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NOBUHIKO OBAYASHI — A RETROSPECTIVE: BOUND FOR THE FIELDS, THE MOUNTAINS, AND THE SEACOAST

Nobuhiko Obayashi shines a light on wartime Japan in unusual coming-of-age drama

BOUND FOR THE FIELDS, THE MOUNTAINS, AND THE SEACOAST (NO YUKI YAMA YUKI UMIBE YUKI) (Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1986)
Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
Saturday, November 21, $12, 4:00
Series continues through December 6
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org

Over the opening credits of Nobuhiko Obayashi’s Bound for the Fields, the Mountains, and the Seacoast, the sweet sound of children singing can be heard over machine-gun blasts and explosions, immediately setting the tone for this unusual, highly stylized war-set drama. “It was a time of mischief in Japan. Even in wartime,” it says at the end of the black-and-white credits, before cutting to a shot of the red-and-white Japanese flag blowing in the wind. Kids slowly march to school to the beating of a drum, except for Sotaro Sudo (Yasufumi Hayashi), who skips down narrow streets by himself, wearing a pseudo-military outfit and carrying a pair of binoculars to help him spy on what’s going on. When he spots someone in the teacher’s (Jô Shishido) office who he’s never seen before, he wonders to himself, “She looks too young to be an adult, but too old to be a child.” That sets the stage for the rest of the film, in which Obayashi follows a group of boys and girls as they battle among themselves, experience bullying and budding sexuality, and grow up a little too fast, serving as a microcosm of twentieth-century Japan. “It is clear that reality and lies can divide people. We should not quarrel too hastily,” the teacher says. Sotaru becomes enamored with the young woman, Kawakita (Riki Takeuchi), whose younger brother, Sakae Osugi (Junichirô Katagiri), is new in school. “Please don’t be violent,” Kawakita tells Sakae, but it isn’t long before he may not have any other choice, especially when their parents (Taru Minegishi and Toshie Negishi) consider selling her into prostitution to pay off their mounting debts.

Bound for the Fields, the Mountains, and the Seacoast is a fanciful fairy tale that has fun playing with Japanese storytelling conventions, mixing genres while utilizing over-the-top comic-book surrealism. Obayashi, who gained international fame for his cult hit House, instills this unique coming-of-age story with scenes that not only evoke cartoony manga panels but also the films of Yasujiro Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi, and Shuji Terayama. Not one for subtlety, he intercuts several drawings of animals from an odd kind of textbook that Sotaru carries with him, making humorously metaphorical comparisons between humans and beasts. Though often silly and patently absurd, Bound for the Fields, the Mountains, and the Seacoast has an infectious, irresistible charm that will pull you right in even as you contemplate how ridiculous so much of it is. The film, adapted by screenwriter Nobuo Yamada from Haruo Satô’s novel A Time of Mischief, was made into black-and-white and color versions; the former no longer exists, but the latter is having a rare screening November 21 at 4:00 in the Japan Society series “Nobuhiko Obayashi: A Retrospective,” which continues through December 6 with such other Obayashi films as I Are You, You Am Me; Sada; The Discarnates; and his latest, the three-hour epic Seven Weeks, in addition to a special conversation and audience Q&A with Obayashi, moderated by series curator Aaron Gerow, on November 21 at 1:00 ($12).

NOBUHIKO OBAYASHI — A RETROSPECTIVE: HOUSE (HAUSU)

Nobuhiko Obayashi’s wild and crazy HAUSU kicks off Japan Society retrospective of the unique filmmaker

HOUSE (HAUSU) (Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1977)
Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
Friday, November 20, $15, 7:00
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org
www.janusfilms.com

