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barbican film
Aspects of Japanese Cinema
including Kenji Mizoguchi, Akira Kurosawa and Takeshi Kitano plus
GirlsWorld: Women In Contemporary Japanese Cinema and Japanimation
Tuesday 19 October to Sunday 19 December 2010
barbican.org.uk/film Box Office: 0845 120 7527
For two months, from 19 October to 19 December, Barbican Film presents
an impressive programme of Japanese film, which complements Barbican Art
Gallery’s Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion (1).
The programme includes three Directorspectives focusing of the work of
Japanese film directors from three different eras of cinema, for whom
costume and set design formed a critical element of their work –
Kenji Mizoguchi, Akira Kurosawa and Takeshi Kitano.
The Mizoguchi Directorspective launches on Sunday 24 October with a
screening of The Water Magician accompanied, for the first
time in the UK, by benshi narration and live traditional
Japanese musical accompaniment on the koto. The
screening will be introduced by Japanese film expert Tony Rayns.
The season also features GirlsWorld, a series of contemporary
Japanese films focusing on women, including a Cosplay special
event on Saturday 6 November, and a schlockfest double bill for
Halloween, as well as two Japanimation screenings.
All films are in Japanese with English subtitles unless otherwise
stated.
BARBICAN FILM FESTIVALS, SEASONS & SPECIAL EVENTS
GIRLSWORLD: WOMEN IN CONTEMPORARY JAPANESE CINEMA –
Thursday 21 October to Sunday 14 November
A series of recent films that showcase the diverse representation of
women in twenty-first century Japanese cinema, and features debut films
from two female directors.
Thursday 21 October
6.00pm – Nana (PG*) (Japan 2005 Dir. Kentaro Otani 113 min)
introduced by season curator Helen McCarthy
Nana is a delightful coming-of-age tale of friendship set amidst
Tokyo’s rock music scene, and adapted from the shōjo manga series
written and illustrated by Ai Yazawa. A chance meeting on a train
brings two very different girls called Nana together. After a
string of coincidences they end up sharing a flat 707 (Nana means seven
in Japanese) and a friendship evolves despite their contrasting
ambitions.
Sunday 24 October
1.00 pm – Instant Swamp (PG) (Japan 2009 Dir. Miki Satoshi
120 min)
Instant Swamp is a quirky comedy that follows the newly redundant
Haname Jinchoge (Kumiko Aso) as she traces her real father and embarks
on a wild journey of self-discovery. Modernity meets myth as
Haname’s father forces her to see the mystical in life and with the help
of her new friend, punk rocker Gus, search for hidden family treasure
and discover her destiny.
Thursday 4 November
8.45pm – Lala Pipo: A Lot of People (18) (Japan 2008 Dir.
Masayuki Miyano 93 min)
Lala Pipo: A Lot of People is a vibrant, candy-coloured romp
through the gutters of Tokyo’s sex industry from first-time director
Masayuki Miyano, with a screenplay by award-winning director Tetsuya
Nakashima (Kamikaze Girls, Memories of Matsuko). The
fates of six lonely characters gradually entwine as the film depicts
their search for hope and humanity on the seedy side of the adult
entertainment business.
Saturday 6 November
11.00pm – Kamikaze Girls (Shimotsuma Monogatari) (12A) (2004
Dir. Tetsuya Nakashima 103 min) – a Cosplay special event as part of
Barbican LATES
With cult status in Japan, Kamikaze Girls is a dazzling onslaught
of images, special effects, live action and animation following the
relationship of two mismatched girls. The narrator Momoko is a
teenager from a broken home who lives in her own bonnet-clad fantasy
based on eighteenth-century French fashion. Everything changes
however when this Rococo-Lolita meets a rough tough biker chick, Ichigo.
Saturday 13 November
2.00pm – Memories of Matsuko (15) (Japan 2006 Dir. Tetsuya
Nakashima 130 min)
Billed as the Japanese Amélie, Memories of Matsuko is a tragic
fairytale that blends a touching human drama with energetic offbeat
comedy and the occasional spectacular production number. A
teenager unravels the heart-breaking story of his aunt Matsuko’s life, a
tale of recurring mistreatment at the hands of a string of unsuitable
boyfriends.
