My favorite Uchida performance must be in the astonishing Rolling on the Road where he plays plays a barely disguised version of himself... as a complete asshole! Other great ones include the private detective in Yasuharu Hasebe's neo-noir Erotic Liaisons, the scum reporter in Yojiro Takita's No More Comics and the serial rapist in Koji Wakamatsu's mindblowing A Pool without Water.
Had a chance to see "Flower Travllin' Band" in NYC years ago during one of there later reunions.....and didn't go.
It's right up there with putting off to see "Tom Petty". 2 of many mistakes in my life.
Yuya Uchida and Kirin Kiki remained married to each other since the 70's, even though they lived apart and there might have been no romance in that relationship for decades.
RIP to these two legends of J-cinema. An end to an epoch led by two of the finest thespians.
