Or This Dream We Call Human Life

The Cloud in Her Room (2020) - Zheng Lu  

Muzi (Jing Jin) is home in Hangzhou for the new year's. She is a recent college graduate, trying to find her way in the world. Her parents are divorced and in other relationships. She herself is in uncommitted relationship with a college flame Yu Fei (Zhou Chen) who comes to town to see her. She is also trying to vie for the attention of an older, worldly bar owner (Kangning Dong). She spends a lot of time alone in her parents old high-rise apartment, now empty and abandoned. So this is the backdrop of this densely layered, cinematically inventive debut of Zheng Lu Xinyuan. 

Mixing documentary style handheld camera work, interviews, inverted images, mirror effects and static long takes, the monochrome The Cloud in Her Room is perhaps the most astutely realized work that befits its self-consciously digital cinematography (by DP Mathias Delvaux), even much more so than Alfonso Cuaron's Roma. It's precisely because of its social realism, here and now of changing China, instead of period piece of reimagined Roma - the vast crisp grey mid-tone reflects the smoggy industrial cityscape and one-thousand-cigarettes-a-day urban ennui much more so than the 70s Mexico City. It also accentuate its dreamy, ethereal, soft-edged quality of the film. Some of the compositions and experimental playfulness as well as its mid-tones remind me not of French New Wave (incessant smoking notwithstanding), but that of Japanese New Wave, namely some of Wakamatsu's work and Yoshida's Heroic Purgatory. 

As the characters declare never to fall in love again, and buff each others advances and (not)say farewells in haze and smoke, we realize that it's all been done and seen before. But Zheng Lu seems to have found a new fresh way to look at the human banality and make it beautiful and dreamy, breathing a new life into, uh, life.

Heist of the Highest Order

In the Shadows (2010) - Arslan

Arslan's foray into genre exercise is perhaps one of the tightest heist film that would make Michael Mann blush. There is nothing remarkable about the plot: A criminal gets out of the jail. He regroups and plans another job with his former associates. His old boss and a corrupt cop are on his trail, and that sets up for various confrontations.

It's not 'what' that's important in In the Shadows, it's 'how'. The mechanics of procedural takes a precedent- getting unregistered guns, counting money, getting rid of the bodies and simple wait-in-the-corners-until-bad-guys-approach-then-shoot set ups, not one moment of the film is wasted. Arslan's treatment of locations is also impeccably economical and has an almost documentary feel to it. It's the empty parking lot, non-descriptive hotel rooms and corridors and gas stations off the freeway, not some recognizable landmarks. But the still shots of those places provide the sense of real and concreteness against the characters who are constantly in motion. People are speaking German but our aptly named protagonist Trojan (Mišel Matičević), with his broad lion face, doesn't come across as a German. In this economical climate, even the heist money is modest- 600,000 euros.

Arslan, a German-Turkish filmmaker who has made a point early in his career not to repeat what he's done previously, makes a sly turn with In the Shadows. At the onset, In The Shadows might not be the best film to represent him as one of filmmakers of the tenuous Berlin School. Although not politically as blunt as fellow filmmaker Petzold in his films, Arslan acknowledges in his (whatever the genre might be) the influx of immigrants which Germany had never experienced before in its history.

In the Shadows plays part of MoMA Film Series The Berlin School: Films from the Berliner Schule Nov.20 through Dec.6. Please visit MoMA website for details.

I Confess

I am Guilty (2005) - Hochhäusler

Fragmented, distant and elliptical, Hochhäusler's I am Guilty aka Falscher Bekenner (False Confessor) is a deeply disturbing film that stays with you for a long time after viewing. It tells a story of Armin (Constantin Von Jascheroff), an aimless teen from a middle-class household, who might be a terrorist in the making. He seems to be into mechanics and has a fascination for mechanical objects but not much else. Being a third son in a German household, therefore exempt from the mandatory military service isn't really helping him to get a headstart in life by any means. Because his concerned parents' constant nagging, Armin goes to job interviews only to get rejected, one after another. He lacks enthusiasm, focus, social skills, qualification...everything. The interviewers absurd questions and methods are as troubling as Armin's withdrawal. There is no discernible human quality to the process.

The film keeps things as lucid as possible. Did Armin actually committed the arson in his neighborhood? Is he engaging in some dark sexual activities in the public bathroom at night? The thing is, because of Hochhäusler's precise, impeccable direction, you can't dismiss the boy's lethargic behavior as shallow characterization. His troubled inner life, however hidden, beckons more of your attention.

Hochhäusler, a former critic turned filmmaker, says that this loss of identity theme in his as well as many other films of the Berlin School is not particularly limited to reflect the post-Wall German society. He sites that many of these German compatriots see themselves as cosmopolitan and get their influences from filmmakers from other parts of the world. With that in mind I feel there is an unspoken fraternity with Armin and all the young protagonists on the periphery of society with identity problems in so-called 'skipped generation' of wayward youth films around the world (films of Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Hou Hsiao Hsien, Gus Van Sant and current Greek cinema immediately come to mind).

I am Guilty plays part of MoMA Film Series The Berlin School: Films from the Berliner Schule Nov.20 through Dec.6. Please visit MoMA website for details.

Suspended State

Bungalow (2002) - Köhler

A teenage soldier Paul (Lennie Burmeister) deserts his squad at a roadside gas station and comes back home. His parents are on holiday in Italy, so the house is empty. Things get complicated when his older brother Max (Devid Striesow, Yella, Three, The Heart is a Dark Forest) shows up with his pretty Danish actress girlfriend, Lene (Trine Dyrholm). They are on the way to Munich because Lene is about to star in a low grade German Sci-fi flick. They leave in two days. It's quite obvious that the brothers don't get along. Paul lies about his AWOL status and develops an unhealthy obsession with Lene. Stooped, sulking and completely inept in human interactions, Paul is not just another lost, wayward youth. There is something more dangerous hidden in his unmotivated actions. There is something missing in him.

The post-Wall Germany's collective identity crisis and its angst is demonstrated by an unexplained, ominous explosion in the middle of the film, as our characters watch the plume of smoke rising in the distance from the roof of the house in their quiet suburban town. No one knows what exactly happened. Everyone has their own theories and no one believes the news media. Everyone remains suspicious and on guard. Bungalow does an amazing job at showing the German society treading dangerous, unforeseen territory in the new millennium.

Bungalow plays part of MoMA Film Series The Berlin School: Films from the Berliner Schule Nov.20 through Dec.6. Please visit MoMA website for details.

ND/NF Preview 2013

So here is the sneak preview of this year's New Directors New Films. The series is usually a good indication of what's to come in the film world. There are 25 films represented this year and the line-up is pretty strong and diverse. With these 8 films I was able to see below, I am happy to report that cinematic output is still healthy and alive all over the world. Please make sure to check out Blue Caprice, The Act of Killing and Upstream Color upon their future release date if you can't make it to ND/NF 2013. The series runs from March 20 through March 31, at Film Society of Lincoln Center and MoMA.



BLUE CAPRICE | Alexandre Moors


Amid renewed conviction for gun control in this country after the Connecticut shooting, Blue Caprice timely revisits the Beltway Sniper case, which happened more than a decade ago. The terrifying, indiscriminate killing spree perpetrated by John Allen Muhammad and Lee Malvo left indelible mark in American Psyche, already battered by 9/11 and the Invasion of Iraq. This slim, understated thriller is an impressive debut of Alexandre Moors, a New York based filmmaker. Even though it’s carefully orchestrated - from brooding cinematography and score to deliberately muted act of violence, the film still manages to leave enough breathing room for the audience to connect the dots for themselves. And the acting is superb: Isaiah Washington is mesmerizing as a former army man progressively disgruntled-at-the-unfair-world, and Tequan Richmond is a revelation here as an impressionable 16-year old who desperately wants a father figure. Blue Caprice doesn't give you any satisfying answers. It just accurately reflects on the complicated world we are living in.




EMPEROR VISITS THE HELL | Li Luo


Li Luo freely interprets from the Ming Dynasty classic literature The Way to the West (chapters from 9 to 11). Emperor Visits the Hell is a straight-faced farce that is barest of the bare-bone filmmaking. The setting is transformed into modern day China and all the frumpy actors look and talk like regular people. The story goes like this: The Dragon King upsets the heavens when he bets against the heaven's will. Despite the emperor's intervention, the Dragon King is executed (off screen). Now the ghosts (in no disguises or special effects) including the Dragon King are haunting the emperor, so he has to visit the underworld and pay off each ghost to stop bothering him. Emperor Visits the Hell is loose, playful movie that is reminiscent of the works of Apichatpong Weerasethakul and the recent Miguel Gomes’s winsome film, Tabu.

THE COLOR OF THE CHAMELEON | Emil Hristow

 

Batko (Ruscen Vidinliev) is a compulsive liar and masturbator since young age, no wonder he was recruited by the Bulgarian secret police to spy on the rogue elements in college- so starts this slick, sexy Bulgarian political satire. It has a lot of ins and outs and many laughs. But The Color of Chameleon comes across as too clever for its own good most of the time.

 

 
THE ACT OF KILLING | Joshua Oppenheimer

 

Crazy. The Act of Killing stars former paramilitary gangsters in Indonesia (preman they are called, from English words free man), who carried out killing estimated one million people accused of being Communists in the years 1965-66. It's quite unfathomable by the Western standards: killers are roaming proudly, telling people their grand, detailed stories, even on TV talk shows. It's the winners who write history. For losers, there isn't anyone left to voice their oppositions- as one of the gang members proudly claims, "because we exterminated them all". 

Director Joshua Oppenheimer asks one such gangster, the lean, flamboyant Anwar Congo if he can reenact killings in front of the camera. Without any irony or shame, Anwar goes along with it in detail with his fat sidekick compatriot Herman in tow. But as Anwar goes through garish movie-making business (complete with dancing girls and waterfalls and John Barry's 'Born Free' playing in the background), his conscience starts to catch up with him. He admits having nightmares of haunting ghosts of the people he killed. 

The Act of Killing might be the most powerful and cathartic documentary I've ever seen. It's no wonder Herzog and Errol Morris got involved in executive producing it. The credit sequence of The Act of Killing is still riddled with 'Anonymous' from co-director down: the political situation in Indonesia is still too dangerous for many people who are involved. It’s certainly one of the year's best films. DO NOT MISS THIS FILM.
 
