Category Archives: Non-Baruch Event

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

From Film Forum: The late, great Setsuko Hara in Late Spring.

Film Forum is screening Yasujiiro Ozu’s 1949 family drama Late Spring （晩春）until March 10.

Details | Tickets (Members $8, General $14)
Screening Times:
DAILY (except SUN/MON) 12:30  2:50  5:10  7:30  9:50
SUN 3:00  5:20  7:30  9:45
MON 12:30  2:40  4:50  8:45
Location:
Film Forum
209 West Houston St. west of 6th Ave.

From Asia Society:
“Kamakura: Realism and Spirituality in the Sculpture of Japan examines the interplay of realism and the sacred in more than thirty Buddhist masterpieces from the Kamakura period (1185–1333). ”

Asia Society will also be holding a keynote address and an exhibition viewing, along with a one-day interdisciplinary symposium (Empowering Objects: Kamakura-period Buddhist Art in Ritual Contexts) at Columbia University:

“Held in conjunction with the exhibition… this major multidisciplinary symposium brings together scholars and experts in art history, religious studies, musicology, and Japanese history to examine the multifaceted artistic traditions and spiritual practices that flourished during the Kamakura period.”

Details: Exhibition , Keynote, Symposium
Tickets/Registration:
Exhibition– $12.00; $10.00 for seniors and $7.00 for students with ID;
free for members and persons under 16 and on Fridays 6 PM – 9 PM.
Keynote–Registration Required
Symposium– RSVP required
Exhibition Period: February 9 – May 8
Keynote Date &  Time: Friday, February 26, 6:30 PM
Symposium Date & Time: Saturday 27 February, 9 AM – 6 PM, Schedule
Exhibition & Keynote Location: Asia Society, 725 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10021
Symposium Location: Julius S. Held Lecture Hall, 304 Barnard Hall, 3rd Fl., 3009 Broadway (W117th St.)

The Queens College Japanese Studies Department is hosting a lecture by a Nagasaki’s Hibakusha.

THE LESSONS OF NAGASAKI: THE ATO BOMB FROM 1945 TO THE PRESENT

The 90 minute program will include an introduction to the destructive power of nuclear weapons, an update on nuclear weapons today and the renewed international movement for a global ban on humanitarian grounds. Also eye witness testimony from a survivor of the atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945.

Time: Tuesday, December 15, 2015 10AM – 11:30AM

Location: President’s Conference Room #2, Rosenthal Library
Queens College, 65-30 Kissena Blvd. Flushing, NY 11367

Japanese vocalist Mika Shinno will be performing enka at Smalls Jazz Club in November. An enka ballad is a kind of Japanese popular song, a short narrative ballad which usually deals with sad love, old-type duty (giri) or sentiment (ninjo) and is sung in a tone peculiar to enka. Above is an introductory TV coverage on her live event last year in New York.

Time:
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
7:30 – 9 PM
Location:
Smalls Jazz Club
183 West 10th Street, Basement
New York City, NY 10014

In celebration of its 40th anniversary, Ronin Gallery (known to have the largest private collection of Japanese prints in the U.S.) is hosting a special exhibition “exploring the development of Japanese woodblock prints from the dawn of ukiyo-e to today’s innovators”.

Details
Dates: 9/15 – 10/17
Gallery Hours:
Monday – Friday: 11am – 6pm
Saturday: 11am – 4pm
Sunday: By appointment
Location:
Ronin Gallery
425 Madison Avenue, 3rd Floor
SE Corner of 49th St.
New York, NY 10017

儀式 (GISHIKI) / Nagisa Ōshima, 1971

From Anthology Film Archives:

Widely acclaimed as Nagisa Oshima’s most ambitious film, THE CEREMONY takes as its subject the entire history of postwar Japan, as embodied by the fortunes of the powerful Sakurada family from 1946 to the present. Through the eyes of the family’s Manchurian-born heir apparent, we move through a dense, flashback-punctuated procession of weddings and funerals that escalates into a vertiginous indictment of the madness of contemporary Japan.

Time:
Friday, September 25, 6:45PM
Saturday, September 26, 9:00 PM
Sunday, September 27, 4:00 PM
Tickets (available on day of screening):
$10 General Admission/ $8 Student
Location:
Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Avenue (at 2nd St.)
New York, NY 10003

Japan Block Fair 2015

With a wide range of Japanese food, arts, crafts, services, and performance, there is plenty to do and see for everyone! Bring your family and friends and explore this extraordinary cultural event all day long. We are sure you will have a GREAT time with a lot of fun and excitement at the Japan Block Fair!

Date:September 12th (Sat) 2015
Time:10:00am-6:00pm
Location:on 6th Avenue btw Houston street & Bleeker street
Admission:Free

カルメン故郷に帰る (Karumen Kokyo ni Kaeru)

Japan Society’s first Monthly Classics screening of the season kicks off with a restoration of Japan’s first color film. In this breezy musical comedy, exotic dancer Lily Carmen (an irresistible Hideko Takamine) returns to her quiet countryside home from the big city in grand fashion, immediately causing a stir as she frolics and sings among the town’s green fields in colorful, revealing outfits with her equally carefree sidekick Maya (Toshiko Kobayashi). Both a subtle satire on the influence of postwar American culture and a piece of lighthearted female-centric escapism, Carmen Comes Home endures as one of director Keisuke Kinoshita’s most beloved films. Screening in recognition of Shochiku’s 120th anniversary.

1951, 86 min., DCP, color, in Japanese with English subtitles. Directed by Keisuke Kinoshita. With Hideko Takamine, Shuji Sano, Chishu Ryu, Kuniko Igawa, Takeshi Sakamoto, Toshiko Kobayashi.

Time:Friday, September 4, 7 PM
Location:
Japan Society
333 East 47th Street
New York, NY 10017
Tickets: $12/$9 seniors & students/$5 Japan Society members