Arts & Entertainment

Japan Cuts Rolls on with "Rail Truck;" Tickets to Remaining Screenings Going Fast

We’re one week into the Japan Society’s film festival, Japan Cuts 2011: The New York Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema, and it rolls along tonight with the US premiere of Rail Truck, a tale of family and society.

Kento Harada, Bryant Chang, Kyoichi Omae - Rail Truck © 2010 Torocco LLP

Rail Truck is based on a short story by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, but this version is set in Taiwan rather than on Japan’s Izu Peninsula. It follows the story of Atsushi, who, being part Japanese and part Taiwanese, struggles with being considered “different” in Japanese society. After the death of his father, his mother, Yumiko, moves the family to her in-laws’ rural Taiwanese village. There, the rebellious Atsushi takes his first steps toward becoming an adult, and his family learns to overcome the turmoil that threatened its collapse.

 

Arielle Moutel, Noe Sampy - Yuki and Nina © 2009 Comme des Cinémas, Les Films du Lendemain, arte France Cinéma, Bitters End

Following Rail Truck is another family drama, Yuki and Nina. Nine-year-old Yuki, the daughter of a French man and a Japanese woman, learns that her parents are separating and that she must leave Paris – and her best friend, Nina – and move to Japan with her mother. The two friends plot ways to reconcile Yuki’s parents and to prevent the move.

 

Samuel Jamier, Japan Society’s chief film programmer and curator of Japan Cuts, announced at last night’s screenings that tickets for the remaining films are selling out fast.

Tickets for each screening are $12/$9 Japan Society members, students, and seniors; and $16/$12 for the July 15 screening and after party (Into the White Night‘s screening/closing party is regular price). Tickets can be purchased in person at the Japan Society at 333 East 47th Street, through the box office at 212.715.1258, or online at www.japansociety.org. Those purchasing more than five tickets for at least five different films receive $2 off each ticket, but you must call the box office or make your purchase in person.

 

 

Japan Cuts 2011 remaining schedule:

Thursday, July 14

  • 6:30 – Rail Truck
  • 9:00 – Yuki and Nina

 

Friday, July 15

  • 6:15 – Toilet
  • 8:30 – Three☆Points with Q&A and After Party

 

Saturday, July 16

  • 2:30 – Love Addiction
  • 4:30 – The Seaside Motel with Q&A
  • 7:15 – A Liar and a Broken Girl with Q&A
  • 10:30 – Love and Treachery

 

Sunday, July 17

  • 2:30 – The Knot
  • 4:00 – Torso
  • 6:15 – Strangers in the City
  • 9:00 – A Night in Nude: Salvation

 

Tuesday, July 19

  • 6:30 – Sketches of Kaitan City
  • 9:30 – Control Tower

 

Wednesday, July 20

  • 7:00 – Haru’s Journey with Q&A and reception

 

Thursday, July 21

  • 7:00 – Vengeance Can Wait
  • 9:00 – Wandering Home

 

Friday, July 22

7:00 – Into the White Night with Closing Party (Location TBA)

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