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JAPAN CUTS 2015: BELLADONNA OF SADNESS

BELLADONNA OF SADNESS is a spectacular adult fairy tale about sex and power

FESTIVAL OF NEW JAPANESE FILM: BELLADONNA OF SADNESS (KANASHIMI NO BELLADONNA) (Eiichi Yamamoto, 1973)
Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
Friday, July 10, $13, 10:30
Series runs July 9-19
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org

The third film in Mushi Production’s adult Animerama trilogy, following A Thousand & One Nights and Cleopatra, a pair of collaborations between manga godfather Osamu Tezuka and Eiichi Yamamoto, Belladonna of Sadness is a gorgeously made grown-up fairy tale, a deeply moving erotic story about love and power, loyalty and revenge. Based on Jules Michelet 1862 book Satanism and Witchcraft, also known as La Sorcière, the film follows the misfortunes of Jeanne (voiced by Aiko Nagayama) and Jean (Katsutaka Ito), a couple “drunk on happiness” who present their marriage to the local lord (Masaya Takahashi), a harsh ruler — his evil elegantly expressed by his skeletal head. When Jean and Jeanne are unable to pay the absurdly high tax demanded by the lord, his evil wife (Shigaku Shimegi) decides that the lord and his court will have their way with the virgin Jeanne, then return the spent woman to Jean. Jeanne is raped by the lord in a harrowing, psychedelic, blood-soaked sequence and comes back home with an overwhelming melancholy. As Jean tries to deal with the horrible situation, Jeanne is visited by a small, red, phallus-shaped spirit (Tatsuya Nakadai) who claims to be part of her. “Your soul was screaming, ‘I want power. Someone help me,’” the strange creature says. But every time Jean and Jeanne start to put their life back together, terrible things happen to them, and it gets worse when the town believes that she might be in league with the devil.

Belladonna of Sadness is a beautifully rendered film, awash in lush watercolors by Fukai Kuni that evoke the work of Gustav Klimt and Aubrey Beardsley, as well as Ralph Bakshi and the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine, as it ranges from still scenes like comic-book panels to moving images that include dreamlike shimmering, flowing blood, a sleeping Jeanne being lifted skyward into darkness, and a naked, desperate Jeanne falling down a snowy mountain. Yamamoto often lets the camera linger over emotional scenes before exploding into a trippy wonderland. The film is narrated by Chinatsu Nakayama, who also sings several songs, with music by Masahiko Satō. “I don’t want to forget anger and hate!” a distraught yet determined Jeanne declares at one point, surrounded by swirling colors and flora and fauna. It’s an empowering moment, and frightening as well. Fairy tales are supposed to have happy endings, but Belladonna of Sadness takes you to surprising places you never expected to go. The film is screening July 10 at 10:30 in a brand-new 4K restoration in the “Classics: Rediscoveries & Restorations” section of Japan Society’s annual Japan Cuts Festival of New Japanese Film, which runs July 9-19 and includes such other works as the opening-night selection, the North American premiere of Yuri Irie’s HIBI ROCK: Puke Afro and the Pop Star, which will be followed by a Q&A with the director and a party; Daishi Matsunaga’s Pieta in the Toilet, which was inspired by the last page of Tezuka’s diary; a 4K restoration of Nagisa Oshima’s Cruel Story of Youth; and the hotly anticipated world premiere of Takeshi Watanabe’s Neko Samurai 2: A Tropical Adventure.

SEBASTIAN MASUDA: TIME AFTER TIME CAPSULE IN NYC

A giant, translucent Hello Kitty is collecting objects made by children for special art project (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza
East 47th St. bet. First & Second Aves.
Through Sunday, September 13, free
www.facebook.com/sebastian.m.art
time after time slideshow

Every four years, athletes, tourists, and sports fans from around the world descend on a city for the Summer Olympics. The 2020 Games are being held in Tokyo, where artist Sebastian Masuda’s “Time After Time Capsule” will be shown, a participatory project involving large-scale translucent animal sculptures that are traveling the globe (Miami first, with Amsterdam, Beijing, Berlin, London, Los Angeles, Paris, and Kyoto also on the itinerary). In each city, they are being filled up with objects made by children during special family workshops. For New York City, Masuda has installed a nine-foot-tall Hello Kitty in Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza, just up the street from Japan Society, which is currently hosting “Life of Cats: Selections from the Hiraki Ukiyo-e Collection.” (Masuda was at Japan Society in March to talk about the work.) “‘Time After Time Capsule New York’ is a project where people’s memories — that is to say, the concept of ‘kawaii’ [cute] — is sent to the future,” Masuda recently said on Kickstarter. “I truly hope that everyone will collaborate with me and we can build our dreams together.” Be sure to get up close and personal with Hello Kitty, which was created back in 1974 by Sanrio as a marketing character and became a huge part of kawaii culture, to check out the goodies that are piling up inside, entering through the back of her head. Masuda has his own “cute” kawaii concept shop as well, 6%DOKIDOKI, in Tokyo’s Harajuku district. For the 2020 Olympics, all the objects will be placed in a super-large capsule, bringing together the hopes and dreams of children everywhere.

