Japan Society screens more than 30 contemporary Japanese films in 12 days starting July 8, celebrating the 19th year of JAPAN CUTS: Festival of New Japanese Film

JAPAN CUTS: Festival of New Japanese Film 2026 Powered by Canon

Wednesday, July 8 through Sunday, July 19, 2026

Japan Society – 333 E. 47th Street (between 1st and 2nd Avenues)

Admission Information & Pricing

Centerpiece: $35 Nonmembers | $32 Students & Seniors | $28 Members
Screenings with Receptions: $26 Nonmembers | $23 Students & Seniors | $20 Members
Screenings with Intros: $24 Nonmembers | $22 Students & Seniors | $19 Members
All Other Feature Screenings: $20 Nonmembers | $18 Students & Seniors | $16 Members
Screenings Under 60 Minutes: $16 Nonmembers | $14 Students & Seniors | $12 Members
New Directions in Japanese Cinema: Free with RSVP
Festival Pass: $350 Member Exclusive
All-Access Pass: $1,000 Nonmembers | $800 Members

North America’s largest festival of contemporary Japanese film returns to Japan Society on July 8 for its 19th year. JAPAN CUTS Powered by Canon is a summer extravaganza of more than 30 curated films from across Japan featuring major award winners, indie darlings, up-and-coming filmmakers, restorations, documentaries, short films, anime, and more. A showcase of the latest in Japanese cinema, Japan Society is the place to see both today’s most popular actors and directors as well as tomorrow’s pioneering talent.

JAPAN CUTS will present lauded actress Suzu Hirose with theCUT ABOVE Award for Outstanding Achievement in Film and host the New York Premiere of A Pale View of Hills starring Hirose as the Centerpiece Film, and the festival will conclude with legendary director Hirokazu Koreeda, who will appear in person for the North American Premiere of Sheep in the Box, the Closing Film.

The main category of JAPAN CUTS showcases a broad selection of contemporary Japanese cinema across vibrant genres and styles. From deep dramas and tender, coming-of-age tales to action, avant-garde, and anime, the Feature Slate is a window to the past year of Japan’s cinematic storytelling.

For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit Japan Society’s website.

Sold-Out Screenings

There is no online or email waitlist for sold-out screenings. Those wishing to attend sold-out screenings can visit the Japan Society Box Office in person at 333 East 47th Street. A physical waitlist will begin 30 minutes before each sold-out event. Ten minutes prior to the screening, any unused tickets will be made available and can be purchased by those present in the order in which they arrived. Please note: There is no guarantee that tickets will be available for sold-out events.

Schedule

Wednesday, July 8

Tokyo Taxi

Followed by Opening Night Reception

Wednesday, July 8 at 6:00 p.m. SOLD OUT

A remake of the French drama Driving Madeleine, Tokyo Taxi marks veteran Tora-san director and Shochiku stalwart Yoji Yamada’s 91st feature, reuniting him with long-standingcollaborator Chieko Baisho, who has worked with him since her film debut in 1963.

After a nightshift, cab driver Koji (Takuya Kimura) is called in to cover for a long-distance booking. Arriving at Shibamata (a familiar site for Tora-san fans), Koji picks up Baisho’s feisty and elegant Sumire, an elderly woman bound for Yokohama on one last trip. Sumire asks for a detour through parts of Tokyo, a farewell tour that illustrates Sumire’s life story, inseparable from the changing city itself.

With all the hallmarks of Yamada’s life-affirming, sentimental cinema, Tokyo Taxi is remarkably faithful to the successful formula of the filmmaker’s half-century-plus career—a potent swansong for the (yet unretired) filmmaker and his longtime muse.

Reception music by NYC-based Japanese band Twisty BonBon and presented by The Globus Family. Reception food and drink provided by Lady M, Sapporo, and ITO EN.

Thursday, July 9

Leave the Cat Alone

Thursday, July 9 at 6:00 p.m.

The debut feature of Daisuke Shigaya, Leave the Cat Alone took seven years for the filmmaker to complete, weaving scenes shot seven or so years prior as vague memories set before the film’s present-day setting.

Maiko, an emerging photographer, and her husband, Mori, an unsuccessful musician, struggle to maintain their languishing relationship. An unassuming domestic drama with deep emotional range, Leave the Cat Alone unfolds across three days and two nights in the couple’s lives as Mori encounters an old flame, transporting him back into residual memories, lingering regrets and nostalgia for a time before the growing chasms of a long-term love.

Leave the Cat Alone is part of JAPAN CUTS’s Next Generation category. One film in this category will win the Next Generation Prize presented by VIPO. The winning filmmaker will receive $3,000, generously donated by VIPO to help fund their next work.

White Flowers and Fruits

Thursday, July 9 at 8:30 p.m.

Casting a pallid, muted gloom over its delicate cast of adolescent schoolgirls, White Flowers and Fruits marks an auspicious debut for newcomer Yukari Sakamoto.

On the grounds of a secluded all-girls boarding school, a popular student inexplicably leaps to her death. Questioning the circumstances of her sudden suicide, two classmates cope with the unfathomable loss of a peer and the inexpressible emotions left within them.

In the tradition of Shusuke Kaneko’s Summer Vacation 1999 and Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock, Sakamoto’s Gothic study is both spectral and sapphic, playing on classical bildungsroman motifs in its atmospheric meditation on the death of innocence.

White Flowers and Fruits is part of JAPAN CUTS’s Next Generation category. One film in this category will win the Next Generation Prize presented by VIPO. The winning filmmaker will receive $3,000, generously donated by VIPO to help fund their next work.

Friday, July 10

Cocoon

Friday, July 10 at 6:00 p.m.

Dir. Yukimitsu Ina, | 2025 | 60 min. | Japanese with English subtitles | With Hikari Mitsushima, Marika Ito, Yoko Hikasa, Rena Motomura, Chinatsu Akasaki, Aoi Koga, Yume Miyamoto, Izumi Aoyagi, Miyuki Sawashiro, Umeka Shoji North American Premiere

Animated by Sasayuri, a studio founded by Ghibli alum Hitomi Tateno, Cocoon features the profound talents of both veteran and new animators tobring Machiko Kyo’s wartime manga to life. Commissioned by NHK to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of the war, Cocoon shines a light on an often overlooked tragedy: the Himeyuri students, a group of young girls compelled to support the Japanese army on Okinawa.

Classes have long been replaced by labor, and the girls are soon assigned to a hospital that is no more than a cave. When the girls are abandoned by the adults, what path will they choose?

The Last Blossom

Friday, July 10 at 7:30 p.m.

From director Baku Kinoshita, best known for the anime series Odd Taxi, comes a tear-jerking tale of love, perseverance, redemption, and a talking plant.

An elderly prisoner named Akutsu (Kaoru Kobayashi) is serving a life sentence and awaits a lonely death—until a voice calls out. This voice belongs to a flower (Pierre Taki) who asks the inmate about his life. Together, the two reflect on Akutsu’s innocent days, the good intentions that led him to a life of crime, the people he cared about, and that maybe—just maybe—these people can still blossom.

Rex: A Dinosaur’s Story

Friday, July 10 at 9:30 p.m.

Dir. Haruki Kadokawa | 1993 | 106 min. | Japanese with English subtitles | With Yumi Adachi, Shinobu Otake, Tsunehiko Watase

Industry disruptor and mogul Haruki Kadokawa, who revolutionized the field of film production with his media mix strategy, delivered this E.T.-adjacent curio of family entertainment to the chagrin of critics and the delight of the public—until his sudden and very public fall from grace. With creature effects by FX maestro Carlo Rambaldi (Alien, E.T., Possession), Kadokawa’s dinosaur pictureremainsone of the most expensive Japanese films of all time—and Shochiku’s highest-grossing release at the time—opening in theaters only a month after Jurassic Park.

The plot, strategically measured in a three-act structure, followsChie (Yumi Adachi), the young daughter of a paleontologist, who befriends a Tyrannosaurus hatchling after discovering a dinosaur egg with her father. Rarely seen outside Japan and a cult item abroad, Rex remains a fascinating relic of Kadokawa’s once-dominant brand of commercial filmmaking.

Saturday, July 11

BRAND NEW LOVE

Saturday, July 11 at 12:00 p.m.

Couple Yuiko and Kenichi undertake a short trip as their relationship starts to break down, watching over a relative’s antique shop in a last-ditch effort to save their deteriorating partnership. Bickering and resentful, the two take time away from each other by manning the shop—offering director Ryuichi Iwakura the chance to observe them quietly, depicting the dissolution of their partnership and their growing divide through subtle modes of expression. A remarkably understated film, BRAND NEW LOVE was awarded PIA’s Runner Up Award.

BRAND NEW LOVE is part of JAPAN CUTS’s Next Generation category. One film in this category will win the Next Generation Prize presented by VIPO. The winning filmmaker will receive $3,000, generously donated by VIPO to help fund their next work.

SAI: disaster

Saturday, July 11 at 2:30 p.m.

Directing duo Gogatsu’s SAI: disaster offers a theatrical edit of their chilling SAI serial, restructuring its initial six-part form into a single, disquieting affair.

Four individuals, unrelated and living in entirely different regions of the country, face a nameless man existing on their peripheries; his doppelgängers, or disguises, take on various roles in their lives—a barber, a cram-school teacher, a trucker—and herald death in their wake.

With the pitch-perfect casting of Teruyuki Kagawa (Creepy, Tokyo Sonata) as a nebulous omen of catastrophe, Gogatsu’s picture operates at a terrifying register, mixing slow-burn procedural with J-Horror dread. Atmospheric and unnerving, SAI: disaster presupposes life’s many tragedies as part of the natural order—mere “acts of God” enacted by a harbinger of chaos.

Shuffle

Saturday, July 11 at 5:30 p.m.

Initially filmed as an unsanctioned adaptation of Katsuhiro Otomo’s manga Run, Shuffle is an attempt by Ishii to “sketch a man’s entire life through only one motif: running.”

Chased through the streets of Tokyo by a police detective, a punk sprints and hurtles to some unknown terminus as the past rushes in. Panting, wheezing and gasping for one more breath of air, he musters all he can for a final course.

A stream of consciousness invoked by physical exertion, this film is considered by Ishii to be “a portrait of my generation.”

The Master of Shiatsu

Saturday, July 11 after the screening of Shuffle

The inaugural work of Ishii’s spiritual phase, TheMaster of Shiatsu emerged after a period of setbacks and disappointments, with Ishii finding the film to be a “kind of therapy” after the collapse of several unrealized projects.

The cackling laugh of a mysterious shiatsumaster (Tokujiro Namikoshi, the “father of shiatsu”) initiates this transformative uncoupling from reality as a shiatsu session imparts strange, astral properties to a young woman.

A key transitional work conjuring Ishii’s own hallucinatory vision of enlightenment, this metaphysical anodyne unlocks a vast, latent network of energy flow—visualizing streams of light through the urban fog of late-eighties Japan.

JUNK WORLD

Saturday, July 11 at 7:00 p.m.

A prequel to Takahide Hori’s outrageous, word-of-mouth marvel JUNK HEAD (2017), JUNK WORLD expands upon its predecessor’s absurdist stop-motion biosphere of Giger-esque, cenobite-inspired lifeforms, grotesque humor, and worldbuilding mythos.

Sent to explore an unexplained anomaly detected deep within the underground trenches, an expedition of humans and Mulligans—artificial beings once used as a labor force by humanity—are attacked by a radical sect of shibari-tied, leather chaps-adorning cultists.

Alongside a snaking and ambitious narrative, Hori populates his subterranea with a New World’s flora and fauna, bearing evolutionary processes beyond comprehension; violent, unpredictable aberrations and cannibalistic permutations; and entire civilizations sprung up simultaneously across minutes and millennia.

Gosh!!

Saturday, July 11 at 9:30 p.m.

Police officer Ippei Aoba (Sosuke Ikematsu) leads a normal life; except his dog, Oliver, is a womanizing, middle-aged drunk in a dog suit (Joe Odagiri). Together, with an all-star ensemble including Masatoshi Nagase and Koichi Sato, they lead a wondrously bizarre escapade featuring doors across time and space, a town obsessed with takoyaki, a tiny fairy, a Bollywood-style dance number, and more. Maybe Aoba doesn’t lead a normal life after all.

Based on a TV series by Joe Odagiri, Gosh!! is written, directed, and edited by Odagiri. And, again, stars Joe Odagiri in a dog suit.

Sunday, July 12

Rewrite

Sunday, July 12 at 2:30 p.m.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is a classic of Japanese literature, one that has been famously retold across Japanese media and influenced a whole genre of “time leap” stories. Rewrite is an homage to this classic, but all is not exactly as it appears.

Transfer student Yasuhiko (Kei Adachi) is a boy from 300 years in the future who has come to visit the past after falling in love with a novel he’s read. When Yasuhiko shares his secret with Miyuki (Elaiza Ikeda), she comes to learn from her own future self that she must pen this very book and spends the next ten years writing the novel to complete the time loop. However, Yasuhiko didn’t tell Miyuki the full story.

Charming, funny, and unexpected, Rewrite is a delightful reinvention that turns tropes on their head and will keep you guessing until the very last chapter.

Sato and Sato

Sunday, July 12 at 5:30 p.m.

Chihiro Amano’s follow-up to Mrs. Noisy (winner of the 2020 JAPAN CUTS Audience Award) details the unraveling of a marriage, cutting across 15 years of a couple’s lives.

Sachi Sato (Yukino Kishii) and Tamotsu Sato meet in college and begin a life together until their early career plans are upended: Sachi, who took on studying for the bar exam in solidarity with Tamotsu, ends up passing while he fails. Inverting gender roles, Sato and Sato addresses the fracturing divides of marriage to devastating effect, as career ambitions are halted and frustrations pile on.

Impartial and sensitive, Amano’s empathetic treatise is a frank and intimate study of life’s great disappointments: the unkept promise of a life together.

Our Little Sister

Introduction by Suzu Hirose

Sunday, July 12 at 8:00 p.m. SOLD OUT

Dir. Hirokazu Koreeda | 2015 | 126 min. | Japanese with English subtitles | With Haruka Ayase, Masami Nagasawa, Kaho, Suzu Hirose

Hirokazu Koreeda’s resonant Our Little Sister forgoes a traditional plot in favor of an abundance of slice-of-life vignettes and everyday incidents.

Three twenty-something sisters—Sachi, Yoshino, and Chika—live together in their grandmother’s old family home in Kamakura’s seaside idyll. At their estranged father’s funeral in Yamagata, the sisters meet their teenage half-sister Suzu (Suzu Hirose), whom they capriciously invite to move in with them.

Koreeda’s blissful domestic drama tracks the sisters’ lives as seasons inevitably pass, enriched by the growing bonds of sisterhood and familial understanding.

JAPAN CUTS respectfully requests attendees not ask Ms. Hirose for photos or autographs. Ms. Hirose will not be posing for personal photographs or signing autographs at this event.

Monday, July 13

A Pale View of Hills

Centerpiece Film with Suzu Hirose

CUT ABOVE Award Ceremony, Q&A with Suzu Hirose, and Reception

Monday, July 13 at 6:00 p.m. – SOLD OUT

Based on Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro’s debut novel and written, directed, and edited by Kei Ishikawa, A Pale View of Hills follows Etsuko, portrayed stunningly by both Suzu Hirose and Yoh Yoshida across the passage of years, as she shares her postwar memories with her daughter. A story spanning 30 years, it recounts sacrifice, tragedy, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive.