Sunday 14 November
2.00pm – Sakuran (18*) (Japan 2006 Dir. Mika Ninagawa 111
min)
Sakuran, the impressive debut feature from photographer Mika
Ninagawa, daughter of the acclaimed theatre director Yukio, is a lavish
period drama brimming with costume eye-candy. This live action
adaptation of Moyoco Anno’s manga series stars multi-talented model,
actress and singer Anna Tsuchiya as the rebellious young girl Kiyoha on
her journey to become an oiran courtesan. Ninagawa indulges her
vivid sense of colour with luscious traditional styling in this
heart-warming tale draped in an eclectic jazz, electro and pop
soundtrack from diva Ringo Shiina.
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THE DIRECTORSPECTIVE: KENJI MIZOGUCHI – Sunday 24
October to Wednesday 3 November
Internationally respected as one of the greatest film
directors of all time, Kenji Mizoguchi grew up in Tokyo at the
dawn of cinema in Japan, and trained as a painter before moving into the
film industry in the 1920s. His work, which often revealed his
sympathy for the exploited and marginalized, was famed for its exquisite
pictorial quality, and the contrasting of opposing themes - light and
shadow, harshness and beauty, and the role of the individual amidst the
pressures of society. This season features four of Mizoguchi’s
finest, internationally acclaimed works, including an exceptional
screening of one of his key silent films, The Water Magician,
accompanied, for the first time in the UK, with traditional benshi
narration and live musical accompaniment on the koto.
Sunday 24 October
4.00pm – The Water Magician (Taki no Shiraito) (PG) (Japan
1933 Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi 98 min) Special screening accompanied by
benshi narration, the traditional form of Japanese silent film
story-telling, performed in English by Tomoko Komura, with live
traditional Japanese musical accompaniment on the koto by Melissa
Holding, and introduced by leading Japanese film critic Tony Rayns.
Mizoguchi directed fifty-seven films during the silent era, of which
only six survive, including The Water Magician, one of the
masterpieces of Japanese silent cinema. The film captures three
elements for which Mizoguchi became famous - ill-fated women, extreme
emotions and tragic love. Legendary actress Takako Irie stars as a
water juggler in a troupe of travelling circus performers, who falls in
love with a coach driver. She is faithful to him whilst on the
road, and sends him money so that he can study to be a lawyer, but as in
many Mizoguchi films, a series of complications ensue, leading to
despair and tragedy.
The koto is the traditional 13-stringed zither of Japan whose
shape has been likened to a crouching dragon. The history of the
instrument spans at least twelve centuries during which time its form
has changed little. It is made from the wood of the paulownia tree
(or ‘Royal Empress tree’) and generally plucked with plectra worn on the
right hand.
The Water Magician is also part of the Silent Film & Live
Music series.
Sunday 31 October
6.00pm – The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums (Zangiku Monogatari)
(Japan 1939 Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi 142 min)
The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums is one of Mizoguchi’s
greatest achievements and one of his most visually innovative works.
In a Tokyo theatre in the late nineteenth century, a young man tries to
follow in the steps of his famous actor father, but lacks the necessary
focus and discipline. When he falls in love with his baby
brother’s nurse, he decides to defy his family, renounce his wealthy
lifestyle and follow her to a far-off place.
Wednesday 3 November
6.30pm – Ugetsu Monogatari (PG) (Japan 1953 Dir. Kenji
Mizoguchi 94 min)
Commonly known as Ugetsu, Mizoguchi’s masterpiece Ugetsu
Monogatari won the prestigious Silver Lion at Venice International
Film Festival in 1953 and has been heralded by critics ever since.
It is a searing portrait of two couples in sixteenth-century Japan,
damning in its depiction of the societal patriarchy of the time.
Desiring better lives for themselves, two men leave their wives.
The two women fare badly at the hands of various villains, yet uphold
their own strength, making them the heroines of the film. Ugetsu
is a chilling tale, simultaneously historical drama and truly scary
ghost story.
