Full schedule released for NYC Japanese film festival entitled 'Family Portrait: Japanese Family in Flux'
New York City, NY (Release): The Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan and Japan Society have announced the full line-up for the upcoming ACA Cinema Project film series 'Family Portrait: Japanese Family in Flux'. Part of an ongoing initiative, the ACA Cinema Project has presented events in both New York and LA since 2021, and its next edition will present 10 contemporary and classic films at Japan Society and IFC Center in New York City from February 15-24, 2024.
This special event will be headlined by Japanese director Ryota Nakano, making a rare in-person appearance in New York. Nakano has been acclaimed for his keen focus on the complex feelings of families across his career, and this series will present 'The Asadas', his latest film, together with 'A Long Goodbye' and his most famous work, 'Her Love Boils Bathwater'.
The Family Portrait series will also put a spotlight on the bonds of the traditional Japanese family and the challenges it faces in our modern world. Films such as Keiko Tsuruoka’s 'Tsugaru Lacquer Girl' show the breakdown of this traditional family, while films such as Teruaki Shoji’s 'Hoyaman' celebrate new, invented families created in the 21st century.
The series will present works from both rising and acclaimed directors, including films from three of Japan’s most legendary creators -- Hirokazu Kore-eda’s 'Still Walking', Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s 'Tokyo Sonata', and Yasujiro Ozu’s 'Tokyo Twilight'.
“Family Portrait: Japanese Family in Flux is a richly thematic series celebrating the rise, fall, and rebirth of the Japanese family,” said Peter Tatara, Japan Society’s Director of Film. “Showcasing films from across the past 65 years, audiences will find an ever-evolving image of what family means in Japan, and the universally human sorrow and joys at its core.”
The complete Family Portrait schedule and ticket information is available here.
Full list of films to be screened
A Long Goodbye
Date: Sat, Feb 24 at 4PM at Japan Society
Director: Ryota Nakano
Cast: Yu Aoi, Yuko Takeuchi, Tsutomu Yamazaki
Plot: Based on the book by Naoki Prize-winning writer Kyoko Nakajima, 'A Long Goodbye' traces the gradual memory loss of the aging Shohei (Tsutomu Yamazaki) due to Alzheimer’s and the painful challenges and unexpected joys his two daughters experience as they return home to care for him. While Alzheimer’s robs Shohei of his past, his long goodbye brings new memories and a new closeness to his loved ones.
The Asadas
Date: Sat., Feb. 24 at 7PM at Japan Society
Director: Ryota Nakano
Cast: Kazunari Ninomiya, Satoshi Tsumabuki, Masaki Suda.
Plot: Inspired by real-life photographer Masashi Asada, director Ryota Nakano’s latest film balances humor and heart in an unexpectedly true story. As an energetic dreamer in a traditional family, Masashi (Kazunari Ninomiya)’s initial artistic endeavors are met with skepticism and little support, but in the aftermath of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, Masashi’s photographic skills are given new purpose, and he embarks on a mission that brings his family—and families across Japan—together.
Her Love Boils Bathwater
Date: Fri., Feb. 23 at 7PM at Japan Society
Director: Ryota Nakano
Cast: Rie Miyazawa, Hana Sugisaki, Joe Odagiri.
Plot: Rie Miyazawa stars as Futaba, a single mother diagnosed with terminal cancer. With little time left, she sets out on a mission to reconnect her family, reuniting with her husband, reassuring her daughter, and bringing both together to save the family business. A popular and critical hit, Her Love Boils Bathwater won Rie Miyazawa Best Actress and Hana Sugisaki Best Supporting Actress at the Japan Academy Awards, and the film was Japan’s official entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars.
Hoyaman
Date: Sun., Feb. 18 at 4PM at Japan Society
Director: Teruaki Shoji
Cast: Afro, Kumi Kurejo, Kodai Kurosaki.
Plot: A tearful comedy set on a beautiful island, Hoyaman follows the strange adventures of two fisherman brothers and a mysterious artist who drifts onto the island and into their lives. The three are at a crossroads in a deeply human story featuring ramen, superheroes and tsunamis. Hoyaman tells the story of an unorthodox but modern family and the bonds that challenge us to grow. Hoyaman is director Teruaki Shoji’s feature film debut and filmed entirely on Ajishima, an island off the coast of his hometown of Ishinomaki. It features a cast of rising talent lead by Afro from the band MOROHA in his own movie debut.
Still Walking
Date: Thurs., Feb. 15 at 7PM at Japan Society
Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda
Cast: Hiroshi Abe, Yui Natsukawa, Kirin Kiki, Yoshio Harada.
