June/July/August 2002 Japanese Currents

***"PISTOL OPERA" HAS BEEN CANCELED***
Instead, we will be re-screening "FACE" (see description below)
Aug 2 FRI 7 P.M.

In conjunction with the city-wide Japan Summer Fest activities surrounding the Portland Art Museum’s exhibition “Splendors of Imperial Japan: Art of the Meiji Period,” the Film Center is pleased to present a sampling of new works by contemporary Japanese filmmakers that lend definite counterpoint to the traditional arts being celebrated. Bold, fresh and full of passion, a new generation of Japanese filmmakers continues to tackle issues of personal identity, family, class and nation with perspectives that provide unique insight into Japanese society and history. At the same time, stylish, action-packed homages to B-movies and anime masterpieces are putting a new spin on pop genres, bringing even wider international audiences to Japanese film, which has emerged in the last decade as one of the liveliest and most creative in the world. If your tastes run from the traditional to the cutting edge, you’re sure to find delights in this mini-survey of unimperial visions. Advanced tickets available at the Portland Art Museum box office.

JUNE 21 23 FRI 7 P.M., SUN 7 P.M.
WHITSELL AUDITORIUM
THE PRINCESS BLADE
Japan 2002
DIRECTOR: Shinsuke saato
Fans of the TV series ALIAS may note a few provocative correspondences in THE PRINCESS BLADE, although the resemblance is surely coincidental. In this exhilarating martial-arts drama, set 500 years in the future, the kickass warrior babe Princess Yuki of the Takemikazuchi avenges her mother’s death. Who are the Takemikazuchi? Only a clan of hired assassins once led by her late mother—until, Yuki discovers, she was killed by the guy who now runs the show. A worthy successor to the high-octane, sword-wielding, action thrillers of the 1960’s and 70’s, the truly spectacular action sequences were directed by Donnie Yen (BLADE II and IRON MONKEY). (92 MINS.)

JUNE 22 26 sat 7 P.M., wed 7 P.M.
WHITSELL AUDITORIUM
NOT FORGOTTEN
Japan 2000
DIRECTOR: SHINOZAKI MAKOTO
Heihachi, Ito and Kijima are forgotten men in contemporary Japanese society—WWII veterans who go through every day remembering the horrors they suffered so long ago. As they face the infirmities of age and the looming shadow of death, they’re suddenly blindsided by a new, alien threat: a cult called utopia, in which young people are recruited to bilk old people out of their money through a subtle form of humiliation and terror. A portrait of Japan seen through the eyes of both its rootless youth and it’s sadly ignored elderly. (120 mins.

JUNE 28 29 FRI 7:30 P.M., SAT, 7:30 P.M.
WHITSELL AUDITORIUM
QUARTET
Japan 2002
DIRECTOR: JOE HISAISHI
At the 24th Japan Ensemble Competition, a talented student quartet is in the middle of its performance. Akio, a gifted but rebellious musician, who has been forced by his professor to participate in the competition in order to graduate, leads them. The performance seems to be going well enough, but as the piece nears its climax, everything embarrassingly falls apart. Three years later, having gone their separate ways, and succeeding to various degrees, the four meet up again at an audition. They see a poster advertising the same ensemble competition they lost three years before, but now it offers a four million yen prize. Perhaps this time, fate will be on their side. (113 mins.)JUNE 30

SUN 7 P.M.
WHITSELL AUDITORIUM
JAPANESE DEVILS
Japan 2001
DIRECTOR: MINORU MATSUI
Fourteen veterans of the Imperial Army testify to their brutal participation in Japan's fifteen-year war against China, from the Manchurian Incident in 1931 to Japan's surrender in 1945. Very few Japanese veterans have been willing to admit to the atrocities perpetrated against the Chinese. As they relate the grim details of their individual crimes—murder, rape, torture, medical tests and cannibalism — they expose the silence that has blanketed Japan's memory of its actions in wartime China. ”I am 80 years old. For the rest of my days I will talk about the war of invasion…I must find a way to tell younger generations that we must never commit such transgressions again. That’s the very least I can do to atone for my sins.”—Former Imperial Army soldier. (160 MINS.)

JULY 5 6 FRI 7:30 P.M. SAT 7:30 P.M.
WHITSELL AUDITORIUM
VENGEANCE FOR SALE
Japan 2000
DIRECTOR: KINACHI OKAMOTO Kihachi Okamoto's (SWORD OF DOOM) delightful samurai comedy follows Sukeroku The Helper who starts a new business revenge for hire. Returning home full of deluded swagger, he meets his childhood friend Taro and his beautiful sister, soon becomes involved in a plot against a mysterious old samurai. Little does he know the identity of this old warrior and the tests he is about to face. (88 MINS.)