Wednesday 3 November
8.30pm – Sansho The Bailiff (Sanshô dayû) (PG) (Japan 1954
Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi 124 min)
Continuing Mizoguchi's critical success by winning the Golden Lion in
Venice in 1954, Sansho The Bailiff is a hauntingly graceful film
about a medieval Japanese family's brutal separation. Mizoguchi's
trademark juxtaposition of humanity with nature explores his characters’
transitory suffering and lack of control over their complicated lives,
without judging their frailties.
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JAPANESE HALLOWEEN SHLOCKFEST DOUBLE BILL – Friday 29
October
Barbican Film’s spooky Halloween double bill presents two new
shlock horror titles straight from Japan introduced by writer Jasper
Sharp, curator of the new Zipangu Fest. A late night feast of blood and
guts in the Barbican's basement, presented in association with the
Zipangu Fest. For more details see
zipangufest.com
7.30pm – RoboGeisha (18) (Japan 2009 Dir. Noboru Iguchi 102 min)
Hell-bent on world domination, father and son businessmen recruit a
vicious gang of Geisha assassins including power tool-enhanced sisters,
but when one refuses to kill innocents, the War of the Geishas begins.
A laugh-out-loud feast of bad taste, RoboGeisha reveals a
mind-boggling array of surgically added weaponry complete with a Giant
Castle Robot and buildings that bleed. This unashamedly
over-the-top blood-fest from the team that created Machine Girl
boasts special gore effects from genre master Yoshihiro Nishimura (Tokyo
Gore Police).
9.30pm – Kyonyû doragon (Big Tits Zombie) 3D (Japan 2010 Dir.
Takao Nakano 73 min) (18*)
In Kyonyû doragon (Big Tits Zombie) 3D, exotic dancers battle
cheesy zombies armed only with the samurai sword, the chainsaw and
wasabi paste! Peppered with 3D set pieces this tongue-in-cheek
Japanese take on the Western/zombie genre sees strippers vs the undead
in the live film adaptation of Rei Mikamoto's cult manga and stars
actress Sora Aoi.
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Augmented City 3D (#) (2010 Dir. Keiichi Matsuda 4 min) World
Premiere
Augmented City is a meditation on the architecture of the
contemporary city as it becomes more and more about the synthetic spaces
created by the digital information that we collect, consume and
organize, and less about the physical space of buildings and landscape.
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THE DIRECTORSPECTIVE: TAKESHI KITANO – Sunday 14 and
Monday 15 November 2010
Stand-up comedian, games show host, actor, writer, film
critic, painter, poet, cartoonist and one of Japan’s leading
contemporary film directors, Takeshi ‘Beat’ Kitano is a household
name in Japan and a national celebrity. Born in 1947, Kitano
studied engineering at university, but after four years dropped out and
found a job as a lift attendant in a night club. When one of the
club’s comedian’s fell ill, he took to the stage and a long-standing
comedy and acting career was born. In 1983 Kitano won acclaim for
his role in Ôshima's Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, and in 1989
directed his first film, Violent Cop. A serious motorcycle
accident in 1994 only set him back temporarily, and as his films
achieved international acclaim and won awards around the world, he was
hailed as the successor to one of the greatest Japanese film directors,
Akira Kurosawa.
Sunday 14 November
6.15pm – Hana bi (Japan 1997 Dir. Takeshi Kitano 103 min)
Winner of 21 international awards and the first Japanese film to win the
Golden Lion at Venice since Kurosawa’s Rashomon, Hana bi
(Firework) sensitively navigates rage, love, brutal violence and aching
tenderness through the eyes of an outwardly impassive, inwardly guilt
riddled ex cop, desperate to make amends to his terminally ill,
terminally neglected wife and his suicidal ex partner. Written,
directed and starring Kitano, this inventive, beautifully shot and
brilliantly acted mini masterpiece is the film that put him firmly on
the world map. Also starring Kayoko Kishimoto and Ren Osugi.
Sunday 14 November
8.15pm – Brother (18) (Japan 2000 Dir. Takeshi Kitano 113
min)
Kitano’s first film made outside of Japan and his first collaboration
with the fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto, Brother is the story of
a deposed Tokyo Yakuza who travels to Los Angeles to set up a drugs
empire with his half-brother. Visceral visuals and menacing
violence are the order of the day in this hard-hitting drama.