A delicately shot and acted Japanese-British-Polish co-production, A Pale View of Hills had its World Premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. It realizes the words of one of the world’s most gifted writers and spotlights the talents of one of Japan’s finest actresses. JAPAN CUTS will present this story of courage of loss for the first time in New York with actress Suzu Hirose live on-stage. Hirose will receive the festival’s highest honor, the CUT ABOVE Award, at this screening.

JAPAN CUTS respectfully requests attendees not ask Ms. Hirose for photos or autographs. Ms. Hirose will not be posing for personal photographs or signing autographs at this event.

Tuesday, July 14

New Directions in Japanese Cinema

Tuesday, July 14 at 6:00 p.m.

A Wavy Girl
Dir. Natsuka Yashiro | 2025 | 30 min. | Japanese with English subtitles | With Nao Yamato, Sosuke Ogata | International Premiere
Maru (Nao Yamato) is a high school girl living in the countryside. Her lunch is always pancakes, a routine as messy as her naturally curly hair. When Sunao (Sosuke Ogata), a handsome boy from Tokyo, transfers to her class and joins her part-time job, they start riding their bikes home together. Despite his striking appearance, Maru senses something unspoken.

An Overflow
Dir. Shun Tsujii | 2025 | 29 min. | Japanese with English subtitles | With Riku Tsuji, Mana Asaki, Fuku Kondo, Rei Matsunaga | International Premiere
Fukuro (Riku Tsuji) quits his office job to pursue illustration and takes up a part-time role as a pool lifeguard to make ends meet. Though a poor swimmer, Fukuro’s days are calm until a former aspiring pro arrives and forces him to ask: Is his life moving forward or standing still?

The End of What Goes Around
Dir. Tomonari Kamobayashi | 2025 | 30 min. | Japanese with English subtitles | With Kinari Hirano, Raiku, Yoshi Sakou | International Premiere
A traditional camera shop in the Kanto region. The owner, Fumio Sugihara (Yoshi Sakou), and his employee, Minoru Fukaya (Kinari Hirano), have built a supportive relationship like that of a real father and son. Yet, one day, Fumio’s actual son returns. He had left to pursue a career in photography and now threatens Minoru’s place in the shop.

The Woman Who Repeats
Dir. Ere Nakada | 2025 | 30 min. | Japanese with English subtitles | With Ayumi Ito, Rena Tanaka, Yoko Imamoto, Riho Sato, Shohei Abe | International Premiere
Isolated office worker Takako (Ayumi Ito) secretly steals from others. Her world is upended, though, when a colleague (Rena Tanaka) catches her in the act, but rather than reprimand Takako, she simply turns and walks away. Haunted by this, Takako becomes fixated on her witness, an obsession that grows into an uneasy intimacy between two drifting souls: a woman who steals out of loneliness, and another yearning to discard all she owns.

A Wavy Girl, An Overflow, The End of What Goes Around, and The Woman Who Repeats are part of JAPAN CUTS’s New Directions in Japanese Cinema screening. NDJC is a program commissioned by Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs and administered by VIPO (Visual Industry Promotion Organization), which funds emerging directors in Japan and provides them with a platform to showcase their talents with new short works.

Ginger Boy

Tuesday, July 14 at 9:00 p.m.

Transferring back to the Tokyo headquarters for his job at a regional bank, Kishida temporarily crashes with high school pal Kura, who works now as a filmmaker, but senses a growing disconnect between them. Claustrophobic and unnerving, Kura’s erratic lifestyle and peculiar behavior start to affect Kishida, who tries his best to support his friend.

A slow-burn, propulsive work laced with atmosphere and inventive direction, the Cannes-selected Ginger Boy is a distinct showcase of director Miki Tanaka’s craft, visually arresting and confident in its vision.

Naomi Out of Sync

Tuesday, July 14 after the screening of Ginger Boy

18-year-old Naomi lives with her older brother, Shingo, who has a developmental disability and Tourette’s, and her father, struggling to keep up with daily life, but maintains an upbeat demeanor despite her struggles at her part-time job and taking care of her brother. One day, out of frustration, Naomi accidentally hurts her brother’s feelings.

Utilizing this setup, director Fuku Nakazato delivers a lighthearted study of the two siblings with candor and empathy. Winner of the Grand Prize at the PIA Film Festival.

Ginger Boy and Naomi Out of Sync are part of JAPAN CUTS’s Next Generation category. One film in this category will win the Next Generation Prize presented by VIPO. The winning filmmaker will receive $3,000, generously donated by VIPO to help fund their next work.

Wednesday, July 15

Diamond Diplomacy

Q&A with Director Yuriko Gamo Romer, author Robert Fitts, and MLB Legend Masanori “Mashi” Murakami

Wednesday, July 15 at 6:00 p.m.

Diamond Diplomacy explores the long and complex relationship between the U.S. and Japan through the shared love of baseball and the powerful cultural and diplomatic bridge the game has provided across generations—from the first introduction of baseball in Japan to the global sensation of Shohei Ohtani. Featuring rare archival footage and interviews with baseball greats Masanori “Mashi” Murakami, Warren “Cro” Cromartie, Ichiro Suzuki, Bobby Valentine, and more.

W’s Tragedy

Wednesday, July 15 at 9:00 p.m.

W’s Tragedy racked up all the major film prizes of 1984 in Japan, a rare occurrence for Kadokawa’s pop experimentalism (often met with open revulsion by the powerful older generation of film critics).

Hiroko Yakushimaru stars as a young, aspiring stage actress who develops frightening ambitions to become a star in this self-reflexive, fascinatingly complex film.

Shinichiro Sawai, one of the great, underappreciated directors of the 1980s, masterfully follows the sometimes-mind-bending Kadokawa pattern of making films that are, in some way, always also about Kadokawa. Scored by Joe Hisaishi.

Thursday, July 16

In Their Traces

Q&A with Shigeru Kobayashi, Norio Nagakura and Saori Ninomiya

Thursday, July 16 at 6:00 p.m.

The latest documentary from Shigeru Kobayashi, who first gained recognition as Makoto Sato’s cinematographer on the legendary Minamata documentary Living on the River Agano (1992) and its sequel Memories of Agano (2005), In Their Traces tackles the difficult subject matter of sexual and physical abuse with shocking frankness in its matter-of-fact candidness. Opening with a harrowing phone call that relays a survivor’s failed suicide to the director, Kobayashi’s film is a work of utmost empathy and understanding, built on the collective testimonies of abuse survivors navigating a life after their trauma. Lensed by celebrated experimental documentarian Kaori Oda (Cenote) and stemming from Japan’s rich lineage of documentary practices, In Their Traces is a remarkable achievement.

Night Flower

Thursday, July 16 at 9:00 p.m.

From acclaimed director Eiji Uchida comes the story of Natsuki (Keiko Kitagawa) and Tamae (Misato Morita), two women on the fringes of society who find family in each other. Natsuki fled to Tokyo with her children to escape debt. She soon encounters Tamae, a struggling kickboxer, and together they sell drugs to Tokyo’s outcasts to survive. Can Natsuki and Tamae be criminals by night and lead normal lives by day? Or will all they have be dragged into the underworld and their precious found family unravel?

Misato Morita won Best Supporting Actress at this year’s Japanese Academy Awards.

Friday, July 17

Burn

Friday, July 17 at 6:00 p.m.

Makoto Nagahisa’s dark, pop-art nihilist feature stars Nana Mori as Ju-Ju, the stuttering daughter of abusive religious zealots, who escapes and joins a band of young runaway misfits in the littered commercial district of Kabukicho. Far from a haven for the broken, Ju-Ju’s “Lost Boys” fantasy turns into an inescapable underground of prostitution, drug-laced dreams, and hopelessness, fueled by the very companions she’s come to befriend.

Nagahisa’s on-brand, hyper-stylized direction—a saccharine overstimulation of formal elements, from step printing and lo-fi video footage to double dollies and fisheye lenses—breathes a perpetual exuberance into the profound bleakness of Burn’s smoldering powder-keg plot.

Tiger

Friday, July 17 at 8:30 p.m.

Inspired by real-life experiences, directorAnshul Chauhan’s socially conscious fourth feature Tiger excavates Japan’s unrepentant pressures on queer existence.

Taiga, a closeted, middle-aged gay masseur living in Tokyo, returns home to see his dying father, where he faces growing adversity: His inheritance is contingent upon marriage and children, and his sister threatens to out him, which would result in severe social consequences.

Chauhan’s focus on an aging queer generation, emphasized by Taiga’s deep desires for a sense of stability, belonging, and even fatherhood, sketches a frustrating reality: A life of acceptance is one Japan may not be able to offer.

Saturday, July 18

Numb

Saturday, July 18 at 12:00 p.m.

Daichi (Takumi Kitamura) is a boy who lost his voice because of his father’s violence. Growing up in isolation and poverty, he witnesses a transitory Japan seldom seen by the outside world. Facing hardship after hardship across his adolescence only leaves Daichi perpetually more numb, and he can do nothing but watch as the few he cares about are hurt by those who are supposed to support them and the failings of the system around them. Can Daichi break free from this painful life, or will he now scar others?

Yoyogi Johnny

Saturday, July 18 at 2:30 p.m.

An inventive and delightfully deadpan take on seishun eiga (“youth film”), Yoyogi Johnny follows the titular Johnny (singer KANON) and a band of misfits in the school’s squash club who don’t actually play squash. Yet Johnny’s days of loafing are numbered as a new girl at school captures his heart. This combined with the sudden need to compete in a squash tournament ends Johnny’s ambling ways and fills his days with misadventures.

A coming-of-age comedy ripe with eccentric characters, inventive dialogue, and preposterous situations, it’s a stirringly unique film that despite its outlandishness has a warm and uplifting heart.

SUZUKI=BAKUDAN

Saturday, July 18 at 5:00 p.m.

Based on the bestselling novel by Go Katsuhiro, SUZUKI=BAKUDAN is a big-budget blockbuster centered on Tagosaku Suzuki (Jiro Sato), a mysterious drunk who claims he can see the future. After successfully predicting a bomb will go off in Tokyo, Suzuki leads the police in a game of wits: They must solve his riddles to stop further explosions. While police fan out over the city to defuse these bombs, a young detective (Yuki Yamada) challenges Suzuki to uncover the truth behind his predictions. Is he psychic, is he lucky, is he a criminal mastermind, is he a con man? Or is he something worse?

Jiro Sato delivers a tour-de-force performance and was honored with Best Supporting Actor at this year’s Japanese Academy Awards.

Sunday, July 19

Sheep in the Box

Closing Night Film
Q&A with Hirokazu Koreeda and Reception

Sunday, July 19* at 8:00 p.m. – SOLD OUT

Taking its name from a famous passage in Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince, Hirokazu Koreeda’s latest effort is a parable of speculative imagination, exploring the notion of resurrection through technological means. Set in a not-too-distant future, Sheep in the Box finds young, bereaved couple Otone and Kensuke (Haruka Ayase and comedian Daigo) welcoming home an AI-powered robot built in the image of their dead son, Kakeru. A generative reconstruction assembled from an algorithmic synthesis of photos and videos, Kakeru’s facsimile draws both skepticism and alleviation, yet it offers an opportunity to be with their “son” once more—a momentary respite from grief, or perhaps a chance to say goodbye.

An outlier in Koreeda’s typically rooted domestic naturalism, Sheep in the Box remains grounded in Koreeda’s enduring concerns, proffering, as the director himself has noted, “a universal story about children eventually surpassing their parents.”

Reception food and drink provided by Afuri, Sapporo, and ITO EN.

*The screening of Sheep in the Box was originally Saturday, July 18 to close out JAPAN CUTS; however, it was rescheduled to Sunday, July 19 after the lineup was announced.

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Susan McCormac 5/14/26 Susan McCormac 5/14/26

Japanese Horror Focus for 3 NYC Talks

Literary magazine MONKEY to have three discussions in NYC this weekend.

MONKEY Vol. 6 Horror

Friday, May 15, 2026 from 5:30 p.m. until 7:00 p.m.

Kinokuniya New York – 1073 Avenue of the Americas (between 40th and 41st Streets)

Admission: Free

Head to Kinokuniya New York at 5:30 p.m. Friday forMONKEY Vol. 6 Horror, an evening exploring the strange, uncanny, and unforgettable worlds of contemporary Japanese horror literature!

This literary discussion features authors Hideo Furukawa and Tomoka Shibasaki, translators Ted Goossen and Kendall Heitzman, MONKEY contributing editor Roland Kelts, and MONKEY founder Motoyuki Shibata. The panel will be followed by a Q&A and book signing.

Participants

Hideo Furukawa is one of Japan’s most innovative writers. He is the author of Slow Boat; Belka, Why Don't You Bark?; and The Tale of the Heike: The Inu-Oh Chapters, which inspired the Golden Globe–nominated film Inu-Oh. The English translation will be published under the MONKEY imprint in 2027.

Tomoka Shibasaki is a novelist and short story writer. Her work includes the novel Spring Garden and the groundbreaking collection A Hundred Years and a Day, translated by Polly Barton (MONKEY/Stone Bridge Press, 2025).

Ted Goossen is a literary translator and professor emeritus at York University in Toronto. He is a founding editor of MONKEY and has translated works by Haruki Murakami, Naoya Shiga, and Hiromi Kawakami, including Dragon Palace (MONKEY/Stone Bridge Press, 2023).

Kendall Heitzman is an associate professor of Japanese literature and culture at the University of Iowa. He has translated works by Kaori Fujino and Hideo Furukawa, among others. His translation of The Tale of the Heike: The Inu-Oh Chapters is forthcoming.

Roland Nozomu Kelts is a contributing editor to MONKEY New Writing from Japan. An award-winning journalist and the author of Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture has Invaded the US and The Art of Blade Runner: Black Lotus, he writes for publications in the US, Japan, and Europe, including The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times,among others, and has contributed to several book-length collections. He was a Nieman Fellow in Journalism at Harvard University and teaches at Waseda University in Tokyo. He is currently filming a documentary about manga pioneer Osamu Tezuka.

Motoyuki Shibata translates American literature and runs the Japanese literary journal MONKEY and its offspring, MONKEY New Writing from Japan. He has translated Paul Auster, Rebecca Brown, Stuart Dybek, Brian Evenson, Laird Hunt, Kelly Link, and Steven Millhauser, among many others.

At Japan Society

In addition to Friday’s talk at Kinokuniya, Japan Society is hosting Hideo Furukawa and Tomoka Shibasaki for a pair of events on Sunday, May 17. The acclaimed, award-winning novelists will spend the afternoon discussing Japanese horror and adapting books to the screen. Roland Kelts will moderate both events.

From Page to Screen – The Art and Anxiety of Adaptation

Sunday, May 17 at 1:00 p.m.

Japan Society – 333 E. 47th Street (between 1st and 2nd Avenues)

Admission: $28 General | $22 Japan Society members

Hideo Furukawa and Tomoka Shibasaki are two of Japan’s most highly acclaimed authors, and their books have been adapted into successful films shown worldwide. Shibasaki’s Asleep or Awake was turned into the live-action film Asako I & II by Oscar-winning director Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car). Furukawa’s Tale of the Heike: The Inu-Oh Chapters was adapted into the epic animated feature Inu-Oh by Masaaki Yuasa (Devilman Crybaby). In conversation with Japanamerica author Roland Kelts, Furukawa and Shibasaki will address the sometimes-jarring experience of having their original words transformed into immutable images, when works of the imagination leap from one medium to another. Were the adaptations consistent with their imagination and visions, or wildly divergent?