INTERNET CAT VIDEO FESTIVAL SCREENING AND PARTY

Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
Wednesday, May 20, $20, 7:30 (twenty-one and older only)
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org

We are extremely frustrated that none of our absolutely adorable and outrageously funny photos and videos of our cats have become internet memes. But on May 20, you can see the past, present, and future of international online superstar felines at the Internet Cat Video Festival Screening & Party at Japan Society, being held in conjunction with the current exhibition, “Life of Cats: Selections from the Hiraki Ukiyo-E Collection.” The Internet Cat Video Festival premiered at the prestigious Walker Art Center in August 2012, then made its New York City debut in October 2013 at Warsaw in Brooklyn. The Japan Society evening, which includes admission to the seventy-minute screening and the exhibition (which continues through June 7), one drink, and light refreshments, is the festival’s Manhattan bow (wow-wow). The video is curated by Will Braden, the krazy kat behind the Henri, le Chat Noir sensation and winner of the festival’s first Golden Kitty Award. Although no live animals are permitted in the building, human guests are encouraged to dress up in their feline finest that will make others go, “Meow!” Among the other upcoming “Life of Cats” programs are Caturday Craft Day on May 16 and a Japan Cuts screening of Neko Samurai on May 30, followed by an Edo Cat Party.

THE MAGICAL ART OF TRANSLATION: FROM HARUKI MURAKAMI TO JAPANS LATEST STORYTELLERS

Translators and authors will gather at Japan Society for special discussion on May 7

Who: Jay Rubin, Ted Goossen, Aoko Matsuda, Satoshi Kitamura, Motoyuki Shibata, and Roland Kelts
What: Lecture, discussion, and reception
Where: Japan Society, 333 East 47th St. at First Ave., 212-715-1258
When: Thursday, May 7, $12, 6:30
Why: Haruki Murakami is one of the world’s greatest living writers, but he couldn’t have reached that level without working with outstanding translators. That critical literary art form is explored in this Japan Society program, featuring Jay Rubin, who has translated such Murakami books as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles, Norwegian Wood, and 1Q84, and Ted Goossen, who translated The Strange Library and this summer’s Wind/Pinball: Two Early Novels, the long-awaited official English-language publications of Murakami’s Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball, 1973. Goossen will also talk about his debut novel, The Sun Gods. Joining Rubin and Goossen will be authors Aoko Matsuda and Satoshi Kitamura and Murakami translating partner Motoyuki Shibata, with Monkey Business coeditor Roland Kelts serving as narrator. The literary evening, which will conclude with a reception, is part of a Monkey Business tour that will also be stopping off at BookCourt on May 3, Asia Society on May 4, and McNally Jackson on May 7; the latest edition of Monkey Business features a new essay by Murakami. Murakami fans might also want to check out Ninagawa Company’s theatrical production of Kafka on the Shore, which comes to the Lincoln Center Festival July 23-26.

MICHIKO GODAI: YOKOHAMA ROSA

Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
Saturday, April 25, 7:30, and Sunday, April 26, 2:30, $35
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org

Japan Society’s multidisciplinary “Stories from the War” series continues with the one-woman show Yokohama Rosa, about the transformation of a Japanese woman, known as Merii-san, before, during, and after WWII. The play is written and performed by Michiko Godai (Death Note, Pride), who puts on the production every year in Yokohama on the anniversary of the end of the war. The Saturday-night performance will be followed by a Meet-the-Artists reception, while the Sunday matinee includes admission to the exhibition “Life of Cats: Selections from the Hiraki Ukiyo-e Collection.” In conjunction with the show, Japan Society will be holding The Life of Yokohama Merii Language Workshops on Saturday and Sunday, taught by Kazue Kurahara ($105, including theater ticket).