Japan Society kicks off its retrospective of pioneering Japanese experimental filmmaker Nobuhiko Obayashi with one of the craziest movies ever made, Obayashi’s 1977 cult classic, House (Hausu), which took more than three decades to get its U.S. theatrical release, in a new 35mm print in 2009. Truly one of those things that has to be seen to be believed, House is a psychedelic black horror comedy musical about Gorgeous (Kimiko Ikegami) and six of her high school friends who choose to spend part of their summer vacation at Gorgeous’s aunt’s (Yoko Minamida) very strange house. Gorgeous, whose mother died when she was little and whose father (Saho Sasazawa) is about to get married to Ryoko (Haruko Wanibuchi), brings along her playful friends Melody (Eriko Ikegami), Fantasy (Kumiko Oba), Prof (Ai Matsubara), Sweet (Masayo Miyako), Kung Fu (Miki Jinbo), and Mac (Mieko Sato), who quickly start disappearing like ten little Indians. House is a ceaselessly entertaining head trip of a movie, a tongue-in-chic celebration of genre with spectacular set designs by Kazuo Satsuya, beautiful cinematography by Yoshitaka Sakamoto, and a fab score by Asei Kobayashi and Mickie Yoshino. The original story actually came from the mind of Obayashi’s eleven-year-old daughter, Chigumi, who clearly has one heck of an imagination. Oh, and we can’t forget about the evil cat, a demonic feline to end all demonic felines. The film was released in 2009 prior to its appearance on DVD from Janus, the same company that puts out such classic fare as Federico Fellini’s Amarcord, Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon, Jacques Tati’s M. Hulot’s Holiday, François Truffaut’s Shoot the Piano Player, Jean Renoir’s The Rules of the Game, and Jean-Luc Godard’s Vivre sa Vie, so House has joined some very prestigious company. And who are we to say it doesn’t deserve it? House is screening at Japan Society on November 20 at 7:00 with Obayashi’s 1964 silent short, Complexe; Obayashi will introduce the films and participate in a Q&A afterward, followed by what should be a wild Hausu Party. “Nobuhiko Obayashi: A Retrospective” continues through December 6 with such other films as Bound for the Fields, the Mountains, and the Seacoast; I Are You, You Am Me; Sada; The Discarnates; and Obayashi’s latest, the three-hour epic Seven Weeks, in addition to a special conversation and audience Q&A with Obayashi, moderated by series curator Aaron Gerow, on November 21 at 1:00 ($12). As a special early bonus, on November 18, Japan Society will present the New York premiere of Chigumi Obayashi’s 2014 documentary, A Dialogue: Living Harmony, followed by a discussion with the debut director and Richard McCarthy of Slow Food USA and a reception.

SPECTATOR

Company Derashinera stages North American premiere of multimedia SPECTATOR at Japan Society on Friday and Saturday

Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
Friday, November 13, and Saturday, November 14, $30, 7:30
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org

Spectators can check out the North American premiere of Shuji Onodera’s Spectator at Japan Society on November 13 & 14. The multimedia dance-theater work was developed out of Tokyo workshops with deaf students, two of whom (Maki Yamada and Mai Nagumo) are part of the cast, along with Naoya Oda from Butoh company Dairakudakan. Spectator, choreographed by Company Derashinera director Onodera, consists of lighthearted vignettes that include a woman manipulating tiny chairs that are echoed by performers in regular-size chairs, Japanese text projected in word bubbles on a screen, and a man and a woman playing with a small ball. The November 13 performance will be followed by a reception with the artists.

OKINAWAN VIBES: PARADISE VIEW

Japan Society is presenting thirtieth-anniversary screening of rarely shown Okinawan gem PARADISE VIEW

MONTHLY CLASSICS: PARADISE VIEW (PARADAISU BYU) (Gō Takamine, 1985)
Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
Friday, October 2, $12, 7:00
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org

Japan Society has picked a real gem for its October Monthly Classics presentation, writer-director Gō Takamine’s rarely shown wry black comedy, Paradise View. The thirtieth anniversary screening is also part of Japan Society’s three-month multidisciplinary program “Okinawan Vibes,” which takes a look at the southern island that was occupied by the American military from 1945 to 1972 and, in many ways, is not exactly Japan’s favorite relation; Okinawans, who have their own heritage of language, culture, and religion, have faced longtime discrimination as Japan’s largest minority group. The film opens with a gorgeous shot (the cinematographer is Takao Toshioka) of ant lover Reishu (yakuza actor Kaoru Kobayashi, not the executed child murderer) on a vast beach, collecting sea salt to make him feel better about life, which is rather bleak for everyone on Okinawa, especially now that the occupation is over. The married Reishu has apparently knocked up local simpleton Chiru (Japanese pop star Jun Togawa); island girl Nabee is breaking tradition by marrying a Japanese teacher, Ito; Bindalay (Yoko Taniyama) is quitting her music group, the Tropical Sisters, to go solo, while being stalked by a former boyfriend who dresses as a samurai; a blind man returns home after losing his second family in the Philippines; blue chickens and rainbow pigs roam the land; Reishu’s dog has developed a liking for goat balls, which make the mutt horny; and poisonous snakes are everywhere, from coffins to amphibious trucks. The wacky cast also includes Shinzoku Ogimi, Tomi Taira, and composer and musician Haruomi Hosono as the dude with the great porn stache. “The Japanese are strange creatures,” one ne’er-do-well says. An elderly woman soon laments, “We’ll all be Japanese soon,” after which the man adds, “I wonder if we’ll just end up as a backwater province.” There’s plenty of backwater strangeness in Okinawa, as short vignettes sweetly portray a collection of oddballs doing very odd things while also remaining intensely concerned about holding on to their souls. “I had a dream that a dog ate Reishu’s spirit, then threw it up. He’s lost his spirit! He’s been spirited away!” a deadpan Chiru says, capturing the essence of Okinawan native Takamine’s (Okinawan Dream Show, Untamagiru) brilliant love letter to his homeland. The Japan Society screening will be followed by a reception with Okinawan beer and snacks. The Monthly Classics film series continues on November 6 with Yoji Yamada’s The Yellow Handkerchief, in tribute to star Ken Takakura, who passed away last November at the age of eighty-three.

