Focus on Japanese Cinema, Art & Culture
Presented by University of Colorado Denver - College of Arts & Media

Japan
Genre/Subject: Asian

Give your passport a stamp to Japan in this four day celebration of Japanese film, art, and culture at the Starz FilmCenter. Journey through the great moments in Japanese cinema, including twelve films from acclaimed Japanese directors with discussions following screenings.

A special focus on the films of master filmmaker Mikio Naruse (1905-1969, a director whose work has been virtually unscreened in Denver, anchors the event. Four Naruse films will screen alongside a new 35 mm print of Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa.

Sponsored by these and the below groups: Consulate-General of Japan at Denver, Asian American Student Services at UC Denver

Films and Events in Program...

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  After Life

  Japan , 1998 , 118 min.
  Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda 35mm Presentation - A diverse group of people arrive at a drafty institution where they are offered condolences on their recent deaths and told they each must select a treasured memory which will be recreated on film, and recollected for eternity. Shot in semi-documentary style, without speci... more
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  An Evening with Visual Artist Kota Ezawa

  60 min. Coming out of studies in Fine Art programs in Europe and the US, Ezawa’s animations deal with abstraction and mediated perceptions of reality through reconstructions of existing films and videos. In this lecture, Ezawa will present his work in the context of 20th century avant-garde animation. F... more
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  Cure

  Japan , 1997 , 111 min.
  Director: Kiyoshi Kurasawa 35mm Presentation - Police Detective Takabe is tracking a series of bizarre murders, all committed in exactly the same manner: a giant X is slashed in the flesh of the victims. But that's where the similarities end. In each case, seemingly well-adjusted people suddenly kill without understand... more
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  The Films of Mikio Naruse

  Japan , Mikio Naruse (1905 – 1969) was a Japanese filmmaker, screenwriter and producer who directed some 89 films spanning the period 1930 (towards the end of the silent period in Japan) to 1967. He made primarily shomin-geki (working-class drama) films with female protagonists. Because of his focus on fam... more
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  Flowing

  Japan , 1956 , 120 min.
  Director: Mikio Naruse 35mm Presentation - Long regarded as one of Japanese cinema's preeminent geisha films, Flowing was produced at a point in history when the traditional geisha (not whores, but asexual performers who entertained male clients with singing, dancing and instrumentation) found their way of l... more
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  Closing Night Reception - Free to Public

  90 min. Come celebrate on Sunday, April 11th at 6pm Celebrate the end of Focus on Japanese Cinema with complimentary Japanese cuisine and drinks, open to the public in Gallery 30 at the Starz FilmCenter. Stop in to mingle after Sunday afternoon’s Tampopo screening, or grab a bite before catching a S... more
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  Focus On Japanese Cinema: Free Cultural Events

  Five cultural events presented by University Colarado Denver – College of Arts and Media all free to the public. From master classes to the music of the Seven Samurai – receptions, visual artist Kota Ezawa and a Japanese Cinema 101 course all helping to immerse yourself in a weekend of Japanese cu... more
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  Late Spring

  Japan , 1949 , 108 min.
  Director: Yasujiro Ozu 35mm Presentation - One of the most powerful of Yasujiro Ozu’s family portraits, Late Spring tells the story of a widowed father who feels compelled to marry off his beloved only daughter. Eminent Ozu players Chishu Ryu and Setsuko Hara command this poignant tale of love and loss (with... more
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  Lightning

  Japan , 1952 , 87 min.
  Director: Mikio Naruse 35mm Presentation - The incisive Lightning is Naruse’s second adaptation of a Hayashi novel and another of his lacerating portraits of a deeply flawed family. A frequent Naruse leading lady since 1941, Takamine Hideo plays Kiyoko, the youngest of four siblings, all with different fathe... more
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  Millennium Actress

  Japan , 2001 , 87 min.
  Director: Satoshi Kon 35mm Presentation - In this unique epic adventure, the lines between the past and the present, truth and fiction, are blurred when a documentary filmmakers fulfills his quest to find the legendary actress Chiyoko Fujiwara, and learn why she mysteriously vanished at the height of her brilliant... more
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  The Music of Seven Samurai - Free to Public

  60 min. Using clips for the film, David Bondelevitch will discuss the merging of Eastern and Western musical elements in the score to the film Seven Samurai. Free to Public - Tickets can be picked up one hour prior to event start time on a first come first served basis Sponsored by the Japan... more
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  Seven Samurai

  Japan , 1954 , 203 min.
  Director: Akira Kurosawa BRAND NEW 35mm Presentation! - One of the most beloved movie epics of all time, Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (Shichinin no samurai) tells the story of a sixteenth-century village whose desperate inhabitants hire the eponymous warriors to protect them from invading bandits. This three... more
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  Tampopo preceded by an intimate noodle reception at Bones Denver

  Japan , 1985 , 114 min.
  Director: Juzo Itami Join the Denver Film Society for an intimate noodle reception from 1:30 – 3:30 PM at Bones, Denver’s hottest noodle restaurant, before a screening of Tampopo, a film about the joy of food -- specifically noodles! PLAYS Sunday, April 11th at 4pm 35mm Pres... more
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  The Watching Hour: House

  Japan , 1977 , 87 min.
  Director: Nobuhiko Obayashi HD Digital presentation - How to describe Nobuhiko Obayahshi’s 1977 movie House? As a psychedelic ghost tale? A stream-of-consciousness bedtime story? An episode of Scooby Doo as directed by Dario Argento? Any of the above will do for this hallucinatory head trip about a schoolgirl who travel... more
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  When a Woman Ascends the Stairs

  Japan , 1960 , 111 min.
  Director: Mikio Naruse 35mm Presentation - When a Woman Ascends the Stairs might be Japanese filmmaker Mikio Naruse’s finest hour—a delicate, devastating study of a woman, Keiko (played heartbreakingly by Hideko Takamine), who works as a bar hostess in Tokyo’s very modern postwar Ginza district, who entertai... more
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  Yearning

  Japan , 1964 , 98 min.
  Director: Mikio Naruse 35mm Presentation - War widow Hideko Takamine, fed up with trying to keep the family store open against supermarket competition and in-law meddling (including feckless brother-in-law Yuzo Kayama), heads for home, but, in one of the greatest train journeys in the history of cinema, receives a ... more
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  Zatoichi

  Japan , 2003 , 116 min.
  Director: Takeshi Kitano 35mm Presentation - Zatoichi is perhaps the most famous action hero in the history of Japanese cinema. From 1963 to 1989 there were 26 films, and more than 100 television episodes featuring the exploits and adventures of the blind swordsman—all of these played by the same actor, the late Shin... more