 

 
SOLDATE JEANNETTE | Daniel Hoesl

 

European cinema is very much alive. Daniel Hoesl, a member of A European Film Conspiracy directs a film borne out of casting process without a script and the result is an intriguing, slim film about being free of materialistic world. There is no soldier name Jeannette, only Fanni (Johanna Orsini-Rosenberg), a lightly sketched character who might be a leader of a movement in the making. I'd love to know more about this EFC.

    
UPSTREAM COLOR | Shane Carruth

 

Intricately designed and immaculately executed, Upstream Color is an impressive, seductive film that draws you right in from the first frame. It involves brain washing through some earthy pharmatropix that is reminiscence of early Cronenberg (but non of his cheekiness) and Walden without any socio-political implications. But is there anything more than its slick pictures, hypnotic pacing and decidedly opaque narrative? Only you can decide for yourself and it’s definitely worth the trip.

It is safe to say that Shane Carruth is a real renaissance man: he wrote, directed, co-edited, starred in and composed for Upstream Color. He is distributing it himself as well. 

STORIES WE TELL | Sarah Polley

 

On her third outing as a director, Sarah Polley continues her close examination of human relationships: this time, her own family. It's not a Rashomon-ish tale as they market it to be. Through candid interviews of her extended family and friends, home movie footages and reenactments shot on Super-8, Canadian actor/director Polley tells her family secret that her mother, Diane, took to her grave: who was Polley's biological father? The documentary deconstructs the marriage of her loving but severely mismatched parents (her mother an extreme extrovert and her father the opposite). After Diane's untimely death (cancer), it was always a family dinner table joke how little Sarah didn't look like her father or her siblings. Polley keeps most of the melodrama at bay and gives the film a lot of warmth and humor. It's a lovely documentary if not a little too ordinary. But I guess that's the point.

 
L'INTERVALLO/ THE INTERVAL | Leonardo di Costanzo


Salvatore (Alessio Gallo) is a chubby 17-year old kid who sells lemon ice in the neighborhood. He somehow gets called in by a local gang. His mission is to keep an eye on a spirited, 15-year old girl, Veronica (Francesca Riso), in an abandoned old building compound. She did something wrong and is being imprisoned against her will and is waiting for her fate which will be decided by a local honcho that night. So begins a simple, lovely, one-day-in-the-lives-of, coming-of-age story deeply rooted in the neo-realist filmmaking. Without any music or gimmickry, Leonardo di Costanzo quietly observes two young leads. Gallo and Riso are great- at first putting on air and stand off-ish, then recoiling back to their normal kid selves. The Interval is a beautiful, subtle, touching film.

For the full lineup and tickets, please visit newdirectors.org.

Global Lens at MoMA

Global Film Initiative (GFI) and MoMA present Global Lens 2013: 10 films from developing film communities as diverse as Kazakhstan and Chile, in a traveling exhibition. From January 10th - 25th, the program holds up shop in NYC, where many of the titles are making their North American or New York premieres.

To celebrate the 10th year, Global Lens starts with a week-long run of Zhang Yuan's Beijing Flickers and Eduardo Nunes's Southwest; an overlooked earlier film, Life Kills Me (2007), from Chilean director Sebastián Silva (whose 2009 film The Maid was much admired); Cairo 678, a big hit at MoMA's 2011 New Directors/New Films festival, and much more. I am just stupefied by the caliber of these films. I just wish I had more time to watch all ten.


MODEST RECEPTION (Iran)

Two city slickers, Gaveh (director Mani Haghighi) and Leila (Taraneh Alidoosti) decked with plastic bags full of money and an iphone in their luxury foreign car, set out to distribute the money in an impoverished, mountainous border area. With each poor inhabitant they meet, a new Faustian condition is devised for their handouts: They make one brother swear on the Qu'ran that he won't share his money with the other brother; posing as a vet, they throw money at a man who's about to put down his injured mule not to do it; they try to buy off a dead infant from a grieving father digging a grave, and so on. Their subjects are mostly simple, honest folks who are tested by the protagonists to sell out. But as their sardonic games play out, it's their moral ambiguity that is put to the test. This fable-like nature of the film is still very much based on reality. Biting and thought provoking, Modest Reception is another great film from Iran.



CAIRO 678 (Egypt)

Based on real life incidents, Cairo 678 delicately interweaves the lives of three Egyptian women from different social standings, all victims of endemic sexual harassment. The film highlights the culture of shaming victims in a male dominant society. The film was accused of 'inciting violence against men and their genitalia with sharp objects'. It not only succeeds in making a point, but showing a glimpse of a rapidly changing Muslim society as well, with the help of superb performances by its leads (Bosra, Nelly Karim and Nahed El Sebai).



SOUTHWEST (Brazil)

Its audacious 3.66:1 ratio b&w photography accentuates the beauty of this fairy tale steeped in that unmistakable Latin American magical realism tradition. Sudoeste is quite the opposite of recent Cinema Novo, exemplified by City of God and Elite Squad.

Clarice, a girl who bears her dead mother's name gets to live the life she never got a chance to, all in one day, from childhood to old age. Every frame is exquisitely composed. Majestic horizontal space boxes in the viewer's perception, creating a fantastic netherworld. Lyrical and dreamlike, Southwest needs to be seen on the big screen.



SHYAMAL UNCLE TURNS OFF THE LIGHTS (India)

The film tells a simple story of a frugal elderly pensioner's sprawling quest through the Kafkaesque Indian bureaucratic system to turn off the street lights during daytime, because he deems it wasteful. Shyamal Uncle is at once a neorealist tour of a bustling urban Indian jungle and a delightful observational comedy that offers lots of laughs and charms.

Global Lens runs Jan. 10 through 25. Please visit MoMA website for tickets and times.

Metamorphose into Mediocrity

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (2012) - The Quays

I understand embracing video technology by artists have strong visual aesthetics. It's cheaper, easier, less time consuming, etc. For me, Lynch's Inland Empire was a major disappointment. His strong suit has always been painstakingly planned mise-en-scene and breathtakingly beautiful cinematography. Even more visual emphasis should be put on when we talk about the world of The Brothers Quay. Obviously, beauty of the Quay films had almost entirely relied upon the intricacy in their stop-motion animation trained craft. After their stint with a DSLR camera last year with On Deciphering the Pharmacist's Prescription for Lip-Reading Puppets. And this time, they are taking on Kafka's The Metamorphosis. One would think this is a perfect marriage. And what a missed opportunity it is- minimal effort, muddy images, lazy realization, this version of Metamorphosis looks like a half-assed High School video project. But it's KAFKA! Even if it was just a commissioned easy money project, how can they justify the quality of this dreadful work?  How can a conscientious artist not look at their work objectively, side by side, with something marvelous like Streets of Crocodiles and say wow, this is unacceptable!

Only saving grace of this screening was music of Leoš Janáček live accompaniment by pianist Mikhail Rudy. But what a major disappointment!

The Complete Pier Paolo Pasolini Retrospective at MoMA

Fiercely political and highly controversial poet/writer/artist/filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini gets a comprehensive citywide retrospective Dec. 13, 2012 - January 5, 2013. Regarded by many as a visionary thinker and major literary figure, Pasolini's legacy extends far beyond his work as a filmmaker. During his short lifetime, he was a public persona through his poetry, fiery newspaper editorials and political activism in post war Italy. Before his sensational murder death in 1975, Pasolini the filmmaker had made 22 films (including 8 shorts) in 14 years. His complete, rare cinematic output will be shown at the Museum of Modern Art. A well-timed Criterion release of Trilogy of Life in November saw Pasolini's three later works, of adaptation - Decameron, The Canterbury Tales and Arabian Nights on Blu-ray. But hey, why not come out and see them on the big screen all in new 35mm prints along with other rare gems?

NEW YORK, November 21, 2012--The Museum of Modern Art, Luce Cinecittà, and Fondo Pier Paolo Pasolini/Cineteca di Bologna present Pier Paolo Pasolini, a full retrospective celebrating the filmmaker's cinematic output, from December 13, 2012 through January 5, 2013, in The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters. Pasolini's film legacy is distinguished by an unerring eye for cinematic composition and tone, and a stylistic ease within a variety of genres--many of which he reworked to his own purposes, and all of which he invested with his distinctive touch. Yet, it is Pasolini's unique genius for creating images that evoke the inner truths of his own brief life that truly distinguish his films. This comprehensive retrospective presents Pasolini's celebrated films with newly struck prints by Luce Cinecittà after a careful work of two years, many shown in recently restored versions. The exhibition is organized by Jytte Jensen, Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art, and by Camilla Cormanni and Paola Ruggiero, Luce Cinecittà; with Roberto Chiesi, Fondo Pier Paolo Pasolini/Cineteca di Bologna; and Graziella Chiarcossi.

The film retrospective will be accompanied by a series of events that pay tribute to Pasolini's multifaceted career. On December 14, an evening of recitals by well-known Italian and American actors highlights Pasolini's accomplishments as an acclaimed essayist, beloved poet, and composer. On December 16, MoMA PS1 will host a program of performances by contemporary artists inspired by Pasolini. A roundtable discussion about his artistic legacy will take place on December 12 at Casa Zerilli-Marimò, New York University, and on December 13, The Italian Cultural Institute hosts a seminar titled Pasolini: A Writer for the New Millennium, with a panel of experts, moderated by Fabio Finotti, and a book launch of Pier Paolo Pasolini, My Own Cinema, an anthology including interviews, stories, journal notes, preliminary texts, subjects, and screenplays from Pasolini's archives; edited by Pasolini's sole heir Graziella Chiarcossi, with the collaboration of Roberto Chiesi (Fondo Pasolini/Cineteca di Bologna) and published by Cineteca di Bologna and Luce Cinecittà.

MoMA PS1 presents Saló, or 120 Days of Sodom, Teorema and Medea as continuous cinematic installations running throughout the film retrospective. Opening on December 15, Location 1 will host a gallery exhibition bringing together over 40 rarely exhibited drawings and paintings by Pasolini from the Fondo Pier Paolo Pasolini holdings in the Archivio Contemporaneo "Alessandro Bonsanti" at the Gabinetto Scientifico Letterario Vieusseux in Florence, Italy.

ACCATONE

Pasolini's portrayal of a sub-proletariat in Rome (based on his own novel, A Violent Life) is both raw and tender in his debut feature. Franco Citti's scrounger is an affable pimp who is destined for a self-destruction. He gets into drunken brawls in his usual neighborhood hangouts and tricks his friends for a bowl of pasta. He tries to go straight after falling in love with an innocent girl but slips back into thieving. With non-actors playing themselves and sluggish pacing, Accatone is an uneven ride. But one can't deny its raw lyricism and beauty.


