RASHOMON at Japan Society NY this Wednesday, February 1st, 2023

Japan Society
Presents

Toshiro Mifune and, behind his shoulder, Machiko Kyo

Rashomon

Directed by Akira Kurosawa

With Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyo, Masayuki Mori

Japan, 1950, 88 minutes
35mm, b&w, in Japanese with English subtitles
 

When: Wednesday, February 1st 2023 at 7:00 pm

Where: Japan Society NY
333 East 47th Street
New York, NY 10017
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Tickets

 
A riveting psychological thriller that investigates the nature of truth and the meaning of justice, Rashomon is widely considered one of the greatest films ever made. Based on a story by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, father of the modern Japanese short novel, Rashomon follows four people who give different accounts of a samurai's murder—brilliantly presented by director Akira Kurosawa with striking imagery and an ingenious use of flashbacks.

 

Rashomon is generally recognized that as the film that brought Japanese filmmaking into the ranks of World Cinema when it won the Golden Lion at the 1951 Venice Film Festival. (In Something Like An Autobiography, Kurosawa wrote that his next film, 1951s The Idiot, did so poorly that Daiei "rescinded its offer for me to do another film with them." Rashomon's success at Venice -- where he didn't even know it had been submitted --  spared him "from having to eat cold rice" and allowed him to continue on the incredible filmmaking bath that followed.)

 

Rashomon also  received an Honorary Award from the Board of Governors at the 1952 Academy Awards as the most outstanding foreign language film released in the United States during 1951. (It was not until 1956, at the 29th Academy Awards, that a competitive Academy Award of Merit, known as the Best Foreign Language Film Award, was created for non-English speaking films.)

 

This screening of Rashomon is part of Japan Society's MONTHLY CLASSICS film series. It is also part of a series of programs celebrating the life and work of the prolific Japanese author Ryunosuke Akutagawa. Upcoming: AKUTAGAWA—an amalgam of his best-known stories told through traditional Japanese puppetry (Feb. 23–25).

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Naoto Takenaka's NOWHERE MAN showing in 35mm at Japan Society NY this evening, Friday, March 13th

Japan Society NY

presents

© 1991 Shochiku Ltd.

Nowhere Man / Muno no Hito

Directed by Naoto Takenaka

With Naoto Takenaka, Jun Fubuki,

Ren Osugi, and Hiroshi Kanbe

Japan, 1991, 107 minutes

35mm, color, in Japanese with English subtitles

When: Friday, March 13, 2020 at 7:00 PM

Where: Japan Society NY

333 East 47th Street, NYC

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

In this wry comedy adapted from legendary cartoonist Yoshiharu Tsuge's newly translated semi-autobiographical work The Man Without Talent (New York Review Comics), a hapless manga artist disillusioned with drawing comics turns his attention to selling rocks that he finds in a nearby river—a hopeless endeavor that only further estranges him from his poverty-stricken family.

An auspicious directorial debut by popular Japanese actor and comedian Naoto Takenaka, Nowhere Man won the FIPRESCI Prize at the 48th Venice Film Festival.

This rare 35mm screening is co-presented with New York Review Comics in celebration of their brand-new publication of The Man Without Talent, the first full-length work by Tsuge translated into English.

Watch the Nowhere Man trailer here.

This screening is part of Japan Society's MONTHLY CLASSICS film series.

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Imamura's THE BALLAD OF NARAYAMA coming to Japan Society NY next Friday, February 8th, 2019

Japan Society NY

Presents

The Ballad of Narayama © 1983 Imamura Production/Toei Co., Ltd

The Ballad of Narayama / Narayama bushikô

Directed by Shôhei Imamura

With With Ken Ogata, Sumiko Sakamoto,

Tonpei Hidari, and Takejo Aki

Japan, 1983, 131 minutes

DCP, color, in Japanese with English subtitles

When: Friday, February 8th at 7:00 PM

Where: Japan Society NY

333 East 47th Street, NYC

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

Shohei Imamura's Palme d'Or-winning masterpiece is set in a remote mountain village in 19th-century Japan wherein tradition dictates that those who reach the age of 70 must be carried to the top of Mount Narayama and left to die. Despite her hardscrabble surroundings, Orin (Sumiko Sakamoto) is still sprightly at 69, working the fields and managing her family's affairs. Even so, when winter returns to the valley, she demands that her eldest son (Ken Ogata) carry out her fate. A film full of mud, lust, sweat and death, Narayama is a grand culmination of Imamura's career-long interest in "the lower part of the human body and lower part of the social structure," presented in a brand-new 4K restoration.

HIROSHIMA coming to Japan Society NY on January 19th, 2018

Japan Society NY

presents

Hiroshima

Directed by Hideo Sekigawa

With Eiji Okada, Yumeji Tsukioka, Takashi Kanda, and Isuzu Yamada

Japan, 1953, 104 minutes

Blu-ray, b&w, in Japanese with English subtitles

When: Friday, January 19, 2018 at 7:00 PM

Where: Japan Society NY

333 East 47th Street, NYC

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

Based on Children of the Atom Bomb, a book of testimonies by children who experienced the bombing of Hiroshima, Hideo Sekigawa's harrowing drama details the destruction and suffering left in the wake of the A-bomb for a group of students, teachers and their families.

