The Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture Presents
Miller Theatre, Columbia University
February 12 - March 5, 1997
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In 1996, the Japanese film world lost two of its finest artists. On
October 4, director Masaki Kobayashi died at the age of eighty. Half a year
earlier, on February 20, composer Toru Takemitsu
had succumbed to cancer at the age of sixty-five. The two men had been
friends for more than three decades, and had collaborated on ten films.
The present series is in commemoration of both these creative geniuses
and their work together.
Though less prolific than Akira Kurosawa, Kobayashi rivals his better
known friend and colleague as Japanese cinema's most powerful moralist
of the immediate postwar generation. A pacifist who had been forced into
military service in Manchuria, he was beaten repeatedly for resisting orders
and rejected all promotions beyond the rank of private. He has said that
all his films grew out of his personal wartime experience. Whether historical
dramas or stories set in modern Japan, they reflect the director's rejection
of military or social authority wielded at the expense of the individual. Few
artists of any time or any culture have argued more passionately than Kobayashi
against the abuse of power. None has revealed more dramatically the cost
of such power for a society or an individual.
Internationally celebrated as Japan's foremost contemporary
composer, Toru Takemitsu was equally at home in the concert hall and
the film studio. Reveling in the freedom and variety of subject
matter afforded him by composing for films, he produced the music for
nearly one hundred movies. Directors like Kobayashi, Oshima, Shinoda,
Teshigahara and others turned first to Takemitsu for the music for
their films, and many of them claim to have learned as much about
filmmaking from him as about music. An avid film fan since his youth,
Takemitsu always took keen interest in the relationship between image
and sound. His film scores often served as experiments with sound that
were later developed into innovative music for the concert hall.
The collaboration of Kobayashi and Takemitsu began with the 1962 film
Karamiai (The Inheritance) and continued through Kobayashi's last film
Shokutakuno nai Ie (House Without a Dining Table) in 1985. Films such as
Seppuku (Hara Kiri, 1962), Kwaidan(1964),
and Nihon no Seishun (Youth of Japan/Hymn to
a Tired Man, 1968) have been counted among the masterpieces of world cinema
as much for their musical scores and sound design as for their narrative power
and visual splendor.
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Feb. 12, 20, 26
March 5, 6:30 pm
A fascinating behind-the-scenes look at one of the world's most innovative and
celebrated contemporary composers. Distinctly Japanese in sensibility, Toru
Takemitsu is known for fusing Western and Eastern elements into a uniquely
modern music. Focusing on his achievements as a composer of film music,
this award-winning documentary intercuts excerpts from many of his films
with interviews with Takemitsu and many of the Japanese directors he worked
with (including Masaki Kobayashi, Nagisa Oshima, Masahiro Shinoda, and Hiroshi
Teshigahara).
NOTE: This documentary film will be screened at 6:30 each evening, preceding the 8:00 screening of films directed by Kobayashi. No additional admission is charged.
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Feb. 12 8:00pm
A searing denunciation of the abuse of power, and the contradictions and hypocrisies
of the warrior code of feudal Japan. With savage irony, Kobayashi comments
also on the perversion of history when it is recorded exclusively by the
victors in a struggle for power. A ronin or masterless samurai requests permission
to commit an honorable ritual suicide at the home of a powerful but sadistic
warlord. Through extended flashbacks and stunning widescreen cinematography,
Kobayashi tells the tale of why this is necessary and how it is done in
a narrative that is as gripping as the finest modern detective story.
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Feb. 20, 8:00
One of the most meticulously crafted supernatural fantasy films ever made. In
this highly stylized re-telling of four Japanese ghost stories by Lafcadio Hearn,
Kobayashi reveals his extensive study of Japanese art and his admiration for
traditional theatrical forms. Each of the four tales is set in a different historical
era, and each is captured with lavish attention to visual and aural detail.
After three decades, Takemitsu's score continues to astound filmgoers with
its inventive use of the techniques of musique concrète and its unprecedented
combinations of Japanese and Western musical styles.
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Feb. 26, 8:00
Kobayashi followed the success of Hara Kiri with this second attack on
the Japanese feudal code and its abuse of powerless individuals. A family
of vassals suffers repeated insults at the hands of its overlord until,
unable to endure further outrages, it rises in rebellion. Although less
well known than other Kobayashi films, this one is distinguished by performances
by an all-star cast led by Toshiro Mifune and scenes of spectacular swordplay.
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March 5, 8:00
Rarely seen outside Japan, this film is one of the director's personal
favorites. With a masterful use of flashback narrative style, Kobayashi
intercuts the dullness of the postwar life of an ordinary office worker
with the horrors of his wartime experiences. The man is forced to relive
his past when his rebellious son falls in love with the daughter of a sadistic
officer whom the father had hated during his time as an army private. Wartime
experiences and postwar amnesia are forced into dramatic confrontation in
this drama of individuals able to acknowledge guilt and those who ignore
it.
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| Feb. 12, 20, 26, & March 5 | 6:30pm | Music for the Movies: Toru Takemitsu |
| Feb. 12 | 8:00pm | Hara Kiri (Seppuku) |
| Feb. 20 | 8:00pm | Kwaidan (Kaidan) |
| Feb. 26 | 8:00pm | Samurai Rebellion (Joiuchi) |
| March 5 | 8:00pm | Youth of Japan/Hymn to a Tired Man (Nihon no Seishun) |
Schedule subject to change
Call the Miller Theatre Box Office for details
(212) 854-7799
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Ticket Information
Single film tickets: $8.00 ($5.00 students & senior citizens)
Subscriptions to the series are $24 ($16 students & seniorcitizens)
Tickets to Japanese Film Masters may be purchased in advance from the Miller
Theatre Box Office by telephone, fax, or mail, with payment by Visa, Mastercard,
or American Express credit card.
The Miller Box Office is located in the Theatre lobby in Columbia University's
Dodge Hall on Broadway at 116th Street.
Box Office hours: Monday-Friday, noon to 6pm
Telephone: (212) 854-7799
Fax: (212) 678-8503
Mail orders should be sent to:
The Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture is grateful to The
Hitosubashi Sogo Zaidan and The Japan Foundation, whose support has made
this film series possible. Film prints were made available by Alternate Current
Productions, Films Incorporated, The Museum of Modern Art, and Toho Co.
Ltd.
Film notes by Peter Grilli
Web page & brochure design by John Mengel, Ponzi &Weill,
Inc.
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