Japanese Film Classics from the BAMPFA Collection
Japanese Film Classics from the BAMPFA Collection
December 12, 2018–January 27, 2019
This series showcases 35mm archival prints from BAMPFA’s outstanding Japanese cinema collection, from Mizoguchi to Miyazaki.
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Harp of Burma
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When a Woman Ascends the Stairs
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Double Suicide
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Early Summer
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Ugetsu
- Upcoming
Films - Past
Films - Past
Events
Past Films
Ugetsu
Kenji Mizoguchi
Japan, 1953BAMPFA Collection
BAMPFA Student Committee PickWednesday, December 12 7 PMView DetailsIn sixteenth-century Japan, a potter has his head turned by a phantom enchantress, with predictable results. “A shattering experience, among the greatest movies ever made” (New York Times).
Sansho the Bailiff
Kenji Mizoguchi
Japan, 1954BAMPFA Collection
Saturday, December 15 8 PMView DetailsBring all your senses and your handkerchief to this haunting tale of a family (led by Kinuyo Tanaka) victimized by the cruel practices of feudal Japan, “developed with intuition, cunning, and an overarching sense of tragedy” (SF Weekly).
Sanshiro Sugata
Akira Kurosawa
Japan, 1943BAMPFA Collection
Sunday, December 16 6:30 PMView DetailsA young man learns dedication and discipline in life—and judo—in Kurosawa’s debut film, “a must for Kurosawa admirers” (Los Angeles Times).
Early Summer
Yasujiro Ozu
Japan, 1951BAMPFA Collection
Friday, December 28 4:15 PMView DetailsAn exquisite, faintly melancholy portrait of a family, with Setsuko Hara as the daughter on whose marriage everything depends. “I wanted to depict the cycles of life, the transience of life” (Ozu).
Double Suicide
Masahiro Shinoda
Japan, 1969BAMPFA Collection
Saturday, December 29 7:45 PMView DetailsShinoda’s “remix” of a classic Japanese bunraku puppet play finds live actors, puppets, and their handlers all part of the action, heightened by a Brechtian divide between “story” and “telling” and a jarring score by Toru Takemitsu.
Ikiru
Akira Kurosawa
Japan, 1952BAMPFA Collection
Friday, January 11 7 PMView DetailsIn Kurosawa’s humanist masterpiece, an ordinary civil servant discovers what it means to live. This Japanese Everyman was perhaps Takashi Shimura’s greatest role.
Ugetsu
Kenji Mizoguchi
Japan, 1953BAMPFA Collection
BAMPFA Student Committee PickSunday, January 13 7 PMView DetailsIn sixteenth-century Japan, a potter has his head turned by a phantom enchantress, with predictable results. “A shattering experience, among the greatest movies ever made” (New York Times).
Harp of Burma
Kon Ichikawa
Japan, 1956BAMPFA Collection
Thursday, January 17 7 PMView DetailsA lyrical, haunting requiem for the victims of war, set amid the giant Buddhas of Burma. Winner of the top prize at the Venice film festival and one of Ichikawa’s most famous films.
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs
Mikio Naruse
Japan, 1960BAMPFA Collection
Saturday, January 19 8 PMView DetailsHideko Takamine portrays the consummate Naruse heroine: high-minded, determined, and out of her element in a sordid world. “An elegant essay in black-and-white CinemaScope . . . could give heartbreak lessons to Fassbinder and Sirk” (Village Voice).
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
Hayao Miyazaki
Japan, 1984Japanese Language Version
BAMPFA Student Committee PickSaturday, January 26 3 PMView DetailsIn Miyazaki’s stirring animated epic, a girl both soldier and scientist seeks to reconcile the last remnants of her still-warring species with the monstrous biological order overtaking earth.
Double Suicide
Masahiro Shinoda
Japan, 1969BAMPFA Collection
Sunday, January 27 7 PMView DetailsShinoda’s “remix” of a classic Japanese bunraku puppet play finds live actors, puppets, and their handlers all part of the action, heightened by a Brechtian divide between “story” and “telling” and a jarring score by Toru Takemitsu.