JULY 12 FRI 8:15 P.M. WHITSELL AUDITORIUM
FACE
Japan 2000
DIRECTOR: JUNJI SAKAMOTO Masako is an awkward, withdrawn, middle -aged woman who kills her sister in an explosion of pent up humiliation and rage. Despite her guilt, and with rape and extortion defining her past encounters with men, she is driven to take charge of her own actions. Masalco flees to a small town,where she takes a job in a bar and falls for a man as broken as she is. But her newfound happiness is not to last and she must soon face her ultimate challenge. Masako’s quest of the soul reveals that even in the darkest of human circumstances, hope and humor spring eternal. Sakamoto won the Japanese Academy Award for Best Director for this original tale of an underdog.

JULY 14 SUN 7 P.M.
WHITSELL AUDITORIUM
MESSENGERS
Japan 2001
DIRECTOR: YASUO BABA Yasuo Baba's upbeat and entertaining film revolves around 29 year old Naomi, who is suddenly forced to make a major career and lifestyle change from being an affluent, fashionable press agent for an exclusive Italian designer boutique to working as a struggling bike messenger in the streets of Tokyo. As she slowly begins to enjoy her new reality, she also finds a new love and new meaning in a battle against the unscrupulous competitors, Tokyo Express.

JULY 19 20 FRI 7 P.M., sat 7 p.M.
GUILD THEATRE - FRI
WHITSELL AUDITORIUM - SAT
THE MARS CANON
Japan 2001
DIRECTOR: SHIORI KAZAMA Kazama’s realistic portrayal of the painful complications of romance in Tokyo strikes a universal chord. Though she'd like a whole lot more, 29-year-old Kinuko sees her married lover, a 43-year-old office worker, only once a week. One day Kinuko befriends Manabe, a street poet, and Hijiri, a cheerful, ebullient woman who advises Kinuko to break off her affair. Hijiri energetically nurses Kinuko through a bad cold and it soon becomes apparent that there is a more poignant and personal reason for her persistent advice. Winner, Asian Film Award, Tokyo Film Festival. (121 mins.)

JULY 21 SUN 7 P.M.
WHITSELL AUDITORIUM - SPECIAL SCREENING
KUROSAWA
BRITAIN 2001
DIRECTOR: ADAM LOW One of the world’s most influential filmmakers, Akira Kurosawa (1910 -98) brought the world unparalleled cinematic vision and artistic achievement. In the first major documentary made since his death, Kurosawa’s family members and colleagues are joined by Japanese and American critics and directors in illuminating the mind and technique that brought such legendary films as RASHOMON, SEVEN SAMURAI and RAN to glorious life. (115 mins.)

JULY 26 fri 7 P.M.
GUILD THEATRE
THE HAPPINESS OF THE KATAKURIS
Japan 2002
DIRECTOR: TAKASHI MIIKE The self-stylized celluloid outlaw/genius of contemporary Japanese Cinema, Miike’s (AUDITION) new film wins as the world’s wildest horror-musical-comedy-drama. Not even ROCKY HORROR had the verve to merge so much Pop Art histrionics, bad taste and high camp as this cinematic avalanche of murder most foul, naked and dead sumo wrestlers, flying and singing Navy officers, SOUND OF MUSIC spoofs, bizarre stop motion animation, rotting zombies, hilarious suicides and eye-wateringly funny song and dance numbers. The story recounts the tale of an embittered husband and father of two who loses his shoe-salesman job and invests in a run-down bed and breakfast resort with his dysfunctional family. Unfortunately, bad luck seems to befall the guests who check in, but through thick and thin the bonds of family triumph. (113 mins.)

JULY 28 SUN 7 P.M.
WHITSELL AUDITORIUM
RENDAN: QUARTET FOR TWO
Japan 2000
DIRECTOR: NAOTO TAKENAKA
“Rendan is a contemporary domestic drama...comedy...no, musical... It's all of these, as we meet the Sasakis, an atypical nuclear family headed for a meltdown. Shotaro is a full-time househusband who loves his work a little too much, while his gorgeous headstrong wife Minako loves her coworker, also too much. Now their children, Toru and his teenage sister Mari, must face the fact that their mother is moving out. But there are the three pianos in the house to contend with, and the upcoming recital in which Mari and Minako will play a duet. As the day approaches, the recital takes on increasing importance: somehow Brahms will show the way.”
— Judy Block, PFA. (104 mins.)