What’s Japanese in Japanese Horror – With Authors Hideo Furukawa and Tomoka Shibasaki

Sunday, May 17 at 3:30 p.m.

Japan Society – 333 E. 47th Street (between 1st and 2nd Avenues)

Admission: $28 General | $22 Japan Society members

From the oni demons, yurei ghosts, and yokai spirits of folklore, to pop culture sensations like Exit 8 and The Ring, horror runs through the veins of Japanese culture. Often distinctly psychological and provocative, Japanese horror is beloved by those who like their scares with a sharp edge of sophistication. The latest issue of the acclaimed literary magazine MONKEY New Writing from Japan celebrates Japanese psychological horror. Japan Society welcomes an all-star panel of authors, editors, and translators to discuss the worldwide appeal of Japanese horror and what traditional and modern cultural influences make it unique. Some of the most unsettling stories in this issue will be performed by the authors and translators in bilingual readings.

Save 10% by purchasing tickets to both MONKEY events. For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit Japan Society’s website.

About MONKEY

MONKEY New Writing from Japan is an annual anthology that showcases the best of contemporary Japanese literature. Vol. 6 celebrates HORROR, from demons and ghosts to the myriad existential and environmental fears that come with living in our troubled times. MONKEY offers short fiction and poetry by writers such as Haruki Murakami, Yoko Ogawa, and Hiromi Kawakami; graphic stories by Satoshi Kitamura; new translations of modern classics; and contributions from authors outside Japan.

Susan McCormac 3/26/26 Susan McCormac 3/26/26

Japan Society Celebrates Actress Meiko Kaji

Japan Society welcomes Japanese actress and singer Meiko Kaji for her first public New York appearance in more than 40 years.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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Susan McCormac 1/9/26 Susan McCormac 1/9/26

DASSAI Moon Talk at Japan Society

Peek behind the curtain of the DASSAI MOON Project at this special Japan Society event. Photo ©DASSAI

Crafting DASSAI Sake on the Moon: Conversation & Sake Tasting

Friday, January 23, 2026 at 7:00 p.m.

Japan Society – 333 E. 47th Street (between 1st and 2nd Avenues)

Admission: $45 | $35 Japan Society Members

Peek behind the curtain of the DASSAI MOON Project at this special Japan Society event.

Japan Society looks to the future with sake brewery DASSAI for a conversation on the DASSAI MOON Project, an initiative aimed at constructing the first-ever sake brewery on the moon. The project’s focus is to produce sake on the moon by 2050, and to achieve the historic feat, DASSAI recently carried out the world’s first sake fermentation in orbit inside the Japanese Experiment Module “Kibou” (Hope) aboard the International Space Station. This experiment was conducted in simulated lunar gravity (1/6 Earth’s gravity) using an artificial gravity generator installed in Kibou. The experiment investigated how fermentation behaves in lunar gravity and laid the foundation for brewing sake beyond Earth, bringing traditional Japanese craftsmanship into the era of space exploration. The moromi (fermentation mash) produced inside Kibou will be brought back to Earth and pressed to make sake bottled under the name DASSAI MOON, and DASSAI will donate all proceeds from its sale to the future development of Japanese space exploration. This project is a first test in anticipation of human lunar settlement and the dream of making sake in lunar colonies!

DASSAI Chairman Hiroshi Sakurai and DASSAI MOON Project Manager Soya Uetsuki will be in conversation about their collaboration with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to conduct brewing experiments in orbit. They will discuss the technology behind the project and how DASSAI transformed this idea into reality to achieve a historic milestone for humanity. This talk will be followed by a reception and sake tasting.

To purchase tickets, please visit Japan Society’s website.

About the Reception

Attendees are invited to join in a sake tasting featuring sake from DASSAI BLUE. All are freshly brewed in Hyde Park, New York, with Yamada Nishiki rice from Japan and Arkansas and water from New York’s Hudson Valley.

Dassai Blue Type 23 – Tasting Notes: Complex aromatics of anise, pear and marshmallow develop into bright lemon chiffon, honeysuckle and stone fruit with a touch of minerality.
Dassai Blue Type 35 – Tasting Notes: White peaches and ripe papayas with a soft, sweet fragrance. The taste is characterized by a subtle sweetness and refreshing acidity.
Dassai Blue Type 50 – Tasting Notes: Licorice and cantaloupe give way to pineapple candy, lemon curd and vanilla with a hint of brine on the finish.
Dassai Blue Nigori Sparkling 50 – Tasting Notes: A fruity aroma reminiscent of green apples and Japanese wagashi treats. Some sweetness, moderate fizziness and a refreshing crisp finish.

All attendees must be 21 or older.

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Susan McCormac 11/11/25 Susan McCormac 11/11/25

Japan Society Presents Dance Production Based on Mishima

Japan Society’s Fall 2025 Yukio Mishima Centennial Series: Emergences continues with the world premiere dance production of The Seven Bridges (Hashi-zukushi). A vibrant new work for all ages from the Tokyo-based dance company CHAiroiPLIN with choreography by company founder Takuro Suzuki is based on a lesser-known short story of the same title by Yukio Mishima.

The Seven Bridges

Saturday, November 15 at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, November 16 at 2:30 p.m. — Followed by an Artist Q&A

Japan Society – 333 E. 47th Street (between 1st and 2nd Avenues)

Admission: $48 | $36 Japan Society members

About The Seven Bridges

CHAiroiPLIN (a tongue-in-cheek amalgamation of Charlie Chaplin’s name and the Japanese word chairoi, meaning “brown”) is acclaimed for converting great authors’ novels into disarmingly enchanting yet satirical performances, appropriate for all ages, told almost entirely through movement. In this work, founder and choreographer Takuro Suzuki and company take on Yukio Mishima’s suspenseful and humorous short story. Following a fanciful superstition that crossing seven bridges without conversing with anyone on a full moon night will make their wishes come true, four women occupying different positions of wealth and societal status set out on a journey under the watchful gaze of the Moon. As distractions and mishaps befall the women, their race to the end of the seventh bridge becomes increasingly fraught—who, if anyone, will be able to make it to the end, and for what kind of wish? With spirited, arresting and slapstick movement set to an impressive range of high-energy music encompassing Daft Punk, Balkan brass band Fanfare Ciocărlia, eccentric original songs performed live, and more, Suzuki and CHAiroiPLIN infuse unbridled charm into Mishima’s compact reflection on ritual and desire.

Yukio Mishima’s short story “The Seven Bridges” was originally published in Japan in 1956. Two years later, Mishima himself developed this story into a dance drama. While CHAiroiPLIN’s entirely original work reflects their own signature gleefully absurdist style, the company has deliberately adapted a narrative which Mishima himself envisioned as uniquely appropriate for the dance stage.

This program is presented by Japan Society as part of Carnegie Hall’s Spotlight on Japan. Recommended for ages 7+. Performance runs approximately 55 minutes. To purchase tickets, please visit Japan Society’s website. Ticketholders will also receive complimentary, same-day admission for one person to Chiharu Shiota: Two Home Countries, on view at Japan Society Gallery through January 11, 2026. To view the exhibition, please show ticket/receipt to the Welcome Desk for free admission before the performance.

About CHAiroiPLIN

CHAiroiPLIN is a Tokyo-based dance company founded by the dancer/choreographer Takuro Suzuki. Made up of a combination of theater performers and dancers, the company incorporates an expressive variety of forms fusing dance, dialogue, singing, onomatopoeia, and other creative elements. They aim to create highly entertaining and narrative-driven dance performances that can be enjoyed by audiences of all ages.

Since its establishment in 2007, CHAiroiPLIN has received numerous awards for its ongoing “Dancing Literature” series, which adapts modern and classical Japanese literature and plays ranging from novels to manga, rakugo (traditional comedic storytelling) and folktales, utilizing idiosyncratic and stylized body movements and expert choreography. Some notable productions include Fantasy Stone (based on Shigeru Mizuki’s manga), which was awarded the Audience Prize in the 1st Sengawa Drama Contest; Market, a winner of the NEXTREAM21 Dance Festival All Genre Dance Contest; and Friends (based on an absurdist play by the acclaimed Japanese dramatist Kobo Abe), a winner of the Grand Prize at the Young Directors Competition.

About Takuro Suzuki

Takuro Suzuki was born in Niigata Prefecture in 1985. He studied theater, pantomime, and dance at Toho Gakuen College of Drama and Music, led by world-renowned Japanese director Yukio Ninagawa. After graduating, he continued to present public performances that spotlight new possibilities of combining dance and theater. He aims to create works incorporating a variety of dance, dialogues, singing, and Japanese onomatopoeia that can be enjoyed by children and adults alike.

Suzuki founded the dance company CHAiroiPLIN in 2007 and has been a primary member of the dance company CONDORS since 2011. He choreographs and has appeared in NHK’s hugely popular weekly children’s program Miitsuketa! (“Found it!”) and created choreography for the television programs Touken Ranbu and Bungo Stray Dogs. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the New Artist Award from the Agency for Cultural Affairs Arts Festival, the Yokohama Dance Collection EX Honorable Mention and was a finalist for the Toyota Choreography Award. In 2015, he was selected as the 2015 Ambassador of Cultural Exchange in East Asia, and he received the New Artist Award in the Dance Division from the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology in 2024.

About Yukio Mishima

Born Kimitake Hiraoka, Yukio Mishima (1925-1970) was a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, Shintoist, ultra-nationalist, and leader of an attempted coup d'état that culminated in his suicide. Mishima is considered one of the most important postwar stylists of the Japanese language. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times in the 1960s. His works include the novels Confessions of a Mask, Life for Sale, and The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea as well as the plays My Friend Hitler, The Lady Aoi, and Madame de Sade.

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Mishima’s birth, Japan Society has hosted a compelling roster of new productions and U.S. company premieres throughout the fall. More than half a century since Mishima’s last published work, he continues to inspire artists in the 21st century. Japan Society Artistic Director Yoko Shioya remarks, “This series revitalizes Mishima’s contributions to the world of the arts through a slate of brand-new commissions and premieres adapting his writings, as well as a historic U.S. debut for a revered Noh company. This series not only recognizes Mishima’s critical legacy, but the ongoing current influence of this essential post-war author on artists today.”

The Series launched in September with Yukio Mishima’s KINKAKUJI, a Japan Society world premiere commission adapted for the stage by Leon Ingulsrud and Major Curda from Mishima’s novel Kinkakuji (The Temple of the Golden Pavilion) with scenic design by internationally acclaimed visual artist Chiharu Shiota. The series continued in October with Le Tambour de Soie (The Silk Drum), co-created by Yoshi Oida and Kaori Ito, both headlining artists in France’s performing arts’ scene. This work mixes contemporary dance with exquisite movement adapted from Noh into a dark and seductive piece of dance-theater, based on Mishima’s adaptation on the traditional Japanese Noh classic Aya no Tsuzumi.

Following the world premiere of The Seven Bridges (Hashi-zukushi), the Series culminates with Mishima’s Muse – Noh Theater on December 4 through 6, featuring the momentous U.S. debut of the distinguished Hosho Noh School performing a set of plays which Mishima later adapted, including Aya no Tsuzumi, Aoi no Ue, and the original kyogen (comedic) play Busu, adapted by Mishima into a modern English comedy.

Susan McCormac 7/20/25 Susan McCormac 7/20/25

Dassai Sake Series Continues at Japan Society

Dassai Sake Series at Japan Society: Conversation with Dassai Chairman Hiroshi Sakurai and Keiko Ono Aoki, entrepreneur and CEO of Benihana of Tokyo

Dassai Sake Series: Benihana and Beyond

Thursday, July 24 at 7:00 p.m. (Please arrive by 6:45 p.m.)

Japan Society – 333 E. 47th Street (between 1st and 2nd Avenues)

Admission: $45 | $35 Japan Society members

Join Dassai Chairman Hiroshi Sakurai and Keiko Ono Aoki, entrepreneur and CEO of Benihana of Tokyo, for a talk about the past, present, and future of both organizations. Both leaders will engage in a dialogue around the themes of “Challenge” and “Innovation,” discussing how they blend yesterday and tomorrow with the goal of rising to the modern world.

How are we defined by our history, and what is our obligation to it? What are the realities of the U.S.-Japan world today and new dangers and opportunities within it? Is there a future without innovation? How can one create change within a historic organization? And what are the needs to create real revolution? Japan Society invites you to spend the evening with Hiroshi Sakurai and Keiko Ono Aoki to hear their answers.

To purchase tickets, please visit Japan Society’s website.

About the Dassai Sake Series

The Dassai Sake Series is an ongoing lecture series pairing thought and business leaders from across the U.S.-Japan world together onstage with festive sake celebrations. The Dassai brand is built around the goal of bringing revolution to the sake industry, and the Dassai Sake Series is similarly focused on engaging conversations with U.S.-Japan leaders who have created their own revolutions—each concluding with celebratory networking receptions and kampai toasts to their success.

Susan McCormac 7/4/25 Susan McCormac 7/4/25

Japan Society’s Film Festival Begins July 10

JAPAN CUTS 2025 Powered by GU

Thursday, July 10 through Sunday, July 20

Japan Society – 333 E. 47th Street (between 1st and 2nd Avenues)

North America’s largest festival of contemporary Japanese film returns for its 18th year this summer at Japan Society! In the span of eleven days from July 10 through 20, audiences will be treated to 30 curated films from across Japan featuring major award winners, indie darlings, up-and-coming filmmakers, restorations, documentaries, experimental and short films, and anime. JAPAN CUTS Powered by GU is a showcase of the latest in Japanese cinema, featuring both today’s most popular actors and directors as well as tomorrow’s pioneering talent.

Festival Highlights

JAPAN CUTS Powered by GU will present legendary director Kiyoshi Kurosawa with the CUT ABOVE Award for Outstanding Achievement in Film, host the premieres of his new film Cloud and recent remake of Serpent’s Path, as well as showcase revivals of License to Live and a new 4K restoration of the original Serpent’s Path.
A special screening of Yasuhiro Aoki’s ChaO in collaboration with GKIDS on Opening Night. JAPAN CUTS is presenting ChaO before it goes to theaters in Japan in August.
Yuumi Kawai, Japan Academy Film Prize Best Actress winner, appearing in-person for the North American Premiere of A Girl Named Ann and the U.S. Premiere of She Taught Me Serendipity.
A Closing Night screening and shochu reception following the U.S. Premiere of The Spirit of Japan, featuring Yamatozakura Distillery and the film’s director, Joseph Overbey, in attendance.

Admission Information & Pricing

Screenings with Receptions: $26 Nonmembers | $18 Members | $23 seniors and students
Screenings with Q&As: $24 Nonmembers | $17 Member | $22 seniors and students
All Other Screenings: $20 Nonmembers | $14 Members | $18 seniors and students
Short Films: $10 Nonmembers | Free for Members | $5 seniors and students
All-Access Pass: SOLD OUT

Become a member to save 20% on all tickets and reserve free tickets for the SHORT CUTS short films presentation.