OKINAWAN VIBES: TRADITIONAL DANCE FROM OKINAW, WITH LIVE MUSIC

Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
Friday, September 18, and Saturday, September 19, $40, 7:30
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org

As part of its 2015-16 performing arts season, Japan Society is celebrating the history of culture of Okinawa, located in the Ryukyu island chain south of mainland Japan, with the three-month series “Okinawan Vibes.” The festival begins September 18-19 with “Traditional Dance from Okinawa, with Live Music,” copresented with Yokohama Noh Theater. The event features dancers Satoru Arakaki, Sayuri Chibana, Izumi Higa, Kota Kawamitsu, Sonoyo Noha, Yoshikazu Sanabe, and Ayano Yamashiro and musicians Shingo Nakamine, Kazuki Tamashiro, Hiroya Yokome, Hokuto Ikema, Hideo Miyagi, Natsuko Morita, and Satoshi Higa from Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts performing a quartet of court and folk dances from during and immediately after the Ryukyu Kingdom (fifteenth to nineteenth centuries), including the women’s dance onna odori, the masked classical dance shundo, and folk dances known as zo odori; the dancers will be wearing such extravagantly colored costumes as the bingata, the hanagasa, and kasuri kimonos, while the musicians will be playing the taiko, the koto, the sanshin, the kokyu, and the fue. Each evening will be preceded by a lecture led by Dr. James Rhys Edwards and will be followed by a meet-the-artists reception. In addition, Japan Society is hosting an Okinawan dance and music workshop on September 19 ($45, 4:00), in which participants will learn about the karaya dance and sanshin and see an onnagata demonstration. “Okinawan Vibes” continues with Go Takamine’s rarely shown Paradise View on October 2, “Obake Family Day: Experience Japan’s Ghosts & Goblins” on November 1, “Explore Okinawa: Art, Culture, and Cuisine from the Ryukyu Islands” on November 3, the lecture “Okinawa, the Birthplace of Karate” on November 7, and the workshop “Creating Bingata, Okinawa’s Vibrant Textile” on November 8.

JAPAN CUTS 2015: ASLEEP

Terako (Sakura Ando) hides from life in her bed in Shingo Wakagi’s ASLEEP

FESTIVAL OF NEW JAPANESE FILM: ASLEEP (SHIRAKAWAYOFUNE) (Shingo Wakagi, 2015)
Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
Thursday, July 16, $13, 6:30
Series runs July 9-19
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org

Shingo Wakagi’s Asleep is a quiet gem of a film, a poignant drama about three women’s relationship with beds and sleep. Sakura Ando stars as Terako, a young woman who is sleeping most of her life away. The only time she wakes up and gets out of bed is when her married lover, the somewhat older Mr. Iwanaga (Arata Iura), calls her to make a date. Terako’s best friend and former roommate, Shiori (Mitsuki Tanimura), recently committed suicide shortly after complaining about the difficulties of her job as a soineya, providing companionship — but not sex — by lying in bed with strangers who do not want to sleep alone. And Terako soon discovers that Iwanaga’s wife is languishing in a hospital bed in a deep coma. As Terako cares more and more for Iwanaga, she finds it harder and harder to get out from under the covers, trying to hide from a life surrounded by loneliness and death.

