FILMS — VIPO

Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda
Cast: Hiroshi Abe, Yui Natsukawa, Kirin Kiki, Yoshio Harada
2008/ 114 min./ Japan

[Story] Hirokazu Kore-eda’s 2008 drama is a masterfully directed, emotionally nuanced expression of the love, heartbreak and comfort within family relationships, and a modern classic of Japanese cinema.

Director: Keiko Tsuruoka
Cast: Mayu Hotta, Kaoru Kobayashi
2023/ 118 min./ Japan

[Story] U.S. Premiere. A vivid celebration of tsugaru-nuri lacquerwork, one of Japan’s most traditional arts, Tsugaru Lacquer Girl asks poignant questions about history, family and if the past has a place in the future.

Director: Kohei Oguri
Cast: Takahiro Tamura, Yumiko Fujita, Mariko Kaga, Nobutaka Asahara
1981/ 105 min./ Japan

[Story] 2K restoration. Taking place in working class Osaka 11 years after Japan’s defeat, Kohei Oguri’s naturalistic debut details an unforgettable summer friendship between two young boys tinged with a poetic melancholy.

Director: Yasujiro Ozu
Cast: Setsuko Hara, Ineko Arima, Chishu Ryu
1957/ 140 min./ Japan

[Story] 35mm Presentation. In the thick of the industrial hums of postwar Tokyo, Yasujiro Ozu’s crepuscular drama concerns the lives of elderly Shukichi’s two grown-up daughters, each taking lodgings at their father’s Tokyo home.

Director: Teruaki Shoji
Cast: Afro, Kumi Kurejo, Kodai Kurosaki
2023/ 106 min./ Japan

[Story] U.S. Premiere. 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.

Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Cast: Teruyuki Kagawa, Kyoko Koizumi, Kai Inowaki, Yu Koyanagi
2008/ 119 min./ Japan

[Story] 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.

Director: Kazuyoshi Kumakiri
Cast: Rinko Kikuchi, Pistol Takehara, Asuka Kurosawa
2023/ 113 min./ Japan

[Story] U.S. Premiere. Winner of Best Picture at the Shanghai International Film Festival, Yoko is an unorthodox road movie following an isolated woman’s journey to hitchhike over 400 miles to her estranged father’s funeral.

Director: Ryota Nakano
Cast: Rie Miyazawa, Hana Sugisaki, Joe Odagiri
2016/ 125 min./ Japan

[Story] New York Premiere with Director Q&A and Reception. Futaba, a single mother diagnosed with terminal cancer, 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.

Director: Ryota Nakano
Cast: Yu Aoi, Yuko Takeuchi, Tsutomu Yamazaki
2019/ 127 min./ Japan

[Story] New York Premiere. A Long Goodbye traces the gradual memory loss of the aging Shohei due to Alzheimer’s and the challenges and joys his two daughters experience as they return home to care for him.

Director: Ryota Nakano
Cast: Kazunari Ninomiya, Satoshi Tsumabuki, Masaki Suda
2020/ 127 min./ Japan

[Story] Talk Session with Director Ryota Nakano. Inspired by real-life photographer Masashi Asada, director Ryota Nakano’s latest film balances humor and heart in an unexpectedly true story.