Friday, January 24, 2014 7:00 pm
Japanese Society
333 E 47th St, New York, NY
**Introduction by author Ian Buruma
1985, 126 min., 35mm, color, in Japanese with English subtitles. Directed by Mitsuo Yanagimachi. With Kinya Kitaoji, Ryota Nakamoto, Kiwako Taichi, Norihei Miki, Junko Miyashita.
Following Mitsuo Yanagimachi’s debut documentary God Speed You! Black Emperor (1976), Richie promoted the independent director by introducing his films and eventually presenting a retrospective at the 1990 Toronto International Film Festival. The rarely-screened Himatsuri is Yanagimachi’s controversial fourth feature, revolving around a gruff and proud lumberjack who refuses to sell his land, set in the beautiful mountainous area of Kumano, and is eventually driven to commit horrendous, sacrificial acts against himself and his family as his desires merge with the fierce forces of nature surrounding him. Himatsuri is an enormously lush and mysterious film that is certain to leave a lasting impression, however confounding or unsettling. Dave Kehr of the New York Times called it “a work of exquisite sensitivity, corrosive wit, and great technical prowess, [Himatsuri] established Yanagimachi as the leading Japanese filmmaker of his generation.”
Donald Richie on Himatsuri: “A modern macho lumberjack faces vengeful nature–but such a one-line précis cannot begin to communicate the enormous potency of the film. With luminous photography by Masaki Tamura, a ravishing score by Toru Takemitsu, Kitaoji as the lumberjack, and Nakamoto as his shifty sidekick.”
For more information, please go:
http://www.japansociety.org/event/himatsuri-3