Hirokazu Kore-eda's THE TRUTH to open Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2020 at Lincoln Center

Film at Lincoln Center

presents

The Truth / La vérité

Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda

France/Japan, 2019, 106 minutes

When: March 5, 2020 at 6:30 pm and 9:15 pm

Where: Film at Lincoln Center 

Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th Street, NYC

Map

The Truth, the first-ever French-language film from Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda, will have its New York premiere as the Opening Night selection of the upcoming Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2020 festival that will run March 5 - 15, 2020.

Featuring screen legends Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche as a strained mother-daughter duo, The Truth is a dynamic family drama co-starring Ethan Hawke. Binoche and Hawke will appear in person at the festival for opening night, and for a special conversation about their collaboration with Kore-eda.

Kore-eda's MABOROSI screens at Japan Society NY tonight at 7:00 PM

Japan Society NY

presents

Maborosi © 1995 TV Man Union, Inc.

Maborosi / Maboroshi no Hikari

Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda

With Makiko Esumi, Takashi Naito, Tadanobu Asano

Japan, 1995, 110 minutes

35mm, color, in Japanese with English subtitles

When: Friday, March 10th, 7:00 PM

Where: Japan Society NY

333 East 47th Street, NYC

Map

The first narrative feature by Hirokazu Kore-eda is a contemplative and poetic film about loss and the everpresent specter of death. Yumiko and Ikuo lead a happy life together in Osaka that is suddenly disrupted when Ikuo is killed by a train in an apparent suicide. Although she eventually remarries and relocates to a quiet seaside village, Yumiko is continually haunted by the experience, struggling to understand why it happened. Beautifully shot with an emphasis on silhouettes, shadows and natural light, Maborosi remains one of Kore-eda's most visually striking f ilms and an early testament to his exceptional talents.

Tickets: $13/$10 seniors & students/$5 Japan Society members

Part of Monthly Classics
Year-round screenings of beloved classics, hidden gems and recent discoveries of Japanese cinema. Only $5 for Japan society members!

Kore-eda's MABOROSI screens at Japan Society NY on March 10th

Japan Society NY

presents

Maborosi © 1995 TV Man Union, Inc.

Maborosi / Maboroshi no Hikari

Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda

With Makiko Esumi, Takashi Naito, Tadanobu Asano

Japan, 1995, 110 minutes

35mm, color, in Japanese with English subtitles

When: Friday, March 10th, 7:00 PM

Where: Japan Society NY

333 East 47th Street, NYC

Map

The first narrative feature by Hirokazu Kore-eda is a contemplative and poetic film about loss and the everpresent specter of death. Yumiko and Ikuo lead a happy life together in Osaka that is suddenly disrupted when Ikuo is killed by a train in an apparent suicide. Although she eventually remarries and relocates to a quiet seaside village, Yumiko is continually haunted by the experience, struggling to understand why it happened. Beautifully shot with an emphasis on silhouettes, shadows and natural light, Maborosi remains one of Kore-eda's most visually striking f ilms and an early testament to his exceptional talents.

Tickets: $13/$10 seniors & students/$5 Japan Society members

Part of Monthly Classics
Year-round screenings of beloved classics, hidden gems and recent discoveries of Japanese cinema. Only $5 for Japan society members

ACF 2056: New series at Japan Society NY to focus on five directors championed by Donald Richie

Richie's Fantastic Five:
Kurosawa, Mizoguchi, Ozu, Yanagimachi & Koreeda

When: October 18, 2013 - February 19, 2014
Where: Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street, NYC
(between 1st and 2nd Avenues)

Part One of  a new Monthly Film Series Highlights

Five Seminal Directors Introduced and Championed

by Legendary Japanese Cinema Critic Donald Richie

Before his passing in February, Donald Richie (1924-2013) educated and inspired generations to become interested in Japan through the Japanese art and culture he introduced – especially through film. Noted film scholar Kyoko Hirano calls him one of the single most important film and cultural critics. "Many people in the world beyond North America and Western Europe, beyond the film world, first became acquainted with Japanese culture through Richie's wide range of writings," she says.

In Richie's Fantastic Five: Kurosawa, Mizoguchi, Ozu, Yanagimachi & Kore-eda, Japan Society's Film Program honors Richie's legacy, presenting five timeless classics and hard-to-see gems over five months in glorious 35mm presentations. Curated by Hirano, a former Japan Society Film Program Director, the series highlights five seminal Japanese directors, who first became known throughout the world through Richie's work. Co-presented with The Japan Foundation, the series launches with Akira Kurosawa's High and Low (October 18); continuing with Kenji Mizoguchi's The Life of Oharu (November 16); Yasujiro Ozu's Equinox Flower (December 12), screening on Ozu's birthday and the 50^th anniversary of his death; Mitsuo Yanagimachi's Himatsuri (January 24), unavailable on DVD; and Hirokazu Kore-eda's After Life (February 19), marking the one-year anniversary of Richie's death.

Hirano notes, "Richie tirelessly promoted the cinematic beauty of such giants as Kurosawa, Ozu, Mizoguchi and Mikio Naruse; championed the iconoclastic energy of Japanese New Wave directors Nagisa Oshima, Masahiro Shinoda, Susumu Hani and Shohei Imamura; and celebrated the vibrant styles of new and upcoming directors such as Yoshimitsu Morita, Kazuo Hara, Yanagimachi and Kore-eda. Thanks to Richie, the world knows the greatness of Japanese cinema."

Further information about Richie's Fantastic Five film series and descriptions of each film can be found here.

Tickets to each screening are $12/$9 Japan Society members, seniors and students. Tickets may be purchased in person at Japan Society, by calling the box office at 212-715-1258, or at www.japansociety.org.

The second part of the series, also curated by Hirano, will focus on films that portray various aspects of Japanese society as observed through Richie's eyes, and begins March 2014 as part of the annual spring Globus Film Series.

ACF 480: Air Doll at Film Comment Selects

Bae Du-na (left) and Arata (right) in Air Doll

The annual Film Comment Selects series at The Film Society of Lincoln Center's Walter Reade theater began yesterday. (Sorry I didn't have the opportunity to get up a post about it earlier, but that's just how it goes sometimes.) It features quite few Asian films.

The one I'm most interested is Director Hirokazu Kore-eda's Air Doll (2009). It stars Korean actress Bae Du-na (Linda, Linda, Linda and The Host) as a sex doll that comes to life. I'm thinking a cross of Lars and the Real Girl (which is really about a caring community more than a sex-doll) and the delightful manga Video Girl Ai by Masakazu Katsura, in which a VHS video girl materializes out of a TV set.

Here's a description of Air Doll from the Film Society of Lincoln Center website:

Deceptively airy, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Air Doll makes us reflect on our sexual assumptions and the depths of loneliness often endured by the inhabitants of large cities. Korean star Bae Du-na plays Nozomi, an inflatable sex doll belonging to a lonesome Tokyo salaryman who comes alive and wanders the city by day. Like a child with a fresh pair of eyes, she learns about life and love through observation—but how long can her journey of discovery last?

Air Doll will be shown twice: Tuesday, February 23rd at 6:15 PM and Saturday, February 27th at 1:30 PM. For the specific Air Doll page, which includes a trailer, click here.

For descriptions of all films to be shown and to buy tickets, click here.