An animal-child is hungry for food — and blood — in Keiichi Sato’s striking anime, ASURA
ANIME FROM HELL: ASURA (Keiichi Sato, 2012)
Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
Thursday, July 12, $12, 8:00
Series runs July 12-28
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org
www.subwaycinema.com
Based on George Akiyama’s banned 1970-71 manga and inspired by the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan, Keiichi Sato’s Asura is a striking and shocking tale of survival. In fifteenth-century Kyoto, a child is born in what seems like the middle of hell. His starving mother has thoughts of devouring her newborn son, but he manages to survive, becoming a ferocious cannibal himself, living off of human flesh while he roams a nightmarish, postapocalyptic landscape. Named Asura (voiced by seventy-five-year-old actress Masako Nozawa), the animal-child is taken in by a gentle Buddhist monk (Kinya Kitaoji) and later helped by a young woman named Wakasa (Megumi Hayashibara), both of whom try to teach him elements of humanity, but it might be too late to change him from a monster into a young boy. Using a hybrid of 2D and 3D techniques, Sato (Tiger & Bunny) has created a visually stunning world of muted colors and effects that meld with a powerful soundtrack, resulting in an unrelenting battering of the senses. Asura is no coming-of-age story; instead, it continually goes to unexpected places, filled with twists and turns that lead to yet more bloodshed, though not without a yearning if unsentimental heart at its core. And be sure to hang around through the final credits. Asura is screening July 12 at Japan Society as part of the Anime from Hell section of the New York Asian Film Festival and Japan Cuts.