Special Report: Japan Cuts 2024

Special Guests: Peter Tatara, Alexander Fee

The Japan Cuts Festival of New Japanese Film, North America’s largest Japanese film festival, presents two weeks of contemporary premieres, including new films from Kei Chika-ura, Takeshi Kitano, Gakuryu Ishii, Shunji Iwai, Sho Miyake and Shinya Tsukamoto. Mike talks with Peter Tatara (Director of Film, Japan Society) and Alexander Fee (Film Programmer, Japan Society) about the Japan Cuts Film Festival, which runs July 10 - 21, 2024.

Find out more at the website https://japansociety.org/film/japancuts/

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Listen to "Special Report: Japan Cuts 2024" on Spreaker.

Music:
"Pocky and Sake" - Sissy Bar

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Special Report: Japan Cuts Film Festival 2023

Special Guests: Peter Tatara, Alexander Fee, Elizabeth Lennard

Mike talks with Peter Tatara and Alexander Fee, programmers from the Japan Cuts Film Festival which runs July 26 - August 6, 2023.

On another episode, Mike talks with filmmaker Elizabeth Lennard about her film Tokyo Melody, a documentary about musician Ryuichi Sakamoto which plays at the Japan Cuts festival.

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Listen to "Special Report: Japan Cuts Film Festival Programmers" on Spreaker.

Listen to "Special Report: Tokyo Melody (1985)" on Spreaker.

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Become a supporter of The Projection Booth

Music:
"Back in Tokyo" - Yellow Magic Orchestra
"Cosmic Surfin'" - Yellow Magic Orchestra

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TOKYO MELODY: A FILM ABOUT RYUICHI SAKAMOTO (Elizabeth Lennard, 1985) from Spectacle on Vimeo.

Special Report: Seijun Suzuki Centennial

Special Guests: Will Carroll, Peter Tatara

Mike talks with Assistant Professor of Modern Japanese Cultural Studies at the University of Alberta and guest curator Will Carroll (Suzuki Seijun and Postwar Japanese Cinema) and Peter Tatara, the brand-new Director of Film at Japan Society and founder of Anime NYC about the Japan Society's Seijun Suzuki Centennial.

Celebrating 100 years of iconoclast director Seijun Suzuki (1923-2017), a singular force in Japanese cinema whose radical stylistic vision and unpredictable narratives shaped the B-movie genre, Japanese cinephilia and the political New Left, Japan Society and The Japan Foundation present Seijun Suzuki Centennial—a selection of six films from across the filmmaker’s nearly 60-film body of work, all on imported 35mm prints straight from Japan. Covering ground from his earliest yakuza feature (Satan’s Town) to his unbridled return to studio filmmaking after being blacklisted for 10 years (A Tale of Sorrow and Sadness) and his subsequent independent success (Kagero-za), this special series offers a rare glimpse into the core of Suzuki's creative genius.

The program runs Feb 3-10 at Japan Society. Find out more at https://japansociety.org/film/seijun-suzuki-centennial/

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Listen to "Special Report: Seijun Suzuki Centennial" on Spreaker.

Links:
Become a supporter of The Projection Booth
Find out more about the program at JapanSociety.com

Music:
"Tokyo Drifter" theme

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Special Report: David Ehrlich on Princess Mononoke

To commemorate 25 years since its 1997 release New York's Japan Society screened Hayao Miyazaki’s mystical epic Princess Mononoke on July 22, 2022. Mike spoke with IndieWire's David Ehrlich about the seminal anime film.


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Listen to "Special Report: David Ehrlich on Princess Mononoke" on Spreaker.

Links:
Become a supporter of The Projection Booth
Find out more about The Japan Society
Buy Princess Mononoke on Blu-Ray

Music:
"Princess Mononoke Theme Song (Mononoke Hime)" - Sasha Lazard

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Special Report: Alexander Fee on The Japan Society NYC

Special Guests: Alexander Fee

Mike spoke with Alexander Fee of the Japan Society New York about the Flash Forward: Debut Works and Recent Films by Notable Japanese Directors series that runs December 3-23, 2021.

The series takes an intimate look at six of Japan’s most well-known directors: Naomi Kawase, Miwa Nishikawa, Shuichi Okita, Junji Sakamoto, Akihiko Shiota and Masayuki Suo. Pairing each debut with a recent work, the series presents two distinct facets of each filmmaker’s career—encouraging dialogue and interplay as well as tracking the development of their signature voice. By drawing parallels and contrasts between past and present, Flash Forward illuminates the importance of these pivotal early works within each artist’s career.

Find out more at the Japan Society website.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Special Report: Alexander Fee on The Japan Society" on Spreaker.

Music:
"Battle Without Honor and Humanity" - Tomoyasu Hotei

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