A direct indictment against nuclear war and the mistreatment of Hiroshima's stigmatized survivors, this independently produced and distributed film was funded by the Japan Teachers Union in an effort to "preserve peace" and utilized tens of thousands of Hiroshima citizens as extras, including many survivors.

Recently rediscovered after decades of obscurity, Hiroshima is a major work of anti-war cinema and a chilling reminder of the consequences of nuclear warfare.

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

Yasuzo Masumura's MANJI at Japan Society NY on Friday, December 1st

Japan Society NY

presents

© 1964 KADOKAWA

Manji

Directed by Yasuzo Masumura

With Ayako Wakao, Kyoko Kishida, Eiji Funakoshi, Yusuke Kawazu

Japan, 1964, 91 minutes

35mm, color

In Japanese with English subtitles

When: Friday, December 1, 7 PM 

Where: Japan Society NY

333 East 47th Street, NYC

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

This erotic and darkly comic melodrama by Japanese New Wave auteur Yasuzo Masumura stars a stunning Ayako Wakao as Mitsuko, a beguiling woman at the center of a tangled bisexual love quadrangle between bored housewife Sonoko (Kyoko Kishida), her husband and Mitsuko’s equally deceptive former fiancé. Adapted from the novel by Junichiro Tanizaki, the film’s story of destructive obsession, jealousy and manipulation is brilliantly rendered visually by Masumura and cinematographer Setsuo Kobayashi (Fires on the Plain), whose highly stylized compositions effectively portray the increasingly fractured psyches of four people constantly trying to out-maneuver each other for love at the risk of death.


Related Film Series: Yuzo Kawashima x Ayako Wakao (December 2 & 3, 2017)

ZATOICHI THE FUGITIVE at Japan Society NY tonight, April 7th

Japan Society NY

presents

Zatoichi the Fugitive © 1966 Kadokawa Pictures, Inc.

Zatoichi the Fugitive / Zatoichi Kyojo Tabi

Directed by Tokuzo Tanaka

With Shintaro Katsu, Miwa Takada, and Masayo Banri

Japan, 1963, 86 minutes

35mm, color, in Japanese with English subtitles

When: Friday, April 7th, 7:00 PM

Where: Japan Society NY

333 East 47th Street, NYC

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The fourth episode in the immensely popular 25-film action series features iconic blind swordsman Zatoichi (Shintaro Katsu) going up against a legion of local yakuza henchmen who target him after he defeats them in a wrestling tournament and then kills one of their own in self-defense. To complicate things, a former romantic interest reenters Zatoichi's life and a hot-tempered ronin, to whom she is married, seeks to end it for a reward. Composer Akira Ifukube, most famous for his work on the Godzilla film series, provides a characteristically spare and artful score.

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

ZATOICHI THE FUGITIVE coming to Japan Society NY on April 7th

Japan Society NY

presents

Zatoichi the Fugitive © 1966 Kadokawa Pictures, Inc.

Zatoichi the Fugitive / Zatoichi Kyojo Tabi

Directed by Tokuzo Tanaka

With Shintaro Katsu, Miwa Takada, and Masayo Banri

Japan, 1963, 86 minutes

35mm, color, in Japanese with English subtitles

When: Friday, April 7th, 7:00 PM

Where: Japan Society NY

333 East 47th Street, NYC

Map

The fourth episode in the immensely popular 25-film action series features iconic blind swordsman Zatoichi (Shintaro Katsu) going up against a legion of local yakuza henchmen who target him after he defeats them in a wrestling tournament and then kills one of their own in self-defense. To complicate things, a former romantic interest reenters Zatoichi's life and a hot-tempered ronin, to whom she is married, seeks to end it for a reward. Composer Akira Ifukube, most famous for his work on the Godzilla film series, provides a characteristically spare and artful score.

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

BLESSED coming to Japan Society NY

Japan Society NY

presents

Blessed / Shukufuku

Directed by Toshiko Takashi
Japan, 2001, 78 minutes
In Japanese with English subtitles

When: Friday, September 9, 2016 at 7 PM

Where:  Japan Society NY

333 East 47th Street, NYC

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Tickets 

Blessed is an intensely personal documentary shot and directed by Toshiko Takashi, former director of Tokyo International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival (TILGFF, 1992-93).

Visiting a low-income house in Osaka where she spent 10 years of her childhood, Toshiko encounters two familiar women in their 70s. When she returns three years later, she finds the house has been abandoned. Intercut with poetic reflections and intimate moments that Toshiko spends with her lover Sakura, who works as a stripper, the older women's lives and memories intertwine with the younger couple's in Takashi's dream-like visions.

A fascinating, rarely-screened work of Japanese LGBT cinema that was awarded a Special Mention at the 2002 Visions du Reel from a festival jury including Naomi Kawase.

Blessed was selected by dancer and former director of TILGFF (1996-99) Takao Kawaguchi, who will be performing About Kazuo Ohno at Japan Society on Sept. 16 & 17.

