Much like Yasujiro Ozu’s classic TOKYO STORY, STILL WALKING explores the quiet secrets, regrets, and resentments trapped at the heart of a seemingly tidy Japanese family unit. Fifteen years ago, Ryo’s older brother Junpei died while rescuing a boy from drowning. On the anniversary of his death, Ryo and his sister, each with their own families in tow, have made the trip to visit their elderly parents, and the tension bubbling barely below the surface for years finally threatens to boil over during their 24-hour stay. From everyday domestic squabbles over sizzling tempura in the kitchen to the elegant graveside ritual performed for Junpei, Koreeda (NOBODY KNOWS, AFTER LIFE, AIR DOLL) exposes the grievances that drive the family apart, and the love that holds them together, with warmth, wit, and understanding. “Koreeda imbues the story with such specificity, tactility, and humanity that yet another movie about a dysfunctional family reunion becomes a cinematic tone poem.”— The Village Voice.

Manzo, a lonely middle-aged fisherman, yearns for a wife and family. When the local townspeople arrange a dating service for unmarried fishermen, Manzo borrows a camera and tapes his video submission, but the public viewing of his video doesn’t quite go as planned: peeking out of a corner of the frame are a young woman and child who have been hiding in the closet of his modest home. He soon invites them to stay, and suddenly finds himself with a family of whom the entire village is jealous. Manzo’s happiness is fleeting, however, as the young woman’s growing thirst for independence threatens their family unit. Director Takatsugu’s first feature is a charming, bittersweet film, “full of deadpan, silent film comedy that is inspired in equal parts by Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.”—Seattle International Film Festival.

A young astronaut named Kohei, soon to depart on a dangerous mission, sits at his dying mother’s bedside and relives his childhood joys, which ended abruptly with the accidental death of his twin brother. Reminded of his promise to live a long life to compensate for the loss of his twin, he agrees to participate in the space agency’s experimental cloning program, intended to regenerate the bodies and memories of astronauts killed in the line of duty. When Kohei dies and a clone is produced, however, memory regeneration is only partial; the clone lives suspended in memories of Kohei’s childhood. He mistakes Kohei’s dead body for that of his twin brother and, carrying it on his back, embarks on a journey in search of their childhood home. Deliberately paced and deeply meditative, the film dwells in a Tarkovskian world of interweaving space, time, and memory, with echoes of Buddhist beliefs in reincarnation and recurrence. “With exceptional artistry, Nakajima explores identity, memory, and the ethical responsibilities of science... In the tradition of SOLARIS and other deeply philosophical science fiction works, THE CLONE RETURNS HOME is art cinema at its best.”—Sundance Film Festival.

Hideo, an unhappy, middle-aged waiter by day, finds solace in fantasy at night with an inflatable female doll he calls Nozomi, whom he cooks for, talks to, and makes love to. Unbeknownst to Hideo, however, Nozomi flutters to life when he leaves for work. She soon ventures out to explore the city, gets a job at a video rental store, and falls in love with one of her co-workers. Along the way she struggles to find meaning in the hollow, hostile world she encounters and to define herself as an individual and a woman despite her existence as a sex toy. “An achingly beautiful meditation on loneliness and longing in the city, and a reflective look on a consumerist culture that encourages easy substitutes and disposability, even of humans and feelings.”—The Hollywood Reporter.

Naomi Steinberg, on the faculty of the Oregon Psychoanalytic Institute (OPI) and a psychologist and psychoanalyst who works with adults and adolescents in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, will lead a post-film discussion of AIR DOLL. She is interested in how we can "miss the mark" in seeking that which we desire.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Portland’s sister city relationship with Sapporo, Japan, in honor of which we present a program of anime shorts selected from this year’s Sapporo International Short Film Festival. The program includes: FROG SEED, the story of a frog uprooted from his jungle home and brought to the city, where his death transforms the urban landscape; ROUND ROAD, a poetic exploration of the interconnectivity of nature and its creatures, in which humans are merely one facet; CYBORG 11, in which a cyborg from the future travels back to 2006 to investigate a corrupt construction company whose faulty buildings endanger Tokyo; TSUKUMO NO KIMOCHI, in which a toddler protests his father’s method of dealing with their home’s pest control problem; KUDAN, the stunning tale of a mysterious gift that transports a man and his son to a perilous underworld; THE SONG OF RED FOREST, a musical meditation on nature’s ecological hierarchy; and CENCOROLL, in which a boy and his morphing pet monster defend their city from rival monsters with the help of a brave young girl.

Join us for a post-film reception in the Andree Stevens Board Room, hosted by the Portland Sapporo Sister City Association.

In the third installment of Kitano’s autobiographical exploration of the plight of the performer-artist (including TALESHIS and GLORY TO THE FILMMAKER), the protagonist is an aspiring painter named Machisu, whose artistic talent is early noted and encouraged by his art collector father and the painters whom his father patronizes. But as Machisu gets older, he finds that establishing an identity as an artist is no easy thing, even with talent: his original ideas are derided or stolen outright, and his attempts to follow the traditions of established masters are dismissed as merely derivative. While the film clearly sympathizes with Machisu’s founderings as he searches for his artistic voice, director Kitano also delivers a harsh appraisal of the self-destructive solipsism of the artist’s lifestyle—Machisu’s devotion to his art leads to the alienation of his family and his descent into poverty and despair. “Kitano’s newest reflection on art and life takes its title from pre-Socratic philosopher Zeno’s paradox that motion, time, and change are nothing but illusions.”—Toronto Film Festival.

Based on the autobiography of writer/critic Teruyo Nogami, KABEI chronicles the hardships experienced by the close-knit Nogami family in the jingoistic fervor of 1940s Japan. When the father, a well-respected Tokyo professor who disagrees with Japan’s war on China, is imprisoned for “thought crimes” against the Empire, his wife Kabei must support their two young daughters alone. She ventures out of the home to find a job, waits in ration lines for hours, and never gives up hope that her husband will be released. Among those who offer help are her sister-in-law from Hiroshima, her vulgar boorish brother, and a former student of the professor’s named Yamazaki who is quickly adopted as a member of the family. Contributing a much-needed Japanese perspective to the popular World War II film genre, this beautifully photographed film is the eightieth feature in director Yôji Yamada’s acclaimed career. “A humane and patient filmmaker, Mr. Yamada, director of the long-running ‘Tora San’ series, reels us in slowly with his attention to detail and his obvious delight in small moments of family intimacy.”—The New York Times.