OUR ANNUAL SURVEY OF THE LATEST NEW JAPANESE CINEMA RETURNS

Japanese cinema has never looked so good, with Oscar success for the feature Departures and film festival acclaim for Still Walking. There’s a new interest in the story-telling and emotion-affecting skills of mainstream Japanese drama (possibly in part thrown up by the challenges modern Japan is putting on existing family and social networks) whilst traditional Japanese niche genres, such as the Samurai film and the live-action manga adaptation, continue to evolve and re-invent themselves. Six new features surveys some of the range of contemporary Japanese movies, including new films from directors Korda Hirokazu, Kurosawa Kiyoshi and Kiriya Kazuaki. Presented in collaboration with The Embassy of Japan. Presented with the support of The Japan Foundation.

GOEMON

Dir: Kiriya Kazuaki, Japan, 2009, 128 mins, 35mm (MA)

Based on the old stories of the 15th Century original ninja bandit hero, the new SFX fable from the director of Casshern weaves together the chivalry elements of both the Japanese martial arts film and of Celtic Arthurian myth – with even just a few touches of Mad Max! Samurai movie superstar Yôsuke Eguchi plays the Robin Hood-like Goemon with pratfalls as comic and elegant as Jackie Chan, and moves as skillfull as a Japanese Errol Flynn. Free screening presented by the Embassy of Japan. Bookings essential.

SUMMER DAYS WITH COO

Dir: Hara Keiichi, Japan, 2007, 138 mins (with intermission), 35mm (M)

A young boy finds a fossil that comes to life as a ‘Kappa’, or mischievous water spirit. Coo the Kappa wants to go home, but in the 200 years since he's been fossilised his swamp has become a suburb of Tokyo! Summer Days With Coo brings a pleasing mix of humour and sensitivity for both children and adult cinema audiences, with many of ecological themes familiar to the films of Miyazaki. Special school screenings are also open to the public. Adult tickets $5. Schools discounts available. Phone 6248 2000 for more details.

STILL WALKING

(Aruitemo, Aruitemo) Dir: Korêda Hirokazu, Japan, 2008, 114 mins, 35mm (G)

The extended (but also diminished) family of a small town doctor gather on the anniversary of the drowning of its oldest son. The surviving son brings a new bride, as well as her boy from a previous marriage. Mother tries to make a heart-warming family reunion, but tensions are in the air (as well as the indulged spirit of the dead son). This new film from director of After Life and Nobody Knows draws on the great tradition of such masters as Ozu and Kintoshita.

YUNAGI CITY, SAKURA COUNTRY

(Yunagi no Machi Sakura no Kuni) Dir: Sasabe Kiyoshi, Japan, 2007, 118 mins, 35mm (MA)

Sasabe’s adaptation of the popular humanist manga comic series looks at the tragedy of the 1945 atomic bomb across two generations and the lives of two women. In late 1950s Hiroshima, Minami’s love for a colleague is scarred by the legacy of radiation poisoning. In 21st century Tokyo, her niece Nanami (Tanaka Lena) has little understanding of her family‘s past, until her father vanishes and she must track him back to Hiroshima, where both confront the family’s past. Special screening all tickets just $8. With thanks to The Japan Foundation.

K-20: LEGEND OF THE MASK

Dir: Sato Shimako, Japan, 2008, 137 mins, 35mm (M)

In an alternative Tokyo of 1949 the War was never fought and Tesla's power promises a wonderful future. But the aristocratic elite are under threat from the Phantom with 20 Faces. A circus acrobat accused of being the man behind the mask has to flee two nemeses: an obsessed detective and the real K-20. Sato's gripping Marvel-Manga fusion extrapolates the 1930s detective novels of the Japanese Arthur Conan Doyle, Rampo Edogawa. Takeshi Kaneshiro is the super-criminal, but the real star is the retro art deco vision.

TOKYO SONATA

Dir: Kurosawa Kiyoshi, Japan, 2008, 119 min, 35mm (unclassified 18+)

A middle-class Tokyo family begins to fracture as each member tries to keep secrets. Unemployed father Ryuhei hides his shame sitting on a park bench. Resentful older son Takashi is trying to join the US Army. Wife and mother Megumi retreats into depression. Only the clandestine piano lessons of the younger boy Kenji seem to offer redemption. Acclaimed Japanese director Kurosawa Kiyoshi (Bright Future) applies his skills in twisted noir thriller to his first family melodrama, making a Cannes-winning statement about the malaise of contemporary Japan.

THE CHERRY TREE IN THE HILLS

(Yamazakura) Dir: Shinohara Tetsuo, Japan, 2008, 99 mins, 35mm (MA)

In late Edo Japan, the widowed eldest daughter of small land-holders reluctantly and unhappily remarries into a wealthier family. Then one day she encounters a Samurai lounging under a wild cherry tree, who asks her the one question no one has ever thought to ask before: 'Are you happy?'... From a story by Fujisawa Shuhei (the source for The Twilight Samurai) director Shinohara Tetsuo (Karaoke Terror) has fashioned one of the most serene and touching of a new generation of Japanese period dramas.