Monday 15 November
6.30pm – Dolls (12A) (Japan 2002 Dir. Takeshi Kitano 113 min)
Highly stylised, with gorgeous costumes from Yohji Yamamoto and richly
saturated colour as the film moves through the four seasons, Dolls
weaves together three narratives of spurned love. Opening with a
scene from banraku Japanese puppet theatre, the film meditates on
the nature of the doll, death and the mistake of overlooking love.
Monday 15 November
8.40pm – Zatôichi (18) (Japan 2003 Dir. Takeshi Kitano 115
min)
Zatôichi follows the eponymous blind warrior (played by Kitano),
who drifts into a remote mountain settlement and is soon involved in the
villagers’ fight against the ruthless gang leader, Ginzo. Full of
the finest fight choreography, dappled with moments of sublime humour
and boasting another of the director’s collaborations with the designer
Yohji Yamamoto, Zatôichi is one of Kitano's most visually arresting
works.
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THE DIRECTORSPECTIVE: AKIRA KUROSAWA – Friday 3 to
Sunday 19 December
Akira Kurosawa’s career in the film industry spanned almost
six decades, during which he opened up Japanese cinema to Western
audiences. In 1990 he received the
Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement "for accomplishments that
have inspired, delighted, enriched and entertained audiences and
influenced filmmakers throughout the world". Curated by Japanese
film expert Helen McCarthy, this season demonstrates the master
filmmaker’s thrilling artistry and marks the centenary of Kurosawa’s
birth on 23 March 1910.
Friday 3 December
6.00 pm – Throne Of Blood (Kumonosu jo) (12A) (Japan 1957
Dir. Akira Kurosawa 109 min) introduced by season curator Helen
McCarthy
Throne Of Blood is Kurosawa's unforgettable transposition of
Macbeth to the ghostly forests and grim castles of medieval Japan in
the Age of Warring States. Kurosawa's samurai Macbeth is not a
strong, heroic figure, but a frightened, ambitious man who is fearful of
the witches’ spell and kills to save his own blood. Laced with
superb performances by Toshiro Mifune in the title role, alongside the
wonderful Isuzu Yamada as Lady Macbeth, Kurosawa mixes the Japanese with
the Jacobean, drawing upon the imagery of Noh in this indelible dark
treasure. Even the sound of clothing - the sibilant rustle of Lady
Macbeth's kimono, the rattle of armour - is used to call up dark
reptilian images while reinforcing the physical reality of the moment.
8.30pm – Rashomon (12A) (Japan 1950 Dir. Akira Kurosawa 87 min)
presented on a newly restored digital print
Set in feudal Japan, Kurosawa's master work Rashomon is a
compelling exploration of the nature of truth, as various witnesses
present their diverse accounts of a rape and murder in twelfth-century
Kyoto. Kurosawa uses clothing both as status marker and indicator
of character, taking us back to a feudal world where everything we see
is a handmade, hard-worn product of craft. Dominated by an
extraordinary performance from Toshiro Mifune as the gleefully savage
bandit, this influential and endlessly inventive feature introduced
Western audiences to Japanese cinema, winning Kurosawa both the Golden
Lion at Venice and the Oscar for Best Foreign Film.
Wednesday 8 December
6.00pm – Drunken Angel (Yoidore tenshi) (PG) (Japan 1948 Dir.
Akira Kurosawa 98 min)
Set in Tokyo’s post war gangster-ridden slums, Drunken Angel
follows the relationship between the alcoholic doctor of the title and
Matsunaga, the young mobster boss who comes to him with a bullet in his
hand after a gun battle and who he diagnoses with tuberculosis.
While the doctor attempts to change his lifestyle and save his life,
Matsunaga falls back into his unhealthy ways when his former boss is
released from jail demanding his turf back. A feast of striking
imagery, this intense and powerful thriller initiated Kurosawa’s
rewarding collaboration with actor Toshiro Mifune. Mifune's flashy
gangster outfits and the Western dress of the other characters form a
stark contrast to Kurosawa's historical dramas, reflecting the reality
of occupied Japan as Western domination challenged centuries-old norms
of masculinity, society and morality. "This is me at last", said
the director best known to many for swords and kimonos.