18+. This film is unrated, but may only be viewed by persons 18 years of age and older.

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.

THE YELLOW HANDKERCHIEF reviewed; screens Friday in NY

Japan Society NY

presents

The Yellow Handkerchief © 1977/2010 Shochiku Co., Ltd.

The Yellow Handkerchief / Shiawase no Kiiroi Hankachi

Directed by Yoji Yamada

With Ken Takakura, Kaori Momoi, Chieko Baisho,

Tetsuya Takeda, and Kiyoshi Atsumi

Japan, 1977, 108 minutes

35mm, color, in Japanese with live English subtitles

When: Friday, November 6, 2015 at 7:00 pm

Where: Japan Society

333 East 47th Street, NYC

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Tickets

To commemorate the death of the legendary Japanese actor Ken Takakura a year ago, Japan Society has chosen this cherished classic from award-winning director Yoji Yamada as the Monthly Classic film for November. It is based on a story about a man's insecure homecoming by Pete Hamill, the same story that inspired the 1973 hit song "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" by the group Tony Orlando and Dawn. Thus it was also responsible for the families of many military personnel returning during the Vietnam War period to tie yellow ribbons outside their homes to show that they were eager for their loved ones safe return. Several years ago it was made into another film -- also called The Yellow Handkerchief (2008)-- directed by Udayan Prasad and starring William Hurt, Maria Bello and Kristen Stewart.

Yamada's version begins with Kinya Hanada (Tetsuya Takeda) quitting his job and taking his prized possession -- a red Mazda hatchback -- to Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan's main islands. There he hooks up with -- and tries to put the moves on -- Akemi Ogawa (Kaori Momoi), a young woman whose job is serving lunches on trains and who has come to the island to get away from the memory of the boyfriend who cheated on her.

Perhaps twenty minutes or more into the film, the pair meets Takakura's character Yûsaku Shima, who has just been released from prison after serving several years for a serious crime. Shima is older and wiser than the other two; he is also rather sad and wistful. In a series of flashbacks, and later in an extended expository scene, we learn his back story and come to understand why he is conflicted about being driven back to the town of Yubari where he used to live and work and where someone he once loved may or may not still be there.

There's really not any doubt about how the film will end, but that doesn't keep it from being incredibly effective. Touching and sweetly comic, the film swept the first Japan Academy Prize ceremony with wins in nearly every category. Even the hard-hearted should come to Friday evening's screening prepared with tissues or a handkerchief of their own. Preferably a yellow one.

AsianCineFest Rating: 3 out of 4 stars 

Part of Monthly Classics, year-round screenings of beloved classics, hidden gems and recent discoveries of Japanese cinema on the first Friday of every month.

CARMEN COMES HOME reviewed

Japan Society New York

presents

Monthly Classics

 Carmen Comes Home / Karumen Kokyo ni Kaeru

Directed by Keisuke Kinoshita

Starring: Hideko Takamine, Shuji Sano, Chishu Ryu, Kuniko Igawa,

Takeshi Sakamoto, Toshiko Kobayashi.

Japan, 1951, 86 minutes

DCP, color, in Japanese with English subtitles

When: Friday, September 4, 2015 at 7:00 pm

Where: Japan Society 333 East 47th Street, NYC

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Tickets

Carmen Comes Home (1951), Japan's first color film, will kick of Japan Society's new Monthly Classics film series this Friday, September 4th at 7:00 PM. It's a most charming and delightful comedy.

Hideko Takamine stars as Kin, a rural girl who ran away from home to Tokyo, where she dances under the stage name Lily Carmen. When the theater where she performs is closing for six days for remodeling, she returns to her hometown, accompanied by her friend and fellow dancer Akemi Maya (Toshiko Kobayashi), who has just broken up with her boyfriend . Carmen's sister Yuki (Yuko Mochizuki), who is married and has a young son, is thrilled that she is returning. Less enthusiastic is her father, a widower and simple rancher who tends horses and cows. He is rather ashamed of his daughter for what she has chosen to do with her life. especially her revealing outfits.

Carmen fancies herself an artist, but she and Akemi seem to really be little more than dime-a-dozen cabaret dancers. Their presence has a major impact on the village, ultimately one that is positive in most ways.

Takamine is incandescent in the role. She made a sequel entitled Carmen Falls in Love (1952), which was also directed by Kinoshita. She is also known for her starring roles in Ozu's Floating Clouds (1955) and Miko Naruse's When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960), both of which are available from Criterion.

Carmen Comes Home, with its gentle take on the influence of the American culture on Japan in the post WWII period, is one of director Kinoshita's most beloved films. He is perhaps best  known in the West for Twenty-Four Eyes (1954) and Ballad of Narayama (1958), again both available from Criterion.

The film's rural setting, rolling green fields with nearby Mount Asama dominating the skyline, is beautifully depicted by the color cinematography. So are the costumes, particularly those of Carmen and Akemi.

Carmen Comes Home would be an important film to see if only because of its place as Japan's first color movie. But it most deserves to be seen because it's so damn wonderfully entertaining.

AsianCineFest rating: 3.5 out of 4 stars; very highly recommended.