[caption id="attachment_212248" align="aligncenter" width="423" caption="Kitagawa Keiko in tears at the funeral service of Morita Yoshimitsu"][/caption]

On December 21st, it was reported that famed movie director Morita Yoshimitsu passed away due to liver failure on the night of the 20th. His funeral service was held at the Aoyama Funeral Home in Tokyo on December 24th.

Around 400 of Morita's friends and colleagues attended the�11:00 am�funeral service to bid him their last farewell. The list of attendees included the actors Kuroki Hitomi, Mita Yoshiko, Oda Yuji, Tsukaji Muga, Kitagawa Keiko, Tsuda Kanji, Yuki Saori, Kinashi Noritake, Ishida Junichi, Matsuda Miyuki, the two movie director SABU and Shinohara Tetsuo, and many more.

The first memorial address was read by Kuroki Hitomi, who remembered the time she worked with him for the movie "Paradise Lost" (1997).

"Looking into his straightforward eyes, I felt that I could stake my life as an actress if he was the director. Whenever I was lost, he was there and easily led me the right way. He always provoked people with his works and by having Santa Claus bring us such a sad present on Christmas Eve, he continued in this fashion until the very end... [...] Filled with grumbling and gratitude, this is my farewell love letter to you. With love. Sayonara."

Mita Yoshiko, who worked with the nine-years-younger director in "Oishii Kekkon" (1991) and "Umineko" (2004), followed with her memorial address.

"It's very painful to meet you like this after such a long time, Morita-san. Why did you force such a sudden farewell on everyone of us?"

Young actress Kitagawa Keiko also didn't mind the presence of the reporters and shed many tears for the director. Morita was very special to her, as she made her screen debut under his direction in "Mamiya Kyodai" (2006) at the age of eighteen. She remembered the audition for her role back then and said with a tearful voice:

"I adored him as a precious teacher whom I owe so much and I cannot put my grief into words... [...] He once told me, 'I think you are great the way you are. Please don't stop and continue as an actress.' It was exactly those words that kept me going forward and... He just was a really important person in my life. I wish I could meet him once more."

Tsukaji Muga starred in the movie, "Mamiya Kyodai", and received various awards for his performance. He expressed his gratitude towards the director.

"It's all thanks to him that I have the privilege of working as an actor. He was the one who broadened my life and changed me into the person I am today. It's impossible to thank him enough for everything he has done for me. I would have loved to work with him again someday."

At 1:00 pm, the funeral procession started while Southern All Stars' "Manatsu no Kajitsu" played in the background. It was Morita's favorite song when he was still alive and often had it played at the launches of his movies.

Morita Kazuko, who always stood by his side as his wife and his producer, concluded the funeral and addressed everyone from the movie industry who attended the funeral.

"He always told me, 'I want to make movies only I can do in this world'. I'm sure that he would want to hand over the same desire to all of you today."

Let's hope that all of his colleagues will follow his ideals and create just as wonderful movies as Morita did during his life.

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Source: eiga.com