IN SEARCH FOR LOCATIONS FOR THE GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW

From the beginning of his Palestine trip in 1964, it is clear that Pasolini can't find the setting he wants in Isreal, the Occupied Territories or Jordan. He is surprised by the uncinematic nature of historical sites with Biblical importance. The documentary is a good example of how Pasolini's working method is like. Humbled by the underwhelming scenery but not discouraged, and yet with an emphasis on authenticity (but not on a superficial level like Mel Gibson's bombastic The Passion of Christ, where he made every actor speak Aramaic), he later ended up shooting The Gospel According to St. Matthew in a remote Italian village, with locals playing most of the parts. This documentary is an important companion piece to that austere masterpiece.


THE EARTH AS SEEN FROM THE MOON

Pasolini was asked to be part of several omnibus films in the 60s (all his segments represented in this retro). The Earth as Seen from the Moon is one of the five segments from the film The Witches. Other directors involved were Mauro Bolognini, Vittorio De Sica, Franco Rossi and Lucino Visconti, each contributing a short involving the biggest Italian starlet of the era, Silvana Mangano. This candy colored, slapstick comedy features the famed comedian Totò and Ninetto Davoli as father and son (they also starred in Hawks and Sparrows as father and son which is said to be Pasolini's favorite), on the road looking for a perfect wife and mother. They find one in Mangano's deaf witch, who marries into the family without questioning. They are all happy living in squalid shack. But the father and son want the best for the new wife and mom, so they devise a plan to earn money. Mangano pulls out an adorable Chaplin act. Lighter and sillier than his other, more satirical films, The Earth as Seen from the Moon shows Pasolini's versatility as an artist.


NOTES FOR AN AFRICAN ORESTEIA

Pasolini preps the Greek tragedy of Orestes in Africa (Tanzania, Uganda). Like the previous documentary, Notes for an African Oresteia is a loose travelogue of sorts - part location/talent scouting, part lecture and discussion, part jazz improvisation. He saw parallels in the newly independent Africa (many nations gained their independence in the 60s) with Orestes and his trial after killing his mother Clytemnestra in revenge of the murder of his father Agamemnon (shedding off traditional ways and moving onto democracy). Under the shadow of the bitter Biafran War (1967-70), Africa in the 70s was still a volatile place to be. They thought the communist proletariat society (with the support of China) was possible. There is an interesting segment in Notes, where Pasolini asks room full of African college student about the film he is trying to make. Unfortunately, the English dubbing doesn't extend to the answers of the African students who speaks French and Italian. From what I gather, they don't seem to agree with the filmmakers view of Africa as a whole. But Pasolini is a smart, inquisitive man. While being respectful, he admits that shooting this film in the 70s in Africa is already outdated. It's too bad the film never actually happened.

For the complete list of films, schedule and tickets for the PPP retro, please visit MoMA website. It runs from December 13, 2012 through January 5, 2013, in The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters.

MoMA Presents: Art Theater Guild and Japanese Underground Cinema, 1960 - 1986

Oh man, this is huge!! As a big fan of Japanese New Wave, I am very excited about this upcoming program at the Museum of Modern Art. There are 70+ rarely seen films present with many guest speakers. If you consider yourself a fan of cinema, you don't have any excuse to miss this once in a blue moon event. I'll see you up there!!

MoMA Press Release: Art Theater Guild and Japanese Underground Cinema, 1960 - 1986

Guest Presenters Include Filmmakers Nobuhiko Obayashi and Susumu Hani, and Author Ian Buruma. Retrospective Also Features Works By Other Celebrated Filmmakers Including Masao Adachi, Takahiko Iimura, Shohei Imamura, Toshio Matsumoto, Nagisa Oshima, Donald Richie, Kaneto Shindo, Hiroshi Teshigahara, Koji Wakamatsu, and others.

Art Theater Guild and Japanese Underground Cinema, 1960-1986
December 6, 2012–February 10, 2013
The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters

NEW YORK, November 15, 2012—The Museum of Modern Art and The Japan Foundation present Art Theater Guild and Japanese Underground Cinema, 1960-1986, the most comprehensive U.S. retrospective ever devoted to the Art Theater Guild, the independent film company that radically transformed Japanese cinema by producing and distributing experimental, transgressive, and genre-shattering films from the early 1960s until the mid-1980s, running from December 6, 2012-February 10, 2013, in The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters. This exhibition is curated by Go Hirasawa, Meiji-Gakuin University; Roland Domenig, University of Vienna; and Joshua Siegel, Associate Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art; with curatorial assistance provided by Julian Ross, University of Leeds.

Free from the strictures and conventions of the mainstream Japanese studio system, the cinema of the Art Theater Guild was characterized by its provocative depictions of sex, violence, politics, and social upheaval. The ATG also provided a fresh testing ground for collaboration among filmmakers, composers, dancers, novelists, artists, performance artists, and avant-garde theater companies. This exhibition of approximately 70 titles features such seminal Japanese directors as Shohei Imamura, Toship Matsumuro, Nagisa Oshima, Kaneto Shindo, Hiroshi Teshigahara, and Koji Wakamatsu, and runs concurrently with the gallery exhibition Tokyo 1955-1970: A New Avant-Garde. Also presented are several non-ATG programs of Japanese underground cinema of the period, including experimental films and videos by Donald Richie, Masao Adachi, Takahiko Iimura, and others. Two of the leading filmmakers of the Art Theater Guild, Nobuhiko Obayashi and Susumu Hani, will make rare New York appearances to introduce their work, as will the artist Takahiko Iimura and the author Ian Buruma.

Screening Schedule
Art Theater Guild and Japanese Underground Cinema, 1960–1986
December 6, 2012–February 10, 2013
The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters

Thursday, December 6
6:30 Tenkosei (Transfer Student/Exchange Students/I Am You, You Are
Me). 1982. Japan. Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi. Screenplay by Wataru
Kenmotsu, Hisashi Yamanaka. With Toshinori Omi, Satomi Kobayashi, Makoto
Sato. Obayashi, the director of the 1977 cult classic House, makes a rare
appearance for the opening weekend of MoMA’s Art Theater Guild exhibition. His
1982 film Tenkosei is a kind of Japanese Freaky Friday: an astute exploration of
gender politics disguised as a tender coming-of-age comedy. A paranormal
incident causes an adolescent boy and girl to swap minds and bodies, leading
them to discover the blessings and foibles of becoming the opposite sex. In
Japanese; English subtitles. 112 min. Introduced by Obayashi.

Friday, December 7
6:30 Haishi (The Deserted City). 1984. Japan. Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi.
Screenplay by Chiho Katsura, Makoto Naito, based on a novel by Takehiko
Fukunaga. With Satomi Kobayashi, Kisuke Yamashita, Toshie Negishi. Obayashi’s
second ATG production is a romantic, melancholy melodrama born of the elegiac
atmosphere of Yanagawa, a city famous for its canals. After reading a newspaper
article about a tragic fire that took place in Yanagawa, a man recalls the summer
he spent there as a student and the family who gave him room and board. Secrets
of a love triangle simmering between the daughter, her sister, and her sister’s
husband return to memory. In Japanese; English subtitles. Print lent by The Japan
Foundation; courtesy Toho Distribution. 105 min. Introduced by Obayashi.

Saturday, December 8
2:00 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 1: Nobuhiko Obayashi and Yoichi
Takabayashi
Nakasendo (Nakasen Road). 1961. Japan. Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi.
Digital projection. Courtesy the filmmaker. 17 min.
Emotion. 1966. Japan. Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi. Screenplay by Obayashi,
Kyoko Hanyu. With Sari Akasaka, Kyōko Hanyū. Digital projection. Courtesy the
filmmaker. 39 min.
Hinanokage (The Shadow of Doll). 1963. Japan. Directed by Yoichi
Takabayashi. 20 min.
This program reunites two luminaries of Japanese underground cinema, Obayashi
and Takabayashi, who with Takahiko Iimura set up the collective “Group of Three”
and screened films together. Their innovative experimental 8mm movies were
harbingers of their subsequent feature work. Iimura is the subject of his own
program on January 12 and 13. Program 76 min. Introduced by Obayashi.
4:45 Otoshiana (The Pitfall). 1962. Japan. Directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara.
Screenplay by Kobo Abe. With Hisashi Igawa, Kazuo Miyahara, Sen Yano.
Together with The Woman in the Dunes and The Face of Another, The Pitfall marks
an astonishing and masterful collaboration among filmmaker Teshigahara, novelist
and playwright Kobo Abe, and composer Toru Takemitsu. Teshigahara described
The Pitfall as a “documentary-fantasy”: an existential murder mystery involving
3ghosts and doppelgangers that he infused with social realist depictions of
hardscrabble coal mining life. Courtesy Janus Films. In Japanese; English subtitles.
95 min.
7:30 Tobenai Chinmoku (Silence Has No Wings). 1966. Japan. Directed by Kazuo
Kuroki. Screenplay by Yasuo Matsukawa, Hisaya Iwasa, Kuroki. With Mariko Kaga,
Minoru Hiranaka, Rokko Toura. A strange and wondrously imaginative film:
Kuroki’s meditation on the history and politics of postwar Japan is told through the
fanciful and difficult journey of a caterpillar from the south of Japan to the north,
and through its metamorphosis into a butterfly and a beautiful, elusive young
woman. Silence Has No Wings has a breathtaking formal audacity, with soaring
cinematography by the great Tatsuo Suzuki and an ethereal soundscape that
interweaves voices both real and imagined. Print lent by The Japan Foundation;
courtesy Toho Distribution. In Japanese; English subtitles. 100 min.

