Grand Prix (1966)

Toshirô Mifune: Izo Yamura

Photos 

Quotes 

• Izo Yamura : Why do you drive racing cars, or do you not think about it?

  Pete Aron : Oh, Mr. Yamura, I don't think there's one of us who doesn't ask himself at least once in the middle of a race, "What the hell am I doing here?" Of course, when it's over, we conveniently forget that we asked ourselves that question. I think about it and a lot of reasons I don't know. Maybe to do something that brings you so close to the possibility of death and to survive it is to feel life and living so much more intensely.

• Pete Aron : Ah, were you in the war?

  Izo Yamura : Yes, and you?

  Pete Aron : No, I missed it by a year.

  Izo Yamura : In the war, I was a fighter pilot. I shot down 17 American planes.

  Pete Aron : Okay.

  Izo Yamura : I believe that some things must not be left unsaid. There will come a time when you will ask yourself, "What did he do in the war, this man, Yamura?"

  Pete Aron : Mr. Yamura, I like you.

  Izo Yamura : Why?

  Pete Aron : Well, because... because you come right to the point.

  Izo Yamura : In a sense, you are here because you drive a car the way I conduct my business. You come right to the point.

• Izo Yamura : Right after the war, my house in Tokyo was used by an American general and his family. When it was returned to me, it had: flowered wallpaper, three new bathrooms, and four new closets. Americans, I think, are over-devoted to bathrooms and closets.

  Pete Aron : Well, we accumulate things.

  Izo Yamura : And then you lock them away in closets. And the bathrooms?

  Pete Aron : No, no, you don't get me on that one.

• Izo Yamura : Some years ago, when I decided to race cars, I tried to buy the Jordan-BRM company.

  Pete Aron : Oh yes, I had heard that.

  Izo Yamura : Impatience on my part. I also manufacture radios and sewing machines. In order to save time, I wanted a proven product. That was not to be, however. Racing cars are not merely another product. They require great attention if any success is to be hoped for.

  Pete Aron : Then that's why you're here.

  Izo Yamura : I have been racing my cars in Formula One for two years, and have yet to win my first Grand Prix. I intend to win, by whatever means are open to me.

  Pete Aron : That's the right attitude. All you have to do is go fast enough and long enough.

  Izo Yamura : And with the best drivers! Do you want a job with me?

  Pete Aron : Driving?

  Izo Yamura : Driving, of course.

  Pete Aron : Who are you dumping?

  Izo Yamura : Dumping?

  Pete Aron : Ah, which one of your drivers are you getting rid of?

  Izo Yamura : Neither one. I am entering a third car.

  Pete Aron : That'll be expensive.

  Izo Yamura : Yes.

  Pete Aron : You've got a driver.

  Izo Yamura : My racing headquarters is at Silverstone, in England. Can you be there next week?

  Pete Aron : Yes, sir.

  Izo Yamura : We must begin to think about - Spa!

  Pete Aron : Next week, then.

  Izo Yamura : By the way, you are a terrible broadcaster!

  [Aron turns and starts heading for the door] 

  Izo Yamura : Oh, Mr. Aron, if giving you the job would have meant firing one of the other drivers, would you still have taken it?

  [Aron glares at Yamura] 

  Izo Yamura : Good!