Waitlists for Sold-Out Screenings

Those wishing to attend sold-out screenings can visit the Japan Society Box Office in person. There is no online or email waitlist for sold-out screenings. A physical waitlist will begin one hour before each sold-out event. Ten minutes prior to the screening, any available tickets will be released and can be purchased by those present in the order in which they arrived. Please note, there is no guarantee that tickets will be available for sold-out events.

Schedule

Thursday, July 10 at 6:00 p.m.

ChaO – SOLD OUT

Dir. Yasuhiro Aoki | 2025 | 90 min. | Japanese with English subtitles | With Ouji Suzuka, Anna Yamada

Special Screening—Followed by Opening Night Reception

Yasuhiro Aoki’s debut feature joins the lineage of Studio 4ºC’s (Mind Game, Tekkonkinkreet) innovative oeuvre, formulating an idiosyncratic Andersen fairy tale set in the cyberpunk mélange of near-future Shanghai where humans coexist with mermen. Ordinary salaryman Stephan is catapulted to instant fame when he is suddenly proposed to by Chao, the mermaid princess. Entrusted with the future of human-mermen relations, Stephan is rushed into the pairing, amid a flurry of politicking and diplomacy, and reluctantly agrees to marry the fish princess. But despite the makings of a political marriage, the effervescent Chao’s ardent affection sparks genuine connection. With its off-kilter brand of humor, unique kineticism, and superb hand-drawn art style—purportedly using more than 100,000 hand-drawn frames—Aoki’s ChaO is a fantastical spectacle with a deluge of heartfelt passion, produced over the course of seven years.

Friday, July 11 at 6:00 p.m.

The Real You

Dir. Yuya Ishii | 2024 | 122 min. | Japanese with English subtitles | With Sosuke Ikematsu, Ayaka Miyoshi, Koshi Mizukami, Taiga Nakano

North American Premiere

Introduced by author Keiichiro Hirano and followed by a book signing

Based on a novel by the Akutagawa-Prize winning Keiichiro Hirano, The Real You is a sci-fi mystery set in a disturbing future that feels far too real. Following the death of his mother, Sakuya Ishikawa (Sosuke Ikematsu) creates a “Virtual Figure” based on her memories to come to terms with his loss and unravel the mysteries of her passing. While he finds solace in this AI simulacrum, will he find answers—and will they be the answers he seeks? A bleak parable for our own world injected with the same sharp satire as Black Mirror, The Real You casts a cutting eye on artificial intelligence, automation, gig work, influencer culture, and tech billionaires run amok.

Attendees will be able to purchase copies of Keiichiro Hirano’s books at this screening or bring books from home for a signing session following the screening.

Friday, July 11 at 9:00 p.m.

The Gesuidouz

Dir. Kenichi Ugana | 2024 | 94 min. | Japanese with English subtitles | With Natsuko, Leo Imamura, Yutaka Kyan, Rocko Zevenbergen, Yuya Endo

U.S. Premiere

Musician Hanako (Natsuko) believes she has one year left to live and embarks with her horror-themed punk band on a quest to write the world’s best punk song before she dies at the same age as her heroes Kurt Cobain and Jim Morrison. An offbeat, delightful, and deadpan musical comedy from cult filmmaker Kenichi Ugana, The Gesuidouz follows Hanako and her band of misfits’ creative process all while balancing banal life and daily chores in a rural farming village. Overflowing with visual and aural charm, it’s impossible not to cheer for Hanako to live her punk dream.

Saturday, July 12 at 12:30 p.m.

SHORT CUTS – Four short films: FLOW, The Tree of Sinners, End of Dinosaurs, and I Am Not Invisible

FLOW
Dir. Shoko Tamai | 2025 | 5 min. | English | With Dandara Amorim Veiga, Niara Hardister, Minami Ando, Xiaoxiao Cao, Isaiah Newby, Maxfield Haynes
New York Premiere
Introduction by director Shoko Tamai
The word “taboo” comes from the French Polynesian word “tapua.” It means “sacred blood.” FLOW is an experimental short film that honors the taboo inside every woman, the cycle of the moon, and the power of creation.
The Tree of Sinners
Dir. Rii Ishihara and Hiroyuki Onogawa | 2024 | 25 min. | Japanese with English subtitles | With Sumire, Masatoshi Kihara, Ann Nishihara, Rii Ishihara
North American Premiere
Husband-and-wife team Rii Ishihara and Hiroyuki Onogawa (composer of August in the Water) craft a surreal Taisho fantasy set in a remote mansion, where a maid is forbidden to enter the room of her master’s sick wife. Visually arresting, the pair’s second medium-length work is a beautifully dark fable.
End of Dinosaurs
Dir. Kako Annika Esashi | 2024 | 28 min. | Japanese with English subtitles | With Kako Annika Esashi, Shota Imai, Leica Sasafu
U.S. Premiere
A young community organizer, a free-spirited girl, and a drag queen set out to challenge a dinosaur-ridden town’s attempt at redevelopment. A delightfully quirky and poignant film from Japanese American filmmaker Kako Annika Esashi. Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the PIA Film Festival.
I Am Not Invisible
Dir. Yuki York | 2024 | 24 min. | in Tagalog, English, and Japanese with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere
Winner of the 2024 PIA Grand Prize, Yuki York’s self-reflexive documentary is a personal essay, shot in an impoverished district of the Philippines, deemed “invisible” by York’s on-screen text. Tracing York’s roots, I Am Not Invisible asks residents innocuous questions about their lives to understand them better, in turn offering to understand York’s own Filipina grandmother better.

Saturday, July 12 at 3:00 p.m.

Yasuko, Songs of Days Past

North American Premiere

Helmed by ’80s auteur Kichitaro Negishi (Distant Thunder, Detective Story), Yasuko is a resplendent Taisho-set period drama penned by Seijun Suzuki scribe Yozo Tanaka, whose past works made up some of the most decadent evocations of Taisho through the visual triumphs of Suzuki’s independent triumvirate of Zigeunerweisen, Kagero-za, and Yumeji. Set in the younger days of ill-fated modernist poet Chuya Nakahara (“Japan’s Rimbaud”), Yasuko captures the prodigy’s early love affair with aspiring actress Yasuko Hasegawa (Suzu Hirose) and the ensuing entanglements when she falls for literary critic Hideo Kobayashi. Negishi’s lush melodrama, his first film in 15 years, burrows deep into the tumultuous entwinement of their bohemian lives, while endowing Hirose’s Yasuko with a depth that exceeds the tired narrative of literary muses.

Saturday, July 12 at 6:30 p.m.

She Taught Me Serendipity

Dir. Akiko Ohku | 2025 | 127 min. | Japanese with English subtitles | With Riku Hagiwara, Yuumi Kawai, Aoi Ito, Kodai Kurosaki

U.S. Premiere

Q&A with Yuumi Kawai and Reception

Director Akiko Ohku (Tremble All You Want) shifts away from her novel engagements with the neurotic interiorities of young working women to explore the life of college student Konishi (Riku Hagiwara), an anxiety-ridden loner who brandishes an umbrella on sunlit days. Through a progression of coincidences, Konishi forms a bond with classmate Hana (Yuumi Kawai), whose equally vulnerable and eclectic state of mind suggests a perfect match, but in his utter infatuation, Konishi’s self-involved disposition places enormous neglect on friends and co-workers. Sensory and sonically attuned, even balletic at times, She Taught Me Serendipity inventively constructs an approximation of Konishi’s psyche and shines in its open-hearted confessions, soul-baring and poignant in their nature.

Sunday, July 13 at 12:30 p.m.

Kowloon Generic Romance

Dir. Chihiro Ikeda | 2025 | 120 min. | Japanese with English subtitles | With Riho Yoshioka, Koshi Mizukami

World Premiere

Perhaps nostalgia is nothing more than another form of love. Reiko Kujirai (Riho Yoshioka), who works at a real estate agency in the nostalgic town of Kowloon Walled City, is in love with her senior, Hajime Kudo (Koshi Mizukami). Hajime knows every corner of Kowloon and often takes Reiko to his favorite places, yet the distance between them remains the same. Despite this, Reiko finds comfort in her everyday life, surrounded by dear friends like Yaomay (Minami Umezawa), the shoemaker owner, and Xiaohei (Kotone Hanase), who works part-time at various stores across the town. One day, Reiko is startled when Tao Gwen (Shuntaro Yanagi), a café worker at Goldfish Teahouse, mistakes her for Hajime’s lover. She also stumbles upon a photograph—one that shows Hajime with a woman who looks exactly like her. The forgotten memories of her past, the mystery behind her duplicate self, and the hidden truths buried within Kowloon . . . As the past and present collide, romance becomes the key to unraveling the unknown. Jun Mayuzuki’s acclaimed science fiction mystery manga comes to life!

Sunday, July 13 at 3:00 p.m.

Michiyuki – Voices of Time

Dir. Hiromichi Nakao | 2024 | 79 min. | Japanese with English subtitles | With Daichi Watanabe, Kanjuro Kiritake, Hiromichi Hosoma

World Premiere of Final Version

Shot in Nara, Hiromichi Nakao’s sophomore feature is an elegant meditation on time and memory with sublime black-and-white cinematography, while also mixing hand-drawn animation with 8mm and digital camerawork. Moving into an old house in the rural countryside, videographer Komai converses with its former owner Umemoto and the town’s inhabitants as he renovates the premises; their discussions draw from personal memories to discuss histories, morphology, cartographies, and the passage of time, reflecting upon the changing tides of tradition and progress within generational spans of the town’s history.

Sunday, July 13 at 5:30 p.m.

A Girl Named Ann

Dir. Yu Irie | 2024 | 113 min. | Japanese with English subtitles | With Yuumi Kawai, Jiro Sato, Goro Inagaki

North American Premiere

Q&A with Yuumi Kawai

Starring Yuumi Kawai, who won Best Actress at the Japan Academy Film Prize for this stunning performance, A Girl Named Ann tells the story of a teenage dropout attempting to rebuild her life. Ann (Kawai) tries to find hope amid abuse and addiction, and it takes the hand of a Tokyo detective (Sato) to help lift her from the depths. Yet what are the motives of this outstretched hand, and can a single girl climb back to society when the world itself has turned its back? Inspired by a painfully true story, A Girl Named Ann is a testament to individual perseverance and condemnation of larger societal failures, written and directed by the lauded Yu Irie.

Monday, July 14 at 6:00 p.m.

Teki Cometh

Dir. Daihachi Yoshida | 2024 | 108 min. | Japanese with English subtitles | With Kyozo Nagatsuka, Kumi Takiuchi, Yuumi Kawai, Asuka Kurosawa

New York Premiere

Gisuke (Kyozo Nagatsuka) is a retired college professor who lives a quiet life alone, until one day he finds a post on the internet about an approaching “enemy,” and the world around him begins to melt into paranoia, dream, delusion, and fantasy. Director Daihachi Yoshida (Kiba: The Fangs of Fiction) presents a beautiful, thought-provoking, and arresting film pulled from what many considered an unfilmable novel by Tsutsui Yasutaka. Stunningly lensed and deeply affecting, Teki Cometh poses challenging questions about aging, mortality, and the faulty relationship between memory and reality without offering any easy answers. Widely acclaimed in Japan, Teki Cometh won Best Film, Best Director, and Best Actor at last year’s Tokyo International Film Festival.

Monday, July 14 at 8:30 p.m.

A Samurai in Time

Dir. Junichi Yasuda | 2024 | 131 min. | Japanese with English subtitles | With Makiya Yamaguchi, Norimasa Fuke, Yuno Sakura

New York Premiere

The biggest Japanese indie phenomenon since One Cut of the Dead! This low-budget film financed entirely by director Junichi Yasuda was initially shown in only one theater, but through word of mouth it grew into a sensation across Japan and ultimately took home Best Film at this year’s Japan Academy Film Prize. At the end of the Edo period, a flash of lightning sends a samurai into the present day, and to survive, he takes a job as an actor in jidaigeki movies. This fish-out-of-water comedy is a love letter to moviemaking and an especially heart-felt tribute to Japan’s jidaigeki industry.

Tuesday, July 15 at 6:00 p.m.

What Should We Have Done?

Dir. Tomoaki Fujino | 2024 | 101 min. | Japanese with English subtitles

In 1983, director Tomoaki Fujino’s 20-something sister Masako began exhibiting signs of schizophrenia. Yet his parents—both in research and medical positions—responded by actively denying anything was wrong and refusing to treat her. Recording his sister from 2001 until her death in 2021, Fujino chronicles his family saga in a deeply personal trove of conversations, family scenes, episodes, and meetings, all documented on a handheld consumer-grade camera. What Should We Have Done? actively explores and confronts the cultural disparities associated with mental illness in Japan. Debuting at the 2024 Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, Tomoaki Fujino’s independent sleeper hit poses a biting titular question, one that has yet to be resolved.

Tuesday, July 15 at 8:30 p.m.

See You Tomorrow

Dir. Saki Michimoto | 2024 | 99 min. | Japanese with English subtitles | With Makoto Tanaka, Ryota Matsuda, Risa Shigematsu

North American Premiere

The debut feature from director Saki Michimoto is an Osaka-set slice-of-life work, revolving around talented art school student Nao, who roams the streets, framing everything in her line of vision in the viewfinder of her camera. With graduation looming, Nao’s natural abilities, which vastly outshine her friends and classmates, bring promise of new opportunities but at the cost of leaving everything behind. A gentle coming-of-age drama, Michimoto’s See You Tomorrow is subtle and unassuming, quietly affirming the need to branch out and discover fulfillment for oneself.

Wednesday, July 16 at 6:00 p.m.

Cloud – SOLD OUT

Dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa | 2024 | 124 min | Japanese with English subtitles | With Masaki Suda, Kotone Furukawa, Amane Okayama

New York Premiere

CUT ABOVE Award Ceremony—Q&A with Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Reception

Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s third film in a prolific year, following the creative spurt of Chime and Serpent’s Path, shapes up to be a slow-burn techno-thriller, one which takes its name from today’s ubiquitous virtual cloud. Moonlighting as a black-market internet reseller for fake merchandise and products, factory worker Yoshii’s (Masaki Suda) get-rich-quick schemes and morally dubious actions seem to pay off when afforded the opportunity to move out to a remote, wooded lake house seemingly perfect for his business dealings. Rattled by strange incidents, however, Yoshii finds his errant ways catching up to him when unknown assailants target him. Kurosawa’s suspense-driven exercise in the action genre envisions the amplified ire of internet culture as a radicalized hydra of sprouting heads, amassing an anonymous network to quash its petty grievances. Kurosawa, as he so often does, masterfully finds terror in the mundane.

Thursday, July 17 at 6:00 p.m.

Serpent’s Path

Dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa | 2024 |113 min. | French with English subtitles | With Ko Shibasaki, Damien Bonnard, Mathieu Amalric, Hidetoshi Nishijima

East Coast Premiere

Q&A with Kiyoshi Kurosawa

A higher budget remake of Kurosawa’s 1998 straight-to-video effort, Serpent’s Path presents a variation on the original, supplanting Tokyo for the overcast banlieues of Paris while swapping genders with its clinical protagonist and adding new narrative depths despite overtly, if not eerily, echoing its predecessor. Kidnapping an associate of a purported child-trafficking organization ominously named The Circle, Albert (Damien Bonnard) seeks retribution for the death of his child and enacts his cruel vengeance with the aid of physician Sayoko (Ko Shibasaki). The snaking narrative of Kurosawa’s psychological experiment has been told once before, yet its pathway differs ever so slightly. With haunting precision, Serpent’s Path suggests that the destination remains incontrovertibly the same.

