Retro Summer Japanese Film Festival

The Japan Foundation, New Delhi presents “Retro Summer Japanese Film Festival” from 18^th July (Monday) to 23^rd July, 2016 (Saturday) at 6.30 pm.

Enjoy the Japanese Film Festival with Six Japanese movies back-to-back.

DATE	DAY	TIME	NAME OF FILM	DIRECTOR	YEAR	Duration  (minute)
18-07-2016	Monday	18:30	The End of Summer 小早川家の秋	Yasujiro Ozu	1961	103
19-07-2016	Tuesday	18:30	Sword of Doom 大菩薩峠	Kihachi Okamoto	1966	119
20-07-2016	Wednesday	18:30	Red Beard                  赤ひげ	Akira Kurosawa	1965	185
21-07-2016	Thursday	18:30	Kill! 斬る	Kihachi Okamoto	1968	109
22-07-2016	Friday	18:30	Samurai 宮本武蔵	Hiroshi Inagaki	1954	93
23-07-2016	Saturday	18:30	Godzilla ゴジラ	Ishiro Honda	1954	98

Short Synopsis:

1. The End of Summer: The film carries forward the lives of the Kohayagawa family, where each wants to do the best that he can for the family. The widower father- Manbei- often visits an old flame in Kyoto, causing concern in the family that he is not paying attention to the sake making company that he is going through financial troubles. With a venerating tone, this film is a reflection on old age, traditional values verses modern influence and mortality.
2. Sword of Doom: Ryunosuke is a sociopathic samurai without compassion or scruples. When he is scheduled for an exhibition match at his fencing school, the wife of his opponent begs Ryunosuke to throw the match, offering her own virtue in trade.
3. Red Beard: The Original book “Akahige Shinryotan” (Tales of Doctor RED BEARD) is the work of Shugoro Yamamoto. The entire film flourishes with the spirit of humanism centred on the magnificent character of RED BEARD. In Japan, where it is common to be playing more than one part at a time especially when shooting of one film is to be conducted over an extended period of time, this was an rare exception.
4. Kill!: Genta is disillusioned with life as a samurai, while Hanjiro is a farmer fed up with his powerless existence, who dreams of a glory days as a samurai. Kill! Is a comical exploration of a samurai life.
5. Samurai:  With his closest friend, Matahachi, Takezo (the town’s wild orphan kid) leaves his village to join an army on its way to battle. Takezo returns to the village and Matahachi’s family rejects his report and has him arrested for treason.
6. Godzilla: This 1954 original pioneered special effects filmmaking and inspired many remakes. Re-live this epic classic that introduced the most fearful of all movie monsters- Godzilla.

NOTE:  No reservations or passes required for any of our event. Entry is free for all. However, seats will be given on first come first basis.

Saving the Apu Trilogy

The journey of the digitally restored version of The Apu Trilogy is packed with dark stories and years of near detective work by those determined to preserve some of Satyajit Ray's finest works. After the restoration, the film is releasing on May 8, 2015 in US. 
Aseem Chhabra finds out more from Peter Becker and Lee Kline, the two men behind the restoration.


Exactly 60 years ago, May 3, 1955, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City held the world premiere of Satyajit Ray's film Pather Panchali.

The story goes that Ray worked on a 24-hour schedule to get the print on the flight.
Ray did not accompany the film and the print that played at MoMA did not have subtitles.

But the film was a success among film connoisseurs.

The next year it was invited to play at the Cannes Film Festival where it won the Best Human Document award.

Two years later, the film had a theatrical release at the Fifth Avenue Playhouse in Manhattan where it ran for eight months -- something unheard of these days.
To mark the 60th anniversary of Pather Panchali, MoMA will host a screening of the film May 4.

Later that week Janus Films and the Criterion Collection will release brand new 4K restored prints of The Apu Trilogy -- first at the Film Forum in New York City and later at art house theatres in many cities across the United States.
It is a rare honour and a celebration for the three masterpieces that in many ways are the best-known Indian films in the West and elsewhere.

Despite the growing interest in Bollywood in Europe, Asia and even North America, a number of remarkable Indian indie films that have played in recent years at major film festivals, no other Indian filmmaker has earned the kind of recognition that was given to Ray.

There is a reason why the Japanese master Akira Kurosawa said the following about Ray: 'Never having seen a Satyajit Ray film is like never having seen the sun or the moon.'

But this journey of the digitally restored version of The Apu Trilogy is packed with dark stories, including a fire in a film laboratory in London that nearly destroyed all the original negatives of the three films and it involves years of dedicated and near detective work by experts and lovers of cinema who were determined to preserve the three masterpieces.


-Aseem Chhabra in New York

 (Aseem Chhabra is a Freelance writer, programmer and professional moviegoer. He is also associated with New York Indian Film Festival and Silk Screen Asian American Film Festival.)

courtesy: www.rediff.com 
link: http://www.rediff.com/movies/special/exclusive-saving-the-apu-trilogy/20150429.htm