Sunday, December 9
2:30 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 2: Nihon University Cinema
Club and Motoharu Jonouchi
PuPu. 1960. Japan. Directed by Nihon University Cinema Club.
22 min.
Tatsumi Hijikata. 1967. Japan. Directed by Motoharu Jonouchi. 1 min.
Gewaltopia Yokokuhen (Gewaltopia trailer). 1969. Japan. Directed by
Motoharu Jonouchi. 13 min.
Shinjuku Station. 1974. Japan. Directed by Motoharu Jonouchi. In Japanese;
English subtitles. 14 min.
Wan (Bowl). 1961. Japan. Directed by Nihon University New Cinema Club. 25
min.
Nihon University New Cinema Club holds a unique and significant role in the
history of Japanese experimental film, not only for its association with student
politics but also for its explicit stance against authorship. The Club, whose
members included Motoharu Jonouchi and Masao Adachi, would present films in
unconventional settings, and indeed, Jonouchi would often reedit his films and
insist on projecting them in different ways for each screening. Jonouchi works
courtesy Mineko Jonouchi; Nihon University Cinema Club works courtesy The FilmMakers’ Coop, New York. Program 76 min.
5:00 Seishun no Satsujinsha (The Youth Killer). 1976. Japan. Directed by Kazuhiko
Hasegawa. Screenplay by Tsutomu Tamura. With Yutaka Mizutani, Ryohei Uchida,
Etsuko Ichihara. Based on a true crime adapted into a short novel by Kenji
Nakagami, this debut film by Hasegawa is an operatic tragedy about the psychic
breakdown of a young man and the disintegration of his family. Hasegawa’s
mesmerizingly intense depictions of violence chart the criminal act and its
consequences. Print lent by The Japan Foundation; courtesy Toho Distribution. In
Japanese; English subtitles. 116 min.

Monday, December 10
4:00 Shura (Pandemonium). 1971. Japan. Written and directed by Toshio
Matsumoto. With Katsuo Nakamura, Yasuko Sanjo, Masao Imafuku. “The most
important and beautiful film made in Japan since Kurosawa’s prime” (Noël Burch).
Matsumoto’s second ATG feature is a pitch-black adaptation of a play by Nanboku
Tsuruya. Relentlessly pessimistic, this tale of bitter betrayal and brutal revenge is
intensified by Matsumoto’s characteristic blurring of fantasy and reality and his
4aestheticization of violence. Print lent by The Japan Foundation; courtesy the
filmmaker. In Japanese; English subtitles. 135 min.

Wednesday, December 12
4:30 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 3
Ryakusho Renzoku Shasatsuma (AKA Serial Killer). 1969. Japan. Directed by
Masao Adachi, Susumu Iwabuchi, Masayuki Nonomura, Yutaka Yamazaki, Mamoru
Sasaki, Masao Matsuda. A companion to Nagisa Oshima’s The Man Who Left His
Will on Film (also screening on December 12), AKA Serial Killer documented the
social upheaval and political oppression that roiled Japan in the 1960s. Director
Adachi, screenwriter Sasaki, and film critic Matsuda put fukeiron (landscape
theory) into practice in their profile of nineteen-year-old serial killer Norio
Nagayama. An indictment of media sensationalism, the film humanizes the young
man by situating his crimes in the larger context of his surroundings. Courtesy
Adachi Masao Screening Committee. In Japanese; English subtitles. 86 min.
7:00 Tokyo Senso Sengo Hiwa (The Man Who Left His Will on Film). 1970.
Japan. Directed by Nagisa Oshima. Screenplay by Masato Hara, Mamoru Sasaki.
With Kazuo Goto, Emiko Iwasaki, Sugio Fukuoka. Following activist
demonstrations, a student filmmaker discovers a last will and testament recorded
on film by a man who may or may not have existed. Much like Antonioni’s BlowUp (1966), the footage seems to be innocuous and visually uneventful, yet its very
banality suggests a tantalizing mystery that invites imaginative speculation. The
student concludes that the only way to understand the ghostly man’s last will is to
re-shoot the landscape locations himself. The tension between subjective
experience and historical fact lies at the heart of fukeiron, a landscape theory that
gained currency in Japan in the 1960s. Print lent by Harvard Film Archive;
courtesy Janus Films. In Japanese; English subtitles. 94 min.

Thursday, December 13
4:30 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 1: Nobuhiko Obayashi and Yoichi
Takabayashi
Nakasendo (Nakasen Road). 1961. Japan. Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi.
Digital projection. Courtesy the filmmaker. 17 min.
Hinanokage (The Shadow of Doll). 1963. Japan. Directed by Yoichi
Takabayashi. 20 min.
Emotion. 1966. Japan. Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi. Screenplay by Obayashi,
Kyoko Hanyu. With Sari Akasaka, Kyōko Hanyū. Digital projection. Courtesy the
filmmaker. 39 min.
Program 76 min. (See Saturday, December 8, 2:00)
6:45 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 2: Nihon University Cinema
Club and Motoharu Jonouchi
PuPu. 1960. Japan. Directed by Nihon University Cinema Club.
22 min.
Tatsumi Hijikata. 1967. Japan. Directed by Motoharu Jonouchi. 1 min.
Gewaltopia Yokokuhen (Gewaltopia trailer). 1969. Japan. Directed by
Motoharu Jonouchi. 13 min.
Shinjuku Station. 1974. Japan. Directed by Motoharu Jonouchi. In Japanese;
English subtitles. 14 min.
Wan (Bowl). 1961. Japan. Directed by Nihon University New Cinema Club. 25
min.
5Jonouchi works courtesy Mineko Jonouchi; Nihon University Cinema Club works
courtesy The Film-Makers’ Coop, New York. Program 76 min. (See Sunday,
December 9, 2:30)

Friday, December 14
4:15 Tobenai Chinmoku (Silence Has No Wings). 1966. Japan. Directed by Kazuo
Kuroki. Screenplay by Yasuo Matsukawa, Hisaya Iwasa, Kuroki. With Mariko Kaga,
Minoru Hiranaka, Rokko Toura. Print lent by The Japan Foundation; courtesy Toho
Distribution. In Japanese; English subtitles. 100 min. (See Saturday, December 8,
7:30)
7:00 Koshikei (Death by Hanging). 1968. Japan. Directed by Nagisa Oshima.
Screenplay by Tsutomu Tamura, Mamoru Sasaki, Michinori Fukao, Oshima. With
Yun Yun-Do, Fumio Watanabe, Masao Adachi. “The late 1960s marked a
remarkably productive and creatively intense period for Oshima as he began to
define a truly revolutionary approach to narrative. Death by Hanging marks a high
point of these fertile years as one of Oshima’s most potent, stylistically daring,
and intensely debated works. His first film to draw the attention of international
critics, Death by Hanging was inspired by the highly publicized death sentenced
received by a Korean youth for the strangling of two young female schoolmates.
The film opens with a gripping documentary-style reenactment of the execution
that is suddenly derailed by an uncanny and inexplicable mishap, plunging the film
into a dizzying mode of political theater where the authority of the executioners
and truth claims of cinema are brilliantly put on trial. An uncompromising ode to
Brechtian aesthetics, Death by Hanging is an awe-inspiring and urgent work of
political cinema” (Haden Guest, Harvard Film Archive.” In Japanese; English
subtitles. Print lent by Harvard Film Archive; courtesy Janus Films. 119 min.

Saturday, December 15
2:00 Tenkosei (Transfer Student/Exchange Students/I Am You, You Are
Me). 1982. Japan. Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi. Screenplay by Wataru
Kenmotsu, Hisashi Yamanaka. In Japanese; English subtitles. 112 min. (See
Thursday, December 6, 6:30)
5:00 Haishi (The Deserted City). 1984. Japan. Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi.
Screenplay by Chiho Katsura, Makoto Naito, based on a novel by Takehiko
Fukunaga. In Japanese; English subtitles. Print lent by The Japan Foundation;
courtesy Toho Distribution. 105 min. (See Friday, December 7, 6:30)
7:30 Seishun no Satsujinsha (The Youth Killer). 1976. Japan. Directed by Kazuhiko
Hasegawa. Screenplay by Tsutomu Tamura. With Yutaka Mizutani, Ryohei Uchida,
Etsuko Ichihara. Print lent by The Japan Foundation; courtesy Toho Distribution.
In Japanese; English subtitles. 116 min. (See Sunday, December 9, 5:00)

Sunday, December 16
2:00 Ryoma Ansatsu (The Assassination of Ryoma). 1974. Japan. Directed by
Kazuo Kuroki. Screenplay by Kunio Shimizu, Yasushi Tanabe. With Yoshio Harada,
Renji Ishibashi, Rie Nakagawa. Using the perceived failure of student
demonstrations against the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty as a contemporary
backdrop, Kuroki recounts the legend of nineteenth-century revolutionary Ryoma
Sakamoto, the low-ranking samurai who engineered a bloodless revolution against
6Shogunate feudalism and paved the way toward Japan’s rapid modernization.
Kuroki’s dramatic retelling of a timeworn popular legend focuses on the three days
leading up to Ryoma’s assassination, and is given a strikingly modernist look by
cinematographer Masaki Tamura. Print lent by The Japan Foundation; courtesy
Toho Distribution. In Japanese; English subtitles. 118 min.
5:00 Shura (Pandemonium). 1971. Japan. Written and directed by Toshio
Matsumoto. Print lent by The Japan Foundation; courtesy the filmmaker. In
Japanese; English subtitles. 135 min. (See Monday, December 10, 4:00)

Monday, December 17
4:00 Otoshiana (The Pitfall). 1962. Japan. Directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara.
Screenplay by Kobo Abe. With Hisashi Igawa, Kazuo Miyahara, Sen Yano. Courtesy
Janus Films. In Japanese; English subtitles. 95 min. (See Saturday, December 8,
4:45)

Wednesday, December 19
4:00 Ryoma Ansatsu (The Assassination of Ryoma). 1974. Japan. Directed by
Kazuo Kuroki. Screenplay by Kunio Shimizu, Yasushi Tanabe. With Yoshio Harada,
Renji Ishibashi, Rie Nakagawa. Print lent by The Japan Foundation; courtesy Toho
Distribution. In Japanese; English subtitles. 118 min. (See Sunday, December 16,
2:00)

Friday, January 4
4:00 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 4: Expanded Cinema
Tsuburekakatta Migime no Tame ni (For My Crushed Right Eye). 1968.
Japan. Directed by Toshio Matsumoto. Courtesy the filmmaker. Digital projection.
13 min.
Jidai Seishin no Genshogaku (Phenomenology of Zeitgeist). 1967. Japan.
Directed by Rikuro Miyai. Courtesy the filmmaker. Multiple projection. 37 min.
America America America. 1965. Japan. Directed by Kenji Kanesaka. Print lent
by Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography; courtesy Kumiko Shimamoto.
Digital projection. 13 min.
Great Society. 1967. USA. Directed by Masanori Oe, Marvin Fishman. Print lent
by Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography; courtesy the filmmaker. Digital
projection. 17 min.
Expanded cinema became a true phenomenon in late 1960s Japan. Artists began
exploring multiple projection, film as performance, and various Structuralist
investigations. This program features some of the best practitioners of the period,
including Matsumoto and Miyai, as well as early critiques of television and pop
culture by Kanesaka and Oe that offer a fascinating glimpse of Japanese expat
culture in downtown New York. Program 73 min.
6:45 Tenshi no Kokotsu (Ecstasy of the Angels). 1972. Japan. Directed by Koji
Wakamatsu. Screenplay by De Deguchi (Masao Adachi). With Ken Yoshizawa, Rie
Yokoyama, Yuki Aresa. Extreme leftist politics and candid sex collide in Art Theater
Guild’s most controversial feature, as the bad boys of “Pink Cinema,” Koji
Wakamatsu and Masao Adachi, depict Tokyo as a bombed-out city on the verge of
revolution, anticipating real-life bombings of police stations and internecine
warfare among various splinter activist groups. Courtesy Blaq Out. In Japanese;
English subtitles. 88 min.