Thursday, July 17 at 9:30 p.m.

License to Live

Dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa | 1998 | 109 min. | Japanese with English subtitles | With Hidetoshi Nishijima, Koji Yakusho, Shun Sugata

Archival 35mm Presentation

Introduction by Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s fascinating reconstruction of a 1970 Jason Robards picture—Sam Peckinpah’s frontier western The Ballad of Cable Hogue, to be exact—lifts the framework of Bloody Sam’s uncharacteristically subdued hangout film while substituting the twilight days of the Old West for 1990s Tokyo. Awakening from a ten-year coma, 24-year-old Yutaka (Drive My Car’s Hidetoshi Nishijima in his first lead role) finds that his family has separated in the decade-long interim. Expressing disinterest in the time lost, the lackadaisical Yutaka, with the help of his father’s old college friend Fujimori (Koji Yakusho), resolves to establish a pony ranch on a plot once owned by his family, forming an outpost which welcomes a community of outsiders. Irreverent, wryly comic, and heartfelt, License to Live is a marked departure from Kurosawa’s V-Cinema and horror fare, constituting an early show of the filmmaker’s remarkable adaptability and versatile range.

Friday, July 18 at 6:00 p.m.

Japanese Avant-Garde Pioneers

Dir. Amélie Ravalec | 2024 | 100 min. | English and Japanese with English subtitles | With Nobuyoshi Araki, Tadanori Yokoo, Keiichi Tanaami

New York Premiere

Q&A with director Amélie Ravalec

Exploring the explosion of postwar radical art in the 1960s and the rise of Japanese avant-garde, Japanese Avant-Garde Pioneers covers the multitude of then-burgeoning experimentations in the art form, spanning across the disciplines of photography, film, graphic design, theater, and performance. With the participation of major figures in these revolutionary movements—Hosoe, Araki, Moriyama, Yokoo, to name a few—Amélie Ravalec’s documentary is an enthralling glimpse into the outsider art of Japan’s underground movements.

Friday, July 18 at 8:30 p.m.

Blazing Fists

Dir. Takashi Miike | 2025 | 119 min. | Japanese with English subtitles | With Danhi Kinoshita, Kaname Yoshizawa, Gackt, Anna Tsuchiya

U.S. Premiere

From iconoclastic director Takashi Miike and with a cast including pop stars Gackt and Anna Tsuchiya, Blazing Fists is the story of two men in a juvenile reformatory determined to redeem themselves through a fighting tournament. Can they change their destinies through their physical mettle, or will the weight of their pasts weigh down their futures? Blazing Fists is a powerfully human film about loyalty and friendship, filled with exuberant outbursts of Miike’s hallmark action, humor, and violence.

Saturday, July 19 at 12:30 p.m.

Promised Land

Dir. Masashi Iijima | 2023 | 89 min. | Japanese with English subtitles | With Rairu Sugita, Kantaro

New York Theatrical Premiere

Masashi Iijima’s feature film directorial debut is based on an award-winning 1983 novel by Kazuichi Iijima. Set in a rural mountain town, it follows two matagi (traditional Japanese hunters) as they embark on a bear hunt in secret, preserving their custom despite a governmental ban. This tense and austere film told through long shots and minimal dialogue presents a very personal story about the conflict between tradition and progress and allows the audience ample time to reflect in wide stretches of silence amid snowy mountain vistas.

Saturday, July 19 at 2:30 p.m.

My Sunshine

Dir. Hiroshi Okuyama | 2024 | 90 min. | Japanese with English subtitles | With Sosuke Ikematsu, Keitatsu Koshiyama, Kiara Nakanishi

New York Premiere

On the snowy island of Hokkaido, a young hockey player named Takuya (Keitatsu Koshiyama) becomes transfixed by the figure skaters who share the rink, particularly Sakura (Kiara Nakanishi), a rising star from Tokyo. Her coach, Arakawa (Sosuke Ikematsu), takes an interest in Takuya, seeing himself in the young boy. He pairs the two up and trains them as an ice-dancing duo. Tentatively at first, they grow closer and form a deep bond, but as unspoken feelings begin to surface, the harmony of the trio begins to shake. Intimately lensed and told through a striking kaleidoscope of winter hues, My Sunshine is an aching film that captivates the audience with a nostalgia for both the wonders and pain of young love while at the same time confronting the deeper subjects of Japan’s attitudes toward masculinity and homosexuality.

Saturday, July 19 at 4:30 p.m.

So Beautiful, Wonderful and Lovely

Dir. Megumi Okawara | 2025 | 67 min. | Japanese with English subtitles | With Megumi Okawara, Shin Namura, Naoko Miya

North American Premiere

Q&A with director Megumi Okawara

A frenetic display of heartbreak filled with whimsical leanings, So Beautiful, Wonderful and Lovely finds school janitor Nozomi Haruta (Megumi Okawara) at her wits’ end when her boyfriend unceremoniously dumps her to marry another woman. Struggling to rationalize the situation, she behaves erratically, photobombing his wedding pictures and fantasizing a Castella version of her boyfriend. Imbued with a sense of real youthful energy at its core due to its rapid-fire demonstration of versatile editing and playfully absurd humor, writer/director/editor and lead actress Megumi Okawara’s So Beautiful overflows with creative ambition.

Love Letter © Fuji Television Network. Inc.

Saturday, July 19 at 6:30 p.m.

Dir. Shunji Iwai | 1995 | 117 min. | With Miho Nakayama, Etsushi Toyokawa, Miki Sakai, Takashi Kashiwabara

30th Anniversary—North American Premiere of 4K Restoration

The feature film debut of ’90s auteur Shunji Iwai is a swell of desiderium and emerging memory, an epistolary melodrama which lightly evokes Proust’s madeleine in the blanche wintertide of Otaru. Framed within the back-and-forth correspondence of heartbroken Hiroko and librarian Itsuki—a widowed fiancée and the former classmate of her deceased lover (Miho Nakayama in dual roles)—Love Letter focuses on buried recollections as their letters uncover Itsuki’s school-age memories of Hiroko’s dead fiancé. Unapologetic in its soft-focus lyricism, Love Letter brims with unbridled emotion, buoyed by its dreamy cinematography, mnemonic constructions, and amber shades. Beloved throughout Asia, Iwai’s breakthrough would capture the hearts of an entire generation, swept over by its sincere convictions and the late Miho Nakayama’s eternal mountainside cry “O genki desu ka?”

Saturday, July 19 at 9:00 p.m.

Serpent’s Path – 4K Restoration

Dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa | 1998 | 85 min. | Japanese with English subtitles | With Sho Aikawa, Teruyuki Kagawa, Yurei Yanagi

North American Premiere of 4K Restoration

Given the chance to shoot two films back-to-back within the same two-week span, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s 1998 V-Cinema production, along with its sister film Eyes of the Spider, hinges on the same premise: a man seeking revenge for the murder of his child. With a detached, observational style, Kurosawa relays the grim chain of events with muted horror as Miyashita (Teruyuki Kagawa) and his calculating friend Nijima methodically kidnap and torture a yakuza thought to be involved in the brutal killing of his young daughter. The blind search for vengeance leads them down a convoluted path, ravaging through a string of connected associates. Operating on a low budget, Kurosawa’s taut psychological thriller plumbs the depths of this fanatical obsession, resigning to a goal which becomes ever more obscure.

Sunday, July 20 at 12:30 p.m.

Gridman Universe

Dir. Akira Amemiya | 2023 | 118 min. | Japanese with English subtitles | With Hikaru Midorikawa, Yuya Hirose, Yume Miyamoto, Soma Saito, Junya Enoki

North American Theatrical Premiere

Studio Trigger, one of the most explosive anime studios in Japan, reimagined Tsuburaya Productions’ classic tokusatsu series Gridman: The Hyper Agent in honor of its 25th anniversary with the anime series SSSS.Gridman. Following the success of SSSS.Gridman and its sequel SSSS.Dynazenon, Trigger now presents an all-new big screen spectacle celebrating the tokusatsu and kaiju genres and injecting them with their trademark over-the-top, stylish action. Perfect for fans of these genres and deeply rewarding for followers of Trigger’s previous Gridman series, Gridman Universe is a dimension-spanning adventure where the fate of more than one world hangs in the balance.

Sunday, July 20 at 3:00 p.m.

Kaiju Guy!

Dir. Junichiro Yagi | 2024 | 80 min. | Japanese with English subtitles | With Gumpy

North American Premiere

Ichiro Yamada (Japanese comedian Gumpy) works in the Seki City tourism department, and one day he’s ordered to produce a “local movie,” a common Japanese promotional gimmick designed to highlight local hotspots and increase visitors. However, Yamada has doubts about the mayor’s plan and proposes something else: a local kaiju movie. Heads butt, emotions clash, and a monster is unleashed. An absolutely delightful, heartfelt, and rewarding comedy, Kaiju Guy! will make you roar.

Sunday, July 20 at 5:00 p.m.

The Spirit of Japan

Dir. Joseph Overbey | 2024 | 48 min. | Japanese with English subtitles | With Tekkan Wakamatsu, Kazunari Wakamatsu, Ranko Wakamatsu

World Premiere

Q&A with director Joseph Overbey and producer Stephen Lyman and followed by a reception featuring shochu from Yamatozakura Distillery

The Spirit of Japan is the story of the Wakamatsu family, who have been distilling sweet potato shochu by hand at their Yamatozakura Distillery in Kagoshima Prefecture since the 1850s. This documentary follows fifth generation master brewer Tekkan Wakamatsu as he takes 175-year-old traditions passed down by his father, Kazunari Wakamatsu, and strives to adapt them to a rapidly changing market driven by commodification and mass consumerism. Director Joseph Overbey lived with the Wakamatsu family as he shot The Spirit of Japan, offering a rarified look inside the shochu-making production, an intimate portrait of family succession, and an unflinching glimpse into the harsh realities of preserving tradition in the modern world.

Susan McCormac 5/14/25 Susan McCormac 5/14/25

Dodgers vs Mets on Japanese & Japanese American Community Night at Citi Field

Catch the Los Angeles Dodgers vs the New York Mets on Japanese and Japanese American Community Night at Citi Field!

Japanese and Japanese American Community Night

Friday, May 23 at 7:10 p.m. | Pregame Ceremonies at 5:45 p.m.

Citi Field – Flushing, Queens

Admission: $63.25 to $232.50

Kick off Memorial Day weekend in a memorable way on Friday, May 23 as Kodai Senga and the New York Mets host reigning National League MVP Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Roki Sasaki and the defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers at Citi Field.

Once again, The Japanese American Association of New York, the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI), The Nippon Club, Japan Society, U.S.-Japan Council, and the Japanese American National Museum (JANM) will host Japanese and Japanese American Community Night, celebrating the strong bond between the U.S. and Japan through our shared love of baseball.

Pregame Activities

Taiko Drumming
Soh Daiko in Tom Seaver Plaza from 5:45 p.m. until 6:15 p.m.
Amazin' Awards Presentation to Community Leaders
Gary S. Moriwaki – Japan Society Board Member
Masaaki Maeda – Vice President & Assistant Secretary, JCCI
Koji Sato – President, The Japanese American Association of America, Inc.
Darin Arita – Co-Chair, New York & Vicinity Region, U.S.-Japan Council
Kathryn Bannai – Member of the Board of Trustees, JANM
First Pitch Thrown by a Dignitary in the Japanese and Japanese American Community
Pitcher: Tetsuo Kawate – Former JCCI President, President & CEO, Mitsubishi Corporations (Americas)
Catcher: Dr. Joshua Walker – President & CEO, Japan Society

The Mets are offering discount tickets to the Japanese and Japanese American community for the entire three-game series. Click this link https://www.gofevo.com/group/JJANight2025 to purchase tickets. With each purchase, $10 will be donated to the Japanese community organization of your choice, which you will select upon checkout.

Susan McCormac 4/5/25 Susan McCormac 4/5/25

Incarceration & Resettlement Told Through Tanka

Join Japan Society for a special book talk and signing of By the Shore of Lake Michigan, a newly translated tanka poetry collection by Japanese American WWII incarcerees Tomiko and Ryokuyō Matsumoto. Discover firsthand Issei perspectives on displacement, resilience, and postwar life. Free tickets with promo code TANKAFRIEND.

By the Shore of Lake Michigan: Recovering WWII Prison Camp & Resettlement Stories through Poetry

Monday, April 7 at 7:00 p.m.

Japan Society – 333 E. 47th Street (between 1st and 2nd Avenues)

Admission: $15 | $12 Seniors & Students | Free for Japan Society members

Japan Society presents a book talk and signing in honor of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, featuring By the Shore of Lake Michigan, a newly translated collection of tanka poetry by Tomiko and Ryokuyō Matsumoto. As first-generation Japanese Americans, the Matsumotos were among the 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans incarcerated in U.S. wartime prison camps.

Our friends at Japan Society are offering complimentary tickets to JapanCultureNYC readers! Go to Japan Society’s website to select the number of tickets you’d like and use promo code TANKAFRIEND at checkout.

About the Book

The Matsumotos’ poetry, written in tanka—the oldest form of Japanese poetry—captures their experiences of displacement, resilience, and rebuilding life after the war. Published by the UCLA Asian American Studies Center Press, By the Shore of Lake Michigan spans 17 years, tracing the Matsumotos’ forced relocation from Los Angeles to Wyoming’s Heart Mountain prison camp in 1942 and their postwar resettlement in Chicago. While many accounts of wartime incarceration have come from second- and third-generation Japanese Americans through fiction, theater, and film, Japanese-language writings from the Issei generation remain largely untranslated. This collection is a rare, firsthand poetic chronicle of a pivotal moment in history, nearly 15 years in the making.

Originally in Japanese, these poems are now available to English-language readers for the first time, thanks to the efforts of editor Nancy Matsumoto, the poets’ granddaughter, along with translators Mariko Aratani and Kyoko Miyabe.

Event Highlights

The evening includes a discussion with:

Nancy Matsumoto — editor and granddaughter of the poets
Mariko Aratani — translator
Kyoko Miyabe — translator
Eri F. Yasuhara — scholar and panelist

They’ll offer insights into the power of tanka and its role in documenting history.

Book Signing

Books will be available for purchase at the event. Guests are also welcome to bring their own copies for signing following the talk.

Susan McCormac 3/19/25 Susan McCormac 3/19/25

Award-winning Author Yoko Tawada to Appear at Two NYC Events

Acclaimed Berlin-based Japanese author Yoko Tawada will be in New York City for two special in-person events. Catch her on Tuesday, March 25 at Rizzoli Bookstore and/or on Thursday, March 27 at Columbia University School of the Arts. Both events are free!

Acclaimed Berlin-based Japanese author Yoko Tawada is making her way to New York City for two special in-person events next week. Catch her on Tuesday, March 25 at Rizzoli Bookstore and/or on Thursday, March 27 at Columbia University School of the Arts. Best of all, both events are free — a perfect opportunity to experience Tawada's literary brilliance up close!

Yoko Tawada with Monique Truong

Tuesday, March 25 from 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m.

