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Where EAST meets the Northwest
LEGACY OF SHOHEI IMAMURA. "A Man Vanishes: The Legacy of Shohei Imamura," a retrospective of the films of the legendary Japanese director, will be shown at Portland’s Northwest Film Center beginning November 23. The Ballad of Narayama will be shown on Saturday, November 24. From The Asian Reporter, V17, #46 (November 13, 2007), page 11. Shohei Imamura films come to Portland "A Man Vanishes: The Legacy of Shohei Imamura," a retrospective of the films of the legendary Japanese director, will be shown at Portland’s Northwest Film Center beginning November 23 after a successful run in Seattle. Imamura, who died in 2006 after a filmmaking career spanning four decades, was a leading figure of post-war Japanese cinema. The films will be screened at the Northwest Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium, located in the Portland Art Museum at 1219 S.W. Park Avenue. To learn more, call (503) 221-1156 or visit <www.nwfilm.org>. A complete schedule follows: Vengeance is Mine November 23, 7:00pm Imamura’s award-winning film Vengeance is Mine is based on the true story of Iwao Enokizu, a day laborer and con artist who embarked on a psychopathic spree of rape and murder. Eluding the police, Japan’s infamous "King of Criminals" passes himself off as a Kyoto University professor, only to become entangled with an innkeeper and her perverted mother. (1979, 140 mins.) The Ballad of Narayama November 24, 7:00pm Based on Shichiro Fukazawa’s novel, The Ballad of Narayama tells the story of people over the age of 70 being taken on their children’s shoulders to the mountains and left there to die. (1983, 130 mins.) Insect Woman November 29, 7:00pm In Insect Woman, an uneducated farm woman leaves poverty and small-town incest for Tokyo, where she becomes first a factory worker and then a prostitute. After World War II, she tries unsuccessfully to work herself up to the position of a madam. (1963, 123 mins.) Pigs and Battleships November 30, 7:00pm A satire on Japanese who grew rich from the presence of American occupiers, Pigs and Battleships tells the story of young gangsters living outside a U.S. naval base who try to raise pigs on the trash thrown out by the military. (1961, 108 mins.) Black Rain December 1, 7:00pm Adapted from a novel by Masuji Ibuse, Black Rain follows the lives of three survivors of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima. While the opening scenes deal with the horrible aftermath of the bomb’s detonation, the bulk of the film unfolds in the drama of everyday life five years later. (1989, 122 mins.) Intentions of Murder December 2, 7:00pm When a housewife’s boring tyrant of a husband is out of town, she is raped by a burglar. In Imamura’s Intentions of Murder, instead of committing suicide, she is made more assertive by the violent act, and when the rapist returns she first consents, and then plans to kill him. (1964, 150 mins.) A Man Vanishes December 6, 7:00pm A strange collision of Imamura’s fascination with anthropology and voyeurism, A Man Vanishes records — via hidden camera — the search of a woman for her vanished fiancé, and also records her falling in love with a detective, who happens to be an actor in the film. (1967, 130 mins.) Profound Desire of the Gods December 9, 7:00pm Imamura’s first color masterpiece, Profound Desire of the Gods, is an epic portrait of the primitive and incestuous lives of the inhabitants of one of Japan’s southern islands that is powerful and disturbing. (1968, 172 mins.) The Making of a Prostitute December 14, 7:00pm The Making of a Prostitute focuses on one of the many Japanese women who were sold into prostitution and sent abroad to service Japanese soldiers during World War II. Left behind in Malaysia after the war, the now 73-year-old woman takes the filmmaker on a tour of the prostitute quarter where she once worked as a slave. (1968, 70 mins.) Eijanaika December 16, 7:00pm Set during the collapse of the Tokugawa period in the late 19th century, Eijanaika tells the story of a man recently returned from America who tries to convince his wife to return with him to "the land of golden opportunity." Zegen December 20, 7:00pm Zegen is a satire of colonialism that follows the exploits of a hairdresser who is sent to Manchuria to spy on the Russians, and who becomes the kingpin of a string of brothels throughout Southeast Asia. (1987, 124 mins.) The Eel December 21, 7:00pm Released from prison, a man who killed his wife in a jealous rage opens a barbershop in a small town, but will speak to no one but his pet eel in The Eel. When he finds a woman who has survived a suicide attempt and gives her a job in his shop, he learns she has a past every bit as painful as his own. (1997, 117 mins.) Dr. Akagi December 22, 7:00pm In the waning days of World War II, an eccentric doctor gathers a motley crew of helpers — a dissolute monk, a morphine-addict surgeon, a young former prostitute, and a wounded Dutch soldier — to help him stamp out a hepatitis epidemic in Dr. Akagi. (1998, 129 mins.) Warm Water Under a Red Bridge December 23, 7:00pm When a middle-aged man’s wife leaves him, he travels to a far-off village in search of a golden Buddha in Warm Water Under a Red Bridge. What he finds instead is a woman with a strange case of kleptomania and a moist way of expressing pleasure. |
