how Itami keeps the audience so interested in Tampopo's struggles. The director garnishes her rags-to-riches story with elements of samurai adventure and Sergio Leone western, and then has the actors play it straight. Amazingly, it's a satire that involves the audience in the action as much as the characters themselves. When the noodle senseis test her progress after a few weeks, one finds oneself as tense and nervous as if one were watching a shoot...
PROVIDENCE, R.I.--The Harvard women's swimming team arrived on the deck here at Smith Swimming Center last night disguised as samurai warriors...