AFRAID TO DIE, starring Yukio Mishima, at Japan Society tonight

Japan Society NY

Presents

(c) 1960 Kadokawa

Afraid to Die / Karakkaze Yaro

Directed by Yasuzo Masumura

With Yukio Mishima, Ayako Wakao,

Eiji Funakoshi, and Takashi Shimura

Japan, 1960, 96 minutes

In Japanese with English subtitles

When: Friday, May 10, 2019 at 7:00 PM

Where: Japan Society

333 East 47th Street, NYC

Map

Tickets: $14/$11 seniors & students/$5 members

Clad in a black leather jacket, renowned Japanese writer Yukio Mishima struts and preens as a small-time yakuza underboss in this oddity of postwar Japanese cinema directed by Yasuzo Masumura. Fresh out of jail and hiding out above a rundown Tokyo movie theater, the unsympathetic tough is hounded by a rival gang and an asthmatic killer-for-hire as he struggles to reconcile his criminal life with a newfound love interest (Ayako Wakao).

Afraid to Die screens in celebration of a brand new English translation of Mishima's 1961 novella Star (New Directions Publishing, 2019), a fictionalized account of his experience working on Masumura's film.

There will be an introduction by Star translator Sam Bett, followed by a book-signing. Copies of Star will be available for purchase courtesy of New Directions Publishing