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July 14th ~ Linda, Linda, Linda, Nobuhiro Yamashita (director)
Four girls from different backgrounds have to overcome their hang-ups in order to master a few punk power chords for their school's talent show in writer-director Nobuhiro Yamashita's deadpan rock comedy. "Yamashita makes the transcendent power of the three-minute pop song radiantly clear." - Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star.
2005, 35mm, 114 min. [Print and rights from Bitters End, Inc.]
July 21st ~ Kids Return (Kidzu ritan), Takeshi Kitano (director)
Rejecting the limited options their Tokyo suburb has given them, two best-friend delinquents get caught up in the worlds of boxing and Yakusa in this immensely popular - and some say semi-autobiographical - film from superstar "Beat" Takeshi Kitano. "One of Kitano's warmest films, devoid of cheap sentiment." - David Wood, BBC.
1996, 35mm, 107 min. [Print from the Japan Foundation; Rights from Celluloid Dreams]
July 28th ~ A Storming Drummer (Arashi o Yobu Otoko), Umetsugu (Umeji) Inoue (director)
The epitome of rebellious '50s youth (and brother of Crazed Fruit author Shintaro Ishihara), Yujiro Ishihara packed Japanese theaters with his unmistakable rock 'n' roll style and devil-may-care attitude. In this Nikkatsu production, he plays a drummer struggling to manage the expectations of his family - as well as the demands of town thugs.
1957, 35mm, 101 min. [Print from the Japan Foundation; Rights from Nikkatsu]
August 4th ~ All About Lily Chou Chou (Riri Shushu no Subete), Shunji Iwai (director)
A lonely boy tries in vain to escape the vicious cruelty of junior high school cliques by pledging his devotion to a sensitive pop diva on fan Internet sites. Shunji Iwai's abstract, elliptical and shocking tale of lost innocence "may be the zeitgeist's Quadrophenia," says Village Voice critic Michael Atkinson.
2001, 35mm, 146 min. [Print and rights from Fortissimo Films]
August 11th ~ Crazed Fruit (Kurutta kajitsu), Ko Nakahira (director)
Japan got its very own Rebel Without a Cause with this enormously successful - and controversial - tale of seaside nihilism and wonton lust involving two brothers and the girl they both desire. "[Crazed Fruit] sliced through the stagnant waste waters of traditional Japanese cinema... Moviemaking as killer riptide, cinema as all-consuming undertow." - Chuck Stephens.
1956, 35mm, 86 min. [Print from the Japan Foundation; Rights from Janus]
August 18th ~ Fighting Elegy (Kenka erejii ), Seijun Suzuki (director)
Political satire and misplaced teen lust inform maverick director Seijun Suzuki's period tale of an afterschool fight club where boys line their book bags with razor blades and toughen their fists by punching rocks. "More than a broad-edged attack on violence itself, but an absurdist look at the forces that gave rise to facism in 1930's Japan." - Jasper Sharp, Midnight Eye.
1966, 35mm, 86 min. [Print from the Japan Foundation; Rights from Janus]
Fridays at 7:00 PM
Askwith Auditorium in Lorch Hall, 611 Tappan Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109
(at the intersection of Tappan and Monroe)
Admission is FREE.
Parking is free after 6:00 p.m. at the University parking structures on Church Street and Hill Street.
Please click here for a map of the location.
For written directions, please click here.
RECENT FILM SERIES
Three Films - Fall 2005
Critics' Choice - Summer 2005
A Mizoguchi Retrospective - Fall 2004
Comedy and Crisis in a Growing Japan: The Films of Yamada Yoji - Summer 2004
The Other Anime - Fall 2003
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