Rizzoli Bookstore – 1133 Broadway (between W. 25th and W. 26th Streets)

Admission: Free

Co-presented by PEN America and Japan Society, internationally renowned writer Yoko Tawada will be in conversation with novelist, essayist, children’s book author, and librettist Monique Truong at Rizzoli Bookstore. Tawada’s rare New York appearance comes on the heels of the English publication of her novel Paul Celan and the Trans-Tibetan Angel, translated by Susan Bernofsky, and the second installment in her beloved Scattered trilogy, Suggested in the Stars, translated by Margaret Mitsutani.

The discussion will be followed by a book signing.

PLEASE NOTE: RSVPs are encouraged but not required. To register, please visit Rizzoli Bookstore’s Eventbrite page. This event is mixed seated/standing. Seating is limited and will be first come, first served. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.

Every Work Has Several Faces: A Conversation with Yoko Tawada about Writing and Translation

Thursday, March 27 from 7:00 p.m. until 8:30 p.m.

Columbia University: Lenfest Center for the Arts – 615 W. 129th Street at Broadway

Admission: Free

International literary luminary Yoko Tawada will discuss writing and translation with co-moderators Writing Professor Rivka Galchen ‘06 and Susan Bernofsky, Director of Literary Translation at Columbia (LTAC). To register, please visit Lenfest’s website.

Tawada, who was born in Tokyo and lives in Berlin, publishes novels, stories, essays, poems, and plays in both Japanese and German. She has received dozens of literary awards including the Akutagawa Prize, the Tanizaki Prize, the Goethe Medal, the Kleist Prize, and the National Book Award. Some of her major works available in English include The Emissary and Scattered All Over the Earth, translated from Japanese by Margaret Mitsutani, and Memoirs of a Polar Bear and Paul Celan and the Trans-Tibetan Angel, translated from German by Susan Bernofsky.

This talk is co-sponsored by The Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Humanities, Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture, and Weatherhead East Asian Institute.

Susan McCormac 2/17/25 Susan McCormac 2/17/25

“Biri Gal” at Japan Society

Sayaka Kobayashi, the inspiration behind the Japanese film Flying Colors (Biri Gal / ビリギャル), will give an author talk and book signing at Japan Society on Thursday, February 27 at 7:00 p.m.

Author Talk & Signing: Meet Real-Life Biri Gal Sayaka Kobayashi

Thursday, February 27 at 7:00 p.m.

Japan Society – 333 E. 47th Street (between 1st and 2nd Avenues)

Admission: $25 | $23 Seniors, Students, and Persons with Disabilities | $20 Japan Society Members

Sayaka Kobayashi is the real-life inspiration behind the 2015 Japanese movie Flying Colors (Biri Gal / ビリギャル), which is based on her journey from a troubled middle school student on the verge of expulsion to passing one of Japan’s most difficult university entrance exams. Now, on the 10th anniversary of this beloved film, Japan Society presents Kobayashi for a talk about her life, career, writing and motivation.

About Sayaka Kobayashi

Struggling with poor academic performance throughout high school, Kobayashi dedicated herself to an intense study regimen for a year and a half, and after tremendous effort, she succeeded in securing admission to the prestigious Keio University. Her story became the best-selling book The Story of a Gal at the Bottom of her School Year who Raised her Standard Score by 40 Points in One Year and Got Accepted into Keio University, written by her dedicated tutor, Nobutaka Tsubota. This book, which has sold more than one million copies, led to Flying Colors (Biri Gal / ビリギャル).

Since her Keio success, Kobayashi earned a master’s degree in cognitive science from Columbia University in 2024, and she has recently written the book How I Fell in Love with Learning, a guide that explores the essential elements for effective learning.

To purchase tickets to this event, please visit Japan Society’s website. Our friends at Japan Society are offering JapanCultureNYC members a discount to this event! Members will receive a separate email with the code for $10 tickets. Not member of JapanCultureNYC? Join now by going to https://www.japanculture-nyc.com/membership.

*How I Fell in Love with Learning* by Sayaka Kobayashi

About the Book

How I Fell in Love with Learning (私はこうして勉強にハマった) was published by Sanctuary Publishing in Japan in July 2024. Sayaka Kobayashi unpacks her success story through the lens of cognitive science, drawing on insights gained at Columbia University. The book explores three essential elements for effective learning: strong motivation, the right strategies and study methods and a supportive environment that sustains the learner’s enthusiasm. By focusing on these key factors, How I Fell in Love with Learning offers a practical guide to study techniques for anyone. The book is accessible to everyone from middle school students to parents and educators, providing tools to improve academic performance alongside guidance on fostering a love of learning and confidence-building.

Autographs and Book Sales

Attendees of Japan Society’s Sayaka Kobayashi talk and signing will be able to purchase copies of How I Fell in Love with Learning at the event or bring books from home for a signing session following the author’s talk. Please note How I Fell in Love with Learning is available only in Japanese.

Susan McCormac 2/5/25 Susan McCormac 2/5/25

Japan Society Pays Tribute to Legendary Filmmaker

Japan Society pays tribute to legendary filmmaker Nobuhiko Obayashi with a series featuring his “seishun eiga”

Obayashi ’80s: The Onomichi Trilogy & Kadokawa Years

Friday, February 7 through Friday, February 14, 2025

Japan Society – 333 E. 47th Street (between 1st and 2nd Avenues)

Admission: $16 | $12 Japan Society Members

Japan Society presents a tribute to Japanese director and screenwriter Nobuhiko Obayashi, whose career spanned 60 years and multiple genres. Curated by Japan Society Film Programmer Alexander Fee, Obayashi ’80s: The Onomichi Trilogy & Kadokawa Years comprises six films screened across five days.

About the Film Series

The teenage symphonies of Nobuhiko Obayashi (1938-2020) are wound in a melancholy nostalgia for a period indelibly lost to time—that inexpressible gap between adolescence and adulthood. Braiding visually expressive fantasias with striking formal experimentation and pop-art boldness, Obayashi’s idiosyncratic cinematic language produced some of Japan’s most beloved seishun eiga (youth films) in the 1980s. Captivating generations of filmgoers with his earnest portraits of young love and vanished worldviews, Obayashi’s films were further bolstered by film studio Kadokawa’s innovative tactics of popularizing dreamy pop idols such as Hiroko Yakushimaru and Tomoyo Harada.

With a career overshadowed abroad by the oddball eccentricity of his electric 1977 debut House, the 1980s would prove to be the high-water mark of Obayashi’s popularity, epitomized by his endearing Onomichi trilogy—set in the filmmaker’s hometown of Onomichi, the site of Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story. Framed in 35mm viewfinders, against wildly ingenious chroma-key composites and characterized by his unflagging optimism for the youth of Japan, Obayashi’s youth passages are caught up in the ages of transition, demonstrably attuned to the extraordinary nature of ordinary adolescence.

To purchase tickets, please visit Japan Society’s website.

Schedule

Friday, February 7

I Are You, You Am Me (Exchange Students)
7:00 p.m. | 112 min.
A playful mélange of amateur small-gauge, black-and-white, and color photography, Obayashi’s first entry in his hometown trilogy spins into a gender-swap youth film when two classmates switch bodies after a steep fall.
School in the Crosshairs
9:15 p.m. | 90 min.
A psychotronic fantasy forged into a young girl’s destiny to defend the planet, School in the Crosshairs is a cosmic overload of extraterrestrial fascists, preternatural powers, and Obayashi’s uniquely adroit filmmaking abilities.

Saturday, February 8

The Little Girl Who Conquered Time
5:00 p.m. | 104 min.
Schoolgirl Kazuko begins to experience time leaps backwards and forward in time, disorienting her as she yearns to stay in the present. Obayashi’s second Onomichi film is a genuine expression of the transcendence of love—one cast across the stars for a young girl who lives in tomorrow.
Lonely Heart (Miss Lonely)
8:00 p.m. | 112 min.
The final installment in Obayashi’s Onomichi trilogy is celebrating its 40th anniversary. It is a virtuosic ode to first love and the intrinsic emotions that arise with it as a young boy falls in love and encounters a mysterious girl in the viewfinder of his analog camera.

Sunday, February 9

The Island Closest to Heaven
5:00 p.m. | 103 min.
Fulfilling her late father’s dream to take her to “the island closest to heaven,” bookish teen Mari ventures solo to a paradise-laden archipelago in search of the mythic locale.
School in the Crosshairs
7:15 p.m.

Thursday, February 13

His Motorbike, Her Island
7:00 p.m. | 96 min.
A nostalgia-filled reminiscence, Obayashi’s monochromatic dream playfully worships the biker culture of yesteryear, delivering a sentimental and liberating take on young love.
I Are You, You Am Me (Exchange Students)
9:15 p.m. | 112 min.

Friday, February 14

The Little Girl Who Conquered Time
7:00 p.m. | 104 min.
His Motorbike, Her Island
9:15 p.m. | 96 min.

About Nobuhiko Obayashi

Born in Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, in 1938, Nobuhiko Obayashi’s 60-year film career began with avant-garde experimental shorts in the 1960s. Throughout the 1970, he directed highly stylized and whimsical television commercials, which allowed him to experiment with different techniques and to develop his creative flair. His mainstream films, as featured in Japan Society’s series, focused on the innocence of youth, young love, loss, and nostalgia. In his later works, Obayashi weaved social commentary, such as anti-war themes, into his storytelling.

Obayashi died of lung cancer in April 2020 at the age of 82.

Susan McCormac 1/8/25 Susan McCormac 1/8/25

HARAJUKU BURLESQUE THEATRE AT JAPAN SOCIETY

Duke Bluebeard’s Castle

Wednesday, January 15 at 7:30 p.m. — Followed by an opening night reception
Thursday, January 16 at 7:30 p.m. — Followed by an artist Q&A
Friday, January 17 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, January 18 at 7:30 p.m.

Japan Society – 333 E. 47th Street (between 1st and 2nd Avenues)

Admission: $48 | $36 Japan Society members

Japan Society presents the North American premiere of a new production of Duke Bluebeard’s Castle in partnership with Under the Radar, America’s premier experimental performance festival, celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.

Written by revolutionary Japanese angura (underground) theater artist and multi-hyphenate Shuji Terayama, Duke Bluebeard’s Castle is now re-envisioned by illustrious experimental theater director Kim Sujin and performed by the all-female avant-garde ensemble Project Nyx. As part of Under the Radar 2025, Duke Bluebeard’s Castle will have only four performances. The runtime is 135 minutes and will be performed in Japanese with English supertitles.

Ticketholders for performances on Thursday through Saturday will also receive complimentary, same-day admission for one person to Bunraku Backstage, on view at Japan Society Gallery through Sunday, January 19. To view the exhibition please show ticket/receipt to the Welcome Desk for free admission before the performance. PLEASE NOTE: This exhibit will not be available to the public on Wednesday, January 15. Purchase tickets at Japan Society’s website.

Shuji Terayama's *Duke Bluebeard's Castle* ©Yoji Ishizawa

About Duke Bluebeard’s Castle

In this new take, director Kim Sujin gives the play an entrancing and nightmarish Harajuku burlesque makeover. The 30-member company includes the all-female ensemble Project Nyx, the Gothic-Lolita cabaret music duo Kokusyoku Sumire, and the award-winning magician Syun Shibuya. This stage show further twists Terayama’s aggressively subversive play into a macabre, magic-infused Lolita fashion spectacle saturated with dark magic tricks, fiddlers and accordion players, aerial dance, and more.

Set in the backstage of a theater in Japan, the play begins with the arrival of a character, The Girl Set to Play the Seventh Wife, as a theater troupe prepares to perform a play called Duke Bluebeard’s Castle. Determined to uncover the truth behind the mysterious disappearance of her missing stagehand brother, she becomes trapped in the twists and turns of the script, which weaves metaphysical layers of the Gothic horror over top of the play, drawing into question the very nature of theater itself.

About Shuji Terayama

Throughout his career, Shuji Terayama, a legendary founding figure of Japan’s raucous avant-garde angura theater movement in the 1960s and ’70s, was repeatedly drawn to the French gothic horror Le Barbe Bleue (Bluebeard), a magic-infused folktale about a nobleman who murders his six wives. Terayama’s obsession with the story of Bluebeard’s seventh wife and the mysterious room in Bluebeard’s castle that she is forbidden to enter culminated in this late-career magnum opus script, a twisting game of cat-and-mouse that asks the question: On the theater stage, where magic and the mundane and fantasy and reality freely mix, can anyone truly determine what is truth, and what is a lie? Terayama wrote Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, nominally drawing from Bela Bartók’s famous operatic version of the French legend, and directed it for his company, Tenjo Sajiki, in 1979 at the Seibu Theater in Shibuya, Tokyo. The premiere production was titled Duke Bluebeard’s Castle – from Bartók and was billed by the company as a work full of “fashion, magic, evil, and eroticism.”

Coinciding with the performances on January 15 through 18, rarely seen artifacts of Terayama’s scripts, letters, photos, and other items from the La MaMa Archive will be displayed in Japan Society’s foyer. All items are collected from presentations of Terayama’s work at La MaMa Experimental Theater Club, including La Marie-Vision, directed by Terayama himself and performed by American actors in 1970, and Directions to Servants, by Terayama’s Tenjo Sajiki company in 1980.

About Kim Sujin

Multiple award-winning director Kim Sujin has garnered an international reputation for his experimental theater productions and is recognized as a direct inheritor of the angura movement from founders such as Juro Kara and Shuji Terayama. After graduating from Tokai University, Kim studied under director Yukio Ninagawa and was a member of the Ninagawa Studio, where he learned the basics of theater by appearing in productions such as Chikamatsu Shinju Monogatari (The Tale of Chikamatsu).

In 1978, he joined Juro Kara's company, Jokyo GekijoTheater. He received direct instruction from Ninagawa and Kara, two leading figures in the "underground small theater" scene. Kim quickly established himself through his distinct “tent theater” performances, a unique style of experiential theater inherited from Juro Kara. Kim later founded his theater company, Shinjuku Ryozanpaku, in 1987. He has been directing all of Shinjuku Ryozanpaku productions since the company's launch and is recognized for his dynamic directional skills that make full use of the tent and theater space. Since its inception, the company has travelled across the world. The company had its US debut in 1999 with Kara’s A Cry from the City of Virgins, presented at Japan Society.

Starting in 2016 and continuing over several years, Kim directed Juro Kara's major plays, including Vinyl Castle, Kara-ban Kaze no Matasaburo, Mud Mermaid, and A Cry from the City of Virgins, for the prestigious venue Theater Cocoon in Tokyo as a materialization of the late Yukio Ninagawa's wish. In 2023, he won the 57th Kinokuniya Theatre Award for Individual Achievement, and this year, Kinokuniya Theatre announced the Group Achievement Award to Kim’s Shinjuku Ryozanpaku for its 59th Award. Kim has served as the resident director of Project Nyx’s productions since its founding in 2006. He continues to direct productions around the world and is currently a visiting professor at Chonju National University in Korea.

About Project Nyx

Based on the art and costumes of Akira Uno and the direction of Kim Sujin, Project Nyx was founded in 2006 by Kanna Mizushima, an actress and company member of Shinjuku Ryōzanpaku who plays the role of The Fifth Wife in Duke Bluebeard’s Castle. This all-female experimental theater unit breathes life into art that has drifted into obscurity or oblivion, ranging from timeless masterpieces to lesser-known gems, and reviving them as contemporary performances with an avant-garde spin.