ZERO HOUR: TOKYO ROSE’S LAST TAPE

Miwa Yanagi’s ZERO HOUR: TOKYO ROSE’S LAST TAPE will have its North American premiere at Japan Society this week (photo by Ayumi Sakamoto)

Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
January 29-31, $35, 7:30
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org
www.yanagimiwa.net

We’ve been fans of Japanese multidisciplinary artist Miwa Yanagi since her summer 2007 exhibit at the Chelsea Art Museum, consisting of three photographic series that featured highly cinematic compositions and videos. So it comes as no surprise that the Kobe-born Yanagi is also now creating theatrical works and performance art projects. The North American premiere of Yanagi’s latest piece, Zero Hour: Tokyo Rose’s Last Tape, will take place January 29-31 at Japan Society as part of the institution’s “Stories from the War” series, being held in recognition of the seventieth anniversary of the end of World War II. Conceived, written, and directed by Yanagi, who also designed the sets and costumes, Zero Hour follows one of the many women known as Tokyo Rose, who broadcast propaganda for the Japanese Imperial Army. The production, which will be performed in English and Japanese (with English subtitles) by Yohei Matsukado, Hinako Arao, Megumi Matsumoto, Ami Kobayashi, Sogo Nishimura, Aki, and Sachi Masuda, with video projection by Tadashi Mitani, lighting design by Akane Ikebe, sound design by Yasutaka Kobayakawa, and choreography by Megumi Matsumoto. The January 29 show will be followed by a meet-the-artists reception. “Stories from the War” continues through August with Michiko Godai in Yokohama Rosa April 25-26, New and Traditional Noh: Holy Mother in Nagasaki and Kiyotsune May 14-16, Meet the Author lectures by Julie Otsuka and Hayden Herrera, and the Globus Film Series “The Most Beautiful: The War Films of Shirley Yamaguchi & Setsuko Hara.”

THE DARK SIDE OF THE SUN — JOHN ZORN ON JAPANESE CINEMA: MATANGO

Sherwood Schwartz must have seen MATANGO before creating GILLIGANS ISLAND

MATANGO is a kind of Japanese postwar nuclear GILLIGAN’S ISLAND

MATANGO (aka ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE) (aka FUNGUS OF TERROR) (Ishirō Honda, 1963)
Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
Friday, January 23, 7:00
Festival runs monthly through February 20
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org

How can you go wrong with a Japanese monster movie with such alternate titles as Attack of the Mushroom People and Fungus of Terror, directed by the man who gave us Godzilla, Rodan, Destroy All Monsters, and The Human Vapor? Well, you can’t. Ishirō Honda’s 1963 cult classic, Matango, is a postwar apocalyptic tale that evokes Lord of the Flies, The Thing, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and Antonioni’s L’Avventura while predicting Lost and, yes, Gilligan’s Island. Written by frequent Honda collaborator Takeshi Shimura based on William Hope Hodgson’s 1907 short story “The Voice in the Night” (which was included in the 1958 compilation Alfred Hitchcock Presents: 12 Stories They Wouldn’t Let Me Do on TV), Matango also has its fair share of social commentary, as seven characters on a yachting outing end up stranded on a seemingly deserted island: the first mate, Senzô (Kenji Sahara), the skipper, Naoyuki (Hiroshi Koizumi), the wealthy Kasai (Yoshio Tsuchiya), the writer, Yoshida (Hiroshi Tachikawa), the sultry singer, Mami (Kumi Mizuno), the professor, Kenji (Akira Kubo), and the mousy Akiko (Miki Yashiro). Mushrooms are thriving on the island, but it’s best not to eat them, because they are not exactly the psychedelic fungi beloved by hippies in the mod movies of the ’60s. The film touches on jealousy, resentment, loneliness, hunger, and sanity in the nuclear age, with special effects (courtesy of Eiji Tsuburaya) that make the early years of Doctor Who — and Gilligan’s Island itself —seem like a technological marvel.

Matango is not so much scary these days as just an absolute hoot, a kind of minor time capsule treasure that you can check out on January 23 at 7:00 when Japan Society screens it as part of its monthly film series “The Dark Side of the Sun: John Zorn on Japanese Cinema,” which concludes in March with the U.S. premiere of the made-for-television Nagisa Oshima’s It’s Me Here, Bellett, preceded by eight shorts by Osamu Tezuka. “I had been a huge fan of Japanese music, art, and film since the early 1960s, but late night Tokyo TV provided a peek into an entirely different world outside the classic art film masterpieces of Ozu, Mizoguchi, Kurosawa, and Inagaki,” experimental musician and composer and downtown fixture Zorn explains in his curator statement. “It was a revelation to discover that Oshima’s Cruel Story of Youth and The Sun’s Burial were not so much an isolated vision but actually two examples of an entire cinematic genre, and that directors like Seijun Suzuki, Kinji Fukasaku, Toshio Masuda, Yasuzo Masumura, Teruo Ishii, and others had made incredible and uncompromising films that spoke as much about the Japanese psyche as origami, noh theater, or the tea ceremony ever had. . . . For me, the experimental, adventurous, and uncompromising side of any society is often the home of the deepest truths, and these films each hold their truths to an often uncomfortable extreme. I hope you enjoy the (occasionally blinding) intensity of ‘The Dark Side of the Sun.’”