Summer is here, school's out and July in New York brings us Japan Cuts, festival of contemporary Japanese cinema at Japan Society from July 1 to July 16, 2010.
outside Japan, with international and U.S. premieres as is the case for Zero Focus (below).
Special guests include filmmakers Momoko Ando, Noboru Iguchi, Yoshihiro Nishimura, Tomorowo Taguchi, Toshiaki Toyoda, Hitoshi Yazaki, and Isao Yukisada; and actors Tatsuya Fujiwara and Daichi Watanabe.
It's also a chance to party in style with Festival Launch Party on July 1st, SUSHI TYPHOON! on July 3rd and NIGHT OF THE FILMMAKERS on July 10th.
In addition to independent and big budget feature films from the past year and 8 titles co-presented with the New York Asian Film Festival, the 2010 edition caps the decade with the Best of Unreleased Japanese Films of the 00's (Best of the "Naughties"), a digest of overlooked films from the past ten years which-for whatever reason-have not been treated to U.S. distribution.
One of theses Best of Naughties (no pun intended) is 'Electric Button' Moon and Cherry (pictured above) by woman director Yuki Tanada which the program says is "recalling traditional "Pinku Eiga" (porn for refined sensibilities) in
form–but radically different in detail, the film is both sweet and
dryly unsentimental while effortlessly dancing across the lines of
comedy, drama, romance and eroticism. Yuki Tanada rethinks the erotic
film from a decidedly "woman on top" perspective."
At the movies for Tokyo Thursdays # 145
Previously: Masashi Asada's Photography Keeps it In the Family, Asadake Exhibit, Paris, Til June 18