Japan Cuts
July 2-13
at Japan Society
This year, Japan Society’s second annual “Japan Cuts” program (July 2-13) serves up several ways to celebrate the past. From the silly to the solemn, memorable memorials take a front-seat in a lineup of contemporary and classic films. On one end of the emotional spectrum is Yuichi Sato’s ultra-pop Kisaragi, a murder mystery where five fans commemorate their favorite supermodel, who may or may not have killed herself. All the way on the other end is Naomi Kawase’s wistfully serene The Mourning Forest, a nursing home attendant and an old widow’s magically realistic journey to say good-bye to the latter’s wife.
Satoshi Miki’s Adrift in Tokyo hits the perfect middle ground between Kisaragi’s brashly sweet otaku (Japanese for “freakishly obsessed fan boy”) naïveté and The Mourning Forest’s demure nostalgia. Adrift is a disarmingly hilarious and thoughtful story of two strangers (contemporary pop star Jô Odagiri and former pretty boy Tomokazu Miura) that take a long walk and remember all the missed opportunities and diversions they might’ve taken.
If you need a more serious meditation on life-altering choices, try Kôji Wakamatsu’s grueling and sometimes brutally monotonous United Red Army. Wakamatsu’s docudrama is an intense, meticulously researched account of a fanatic faction of student protesters, who, in the late 1960s and early ’70s, killed themselves to prove their devotion to their cause. Behind its barrage of contextual names and dates, Wakamatsu’s three-hour epic bristles with fanatic intensity.
Finally, Japan Cuts pays tribute to legendary director Kon Ichikawa who sadly passed away in February. Skip Shunji Iwai’s flashy but creatively challenged doc A Filmful Life and check out The Inugami Family, Ichikawa’s influential 1976 whodunit and chase it with Murder of the Inugami Family, his recent 2006 remake. Ichikawa may be gone but thanks to Japan Cuts’ diligent programming, his presence remains as vitally inventive as it was 32 years ago.
July 2-13
at Japan Society
This year, Japan Society’s second annual “Japan Cuts” program (July 2-13) serves up several ways to celebrate the past. From the silly to the solemn, memorable memorials take a front-seat in a lineup of contemporary and classic films. On one end of the emotional spectrum is Yuichi Sato’s ultra-pop Kisaragi, a murder mystery where five fans commemorate their favorite supermodel, who may or may not have killed herself. All the way on the other end is Naomi Kawase’s wistfully serene The Mourning Forest, a nursing home attendant and an old widow’s magically realistic journey to say good-bye to the latter’s wife.
Satoshi Miki’s Adrift in Tokyo hits the perfect middle ground between Kisaragi’s brashly sweet otaku (Japanese for “freakishly obsessed fan boy”) naïveté and The Mourning Forest’s demure nostalgia. Adrift is a disarmingly hilarious and thoughtful story of two strangers (contemporary pop star Jô Odagiri and former pretty boy Tomokazu Miura) that take a long walk and remember all the missed opportunities and diversions they might’ve taken.
If you need a more serious meditation on life-altering choices, try Kôji Wakamatsu’s grueling and sometimes brutally monotonous United Red Army. Wakamatsu’s docudrama is an intense, meticulously researched account of a fanatic faction of student protesters, who, in the late 1960s and early ’70s, killed themselves to prove their devotion to their cause. Behind its barrage of contextual names and dates, Wakamatsu’s three-hour epic bristles with fanatic intensity.
Finally, Japan Cuts pays tribute to legendary director Kon Ichikawa who sadly passed away in February. Skip Shunji Iwai’s flashy but creatively challenged doc A Filmful Life and check out The Inugami Family, Ichikawa’s influential 1976 whodunit and chase it with Murder of the Inugami Family, his recent 2006 remake. Ichikawa may be gone but thanks to Japan Cuts’ diligent programming, his presence remains as vitally inventive as it was 32 years ago.
