I certainly don't have extensive knowledge of Shimura's career, but there's no denying that he was one of the International Giants of mainstream WAM--I've always loved his numerous "Slapstick Tit for Tat Dinner" sketches, which were always perfectly paced (always climaxing with a perfect pie in the face) and invariably featured cute-as-a-button young Japanese women taking it as well as they dished it out:
In the late 1990s, when I did my first "pie in the face" search online, the very first two screen shots I came across were from one of Neil Edwards' earliest "Amateur Pies" volumes--and the Japanese housewife pie in the face clip at 2:00 in the above link. So, even though I had never heard of Ken Shimura at the time, he played a pivotal role in confirming once and for all that my wet and messy interests were NOT unique, and that there were indeed others out there who got a lot more out of a food fight than a few chuckles.
And so: Arigato, Mr. Shimura, and rest in peace.
Also, please be safe out there (or in there), fellow WAMmers around the world!
I was sad to have read this news and wondered if someone would have shared it here tonight. Thank you for your post with so many great videos, Baker.
Mr. Shimura is a slapstick legend who knew how to utilize pretty women and pies to make so many scenes work great (and transcend any language barriers). Yet again a talented person is taken from this world quicker because of COVID-19.
May he rest in peace and may his slapstick work live on forever.
Oh no, that's really sad news. That top scene above is an absolute stone cold classic of both comedy and WAM, and it looks as if the rest of his work was equally brilliant. Really sorry to read this.
Thanks for the news, although it is sad. I started a thread (I rarely do that) about Ken Shimura a while back, I was such a fan. He was great. I am always haunting Youtube for scenes of his I might have missed. Excellent slapstick timing and I liked the fact that he did a lot of tit for tat between a male and female where both got messed relatively equally. I always thought his skits would be good for some producer to reproduce. A classic here, with one of my favorite little things he added to these scenes-- shoe filling: https://youtu.be/OjQoSbfnJT8
caramba said: Who were the girls in his scenes? Actresses? Celebrities? Fans volunteering?
They are Japanese celebrities, I believe (I should note that I am not someone who speaks Japanese or, unfortunately, knows anything about Japanese culture-- I just like slapstick). Some are singers, etc. Many times I have tried to connect names to the various actresses in these scenes and had some success, but I haven't gone through the trouble of actually organizing the clips and adding names. The uploader for the link I provided above, has a bunch of his clips and sometimes names are included. For example, the clip I linked to above says the actress's name is Mio Takaki: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0847070/mediaindex?ref_=nm_phs_md_sm
Yes, Shimura's 'Strange Middle Age Man' show and its frequent scenes with pretty women and messy slapstick (and often eroticized, as with those pie 'crotch shots') were some of the very first wam (still) images that could be found on the web...not surprising that the Japanese were trendsetters in popularizing (modern) TV erotic/wam comedy..
My favorites were his 'man and woman at bar' sketches.
Love you, too
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