7Saturday, January 5
2:30 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 5
Mujin Retto (The Deserted Archipelago). 1969. Japan. Directed by Katsu
Kanai. Screenplay by Kanai, Yuji Yamazaki, Yuki Miyata. With Kazumi Kushida,
Yoshihiro Kato, Shinichi Iwata, Jushin Sato. Kanai’s debut is a landmark in
experimental narrative cinema. Upon reaching adolescence, a young man escapes
the monastery where he suffered a tortured childhood. During his flight, he
encounters strange deities, including overgrown babies played by the performance
artists Zero-Jigen and his own doppelganger, spawned in an utterly creepy
manner. Courtesy the filmmaker. Digital projection. In Japanese; English subtitles.
56 min.
4:30 Ikiteiru Koheiji (The Living Koheiji). 1982. Japan. Directed by Nobuo
Nakagawa. Screenplay by Nakagawa, based on a play by Senzaburo Suzuki. With
Fumihiko Fujima, Junko Miyashita, Shoji Ishibashi. After a thirteen-year hiatus,
Nakagawa, a master of the immensely popular Japanese ghost genre, returned to
the studio one last time to make his most intense, and perhaps most beautiful,
film. Nakagawa stages his love triangle among a traveling Kabuki player, his wife,
and her lover—a drama about crimes of passion—as a theatrically stylized yet
intimate play between illusion and reality. Print lent by The Japan Foundation;
courtesy Toho Distribution. In Japanese; English subtitles. 78 min.
6:45 Shinju Ten no Amijima (Double Suicide). 1969. Japan. Directed by Masahiro
Shinoda. Screenplay by Taeko Tomioka, Toru Takemitsu, Shinoda, based on a play
by Monzaemon Chikamatsu. With Kichiemon Nakamura, Shima Iwashita, Hosei
Komatsu. In his radical updating of Chikamatsu’s classic bunraku play, Shinoda
explores the familiar tension between familial duty and individual longing through
a pair of desperately passionate young lovers sealed in a doomed fate. Shinoda’s
brilliant theatrical conceits include sets that collapse to reveal their artifice, and
the manipulations of hooded puppeteers who intervene in their characters’
destinies. Courtesy Janus Films. In Japanese; English subtitles. 104 min.

Sunday, January 6
2:30 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 4: Expanded Cinema
Tsuburekakatta Migime no Tame ni (For My Crushed Right Eye). 1968.
Japan. Directed by Toshio Matsumoto. Courtesy the filmmaker. Digital projection.
13 min.
Jidai Seishin no Genshogaku (Phenomenology of Zeitgeist). 1967. Japan.
Directed by Rikuro Miyai. Courtesy the filmmaker. Multiple projection. 37 min.
America America America. 1965. Japan. Directed by Kenji Kanesaka. Print lent
by Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography; courtesy Kumiko Shimamoto.
Digital projection. 13 min.
Great Society. 1967. USA. Directed by Masanori Oe, Marvin Fishman. Print lent
by Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography; courtesy the filmmaker. Digital
projection. 17 min.
Program 73 min. (See Friday, January 4, 4:00)
5:00 Shinjuku Dorobo Nikki (Diary of a Shinjuku Thief). 1969. Japan. Directed by
Nagisa Oshima. Screenplay by Masao Adachi, Mamoru Sasaki, Tsutomu Tamura,
Oshima. With Tadanori Yokoo, Rie Yokoyama, Kei Sato. Restlessly chaotic
storytelling prevails in Oshima’s brilliant homage to Tokyo’s city center of
Shinjuku—ground zero for cultural experimentation and social protest. Famed
graphic designer Tadanori Yokoo plays a young shoplifter who embarks on a
flirtatious roundelay of gender bending with the beautiful Umeko. Juro Kara’s
8Situation Theatre is one of several counterculture hotspots making a location
cameo. Courtesy Janus Films. In Japanese; English subtitles. 94 min. Introduced
by author Ian Buruma.

Monday, January 7
6:00 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 3
Ryakusho Renzoku Shasatsuma (AKA Serial Killer). 1969. Japan. Directed by
Masao Adachi, Susumu Iwabuchi, Masayuki Nonomura, Yutaka Yamazaki, Mamoru
Sasaki, Masao Matsuda. Courtesy Adachi Masao Screening Committee. In
Japanese; English subtitles. 86 min. (See Wednesday, December 12, 4:30)

Wednesday, January 9
4:45 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 6: Radical Experiments in
Japanese Animation
Ai (Love). 1963. Japan. Directed by Yoji Kuri. 12 min.
March. 1963. Japan. Directed by Hiroshi Manabe. Courtesy The Museum of
Modern Art, Ehime. Digital projection. 3 min.
Ikedaya Sodo (Battle at Ikedaya). 1961. Japan. Directed by Ryohei
Yanagihara. Courtesy the filmmaker. Digital projection. 8 min.
Kiss Kiss Kiss. 1964. Japan. Directed by Tadanori Yokoo. Courtesy the
filmmaker. 3 min.
Kamen no Marionetto-tachi (The Marionettes of Mask). 1965. Japan.
Directed by Keiichi Tanaami. Courtesy the filmmaker. 7 min.
Goho/Don (Time Gun). 1966. Japan. Directed by Akira Uno. Courtesy the
filmmaker. 11 min.
Kage (Shadow). 1967. Japan. Directed by Seiichi Hayashi. Courtesy the
filmmaker. Digital projection. 5 min.
WOLS. 1965. Japan. Directed by Motoharu Jonouchi. Courtesy Mineko Jonouchi.
18 min.
Before Japanese animation became big business, many legendary illustrators,
graphic designers, and manga artists (including the “Animation: Group of Three”
of Kuri, Manabe, and Yanagihara) experimented with the genre. Screened at
prestigious venues like the Sogetsu Art Centre, this program of independently
made animated shorts features some of their most stunning achievements.
Program 67 min.
6:45 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 5
Mujin Retto (The Deserted Archipelago). 1969. Japan. Directed by Katsu
Kanai. Screenplay by Kanai, Yuji Yamazaki, Yuki Miyata. With Kazumi Kushida,
Yoshihiro Kato, Shinichi Iwata, Jushin Sato. Courtesy the filmmaker. Digital
projection. In Japanese; English subtitles. 56 min. (See Saturday, January 5,
2:30)

Thursday, January 10
4:30 Nihon University New Cinema Club and Yukio Mishima
Sain (Closed Vagina). 1963. Japan. Directed by Nihon University New Cinema
Club. While depicting a love story between a man and a woman, this film uses
image of a closed vagina as a metaphor—by now considered sexist—for the failed
protest movement during the signing of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty. This fifth
production of the Nihon University Cinema Club—the first late-night screening at
the Art Theatre Shinjuku Bunka—had a sensational reputation that extended to
9the larger world of experimental cinema, and had a major influence on the
development of the Art Theater Guild. Courtesy Nihon University Cinema Club. In
Japanese; English subtitles. 56 min.
Yukoku (Patriotism/The Rite of Love and Death). 1966. Japan. Written,
directed by, and starring Yukio Mishima. After receiving orders to take command
of a unit that will exterminate his rebel friends following their failed coup in the
“2.26 Incident” of 1936, a lieutenant and his wife commit double suicide.
Mishima’s chillingly nationalist adaptation of his own 1961 novel attracted
tremendous critical response and public favor, paving the way for Art Theater
Guild productions to follow. Courtesy Sakai Agency. In Japanese; English subtitles.
28 min.
6:45 Ikiteiru Koheiji (The Living Koheiji). 1982. Japan. Directed by Nobuo
Nakagawa. Screenplay by Nakagawa, based on a play by Senzaburo Suzuki. With
Fumihiko Fujima, Junko Miyashita, Shoji Ishibashi. Print lent by The Japan
Foundation; courtesy Toho Distribution. In Japanese; English subtitles. 78 min.
(See Saturday, January 5, 4:30)

Friday, January 11
4:30 Nihon University New Cinema Club and Yukio Mishima
Sain (Closed Vagina). 1963. Japan. Directed by Nihon University New Cinema
Club. Courtesy Nihon University Cinema Club. In Japanese; English subtitles. 56
min.
Yukoku (Patriotism/The Rite of Love and Death). 1966. Japan. Written,
directed by, and starring Yukio Mishima. Courtesy Sakai Agency. In Japanese;
English subtitles. 28 min. (See Thursday, January 10, 4:30)
7:00 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 7
Kurejii Rabu (Crazy Love). 1968. Japan. Written and directed by Michio Okabe.
With Okabe, Zero-Jigen, Kenji Kanesaka, Yasunao Tone. Capturing the exuberance
of 1960s Japanese counterculture, Crazy Love is an indelible record of
performance art, street happenings, futen hippie life, and wildly popular dance
halls. Performance artists Zero-Jigen, musician Tone and filmmaker/photographer
Kanesaka are among the many familiar faces of the Shinjuku underground who
appear in the film, which also features an infectious soundtrack of contemporary
pop songs. Print lent by Fukuoka City Public Library; courtesy the filmmaker. In
Japanese; English subtitles. 93 min.