Plot: The Yokoyama family gathers for an annual commemoration of the eldest son Junpei, who drowned 15 years ago while saving someone’s life. Over the course of the day, suppressed tensions and resentments are gradually revealed amidst forced pleasantries and shared meals as second son Ryo (Hiroshi Abe) endures feelings of inferiority in front of his curmudgeon father (Yoshio Harada) and passively judgmental mother (Kirin Kiki), both of whom disapprove of his recent marriage to a widow (Yui Natsukawa) with a 10-year-old son. Dedicated to his late mother, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s 2008 drama is among his most personal films—a masterfully directed, emotionally nuanced expression of the love, heartbreak and comfort within family relationships—and a modern classic of Japanese cinema.
Tsugaru Lacquer Girl
Date: Fri., Feb. 16 at 7PM at Japan Society
Director: Keiko Tsuruoka
Cast: Mayu Hotta, Kaoru Kobayashi.
Plot: Traditional tsugaru-nuri lacquerwork is the Aoki family’s legacy, but their business is in decline and father Seishiro (Kaoru Kobayashi) doesn’t know if it will continue to the next generation. The family’s only hope is daughter Miyako (Mayu Hotta), but her desire to lead the family business upsets generations of customs, established gender roles and Seishiro himself. Tsugaru Lacquer Girl vividly celebrates one of Japan’s most traditional arts and asks poignant questions about history, family and if the past has a place in the future.
Tokyo Sonata
Date: Sun., Feb. 18 at 7PM at Japan Society
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Cast: Teruyuki Kagawa, Kyoko Koizumi, Kai Inowaki, Yu Koyanagi.
Plot: Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s appropriately terrifying take on the domestic drama looks beyond the platitudes of familial values and empty promise of a happy life into the recesses of the human condition. Laid off in a wave of company downsizing, salaryman Ryuhei hides his misfortune, opting instead to deceive his family into thinking he still remains employed. Equally adrift are wife Megumi (Kyoko Koizumi), yearning for someone to pull her out of her banal routines; teen Takashi who sees no future living in Japan, and younger son Kenji who simply desires to play the piano. Searching for catharsis, the family members begin to live out clandestine lives rather than confront their creeping divide. Winner of the Jury Prize of the Un Certain Regard section at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, Kurosawa’s cynical look at the subsurface decay and inadequacies of the traditional family points to its inherent breakdown.
Yoko
Date: Thurs., Feb. 22 at 7PM at IFC Center
Director: Kazuyoshi Kumakiri
Cast: Rinko Kikuchi, Pistol Takehara, Asuka Kurosawa.
Plot: International star Rinko Kikuchi plays the titular Yoko in an unorthodox road movie following an isolated woman’s journey to hitchhike over 400 miles to her estranged father’s funeral. As she encounters a sweeping range of travelers across her trek, what will Yoko learn from each of them and what will they learn from Yoko? And in crossing this physical distance, can Yoko mend the emotional distance between her father and herself? Winner of Best Picture and Best Actress at the Shanghai International Film Festival.
Muddy River (new 2K restoration)
Date: Sat., Feb. 17 at 4PM at Japan Society
Director: Kohei Oguri
Cast: Takahiro Tamura, Yumiko Fujita, Mariko Kaga, Nobutaka Asahara.
Plot: Taking place in working class Osaka 11 years after Japan’s defeat, Kohei Oguri’s naturalistic debut detailing an unforgettable summer friendship between two young boys is tinged with a poetic melancholy. Seen through the eyes of 10-year-old Nobuo whose world is governed by the riverside traffic of sputtering barges, fishing boats and a “monstrous carp,” Muddy River dwells on Nobuo’s last days of innocence as he befriends poor river dweller Kiichi who lives nearby with his sister and mysterious mother (Mariko Kaga) on a ramshackle houseboat. Caught in the lives of its worn-down and impoverished residents—some still living the war, others dreaming of a new life—Oguri’s stunning black-and-white feature remains a heart-wrenching portrait of postwar Japan and its afflictions, the effects of which reverberate deep within the wordless exchanges and crestfallen faces of its downtrodden subjects.
Tokyo Twilight
Date: Sat., Feb. 17 at 7PM at Japan Society
Director: Yasujiro Ozu
Cast: Setsuko Hara, Ineko Arima, Chishu Ryu.
Plot: In the thick of the industrial hums and billowing smokestacks of postwar Tokyo, Yasujiro Ozu’s crepuscular drama concerns the lives of elderly Shukichi’s (Chishu Ryu) two grown-up daughters, each taking lodgings at their father’s Tokyo home. Hemmed in by setbacks and personal troubles, Takako (Setsuko Hara) seeks refuge from her abusive husband while “delinquent” younger sister Akiko (Ineko Arima) faces the shock of an unplanned pregnancy. In delicate strokes, Ozu orchestrates Tokyo Twilight across waystations of contemporary Tokyo—from seedy mahjong parlors and Western-themed bars with Latin beats to desolate shipyards and train crossings. With quiet devastation and lingering regret, Ozu’s final black-and-white feature is one of his unequivocal masterpieces, a woeful melodrama illuminated against the fading light of day.