July is here, and that means hot dogs, fireworks, and a horde of Japanese films served up by New York’s Japan Society for their annual JAPAN CUTS contemporary Japanese cinema festival. Launched at the tail end of the New York Asian Film Festival, Japan Society and NYAFF have teamed to co-present a whopping 24 films from July 1-16.
"JAPAN CUTS presents the roughest, sharpest, and smoothest of today’s cutting-edge Japanese film scene," notes Japan Society's chief film curator Samuel Jamier. "This year the lineup includes psycho dramas, thrillers, period pieces, bizarre comedies, refined melodramas, artistically adventurous indies, J-horror, and even anime. But when the lineup came together, I realized a number of these great films were made by female directors or featured a large number of prominent women's roles and powerful performances by women--a reflection of industry trends in the last ten years, and the impact women have been making in Japan's film industry. Overall, I like to think this year's festival is exemplary of where Japanese cinema is today."
All films--most of them New York premieres--are primarily shown in Japanese with English subtitles, some with actor/director intros and Q&As and after-parties. This week’s films are:
Thursday, July 1st
Sawako Decides, 6:45 p.m.
Sawako has been in Tokyo for five years and is on her fifth temp job and her fifth boyfriend. When her dad becomes ill, she returns to her hometown and takes over his freshwater clam packing business. Director Yuya Ishii is the wunderkind of Japanese indie cinema, but in Sawako Decides he abandons art house conceits and makes a powerfully straightforward movie about the real lives of real people. The film is an entrancing, deadpan ode to people who make the most of being pulled in unexpected directions.
Confessions, 9 p.m. (SOLD OUT!) -- Followed by the Festival Launch Party
Four years after the international success of his Memories of Matsuko, director Tetsuya Nakashima returns with a darkly gleaming, award-winning masterpiece. Actress Takako Matsu gives a powerhouse performance as a middle school teacher whose four-year-old daughter is murdered. When questionable evidence convinces her that two of her students are the killers, she engages in psychological warfare with her entire class in a highly unhealthy attempt to make them confess.
Friday, July 2
Golden Slumber, 6:15 p.m.
Befuddled everyman Aoyagi (Masato Sakai) finds himself inexplicably framed for the assassination of Japan's prime minister. Soon the modest delivery guy is sprinting from one government kill squad to the next, as the plot breathlessly spins out of control and weaves together the mother of all conspiracy theories. Aoyagi's buddies and exes from past and present come together to rescue their endangered friend, but will they be too late? One of the most acclaimed Japanese actors of his generation, Sakai gives an intensely edgy performance as the hunted every-man hero. (Director Yoshihiro Nakamura's Fish Story was the sleeper hit of JAPAN CUTS 2009.)
Blood of Rebirth, 9 p.m. -- with director Toshiaki Toyoda
A gonzo head trip in the spirit of the films of Alejandro Jodorowsky, Blood of Rebirth does for samurai what El Topo did for cowboys. Set in the hazy past and based on a famous folktale, a masseur is murdered and comes back from the dead for revenge. Toshiaki Toyoda's intense visuals gouge at the eyes while the throbbing soundscape of space rockers Twin Tail dig into the ears. Marking Toyoda's return to filmmaking after a five-year absence, the film is a psychedelic tribute to the human ability to shatter all prisons and endlessly be reborn.
Saturday, July 3
Dear Doctor, 1 p.m.
Winner of 21 major Japanese film awards and counting, Miwa Nishikawa's Dear Doctor begins as a deceptively simple tale idolizing the slow and simple life of the tiny village, where a young intern (Eita) comes to train under the watchful eye of the kindly old local doctor (Tsurube Shofukutei). But the doctor isn't what he seems, and decades of deception unravel in a hall of mirrors echoing reality, illusion, lies and liars.
Blood of Rebirth (encore screening), 3:45 p.m. - with director Toshiaki Toyoda
Alien vs. Ninja, 6 p.m. -- with actor Masanori Mimoto
In medieval Japan, no one can hear you scream. And no one can prepare for the arrival of a giant rubber alien that wants to party space invader style--tearing off heads, ripping out intestines, and impregnating the species with its hideous jelloid babies. The sick extraterrestrial freak seems unbeatable… but is it ninja-proof? An off-the-wall, low-budget/high-action sci-fi blast, Beyond Hollywood calls the film "McTiernan's Predator meets Kitamura's Versus."
Mutant Girls Squad, 8:30 p.m. -- with directors Yoshihiro Nishimura and Noboru Iguchi and followed by The SUSHI TYPHOON! party
In 2009, Tak Sakaguchi (Versus), Yoshihiro Nishimura (Tokyo Gore Police) and Noboru Iguchi (UI), came to the New York Asian Film Festival, got drunk and decided to make a movie together. The result: this splatter-ific, kick-tastic, raunchy riff on the X-Men movies. It takes three directors to make a movie this insane.
Sunday, July 4
Boys on the Run, 12 p.m.
Based on the manga by Kengo Hanazawa, Boys on the Run follows Tanishi, a porn-addicted 29-year-old virgin and serial masturbator who slaves away at a dead end job. After screwing up an almost-relationship with a real woman--who winds up leaving him for his hunkier colleague--Tanishi decides to fight as much as he possibly can. But nothing works to get the girl, everything's sleazy and sticky, and no one's going home happy in this punkish, arrhythmic and riotous comedy.
Confessions (encore screening SOLD OUT!), 2 p.m.
Dear Doctor (encore screening), 4:15 p.m.
Tickets: General admission is $12 for the public, $8 Japan Society members. Special event screening is $16/$12 for the July 3 Mutant Girls Squad with SUSHI TYPHOON! party. For tickets, call the box office at (212)715-1258 or visit www.japansociety.org.
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