From July 9-19, New Yorkers will have the opportunity to see the best of contemporary and classic Japanese cinema in North America’s largest Japanese film festival. The 2015 selections include works by modern masters like Tsho Sukikawa and Masashi Yamamoto, as well as restorations of Nagisa Oshima’s Cruel Story of Youth and a special sneak preview of Eiichi Yamamoto’s Belladonna of Sadness making its US debut. Special guests this year include Haruhiko Arai, Takeshi Fukunaga, Yu Irie and Sakura Ando who will be presented with the CUT ABOVE Award for Outstanding Performance in Film during the festival. With a lineup of over two dozen films, we chose the five you simply can not miss.
Out of My Hand
Takeshi Fukunaga’s debut feature film took him to Liberia, where inspired by the case of real life activists who worked at a Firestone rubber plantation, he tells the story of Cisco (a magnetic Bishop Blay) a plantation worker who fed up with the labor conditions decides to migrate to New York City in hopes of a better future. A harrowing look at the American dream, Out of My Hand features astonishing footage of Liberian villages populated by rich, colorful characters that make the social injustice seem all the more cruel when contrasted with the steely indifference of NYC. Fukunaga’s assured camera work, and the central performance by Blay make this one of the year’s most impressive debuts.
Belladonna of Sadness
Fans of Japanese animation will rejoice upon discovering that Eiichi Yamamoto’s classic will finally be shown in a Stateside theater (Cinelicious Pics plans to distribute it in the future). The 1973 film has been restored using the original camera negatives, which means audiences will get to take in all of its brutal beauty. The film tells the story of a young woman who is accused of witchcraft by the very same people who savagely raped her, to say this is not your typical Disney fare is an understatement, what remains undeniable is the power of its visuals mostly consisting of watercolor stills that recall Klimt and Art Nouveau. A snapshot of its era, the film remains a testament to the importance of animation in dealing with subjects that live action films still shy away from.
100 Yen Love
Masaharu Take’s low key drama features an absolutely brilliant performance by Sakura Ando who plays Ichiko, a tomboy-ish young woman who finds purpose in life upon discovering boxing. While the premise sounds familiar, Take’s subdued direction and Ando’s riveting performance make this feel like one of the freshest stories about female empowerment to hit the screen in recent years. Ando paints the portrait of this woman in bold, astonishing strokes (the physicality of her performance brings to mind Marlon Brando and Toshiro Mifune) and while the plot takes some very dark turns, we can’t help but root for the heroine
Cruel Story of Youth
Nagisa Oshima was barely 28 when he made Cruel Story of Youth yet watching it, one gets the sense it was the work of a master with absolute confidence in the medium. Recalling the energetic works of nouvelle vague auteurs, Oshima brings to life a tale of doomed love as seen through two teenagers (played by Yusuke Kawasu and Miyuki Kuwano) who use sex as a transaction for both pleasure and business. As riveting now as it must’ve been when it premiered in 1960 when it announced the arrival of Oshima as a true force of nature and a rebellious, irreverent artist, Cruel Story of Youth is an essential work of art. The film will be presented in a new 4K restoration.
The Wages of Resistance: Narita Stories
The Narita International Airport handles more than half of Japan’s international traffic, and with all the hassles of travel, few people would suspect the drama that ensued in the airport’s construction. In the 1960s the Japanese government decided to build the airport in an agricultural area populated mostly by farmers who were not informed about their imminent displacement. Those who stayed behind, and still work in the outskirts of the airport, look back at their struggle in this touching documentary by Haruhiko Daishima and Koshiro Otsu. The film chronicles abuse of power and social injustice and juxtaposes them with the shattered dreams of those who believed their country would help them achieve success after the war.
For more information on Japan Cuts 2015 visit their official website.