8.30pm – The Hidden Fortress (Kakushi-toride no san-akunin) (PG)
(Japan 1958 Dir. Akira Kurosawa 139 min)
A light-hearted romp in war-torn feudal Japan, The Hidden Fortress
sees two hapless and greedy peasants tricked into helping a disguised
Princess and her faithful General flee through enemy territory with
their hoard of clan gold. Kurosawa’s first experiment with the
Tohoscope widescreen format is a visually stunning action adventure
which was an inspiration for George Lucas’s Star Wars.
Kurosawa's use of costume as a deceptive device echoes Rashomon
eight years earlier. The tropes and imagery he employs here are
still common in manga and anime: the film's influence on Hayao
Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke is obvious.
Thursday 9 December
7.00 pm – The Shadow Warrior (Kagemusha) (PG) (Japan 1980
Dir. Akira Kurosawa 181 min)
Towards the end of his career, Kurosawa directed his greatest
international success, Kagemusha, which also won the Palme d’Or
at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival. In sixteenth-century Japan, a
convicted robber with a striking resemblance to a mortally wounded
warlord, is spared execution in order to impersonate the ruler after his
death, with both the lord and his Kagemasha played by Tatsuya Nakadai.
Playing once again with the idea of costume as deception, of image
affecting perception and thus changing reality, Kurosawa fully indulges
our visual appetite in this vividly colourful epic using 5000 extras for
the final battle sequence.
Sunday 19 December
2.30pm – Seven Samurai (Shichinin no samurai) (PG) (Japan
1954 Dir. Akira Kurosawa 207 min) with one interval
In sixteenth-century feudal Japan, seven samurai warriors defend a
village from a marauding band of ruthless outlaws. Kurosawa's epic
achievement Seven Samurai is a cornerstone of world cinema, which
again brought Japanese cinema to amazed audiences in the West with its
dazzling photography and unforgettable images and was famously remade in
Hollywood as The Magnificent Seven. “An action film is
often an action film only for the sake of action. But what a wonderful
thing if one can construct a grand action film without sacrificing the
portrayal of human beings.” Akira Kurosawa
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BARBICAN FILM REGULARS
JAPANIMATION: XxxHOLiC The Movie: A Midsummer Night’s
Dream + Tsubasa The Movie: The Princess in the Birdcage Kingdom –
Tuesday 19 October
Barbican Film’s regular Japanimation slot focuses on CLAMP, the
successful all-female Japanese mangaka group, with a double bill
introduced by anime expert Helen McCarthy.
8.30pm – XxxHOLiC The Movie: A Midsummer Night’s
Dream (PG*) (Japan 2005 Dir. Tsutomu Mizushima 60 min)
XxxHOLiC The Movie: A Midsummer Night’s Dream is set in a
mysterious mansion, where guests begin to disappear one by one during a
very strange auction.
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Tsubasa The Movie: The Princess in the Birdcage Kingdom (PG*)
(Japan 2005 Dir. Itsuro Kawasaki 35 min)
Tsubasa The Movie: The Princess in the Birdcage Kingdom is
adapted from the Reservoir Chronicle, one of the most popular
manga ever created. Set in a virtual paradise trembling on the edge of
existence, the film features an evil king who seeks the end to light and
happiness and a princess.
JAPANIMATION – Sunday 7 November
2.15pm – The Great Adventure of Hutch the Honeybee (U*)
(Japan 2010 Dir. Tetsuro Amino 101 min) introduced by anime expert
Helen McCarthy
As part of this year’s London Children’s Film Festival (2), Helen
McCarthy introduces The Great Adventure of Hutch the Honeybee, a
delightful new remake of a classic children’s anime series, broadcast in
the UK in the 1970s. After the hive is attacked by hornets, Hutch
and his human companion Amy overcome a host of obstacles as they attempt
to rescue his mother the Queen who has been kidnapped by the evil
invaders.
In Japanese with English subtitles and simultaneous translation. A
limited amount of headsets are available for original Japanese dialogue.
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barbican.org.uk/film Box Office: 0845 120 7527
Ticket prices:
Book online and save up to £2 off every ticket
Standard: £10.50 / £8.50 online
Members: £8.50 / £6.50 online
Concessions: £7.50
Under 15: £5.50
# awaiting classification
*local classification |
