Japan Society Celebrates Actress Meiko Kaji
Meiko Kaji: A Retrospective
Friday, March 27 through Saturday, April 4
Japan Society – 333 E. 47th Street (between 1st and 2nd Avenues)
Japan Society welcomes Japanese actress and singer Meiko Kaji for her first public New York appearance in more than 40 years. Best known in the West as the mythic katana-wielding Lady Snowblood of the eponymous 1973 Toho picture—a violent cult work steeped in fountains of spurting blood—Meiko Kaji remains inseparable from the image of a rebellious outlaw heroine, a cataclysmic force of seventies Japanese cinema whose characteristic steely-eyed gaze cemented her as something akin to Clint Eastwood’s Man with No Name.
About Meiko Kaji
Meiko Kaji, who turned 79 on March 24, was born Masako Ōta in Tokyo. Recruited at the twilight of Japan’s studio era, Kaji emerged in 1965 as a contract player for Nikkatsu, Japan’s oldest film studio. Outspoken and tenacious, she resisted the prescribed mold of modest, reserved female roles, often to the frustration of executives who soon relegated her to supporting parts. Even as an eighteen-year-old newcomer, her unyielding nature revealed a resolute spirit well-suited for outsider roles, and Kaji soon embodied an anti-establishment image of outlaws, bikers and delinquents.
As the industry shifted into violent and sexually charged genre productions to counter waning attendance, Kaji avoided typecasting—even with the success of her vengeful angels—seeking instead to further her craft and artistry, opting for variety over stardom. Moving from ninkyo eiga (chivalry films) and pinky violence to yakuza pictures, arthouse productions, and television, Kaji—whose piercing gaze came to define an era of Japanese cinema—transcended the confines of genre cinema; her depth and versatility extend far beyond the cult mythos that surrounds her.
Japan Society’s Retrospective
Running from Friday, March 27 through Saturday, April 4, Meiko Kaji: A Retrospective features ten films that epitomize her bad-girl image. Three of the ten are already sold out: Lady Snowblood, Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41, and The Love Suicides at Sonezaki. So make sure you purchase tickets for the remaining films by visiting Japan Society’s website or calling the Box Office at 212-715-1258.
Full Lineup
Lady Snowblood ©1973 Toho Company, Ltd
Lady Snowblood
This screening is SOLD OUT
Friday, March 27 at 7:00 p.m.
Admission: $22 Nonmembers | $20 Seniors & Students | $18 Members
Dir. Toshiya Fujita | 1973 | 96 min.
Q&A with Meiko Kaji followed by Opening Night Reception
The representative work of Kaji’s career in action cinema, produced by Toho during a hiatus from Toei, Lady Snowblood adapts Kazuo Kamimura’s manga into a stylish, blood-soaked treatise on retribution.
Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion ©1973 Toei Company, Ltd
Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion
Saturday, March 28 at 3:00 p.m.
Admission: $16 Nonmembers | $14 Seniors & Students | $12 Members
Dir. Shunya Ito | 1972 | 87 min.
Confined within a women’s prison populated by sadistic, leering guards and volatile inmates, Kaji’s character Nami radiates a simmering, unspoken rage in what would become her defining role at Toei.
Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 ©1972 Toei Compay, Ltd
Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41
This screening is SOLD OUT
Saturday, March 28 at 5:00 p.m.
Admission: $18 Nonmembers | $16 Seniors & Students | $14 Members
Dir. Shunya Ito | 1972 |90 min.
Archival 35mm Presentation; Q&A with Meiko Kaji
After a year in solitary confinement in a vicious women’s prison, Nami has taken on a mythic stature as “Sasori” (Scorpion) in Shunya Ito’s feverish, avant-garde-tinged sequel. Banding together an uncouth group of inmates, Nami escapes with sadistic guards in hot pursuit.
Yakuza Graveyard ©1976 Toei Company, Ltd
Yakuza Graveyard
Saturday, March 28 at 7:30 p.m.
Admission: $18 Nonmembers | $16 Seniors & Students | $14 Members
Dir. Kinji Fukasaku | 1976 | 92 min.
Introduction by Meiko Kaji
Kinji Fukasaku’s propulsive crime film paints postwar Japan as rotten to its core, with hardheaded detective Kuroiwa taking to Osaka’s streets as he forms an unlikely alliance with Kaji’s yakuza mistress—sparking a gang war as corruption bleeds all the way up the chain of command.
Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter ©1970 Nikkatsu
Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter
Sunday, March 29 at 4:00 p.m.
Admission: $16 Nonmembers | $14 Seniors & Students | $12 Members
Dir. Yasuharu Hasebe | 1970 | 93 min.
35mm Presentation
Kaji’s breakthrough Stray Cat Rock series finds its darkest point in this third entry when Kaji’s delinquent gang faces off with her boyfriend Baron’s violent campaign against mixed-race locals near Yokosuka’s American military base.
The Love Suicides at Sonezaki ©Art Theatre Guild
The Love Suicides at Sonezaki
This screening is SOLD OUT
Sunday, March 29 at 6:30 p.m.
Admission: $18 Nonmembers | $16 Seniors & Students | $14 Members
Dir. Yasuzo Masumura | 1978 | 112 min.
35mm Import. Q&A with Meiko Kaji
Yasuzo Masumura’s devastating ATG adaptation of the Chikamatsu bunraku drama remains Kaji’s personal favorite of her works, a theatrical and unadorned tragedy steadily advancing to a violent, funereal act of passion.
Wandering Ginza Butterfly ©1972 Toei Company, Ltd
Wandering Ginza Butterfly
Friday, April 3 at 7:00 p.m.
Admission: $16 Nonmembers | $14 Seniors & Students | $12 Members
Dir. Kazuhiko Yamaguchi | 1972 | 86 min.
World Premiere of 2K Restoration
Kaji’s first Toei appearance following her Nikkatsu exit, Wandering Ginza Butterfly substitutes a period setting for the neon-lit clubs of ’70s Ginza—a hybrid commercial outing: part ninkyo eiga (chivalry films), part The Hustler.
Blind Woman’s Curse ©1970 Nikkatsu Corporation
Blind Woman’s Curse
Friday, April 3 at 9:15 p.m.
Admission: $16 Nonmembers | $14 Seniors & Students | $12 Members
Dir. Teruo Ishii |1970 | 84 min.
Teruo Ishii’s phantasmagoric work of erotic grotesque may be the best female swordplay-cum-ghost cat horror film Japan ever produced. The film is also noted for being Kaji’s first starring role under her stage name.
New Battles Without Honor and Humanity: The Boss’s Head ©1975 Toei Company, Ltd
New Battles Without Honor and Humanity: The Boss’s Head
Saturday, April 4 at 6:00 p.m.
Admission: $16 Nonmembers | $14 Seniors & Students | $12 Members
Dir. Kinji Fukasaku | 1975 | 94 min.
The middle film of Fukasaku’s Battles Without Honor and Humanity follow-up series, The Boss’s Head costars Kaji as the wife of a heroin-addicted hitman who befriends, then betrays, series star Bunta Sugawara.
Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable ©1973 Toei Company, Ltd
Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable
Saturday, April 4 at 8:30 p.m.
Admission: $16 Nonmembers | $14 Seniors & Students | $12 Members
Dir. Shunya Ito | 1973 | 87 min.
The third film in the Sasori series—and the last directed by Shunya Ito—is a horror-tinged entry, which finds Nami caught in the wrath of a vengeful yakuza gang, arguably the most violent offering of the series.
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