Author Archives: iwang

Akira Kurosawa

The Metrograph will be presenting a selection of Akira Kurosawa’s films through September 8th. Screenings include Ikuru, Red Beard, The Bad Sleep Well, and Hidden Fortress.
Details and Tickets
Location: Metrograph
No.7 Ludlow Street
New York NY 10002

Happy Hour. 2015. Directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi.

The Museum of Modern Art will present Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s film Happy Hour, a “wise, precisely observed, compulsively watchable drama of friendship and midlife awakening,” through August 30th.

Times and Details
Location: MoMA,
11 West 53rd Street, New York, NY 10019

Kuroneko, directed by Kaneto Shindo

Seven Samurai, directed by Akira Kurosawa

On Friday, July 29, the Metrograph will bring Kuroneko (1968), a feline ghost story and a tale of revenge, to the screen.

On Sunday, July 31, Metrograph will present Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (1954), introduced by Helen DeWitt, whose novel The Last Samurai details “the story of a precocious eleven year old who sets out on a quest, inspired by countless viewings of the Kurosawa epic, to find his lost father.”

• Metrograph: No.7 Ludlow Street, New York NY 10002
• Please click images for details, showtimes, and tickets for the films.

Still in the Water, 2014, directed by Naomi Kawase.

The Museum of Modern Art will showcase the works of one of the “most renowned contemporary Japanese filmmakers”, Naomi Kawase. The program will begin with a master class, featuring a discussion with the director herself on June 26. The series runs through July 14.

Details
Dates: 6/26 – 7/14
Location: Museum of Modern Art,
11 West 53 Street
New York, NY 10019

the Japan Cuts film festival celebrates its 10th anniversary with “eleven days of impossible-to-see-anywhere-else screenings of the best new movies made in and around Japan with special guest filmmakers and stars, post-screening Q&As, parties, giveaways and much more.” It has an “expansive and eclectic slate of cinematic offerings that includes crowd-pleasing blockbusters, peerless independents, arthouse gems, influential classics, radical documentaries and avant-garde animations.”
Tickets go on sale for the public on Monday, June 13.
Details & Schedule
Special Guests
Time: July 14- 24, 2016
Location: Japan Society
333 East 47th Street
New York, NY 10017

Starting April 21th, Hosh Yoga in Brooklyn will be offering Japanese Yoga classes on Thursdays. It wishes to support Japanese residents who want to start yoga (but may not fully understand English) and students of Japanese who would like to practice the language.

Website: Details
Time: Thursdays (beginning 4/21), 3-4 PM
Location: 55 Nassau Ave, Brooklyn NY, 11221
Fee: Drop-ins $10

From acclaimed director Naomi Kawase (The Mourning Forest, Still in the Water), the 2015 film Sweet Bean (あん) is a poignant and exquisite intergenerational drama about three characters finding connections in the most unexpected ways. It begins with a introverted loner Sentaro (Matoshi Nagase) who runs a “dorayaki” shop (pancakes filled with sweet bean paste) in the suburbs of Tokyo. A 76 year old Tokue (Kirin Kiki) persistently asks Sentaro to work in his shop and eventually he accepts. The acceptance is the start of change for Sentaro, Tokue and Wakana (a regular at the shop) as they begin to open their hearts to reveal old wounds and painful secrets.

Dates : Until March 24th

Showtimes & Tickets

Location: Lincoln Plaza Cinema
1886 Broadway between 62nd and 63rd Streets, New York, NY 10023

From Japan Society:

JAPAN SINGS! THE JAPANESE MUSICAL FILM
April 8–23, 2016

This spring, Japan Society celebrates the astonishing yet little-known world of Japanese musical films. The series focuses on the golden age of the “popular song film” starring teen idols and TV stars from the 50s and 60s. It also reaches back to prewar singing samurai and forward to twenty-first century genre mashups – 10 songful cinema gems all on 35mm! Musical performance in these films incorporates Japanese musical tradition as well as the utopian space of the Hollywood musical to create a rich commentary on the intimate and unequal relation between Japan and the USA. This series is guest curated by Michael Raine, Assistant Professor of Film Studies at Western University, Canada.

Details & Tickets ($12/$9 members,seniors, students)
Location: Japan Society
333 East 47th Street
New York, NY 10017