Project NYX has also been recognized in Japan as a current leading interpreter of Japanese angura theater, revitalizing these works in the twenty-first century. By bringing together artists from various genres, Project NYX aims to create new entertainment that transcends the expected boundaries of theater, merging music, dance, and fine art. Since its inception, it has promoted an "exquisite entertainment theater" with a mysterious, glamorous, and avant-garde visual style, continuously expressing the beauty and strength of women. In recent years, Project Nyx has also taken on the challenge of developing "female kabuki," creating a style that blurs, crosses, and transcends preconceived gender boundaries and gender roles on and around the theater stage.

Susan McCormac 12/6/24 Susan McCormac 12/6/24

Meet Cookbook Author Sonoko Sakai

Cookbook author Sonoko Sakai. Photo by Rick Poon.

Book Talk and Signing: Sonoko Sakai and Wafu Cooking

Wednesday, December 11 at 7:00 p.m.

Japan Society – 333 E. 47th Street (between 1st and 2nd Avenues)

Admission: $25 | $20 Japan Society members | $23 Seniors, Students, and Persons with Disabilities

Japan Society is hosting a special talk and signing with bestselling author Sonoko Sakai on December 11 to celebrate the release of her newest book, Wafu Cooking: Everyday Recipes with Japanese Style. This event will be moderated by novelist and cookbook writer Sanaë Lemoine.

Thanks to our friends at Japan Society, JapanCulture•NYC readers have access to complimentary tickets to attend! Please visit Japan Society’s website and enter code SONOKOFRIEND at checkout.

About Wafu Cooking

Wafu (literally “Japanese style”) food combines flavors, ingredients, and techniques from around the planet with a distinctly Japanese personality, and this new cookbook presents 120-plus original globally influenced Japanese recipes. Sakai’s book captures the cultural exchange between Japan and the world in dishes that have come to Japan from abroad and have been “wafu-ed” to suit local tastes and in Japanese dishes that are reimagined through an American lens, reflecting the interconnected way we eat today.

About Sonoko Sakai

Author Sonoko Sakai was born in New York to Japanese parents and grew up in San Francisco, Kamakura, Mexico City, and Tokyo. Her books include Japanese Home Cooking, Rice Craft, and The Poetical Pursuit of Food. She has worked as a recipe developer, producer, creative director, cooking teacher, and lecturer. She lives in California with her sculptor husband, Katsuhisa Sakai.

From *Wafu Cooking* by Sonoko Sakai. Photos by Rick Poon.

Susan McCormac 11/13/24 Susan McCormac 11/13/24

Full Weekend of Anime Talks & Screenings

Foreign Exchange: Anime Inspirations & Visionaries with LeSean Thomas

Friday, November 15 through Sunday, November 17

Japan Society – 333 E. 47th Street (between 1st and 2nd Avenues)

Admission

Ninja Scroll with Reception: $20 | $16 members
Behind-the-Scenes of LeSean Thomas’s Yasuke Talk: $12 | $8 members
All Other Screenings: $16 | $12 members
High School and College Students Talks: Free with RSVP (For Students and Educators Only)
Foreign Exchange Bundle: $80 | $55 Members
Get tickets for all screenings and the Yasuke talk at a discounted price. To get bundle pricing, please add all events into your cart. Discount will be applied automatically. Please note this bundle does not include the High School and College Student Talks.
Prices are inclusive of fees, where applicable. To purchase tickets, please visit Japan Society’s website.

Through Foreign Exchange, Japan Society presents retrospective screenings which spotlight the works that inspired LeSean Thomas, one of the few Black Americans working in the anime industry in Japan, and celebrate the luminaries across the anime world including Masahiro Ando, Hiroshi Kobayashi, Takeshi Koike, Yutaka Minowa, Kenichi Shima, and the late Satoshi Iwataki. Appearing in-person throughout the series, LeSean will discuss his history with anime, his cross-cultural productions with Japanese creators and the artform’s deep impact with diverse audiences, including talks with The Imagination Project Inc. offering guidance for the next generation of creators, directors, producers, artists, and animators.

Schedule

Behind the Scenes of LeSean Thomas’s Yasuke

Friday, November 15 at 6:00 p.m.

This event examines LeSean Thomas’s most recent work, Netflix’s Yasuke, a project he created, directed, and executive produced. In this talk, Thomas will share rare behind-the-scenes Yasuke footage and discuss the creation of the series. It is a glimpse into the synergy that arises when diverse talents from different backgrounds come together to tell stories.

Ninja Scroll with Opening Night Reception

Friday, November 15 at 8:00 p.m.

Dir. Yoshiaki Kawajiri, 1993, 94 min., DCP, color, in Japanese with English subtitles

Introduction by LeSean Thomas. Written and directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri and animated by studio Madhouse, Ninja Scroll tells the story of a lone warrior and his battle against a team of supernatural ninjas. A nonstop tour de force, Ninja Scroll continues to be praised more than 30 years after its release, and it is often cited by animators and filmmakers as the film that opened their minds to the possibilities of animation.

Sword of the Stranger

Saturday, November 16 at 5:00 p.m.

Dir. Masahiro Ando, 2007, 102 min., DCP, color, in Japanese with English subtitles

Introduction by LeSean Thomas. Directed by Masahiro Ando and animated by studio Bones, Sword of the Stranger is a fresh telling of a wandering swordsman tale. In it, a samurai from a strange land must not only battle dangerous mercenaries, but he must also come to terms with his past. The film concludes with a dauntingly choreographed battle that’s one of the most praised fight scenes in animation history.

Redline

Saturday, November 16 at 8:00 p.m.

Dir. Takeshi Koike, 2010, 102 min., Digital, color, in Japanese with English subtitles

Introduction by LeSean Thomas. Directed by Takeshi Koike and animated by studio Madhouse, Redline is a ferociously animated far-future action-adventure spiraling around an intergalactic race. While a box office flop upon its initial release, it would go on to become a classic beloved by cinephiles, animation fans, and industry professionals on both sides of the Pacific.

Cowboy Bebop: The Movie

Sunday, November 17 at 4:00 p.m.

Dir. Shinichiro Watanabe, 2001, 115 min., 35mm, color, in Japanese with English subtitles

Introduction by LeSean Thomas. Set in a lawless future heavily drawn from inspirations including American science fiction, cyberpunk, noir, and Westerns, the Cowboy Bebop saga is praised for its seamless blend of genre, music, and storytelling. In Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, bounty hunter Spike Spiegel must unravel military conspiracies and hunt down an old soldier before he releases a weapon that could destroy all life on Mars.

Demon City Shinjuku

Sunday, November 17 at 6:30 p.m.

Dir. Yoshiaki Kawajiri, 1988, 82 min., DCP, color, in Japanese with English subtitles

Introduction by LeSean Thomas. Based on a novel by Vampire Hunter D creator Hideyuki Kikuchi and directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Demon City Shinjuku is a pulpy film emblematic of the anime popular with American audiences 30 years ago, when LeSean Thomas himself was growing up. And while essentially a Japanese grindhouse flick filled with supernatural action and grotesque monsters, it was the work of tremendous anime industry talents.

Talks for Students

Inspiring The Next Generation: Creating TV Anime in Japan – High School Talk and Screening

Friday, November 15 at 10:30 a.m.

Free Talk and Screening for High School Students. LeSean Thomas will present his anime Children of Ether and share with high school students his story, from growing up in the Bronx to directing anime in Japan. His goal is to return to his hometown of NYC and inspire the next generation of creators, artists, animators, and directors.

The Business of Creativity: Behind-the-Scenes of TV Anime Creation

Saturday, November 16 at 2 p.m.

Free Talk and Screening for College Students. LeSean Thomas will present the first episode of his anime Cannon Busters and walk college students along his path to work in the animation world, recounting his journey from New York, to LA, to Korea, and then Japan. He will discuss the details of anime production, the skills he needed to work in this field, and recommendations on getting a start in animation.

Special Features

Yasuke Exhibit

Japan Society will present a limited-time pop up exhibit featuring Yasuke production art personally selected by LeSean Thomas. See this exhibit free on Japan Society’s A Level before or after screenings. This exhibit will include never-before-seen sketches and storyboards from legendary Japanese creators.

Yasuke Art Book

Attendees will be able to take home Foreign Exchange: The TV Anime Creations of LeSean Thomas Vol. 1 – Yasuke, a companion art book to the Foreign Exchange film series collecting art and stories from the production of Yasuke. A limited number of books, all pre-signed by Thomas, will be available for purchase at the event.

About LeSean Thomas

South Bronx-born LeSean Thomas is among the distinguished few Black Americans making their mark in the TV anime industry and is currently the only Black American to successfully create, produce, and direct original TV anime series in Japan. His journey began with projects like The Boondocks, where he served as Supervising Character Designer and Co-Director on the NAACP Image Award-winning series, and continued with Black Dynamite: The Animated Series, where he took on the roles of Producer and Supervising Director.

His talents further extended to Studio Mir’s The Legend of Korra while living in Seoul, Korea. These foundational experiences paved the way for his transformative move to Japan, where he created and directed notable works such as Crunchyroll’s Children of Ether and Netflix’s Cannon Busters, produced in collaboration with the renowned studio Satelight. Thomas’s most recent triumph is the critically acclaimed and NAACP Image Award-nominated Netflix series Yasuke. Its unique blend of historical narrative and fantastical elements, set against a backdrop of increasing demand for Black creative inclusion in adult, sci-fi, adventure, and fantasy spaces in media, propelled Yasuke into a resonant project that captured the imagination of audiences worldwide.

Susan McCormac 10/11/24 Susan McCormac 10/11/24

WIN TICKETS TO SEE DIGIMON ADVENTURE AT JAPAN SOCIETY

Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna

Wednesday, October 16 at 7:00 p.m.

Japan Society – 333 E. 47th Street (between 1st and 2nd Avenues)

Admission: $25 Nonmembers | $20 Japan Society Members | $23 Seniors, Students, and Persons with a Disability

Join Japan Society for a one-night-only screening of Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna featuring a special in-person introduction by Hiromi Seki, Toei Animation producer and the film’s supervisor.

The original Digimon Adventure TV series premiered in 1999 and introduced the world to a group of young, hopeful heroes who were brought together to save both the real and digital worlds. The series earned acclaim for its blending of deep narrative arcs and human drama against a backdrop of warring fantastical monsters. Twenty-five years later, the Digimon franchise is more popular than ever. Toei Animation and Japan Society are presenting this special anniversary event with original producer Hiromi Seki. Produced as a special 20th anniversary feature film, Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna was originally slated for U.S. release in March 2020, but due to the pandemic, the movie never made it to North American theaters. Until now.

Ticket Giveaway!

Japan Society is generously giving away three pairs of tickets to the screening of Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna to JapanCulture•NYC followers! To enter for your chance to win, please follow @JapanCultureNYC on Instagram, like the post about the giveaway, and tag your +1! Three lucky winners will be drawn at random from the entries and notified on the morning of Tuesday, October 15. Good luck!

If you aren’t one of the lucky winners, you can still purchase tickets at Japan Society’s website. Tickets are limited, so don’t wait.

The Digimon 25th Anniversary Celebration

Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna Screening with honored guest Hiromi Seki
Special Giveaways:
Digimon Comic Volume #1 copy for all attendees
Digimon Card Game card for all attendees
Interactive Experiences:
Digimon Photo Op
Digimon Display from Bandai Tamashii Nations

Doors open at 6:00 p.m. for the Digimon Photo Op, Digimon Display, and Giveaways. Screening begins at 7:00 p.m.

About Hiromi Seki

Known as the “Mother of Sunday Morning Anime,” Hiromi Seki has been associated with Digimon since its very beginning, when she served in the planning and production of the original Digimon Adventure series. Over the last 25 years, Seki has been involved in 13 different Digimon films and series, including supervision of the franchise’s most recent movie, Digimon Adventure 02 The Beginning. In addition to Digimon, as a Toei Animation producer, Seki was the series producer who created Magical DoReMi and has worked on such productions as Marmalade Boy, Boys over Flowers, and Zatch Bell.

Susan McCormac 10/3/24 Susan McCormac 10/3/24

JAPANESE MANGA ARTIST & ILLUSTRATOR ACKY BRIGHT FEATURED AT JAPAN SOCIETY

Acky Bright: Studio Infinity

Friday, October 4 through Sunday, January 19, 2025

Japan Society – 333 E. 47th Street (between 1st and 2nd Avenues)

Admission: $12 nonmembers | $10 students and seniors | Free First Fridays from 7:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m.

Japan Society presents Acky Bright: Studio Infinity, a showcase of the rising star’s unique kawakakkoii (cute and cool) style of illustration and product design. A distinguished Japanese manga artist and illustrator, Acky Bright is known for his unique worldbuilding.

Conceived as Acky Bright’s design studio, the exhibition offers visitors an exceptional opportunity to meet the artist, witness his freestyle “live drawing,” and participate in making a series of manga-style murals. Performative and interactive, the exhibition, which previewed during the weekend of Anime NYC in August, will evolve as Acky Bright makes intermittent appearances in the gallery.

The exhibition will feature two new painting series by Acky Bright, KBK-18, and Ah-Un, that each draw inspiration from traditional Japanese art and theater. Underscoring the impressive range of his contemporary art practice, the show will also highlight Acky Bright’s promotional campaigns designed for major companies, including his multimedia designs for the nationwide “WcDonald’s” campaign, YOASOBI x Vaundy’s FRIES BEAT 2024 music video, and Squid Game coloring book illustrated for Netflix.

Gallery Information

Thursday through Sunday from 11:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m.
Closed on major holidays

Tickets include entry to both of Japan Society’s fall exhibitions, Acky Bright: Studio Infinity and Bunraku Backstage. To purchase tickets, please visit Japan Society’s website.

Susan McCormac 8/29/24 Susan McCormac 8/29/24

TOMODACHI NIGHT AT CITI FIELD

Tomodachi Night – Boston Red Sox vs New York Mets

Tuesday, September 3
Pregame Events: 6:40 p.m. — Game: 7:10 p.m.

Citi Field — Flushing, Queens

Admission: $28 to $91.25

Enjoy a special Tomodachi Night as the New York Mets host Masataka Yoshida and the Boston Red Sox in an Interleague matchup. Extend your Labor Day Weekend with baseball!

Special pregame events include

Ceremonial First Pitch by Koji Sato, President of JAANY
Amazin’ Awards to be presented to leaders of Japanese American community organizations
Unforgettable opportunity for 500 members of our community to stand on the warning track at Citi Field to watch the national anthem.* Be sure to wear red and white!

Please purchase tickets through this link: https://fevo-enterprise.com/event/tomodachi

A portion of ticket sales will be donated to The Japanese American Association of New York, the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, The Nippon Club, Japan Society, U.S.-Japan Council, and the Japanese American National Museum.

*Please note that you MUST purchase tickets using the special online link that the Mets have created specifically for this game in order to be invited onto the field for the pregame festivities. Approximately one week before the game, you will receive an email with instructions about where and at what time to assemble. This privilege is first come, first served and limited to 500 fans, so please arrive early!