Saturday, January 12
2:30 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 8: Takahiko Iimura and Eikoh
Hosoe
Heso to Genbaku (Navel and A-Bomb). 1960. Japan. Directed by Eikoh Hosoe.
Courtesy the filmmaker. 10 min.
Anma (The Masseurs). 1963. Japan. Directed by Takahiko Iimura. 13 min.
Barairo Dansu (Rose Color Dance). 1965. Japan. Directed by Iimura. 13 min.
Kuzu (Junk). 1962. Japan. Directed by Iimura. 12 min.
Ai (Love). 1962. Japan. Directed by Iimura. 12 min.
Onan. 1963. Japan. Directed by Iimura. 7 min.
Made for the Experimental Jazz Film Laboratory, a group led by the great
filmmaker Shuji Terayama (a key figure in this exhibition), Navel and A-Bomb
anticipates photographer Eikoh Hosoe’s famous collaboration with Tatsumi
Hijikata, the co-founder of Ankoku Butoh dance, for the photo-book Kamaitachi
(1968). In the beautifully choreographed Anma and Rose Color Dance, Takahiko
10Iimura transforms his camera into an extension of his body. And in Junk, Love,
and Onan, Iimura improvises with vanguard musicians Takehisa Kosugi, Yoko Ono,
and Yasunao Tone with exhilarating results. All Iimura works courtesy The Filmmakers’ Co-op, New York. Program 67 min. Introduced by Iimura.
4:45 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 9
Gingakei (Galaxy). 1967. Japan. Written and directed by Masao Adachi. With
Akira Hanaue, Rui Takemura. Adachi’s surreal masterpiece Galaxy was the very
first film to premiere at the Theatre Scorpio, with crowds thronging to get in.
Mixing memory and dreams, the film centers on a man who becomes lost within
the Möbius strip of his own consciousness. Adachi uses all manner of cinematic
experimentation—including Yasunao Tone’s chilling soundtrack—to disorient and
unnerve both his protagonist and the audience. Courtesy Adachi Masao Screening
Committee. In Japanese; English subtitles. 75 min.
7:00 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 7
Kurejii Rabu (Crazy Love). 1968. Japan. Written and directed by Michio Okabe.
With Okabe, Zero-Jigen, Kenji Kanesaka, Yasunao Tone. Print lent by Fukuoka City
Public Library; courtesy the filmmaker. In Japanese; English subtitles. 93 min.
(See Friday, January 11, 7:00)

Sunday, January 13
2:45 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 6: Radical Experiments in
Japanese Animation
Ai (Love). 1963. Japan. Directed by Yoji Kuri. 12 min.
March. 1963. Japan. Directed by Hiroshi Manabe. Courtesy The Museum of
Modern Art, Ehime. Digital projection. 3 min.
Ikedaya Sodo (Battle at Ikedaya). 1961. Japan. Directed by Ryohei
Yanagihara. Courtesy the filmmaker. Digital projection. 8 min.
Kiss Kiss Kiss. 1964. Japan. Directed by Tadanori Yokoo. Courtesy the
filmmaker. 3 min.
Kamen no Marionetto-tachi (The Marionettes of Mask). 1965. Japan.
Directed by Keiichi Tanaami. Courtesy the filmmaker. 7 min.
Goho/Don (Time Gun). 1966. Japan. Directed by Akira Uno. Courtesy the
filmmaker. 11 min.
Kage (Shadow). 1967. Japan. Directed by Seiichi Hayashi. Courtesy the
filmmaker. Digital projection. 5 min.
WOLS. 1965. Japan. Directed by Motoharu Jonouchi. Courtesy Mineko Jonouchi.
18 min.
Program 67 min. (See Wednesday, January 9, 4:45)
5:00 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 8: Takahiko Iimura and Eikoh
Hosoe
Heso to Genbaku (Navel and A-Bomb). 1960. Japan. Directed by Eikoh Hosoe.
Courtesy the filmmaker. 10 min.
Anma (The Masseurs). 1963. Japan. Directed by Takahiko Iimura. 13 min.
Barairo Dansu (Rose Color Dance). 1965. Japan. Directed by Iimura. 13 min.
Kuzu (Junk). 1962. Japan. Directed by Iimura. 12 min.
Ai (Love). 1962. Japan. Directed by Iimura. 12 min.
Onan. 1963. Japan. Directed by Iimura. 7 min.
All Iimura works courtesy The Film-makers’ Co-op, New York. Program 67 min.
(See Saturday, January 12, 2:30)

11Monday, January 14
4:00 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 9
Gingakei (Galaxy). 1967. Japan. Written and directed by Masao Adachi. With
Akira Hanaue, Rui Takemura. Courtesy Adachi Masao Screening Committee. In
Japanese; English subtitles. 75 min. (See Saturday, January 12, 4:45)

Wednesday, January 16
4:00 Nikudan (The Human Bullet). 1968. Japan. Written and directed by Kihachi
Okamoto. With Minori Terada, Naoko Otani, Yunosuke Ito. Perhaps best known for
his samurai films for Toho studio, Okamoto also wrote and directed a number of
antiwar films based on his own experiences as a soldier. The Human Bullet is the
best of these, a satire centering on a nameless soldier who on the eve of a suicide
mission meets his first—and last—love. Mixing humor with melancholy, the film
offers a conflicted vision of national duty and sacrifice. Print lent by The Japan
Foundation; courtesy Toho Distribution. In Japanese; English subtitles. 117 min.
7:00 Gishiki (Ceremony). 1971. Japan. Directed by Nagisa Oshima. Screenplay by
Mamoru Sasaki, Tsutomu Tamura, Oshima. With Kenzo Kawarasaki, Atsuko Kaku,
Nobuko Otowa. Oshima’s magisterial epic, centering on the ambivalent surviving
heir of the Sakurada clan, uses ritual and the microcosm of the traditional family
to trace the rise and fall of militaristic Japan across several decades. The film was
made in celebration of the Art Theater Guild’s tenth anniversary. Print lent by The
Japan Foundation; courtesy Janus Films. In Japanese; English subtitles. 123 min.

Thursday, January 17
6:30 Shinjuku Dorobo Nikki (Diary of a Shinjuku Thief). 1969. Japan. Directed by
Nagisa Oshima. Screenplay by Masao Adachi, Mamoru Sasaki, Tsutomu Tamura,
Oshima. Courtesy Janus Films. In Japanese; English subtitles. 94 min. (See
Sunday, January 6, 5:00)

Friday, January 18
4:30 Tenshi no Kokotsu (Ecstasy of the Angels). 1972. Japan. Directed by Koji
Wakamatsu. Screenplay by De Deguchi (Masao Adachi). With Ken Yoshizawa, Rie
Yokoyama, Yuki Aresa. Courtesy Blaq Out. In Japanese; English subtitles. 88 min.
(See Friday, January 4, 6:45)
7:00 Bara no Soretsu (Funeral Parade of Roses). 1969. Japan. Written and
directed by Toshio Matsumoto. With Peter, Osamu Ogasawara, Toyosaburo
Uchiyama. “A carnivalesque melding of documentary vérité and avant-garde
psychedelia, Funeral Parade of Roses offers a shocking and ecstatic journey
through the nocturnal underworld of Tokyo’s Shinjuku neighborhood, following the
strange misadventures of a rebellious drag queen fending off his/her rivals. Often
cited as a major inspiration for Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, Matsumoto’s
breakthrough film is a visually audacious and lyrically abstract testament to the
vertiginous daring of the postwar Japanese avant-garde art and film scenes.
Matsumoto orchestrates a series of quite astonishing visual set pieces, including
actual performances by the influential street theater group Zero-Jigen” (Haden
Guest, Harvard Film Archive). Print lent by Harvard Film Archve; courtesy the
filmmaker. In Japanese; English subtitles. 107 min.

Saturday, January 19
2:00 Nikudan (The Human Bullet). 1968. Japan. Written and directed by Kihachi
Okamoto. With Minori Terada, Naoko Otani, Yunosuke Ito. Print lent by The Japan
Foundation; courtesy Toho Distribution. In Japanese; English subtitles. 117 min.
(See Wednesday, January 16, 4:00)
4:45 Shinju Ten no Amijima (Double Suicide). 1969. Japan. Directed by Masahiro
Shinoda. Screenplay by Taeko Tomioka, Toru Takemitsu, Shinoda, based on a play
by Monzaemon Chikamatsu. With Kichiemon Nakamura, Shima Iwashita, Hosei
Komatsu. Courtesy Janus Films. In Japanese; English subtitles. 104 min. (See
Saturday, January 5, 6:45)
7:15 Mujo (This Transient Life). 1970. Japan. Directed by Akio Jissoji. Screenplay by
Toshiro Ishido. With Kotobuki Hananomoto, Akiji Kobayashi, Eiji Okada. Jissoji’s
feature debut was one of the Art Theater Guild’s biggest international hits, a
sensuous and daring exploration of Buddhist spirituality and eroticism that also
touched on the taboo of incest. The film’s controversial content, combined with the
breathtaking, nearly gravity-defying camerawork, captivated audiences worldwide.
In Japanese; English subtitles. 146 min.

Sunday, January 20
2:30 Gishiki (Ceremony). 1971. Japan. Directed by Nagisa Oshima. Screenplay by
Mamoru Sasaki, Tsutomu Tamura, Oshima. Print lent by The Japan Foundation;
courtesy Janus Films. In Japanese; English subtitles. 123 min. (See Wednesday,
January 16, 7:00)

Monday, January 21
6:15 Ninja Bugeicho (Band of Ninja/Manual of Ninja Martial Arts) [longer
Japanese theatrical version]. 1967. Japan. Directed by Nagisa Oshima.
Screenplay by Mamoru Sasaki, Oshima, based on the manga by Sanpei Shirato.
Voices of Shoichi Ozawa, Kei Yamamoto, Akiko Koyama. MoMA presents the longer
Japanese theatrical version of one of Oshima’s rarest and most groundbreaking
films. When budgetary constraints prevented him from making a live-action
version of Band of Ninja, an epic, 17-volume manga about the son of a defeated
warlord who joins a peasant rebellion to avenge his father’s death, Oshima
ingeniously used camera movements and voiceover dialogue to bring Shirato’s
original drawings to life. Courtesy Oshima Productions. In Japanese; English
subtitles. 117 min.