Terako (Sakura Ando) and Mr. Iwanaga (Arata Iura) try to find love and romance in ASLEEP

Ando (Love Exposure) and Iura (After Life, Air Doll), who played rival siblings in Yang Yong-hi’s Our Homeland, have an offbeat yet sweet chemistry as lovers in Asleep, each in need of different forms of physical and psychological comfort. Wakagi (Waltz in Starlight, Totemu: Song for Home) cowrote, directed, and photographed the film, based on Banana Yoshimoto’s 1989 novella, and he gives it a literary quality with soft voice-over narration by Ando as the troubled Terako, who is first shown lying flat on her back on her futon, in black-and-white, as if she’s dead. “If someone could guarantee that this is really love, I’d be so relieved I’d kneel at her feet,” she says after receiving a phone call from Iwanaga, continuing, “And if it isn’t love, don’t let me hear when he calls,” hiding under the sheets and plowing her head deeper into her pillow. Asleep is an intimate tale, playing out almost like a confessional as a young woman deals with love and depression, nearly paralyzed by a fear of taking control of her life. Wakagi includes little dialogue and no musical score, only the natural sounds of the city and the deafening silence of the bedroom, broken only by the buzzing of the telephone offering her an opportunity that both excites and frightens her. Asleep is part of the Centerpiece Presentation of Japan Society’s annual Japan Cuts Festival of New Japanese Film, screening July 16 at 6:30, with Ando on hand to introduce the film and participate in a Q&A afterward. The festival runs through July 19 with such other works as co-Centerpiece Presentation 100 Yen Love, also starring Ando; The Voice of Water, with an intro by and Q&A with director Masashi Yamamoto and special guests Yui Takagi and Shigetaka Komatsu; and This Country’s Sky, with director Haruhiko Arai and star Youki Kudoh at Japan Society to talk about the film.

JAPAN CUTS 2015: MAKEUP ROOM

Kei Morikawa’s MAKEUP ROOM goes behind the scenes of a porn shoot

Kei Morikawa’s engaging MAKEUP ROOM goes behind the scenes of a porn shoot

FESTIVAL OF NEW JAPANESE FILM: MAKEUP ROOM (MEIKU RUMU) (Kei Morikawa, 2015)
Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
Friday, July 10, $13, 8:45
Series runs July 9-19
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org

Former porn director Kei Morikawa’s Makeup Room is a charming love letter to the industry for which he purportedly made more than one thousand films. Originally written for the stage, the highly theatrical tale takes place in one darkly lit room over the course of several hours, as five actresses, including adult video veterans, get their makeup done, change wardrobe, eat, study the script, and talk about work and life in between scenes of the film they are making, Deep Heat, which is being shot off-camera in the same building, “an epic porn on a tiny budget.” Aki Morita stars as Kyoko, an experienced makeup artist who serves as a kind of den mother to Sugar Sato (Mariko Sumiyoshi), Kirisaki (Kanami Osako) Masami Ayase (Beni Ito), Masako (Nanami Kawakami), and Matsuko (Lily Kuribayashi), who all bring their own issues to the engaging dramedy, from worrying about how their newly done nails will affect a lesbian scene to discussing how their boyfriends and family react to their chosen career. None of them fit it into the stereotype of abused, drug-addicted, desperate women who have turned to porn because they have run out of options; to them, it is just a job, like any other. And Makeup Room never gets lewd or mundane; in fact, in many ways it could be about any five women who will be working together, except this group tends to take their clothes off and shower much more often and ask questions like “Why is she a star and me only a fetish actress?”

MAKEUP ROOM is a charming sleeper of a film set in the Japanese adult video industry

The men in the film are mere props, assistants getting lunch, managers bringing in their clients, the director who doesn’t seem to care much about the details. The only time Morikawa shows a man who is actually acting in the porn film they are making, he is a goofy dude with no sex appeal whatsoever. Cinematographer Shinji Kugimiya and Morikawa do a wonderful job of navigating the dark room, which doesn’t feel claustrophobic even though the camera never leaves it. The film deftly avoids becoming overly stagey or confining as it unfolds in what seems like real time. The acting, particularly on the part of the five women playing the porn actresses and Morita (Sharing, Shinobido), is uniformly excellent, especially Kawakami, who is a whirlwind of catty energy. Ostensibly Morikawa’s mainstream feature debut — and inspired by actual events — it’s a sweet and lovable little sleeper with its own unique sex appeal. Winner of the Grand Prix in the Fantastic Off-Theater Competition at the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival, Makeup Room is having its world premiere July 10 at 8:45 at Japan Society’s annual Japan Cuts Festival of New Japanese Film, which runs July 9-19 and includes such other works as Hirobumi Watanabe’s And the Mud Ship Sails Away, Hiroshi Ando’s Undulant Fever, Lisa Takeba’s Haruko’s Paranormal Laboratory, and the closing-night selection, the international premiere of Juichiro Yamasaki’s Sanchu Uprising: Voices at Dawn.