Warning Track Salute Timeline*

Meet up time: 6:00 p.m.
Meet up location: Left Field Ramp (right inside Left Field Gate)
Begin lining up at the ramp: 6:15 p.m.
Line closed: around 6:30 p.m. depending on the size
Arrive at the Warning Track: between approximately 6:45 to 7:00 p.m.
Exit by the staircase to Section 135 after the anthem

*weather permitting

Amazin’ Awards

JAA — Julie Azuma
JCCI — Maasaki Maeda
USJC — Susan McCormac (I’m honored to represent the New York region of the U.S.-Japan Council!)
JANM — Kathryn Bannai

Susan McCormac 2/13/24 Susan McCormac 2/13/24

Explore the Family Dynamic at Japan Society

Family Portrait: Japanese Family in Flux

Thursday, February 15 through Saturday, February 24

Japan Society – 333 E. 47th Street (between 1st and 2nd Avenues)

Admission: $16 General | $14 Seniors, Students, and Persons with Disabilities | $12 Japan Society Members (unless otherwise noted)

Presented by Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan and Japan Society, Family Portrait: Japanese Family in Flux examines the shifting dynamics and struggles of the Japanese household in contemporary cinema. Showcasing ten features, including premieres and revivals, Family Portrait confronts the complexities of familial bonds in the face of adversity—from intergenerational gaps to changing mores and traditions—bringing to question what truly defines a family and its values in a modern world.

Series highlights include the U.S. Premiere of Kazuyoshi Kumakiri’s Yoko, starring Academy Award-nominated actress Rinko Kikuchi in a bravura performance as a woman hitchhiking more than 400 miles to her father’s funeral; the U.S. Premiere of Keiko Tsuruoka’s Tsugaru Lacquer Girl, the heart-tugging story of a family lacquerware business on the brink of collapse run by Kaoru Kobayashi of Midnight Diner fame and the daughter who strives to carry on its legacy despite deeply held traditional gender beliefs; and a Classics slate featuring a rare 35mm presentation of Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Twilight.

A special spotlight will shine on director Ryota Nakano, who has spent his career keenly capturing the complex feelings of families when faced with adversity. His latest film, The Asadas, centers on the power of family in the aftermath of the Fukushima tragedy and will be presented along with his two previous works, A Long Goodbye and Her Love Boils Bathwater. Nakano will appear in person at Family Portrait: Japanese Family in Flux to speak during select screenings and take part in a reception.

To purchase tickets, please visit Japan Society’s website, and visit IFC Center’s website to purchase tickets to the screening of Yoko on February 22.

© 2008 “Still Walking” Production Committee

Lineup and Schedule

Still Walking
Thursday, February 15 at 7:00 p.m.
Dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda | 2008 | 114 min. | Japanese with English subtitles. |. With Hiroshi Abe, Yui Natsukawa, Kirin Kiki, Yoshio Harada

The Yokoyama family gathers for an annual commemoration of the eldest son, Junpei, who drowned 15 years ago while saving someone’s life. Over the course of the day, suppressed tensions and resentments are gradually revealed amidst forced pleasantries and shared meals as second son Ryo (Hiroshi Abe) endures feelings of inferiority in front of his curmudgeon father (Yoshio Harada) and passively judgmental mother (Kirin Kiki), both of whom disapprove of his recent marriage to a widow (Yui Natsukawa) with a ten-year-old son. Dedicated to his late mother, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s 2008 drama is among his most personal films—a masterfully directed, emotionally nuanced expression of the love, heartbreak, and comfort within family relationships—and a modern classic of Japanese cinema.

Tsugaru Lacquer Girl
Friday, February 16 at 7:00 p.m.
Dir. Keiko Tsuruoka | 2023 | 118 min. | Japanese with English subtitles | With Mayu Hotta, Kaoru Kobayashi
U.S. Premiere

Traditional tsugaru-nuri lacquerwork is the Aoki family’s legacy, but their business is in decline and father Seishiro (Kaoru Kobayashi) doesn’t know if it will continue to the next generation. The family’s only hope is daughter Miyako (Mayu Hotta), but her desire to lead the family business upsets generations of customs, established gender roles, and Seishiro himself. Tsugaru Lacquer Girl vividly celebrates one of Japan’s most traditional arts and asks poignant questions about history, family, and if the past has a place in the future.

Muddy River
Saturday, February 17 at 4:00 p.m.
Dir. Kohei Oguri | 1981 | 105 min. | Japanese with English subtitles | With Takahiro Tamura, Yumiko Fujita, Mariko Kaga, Nobutaka Asahara

Taking place in working class Osaka eleven years after Japan’s defeat, Kohei Oguri’s naturalistic debut detailing an unforgettable summer friendship between two young boys is tinged with a poetic melancholy. Seen through the eyes of ten-year-old Nobuo, whose world is governed by the riverside traffic of sputtering barges, fishing boats, and a “monstrous carp,” Muddy River dwells on Nobuo’s last days of innocence as he befriends poor river dweller Kiichi, who lives nearby with his sister and mysterious mother (Mariko Kaga) on a ramshackle houseboat. Caught in the lives of its worn-down and impoverished residents—some still living the war, others dreaming of a new life—Oguri’s stunning black-and-white feature remains a heart-wrenching portrait of postwar Japan and its afflictions, the effects of which reverberate deep within the wordless exchanges and crestfallen faces of its downtrodden subjects.

Tokyo Twilight
Saturday, February 17 at 7:00 p.m.
Dir. Yasujiro Ozu | 1957 | 140 min. | Japanese with English subtitles | With Setsuko Hara, Ineko Arima, Chishu Ryu

In the thick of the industrial hums and billowing smokestacks of postwar Tokyo, Yasujiro Ozu’s crepuscular drama concerns the lives of elderly Shukichi’s (Chishu Ryu) two grown-up daughters, each taking lodgings at their father’s Tokyo home. Hemmed in by setbacks and personal troubles, Takako (Setsuko Hara) seeks refuge from her abusive husband while “delinquent” younger sister Akiko (Ineko Arima) faces the shock of an unplanned pregnancy. In delicate strokes, Ozu orchestrates Tokyo Twilight across waystations of contemporary Tokyo—from seedy mahjong parlors and Western-themed bars with Latin beats to desolate shipyards and train crossings. With quiet devastation and lingering regret, Ozu’s final black-and-white feature is one of his unequivocal masterpieces, a woeful melodrama illuminated against the fading light of day.

Hoyaman
Sunday, February 18 at 4:00 p.m.
Dir. Teruaki Shoji | 2023 | 106 min. | Japanese with English subtitles | With Afro, Kumi Kureshiro, Kodai Kurosaki
U.S. Premiere

A tearful comedy set on a beautiful island, Hoyaman follows the strange adventures of two fisherman brothers and a mysterious artist who drifts onto the island and into their lives. The three are at a crossroads in a deeply human story featuring ramen, superheroes, and tsunamis. Hoyaman tells the story of an unorthodox but modern family and the bonds that challenge us to grow. It’s director Teruaki Shoji’s feature film debut and filmed entirely on Ajishima, an island off the coast of his hometown of Ishinomaki. It features a cast of rising talent lead by Afro from the band MOROHA in his own movie debut.

Tokyo Sonata
Sunday, February 18 at 7:00 p.m.
Dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa | 2008 | 119 min. | Japanese with English subtitles | With Teruyuki Kagawa, Kyoko Koizumi, Kai Inowaki., Yu Koyanagi

Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s appropriately terrifying take on the domestic drama looks beyond the platitudes of familial values and empty promises of a happy life into the recesses of the human condition. Laid off in a wave of company downsizing, salaryman Ryuhei hides his misfortune, opting instead to deceive his family into thinking he still remains employed. Equally adrift are wife, Megumi (Kyoko Koizumi), yearning for someone to pull her out of her banal routines; teen Takashi, who sees no future living in Japan; and younger son Kenji, who simply desires to play the piano. Searching for catharsis, the family members begin to live out clandestine lives rather than confront their creeping divide. Winner of the Jury Prize of the Un Certain Regard section at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, Kurosawa’s cynical look at the subsurface decay and inadequacies of the traditional family points to its inherent breakdown.

Yoko
Thursday, February 22 at 7:00 p.m.
Offsite Screening: IFC Center – 323 6th Avenue
Admission: $18 General | $15 Seniors and Children
To purchase tickets, please visit IFC Center’s website.
Dir. Kazuyoshi Kumakiri | 2023 | 113 min. | Japanese with English subtitles | With Rinko Kikuchi, Pistol Takehara, Asuka Kurosawa
U.S. Premiere

International star Rinko Kikuchi plays the titular Yoko in an unorthodox road movie that follows an isolated woman’s journey to hitchhike more than 400 miles to her estranged father’s funeral. As she encounters a sweeping range of travelers across her trek, what will Yoko learn from each of them, and what will they learn from her? And in crossing this physical distance, can Yoko mend the emotional distance between her father and herself?

Her Love Boils Bathwater
Friday, February 23 at 7:00 p.m.
Admission: $18 General | $16 Seniors, Students, and Persons with Disabilities | $14 Japan
New York Premiere with Director Q&A and Reception
Dir. Ryota Nakano | 2016 | 125 min. | Japanese with English subtitles | With Rie Miyazawa, Hana Sugisaki, Joe Odagiri

Rie Miyazawa stars as Futaba, a single mother diagnosed with terminal cancer. With little time left, she sets out on a mission to reconnect her family, reuniting with her husband, reassuring her daughter, and bringing both together to save the family business. A popular and critical hit, Her Love Boils Bathwater won Miyazawa Best Actress and Hana Sugisaki Best Supporting Actress at the Japan Academy Awards, and the film was Japan’s official entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars.

A Long Goodbye
Saturday, February 24 at 4:00 p.m.
Dir. Ryota Nakano | 2019 | 127 min. | Japanese with English subtitles | With Yu Aoi, Yuko Takeuchi, Tsutomu Yamazaki
New York Premiere

Based on the book by Naoki Prize-winning writer Kyoko Nakajima, A Long Goodbye traces the gradual memory loss of the aging Shohei (Tsutomu Yamazaki) due to Alzheimer’s and the painful challenges and unexpected joys his two daughters experience as they return home to care for him. While Alzheimer’s robs Shohei of his past, his long goodbye brings new memories and a new closeness to his loved ones.

The Asadas
Saturday, February 24 at 7:00 p.m.
Introduction by director Ryota Nakano and Followed by a Talk Session
Dir. Ryota Nakano | 2020 | 127 min. | Japanese with English subtitles | With Kazunari Ninomiya, Satoshi Tsumabuki, Masaki Suda

Inspired by real-life photographer Masashi Asada, director Ryota Nakano’s latest film balances humor and heart in an unexpectedly true story. As an energetic dreamer in a traditional family, Masashi (Kazunari Ninomiya)’s initial artistic endeavors are met with skepticism and little support, but in the aftermath of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, Masashi’s photographic skills are given new purpose, and he embarks on a mission that brings his family—and families across Japan—together.

About the ACA Cinema Project

The ACA Cinema Project is a new initiative organized as part of the “Japan Film Overseas Expansion Enhancement Project,” an ongoing project founded by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan (ACA) to create opportunities for the increased exposure, development, and appreciation of Japanese cinema overseas through screenings, symposiums, and other events held throughout the year. The ACA Cinema Project introduces a wide range of Japanese films in the United States, a major center of international film culture, together with local partners, such as Japan Society, IFC Center, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Linwood Dunn Theater.

Susan McCormac 1/9/24 Susan McCormac 1/9/24

Japanese Reimagining of HAMLET at Japan Society

HAMLET | TOILET

Wednesday, January 10 at 7:30 p.m. [SOLD OUT]
Friday, January 12 at 7:30 p.m. (followed by artist Q&A)
Saturday, January 13 at 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Japan Society – 333 E. 47th Street (between 1st and 2nd Avenues)

Admission: $35 | $28 Japan Society Members and Persons with Disabilities

Number two or not number two? That is the question in HAMLET | TOILET, a hilariously nonsensical reimagining of William Shakespeare’s classic from Yu Murai, one of Japan’s “most innovative contemporary playwright-directors” (Asian Theatre Journal), and performed by his Kaimaku Pennant Race theater company cast, fearlessly clad in their signature full-body white unisuits.

Kaimaku Pennant Race (KPR) has become known for its antic movement style mixed with profound interpretations of Western masterpieces, weaving scenes from Elizabethan-era tragedy with bursts of Japanese pop culture references in sensational and surprising ways. Following the company’s groundbreaking Romeo and Toilet and 2019’s unpredictable manga-meets-Macbeth Ashita no Ma-Joe, which turned Japan Society’s stage into a boxing ring, this production marks the New York premiere of Murai’s latest madcap Shakespearean innovation. Hamlet | Toilet is performed by KPR members Masayuki Gouke (professionally known as G.K. Masayuki), Yuki Matsuo, and Takuro Takasaki. Performed in Japanese with English supertitles.

The troupe will give four total performances, but please note that the first performance, on Wednesday, January 10, is sold out. There are still tickets available for the remaining three, with an artist Q&A following the performance on Friday, January 12. To purchase tickets, please visit Japan Society’s website.

*HAMLET* | *TOILET* ©photo by Takashi Ikemura

About Kaimaku Pennant Race

Founded by Yu Murai in 2006, Kaimaku Pennant Race (KPR) is a Tokyo-based theater company known for off-the-wall theater work presenting a uniquely contemporary Japanese view, often inspired by Western masterpieces. They have achieved worldwide recognition through their in-demand repertoire pieces such as 1969: A Space Odyssey? Oddity!; Romeo and Toilet, and Ashita no Ma-Joe: Rocky Macbeth, performed in France, Romania, Thailand, South Korea, the US, and Japan. In 2009, the company performed Romeo and Toilet in the New York International Fringe Festival, earning Four Stars from Time Out New York for its “fantastic combination of ingenious movement; surreal story lines; and dynamic, startlingly disciplined performers."

The company’s remarkable sets have also caused quite a stir, with one of their most notable set designs being a large toilet created from 10,000 toilet paper rolls for Romeo and Toilet. 1969: A Space Odyssey? Oddity! had its successful world tour, visiting popular international theater festivals and venues such as Festival d’Avignon (France), BABAL F.A.S.T. (Romania), Carthage Theatre Festival (Tunisia), ST-BOMB festival (South Korea) and Thong Lor Art Space (Thailand) from 2015 through 2018. Audiences around the world have embraced the company’s original approach to physical comedy and Western adaptations, describing their work as “a real artistic experience” (La Provence, France).

Ashita no Ma-Joe: Rocky Macbeth premiered at the Theater Rakuen in Shimokitazawa, Tokyo, in February 2017 and was presented by Japan Society in New York in May 2019, garnering rave reviews. Their most recent work, HAMLET | TOILET premiered at Komaba Agora Theater in Tokyo in September 2023.

About Yu Murai

Founder and Director Yu Murai reinterprets a wide variety of classical plays using extreme physicality and over-the-top humor. Known for his bold stage designs and sharp, witty dramas, he is able to convey his original and singular point of view through his meticulous and highly choreographed directing style. Most recently, he has started conducting workshops, lectures, and readings to expose young actors to his quirky and rich methodologies. Of his plays, Theatrorama (France) wrote, “If you see [his] shocking work, you cannot return to earth ever again.” His company’s performances invite audiences to enter surreal, high-octane worlds, through aesthetics and tropes borrowed from Japanese pop culture. Today, the troupe is one of the most promising theater companies in Japan, blending high-art and entertainment.