Wednesday, January 23
4:00 Ningen (Human). 1962. Japan. Directed by Kaneto Shindo. Screenplay by
Shindo, based on a novel by Yaeko Nogami. With Taiji Tonoyama, Nobuko Otowa,
Kei Sato. Four tempest-tossed fisherman, adrift and delirious with hunger, turn on
each other in their fight for survival. A pioneer of independent film since the early
1950s, Kaneto Shindo exploited the Art Theater Guild’s characteristically low
budget and skeletal crew to his advantage, deftly conjuring the desperate intensity
of a claustrophobic ship setting. Print lent by the National Film Center of The
National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; courtesy Kindai Eiga Kyokai. In Japanese;
English subtitles. 117 min.

13Thursday, January 24
4:30 Nagisa Oshima and Akio Jissoji
Yunbogi no Nikki (Yunbogi’s Diary/Diary of Yunbogi). 1965. Japan. Directed
by Nagisa Oshima. This ethereal montage of still images with darkly somber
undertones, Yunbogi’s Diary is based on photographs that Oshima took during his
two-month research trip to South Korea in 1965, during which he was haunted by
his encounters with impoverished street children in Seoul. The voiceover
comprises diary entries from a six-year-old Korean boy, and Oshima’s own
reflections on Japanese-Korean relations, a controversial subject that he revisited
in his later films Sing a Song of Sex and Death by Hanging (shown in December).
Print lent by The Japan Foundation; courtesy Oshima Productions. In Japanese;
English subtitles. 24 min.
Yoiyami Semareba (When Twilight Draws Near/Twilight Falls). 1968.
Japan. Directed by Akio Jissoji. Bored by the emptiness of everyday life, four
students gather to play dangerous games in an apartment. Oshima was
approached by noted television director Jissoji to adapt his script on reckless
youth, and Jissoji delivered with dramatically experimental filmmaking conceits
that influenced such later films as This Transient Life (1970) (also in this
retrospective) and Mandala (1971). Twilight had a successful theatrical run on a
bill with Oshima’s Diary of a Shinjuku Thief (1969). Print lent by the National Film
Center of The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; courtesy Kodai. In
Japanese; English subtitles. 44 min.
6:45 Ninja Bugeicho (Band of Ninja/Manual of Ninja Martial Arts) [longer
Japanese theatrical version]. 1967. Japan. Directed by Nagisa Oshima.
Screenplay by Mamoru Sasaki, Oshima, based on the manga by Sanpei Shirato.
Voices of Shoichi Ozawa, Kei Yamamoto, Akiko Koyama. Courtesy Oshima
Productions. In Japanese; English subtitles. 117 min. (See Monday, January 21,
6:15)

Friday, January 25
4:30 Nagisa Oshima and Akio Jissoji
Yunbogi no Nikki (Yunbogi’s Diary/Diary of Yunbogi). 1965. Japan. Directed
by Nagisa Oshima. Print lent by The Japan Foundation; courtesy Oshima
Productions. In Japanese; English subtitles. 24 min.
Yoiyami Semareba (When Twilight Draws Near/Twilight Falls). 1968.
Japan. Directed by Akio Jissoji. Print lent by the National Film Center of The
National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; courtesy Kodai. In Japanese; English
subtitles. 44 min. (See Thursday, January 24, 4:30)
7:00 Mujo (This Transient Life). 1970. Japan. Directed by Akio Jissoji. Screenplay by
Toshiro Ishido. In Japanese; English subtitles. 146 min. (See Saturday, January
19, 7:15)

Saturday, January 26
2:00 Ningen (Human). 1962. Japan. Directed by Kaneto Shindo. Screenplay by
Shindo, based on a novel by Yaeko Nogami. With Taiji Tonoyama, Nobuko Otowa,
Kei Sato. Print lent by the National Film Center of The National Museum of Modern
Art, Tokyo; courtesy Kindai Eiga Kyokai. In Japanese; English subtitles. 117 min.
(Wednesday, January 23, 4:00)
145:00 Den’en ni Shisu (Pastoral: Hide and Seek). 1974. Japan. Written and directed
by Shuji Terayama. With Kantaro Suga, Hiroyuki Takano, Yoshio Harada. A
virtuoso in a great many artistic disciplines, counterculture icon Terayama drew
upon his poetry collection, also titled Pastoral, for this clever and humorous
exploration of memory and memoir. His alter ego is a filmmaker who is suddenly
confronted with his childhood self. Print lent by The Japan Foundation; courtesy
Toho Distribution. In Japanese; English subtitles. 102 min.
7:30 Sho o Suteyo, Machi e Deyo (Throw Away Your Books Get Out onto the
Streets/Throw Away Your Books, Let’s Go Into the Street). 1971. Japan.
Written and directed by Shuji Terayama. With Eimei Sasaki, Masahiro Saito,
Yukiko Kobayashi. Terayama’s Art Theater Guild debut is a breathtaking collage of
words transformed into street actions and art happenings—a devilishly disjointed
urban narrative loosely held together by a coming-of-age drama. Print lent by the
National Film Center of The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; courtesy Toho
Distribution. In Japanese; English subtitles. 119 min.

Sunday, January 27
2:30 Sho o Suteyo, Machi e Deyo (Throw Away Your Books Get Out onto the
Streets/Throw Away Your Books, Let’s Go Into the Street). 1971. Japan.
Written and directed by Shuji Terayama. With Eimei Sasaki, Masahiro Saito,
Yukiko Kobayashi. Print lent by the National Film Center of The National Museum
of Modern Art, Tokyo; courtesy Toho Distribution. In Japanese; English subtitles.
119 min. (Saturday, January 26, 7:30)
5:15 Ningen Johatsu (A Man Vanishes). 1967. Japan. Directed by Shohei Imamura.
With Yoshie Hayakawa, Shigeru Tsuyuguchi, Imamura. In this genre-shattering
investigative (and investigation of) documentary, Imamura and his crew follow
one of Japan’s thousands of missing-persons cases. They find their journalistic
integrity suddenly called into question when the missing man’s fiancée begins to
fall in love with the filmmaker. “In a coup de cinéma that has been equaled only
by Abbas Kiarostami’s Close-Up, Imamura transforms fact into artifice, being into
acting, personal identity into tenuous fabrication” (James Quandt, Cinematheque
Ontario). Print lent by The Japan Foundation; courtesy Icarus Films. In Japanese;
English subtitles. 130 min.

Monday, January 28
4:30 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 10: Donald Richie and Shuji
Terayama
Senso Gokko (War Games). 1962. Japan. Directed by Donald Richie. 22 min.
Cybele (Cybele: A Pastoral Ritual in Five Scenes). 1968. Japan. Directed by
Donald Richie. 20 min.
Ori (Cage). 1962. Japan. Directed by Shuji Terayama. Courtesy Henrikku
Morisaki. 11 min.
Tomato Ketchappu Kotei (Emperor Tomato Ketchup). 1971. Japan. Directed
by Shuji Terayama. Courtesy Henrikku Morisaki. 27 min.
Donald Richie, a former MoMA curator and internationally renowned historian and
critic of Japanese culture, was also an avid participant in underground cinema in
Japan. Two of his personal and affecting films are presented in this program: War
Games depicts a sacrificial ritual enacted by children, with the participation of
butoh dancer Tatsumi Hijikata; Cybele is an outrageous naked ceremony
performed by Zero-Jigen. The theme of ritual continues with Terayama’s Cage and
15culminates in the anarchistic revolt of his Emperor Tomato Ketchup, which
scandalized the nation both as a radio play and a film. Program 80 min.

Wednesday, January 30
4:00 Noyuki Yamayuki Umibeyuki (Bound for the Fields, the Mountains, and
the Seacoast). 1986. Japan. Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi. Screenplay by
Haruo Sato, Shinobu Yamada. With Saburo Boya, Sen Hara, Yasufumi Hayashi.
During the fervently nationalist months leading up to World War II, a rebellious
teenager is transferred to a new primary school in a small Inland Sea town. He
vies with the school’s reigning bully, who takes a romantic interest in his older
stepsister. When they learn she’s going to be sold to a brothel to pay off her
father’s debts, they form an uneasy alliance to free her. With surprising moments
of caricature and slapstick, Obayashi celebrates the anarchic world of adolescence
while also satirizing adult hypocrisy and conformism. This is the color version of a
film that was also released in black and white. Print lent by The Japan Foundation;
courtesy Toho Distribution. In Japanese; English subtitles. 135 min.
7:00 Enrai (Distant Thunder). 1981. Japan. Directed by Kichitaro Negishi. Screenplay
by Haruhiko Arai, based on the novel by Wahei Tatematsu. With Toshiyuki
Nagashima, Johnny Okura, Eri Ishida. Distant Thunder charts the urban sprawl
and corrupt materialism of Tokyo in the 1970s, as well as its devastating effect on
farming families in the outlying areas of the city. Negishi’s film, whose protagonist
is a young tomato grower, was made in the characteristically realist style that his
uncle established in the 1930s as the leading producer of the famed Nikkatsu
Tamagawa studios. Print lent by The Japan Foundation; courtesy Toho
Distribution. In Japanese; English subtitles. 135 min.

Thursday, January 31
4:00 Den’en ni Shisu (Pastoral: Hide and Seek). 1974. Japan. Written and directed
by Shuji Terayama. With Kantaro Suga, Hiroyuki Takano, Yoshio Harada. Print lent
by The Japan Foundation; courtesy Toho Distribution. In Japanese; English
subtitles. 102 min. (See Saturday, January 26, 5:00)
6:30 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 10: Donald Richie and Shuji
Terayama
Senso Gokko (War Games). 1962. Japan. Directed by Donald Richie. 22 min.
Cybele (Cybele: A Pastoral Ritual in Five Scenes). 1968. Japan. Directed by
Donald Richie. 20 min.
Ori (Cage). 1962. Japan. Directed by Shuji Terayama. Courtesy Henrikku
Morisaki. 11 min.
Tomato Ketchappu Kotei (Emperor Tomato Ketchup). 1971. Japan. Directed
by Shuji Terayama. Courtesy Henrikku Morisaki. 27 min.
Program 80 min. (See Monday, January 28, 4:30)

Friday, February 1
4:00 Furyo Shonen (Bad Boys). 1961. Japan. Written and directed by Susumu Hani.
With Yukio Yamada, Hirokazu Yoshitake, Koichiro Yamazaki. One of the great
postwar Japanese filmmakers, Hani was a seminal figure of the Art Theater Guild
and presents several of his key works at MoMA. His debut feature, Bad Boys, was
voted best film of the year by prominent critics and launched the Japanese New
Wave. A classic of the genre, it’s a tough, poignant story about teenage
16delinquency that gained its street cred through vérité camerawork, on-location
photography, improvisation, and the use of non-professional actors. Hani’s
reputation as a brilliant and vital new voice in Japanese cinema was cemented by
such films as She and He, The Inferno of First Love, and The Morning Schedule, all
screening in a special weekend with Hani. Print lent by The Japan Foundation;
courtesy Iwanami Audio-Visual Media Ltd. In Japanese; English subtitles. 89 min.
Introduced by Hani.
6:30 Kanojo to Kare (She and He). 1963. Japan. Directed by Susumu Hani.
Screenplay by Kunio Shimizu, Hani. With Sachiko Hidari, Kikuji Yamashita, Eiji
Okada. Although incontestably one of postwar Japanese cinema’s most innovative
and influential filmmakers, Hani today is unjustly neglected. His second feature
film is a finely etched, feminist study of a young modern woman (Hidari) who is
restless in her marriage to a salaryman. The couple live in a shining new
apartment building on a hill overlooking a slum. The wife finds herself strangely
drawn to a rag-picker who lives down below in a tin shack with a blind child and a
dog, and the sheltering comforts of her middle-class existence inexorably fall
away. Print lent by The Japan Foundation; courtesy Iwanami Audio-Visual Media
Ltd. In Japanese; English subtitles. 114 min. Introduced by Hani.

Saturday, February 2
1:30 Noyuki Yamayuki Umibeyuki (Bound for the Fields, the Mountains, and
the Seacoast). 1986. Japan. Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi. Screenplay by
Haruo Sato, Shinobu Yamada. With Saburo Boya, Sen Hara, Yasufumi Hayashi..
Print lent by The Japan Foundation; courtesy Toho Distribution. In Japanese;
English subtitles. 135 min. (See Wednesday, January 30, 4:00)
4:30 Gozenchu no Jikanwari (The Morning Schedule). 1972. Japan. Directed by
Susumu Hani. Screenplay by Hani, Kanji Nakao, Ichiro Araki, Yutaka Hamada.
With Aya Kunikida, Sumei Shau, Takuji Hatano. Continuing his favorite theme of
lost childhood, Hani invented faux home movies—some shot by his own actors—
for this affecting, and somehow jarringly modern, work of nostalgia. Reiko returns
from vacation to inform Shitamura of the suicide of their friend Kusako; together
they watch 8mm holiday films that reveal the melancholic passing of friendships
that once seemed eternal. Courtesy Toho Distribution. In Japanese; English
subtitles. 101 min. Introduced by Hani.
7:00 Hatsukoi Jigokuhen (The Inferno of First Love/Nanami). 1968. Japan.
Directed by Susumu Hani. Screenplay by Shuji Terayama, Hani. With Haruo
Asano, Kuniko Ishii, Misako Miyato. One of the most powerful themes of this ATG
retrospective is that of incest and childhood abuse. The Inferno of First Love is a
particularly haunting example of this, made all the more disturbing for the erotic
atmosphere that pervades it. The film centers on an adolescent boy whose love for
a beautiful young model is corrupted by memories of sexual molestation. It
remains an unforgettable collaboration between two dramatically distinct voices of
independent Japanese cinema and art, Hani and Terayama (the latter also
represented in the MoMA exhibition with Emperor Tomato Ketchup, Cage, and
Throw Away Your Books, Let’s Go Into the Streets). Print lent by The Japan
Foundation; courtesy the filmmaker. In Japanese; English subtitles. 104 min.
Introduced by Hani.

Sunday, February 3
2:00 Kanojo to Kare (She and He). 1963. Japan. Directed by Susumu Hani.
Screenplay by Kunio Shimizu, Hani. With Sachiko Hidari, Kikuji Yamashita, Eiji
Okada. Print lent by The Japan Foundation; courtesy Iwanami Audio-Visual Media
Ltd. In Japanese; English subtitles. 114 min. (See Friday, February 1, 6:30)
5:00 Arakajime Uchinawareta Koibito-tachi yo (Lost Lovers). 1971. Japan.
Directed by Soichiro Tahara, Kunio Shimizu. Screenplay by Shimizu. With Renji
Ishibashi, Kaori Momoi, Tenmei Kano. In their feature debut Lost Lovers,
television documentarian Tahara and avant-garde playwright Shimizu offer an
energetic portrait of Japanese youth after the failed student protests of the 1960s.
While on a trip to northern Japan, a former pole vault champion befriends a young
deaf couple and learns a way of communicating beyond words. Actress Kaori
Momoi makes her impressive debut as a liberated female character that at the
time seemed refreshingly new for Japanese cinema. Print lent by The Japan
Foundation; courtesy Toho Distribution. In Japanese; English subtitles. 122 min.

Monday, February 4
4:30 Hatsukoi Jigokuhen (The Inferno of First Love/Nanami). 1968. Japan.
Directed by Susumu Hani. Screenplay by Shuji Terayama, Hani. With Haruo
Asano, Kuniko Ishii, Misako Miyato. Print lent by The Japan Foundation; courtesy
the filmmaker. In Japanese; English subtitles. 104 min. (See Saturday, February
2, 7:00)

Wednesday, February 6
4:00 Ningyo Densetsu (Mermaid Legend). 1984. Japan. Directed by Toshiharu
Ikeda. Screenplay by Takuya Nishioka. With Mari Shirato, Kentaro Shimizu, Jun
Eto. A cult favorite that deserves to be better known in the United States,
Mermaid Legend was the first feature film of the Director’s Company, established
in 1982 by nine directors, and the first of several co-productions with ATG. In this
wicked and wrathful tale of revenge, a fisherman becomes the unwitting witness
to a murder. He discovers that the victim had been mixed up in a corrupt
businessman’s scheme to construct a nuclear power plant. When the fisherman
himself is then murdered, his wife, a pearl diver, unleashes a torrent of merciless
revenge, quite literally becoming a force of nature. Courtesy Toho Distribution. In
Japanese; English subtitles. 110 min.
7:00 Tattoo Ari (Tattoo). 1982. Japan. Directed by Banmei Takahashi. Screenplay by
Takuya Nishioka. With Ryudo Uzaki, Keiko Takahashi, Misako Watanabe. A heist
drama based on a true story, Tattoo marked Takahashi’s switch from a successful
career making sexploitation films to more mainstream fare. A bank robber’s life
story is told in flashback, tracing his frustrated efforts to find his place in society
and culminating in a last-ditch, violent attempt to prove himself. In Japanese;
English subtitles. 107 min.

Thursday, February 7
4:00 Ningen Johatsu (A Man Vanishes). 1967. Japan. Directed by Shohei Imamura.
With Yoshie Hayakawa, Shigeru Tsuyuguchi, Imamura. Print lent by The Japan
Foundation; courtesy Icarus Films. In Japanese; English subtitles. 130 min. (See
Sunday, January 27, 5:15)
187:00 Furyo Shonen (Bad Boys). 1961. Japan. Written and directed by Susumu Hani.
With Yukio Yamada, Hirokazu Yoshitake, Koichiro Yamazaki. Print lent by The
Japan Foundation; courtesy Iwanami Audio-Visual Media Ltd. In Japanese; English
subtitles. 89 min. (See Friday, February 1, 4:00)

Friday, February 8
4:30 Kazoku Gemu (Family Game). 1983. Japan. Written and directed by Yoshimitsu
Morita. With Juzo Itami, Yusaku Matsuda, Saori Yuki. The illusion of familial
harmony, an undercurrent to so many ATG films, culminates in this wildly
successful and absurdist adaptation of a popular novel by Yohei Honma. Presented
in New Directors/New Films and the winner of 5 prestigious Kinema Junpo
awards—including Best Film, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor for the
brilliant director Juzo Itami’s performance as the patriarch—Family Game was
described by Vincent Canby in The New York Times as “wickedly funny…a stylish
deadpan comedy about Japan’s comparatively affluent, utterly directionless, new
middle class…. [F]rom the opening shots until the last, it's a visual adventure. The
succession of brilliantly colored, often geometric compositions satirize the worst
aspects of what might be called Japan's economic modernism.” Print lent by The
Japan Foundation; courtesy Toho Distribution. In Japanese; English subtitles. 107
min.
7:00 Gozenchu no Jikanwari (The Morning Schedule). 1972. Japan. Directed by
Susumu Hani. Screenplay by Hani, Kanji Nakao, Ichiro Araki, Yutaka Hamada.
With Aya Kunikida, Sumei Shau, Takuji Hatano. Courtesy Toho Distribution. In
Japanese; English subtitles. 101 min. (See Saturday, February 2, 4:30)

Saturday, February 9
1:30 Tattoo Ari (Tattoo). 1982. Japan. Directed by Banmei Takahashi. Screenplay by
Takuya Nishioka. With Ryudo Uzaki, Keiko Takahashi, Misako Watanabe. In
Japanese; English subtitles. 107 min. (See Wednesday, February 6, 7:00)
4:15 Enrai (Distant Thunder). 1981. Japan. Directed by Kichitaro Negishi. Screenplay
by Haruhiko Arai, based on the novel by Wahei Tatematsu. With Toshiyuki
Nagashima, Johnny Okura, Eri Ishida. Print lent by The Japan Foundation;
courtesy Toho Distribution. In Japanese; English subtitles. 135 min. (See
Wednesday, January 30, 7:00)
7:30 Kazoku Gemu (Family Game). 1983. Japan. Written and directed by Yoshimitsu
Morita. With Juzo Itami, Yusaku Matsuda, Saori Yuki. Print lent by The Japan
Foundation; courtesy Toho Distribution. In Japanese; English subtitles. 107 min.
(See Friday, February 8, 4:30)

Sunday, February 10
2:00 Arakajime Uchinawareta Koibito-tachi yo (Lost Lovers). 1971. Japan.
Directed by Soichiro Tahara, Kunio Shimizu. Screenplay by Shimizu. With Renji
Ishibashi, Kaori Momoi, Tenmei Kano. Print lent by The Japan Foundation;
courtesy Toho Distribution. In Japanese; English subtitles. 122 min. (See Sunday,
February 3, 5:00)
5:00 Ningyo Densetsu (Mermaid Legend). 1984. Japan. Directed by Toshiharu
Ikeda. Screenplay by Takuya Nishioka. With Mari Shirato, Kentaro Shimizu, Jun
1920
Eto. Courtesy Toho Distribution. In Japanese; English subtitles. 110 min. (See
Wednesday, February 6, 4:00)
Visit MoMa website here