Japan America Society of Southern California

   Building Japan-America Relationships Since 1909

  • Home
  • The Getty Center Film Series: In Tokyo

The Getty Center Film Series: In Tokyo

  • Saturday, April 20, 2013
  • Sunday, April 28, 2013
  • The Getty Center (Los Angeles, CA)


Saturday & Sunday, April 20 to 21, 2013
Saturday & Sunday, April 27 to 28, 2013


Harold M. Williams Auditorium

The Getty Center
1200 Getty Center Drive
Los Angeles, CA

Admission: Free, but reservation required. Limit four seats per reservation. Call (310) 440-7300 or visit www.getty.edu to reserve seats online.


In conjunction with the exhibition Japan's Modern Divide: The Photographs of Hiroshi Hamaya and Kansuke Yamamoto, the Getty presents a film series reflecting the Shōwa Era (1926–89) of Japan. The films chosen cover World War II, focusing on the magnificent city of Tokyo. It is a metropolis that, before the war, was in transition, and, after, became a city that rebuilt itself like no other in modern history.

This film series is intended for teen and adult audiences.

Film Series:

Mr. Thank You
Saturday, April 20, 2013 4:00 p.m.
Directed by Hiroshi Shimizu (1936, 78 minutes, English subtitles, DVD)
This film is set almost entirely on a bus ride from the rural countryside to the outskirts of Tokyo. Although not well known in the United States, Shimizu has often been called Japan's Jean Renoir.


Drunken Angel
Saturday, April 20, 2013 7:00 p.m.

Directed by Akira Kurosawa (1948, 102 minutes, English subtitles, 35mm)

The young Akira Kurosawa's early film takes place in war-weary, heat-soaked, and tuberculosis-striken Tokyo. Featuring the debut of the dashing Toshiro Mifune in a Japanese gangster noir.


Tokyo Story
Sunday, April 21, 2013 3:00 p.m.

Directed by Yasujiro Ozu (1953, 136 minutes, English subtitles, 35mm)

On many top-10 film lists, this story is deceptively spartan: an elderly couple from a rural town travel to Tokyo to see their grown children. A simple, unsentimental tale that is universal in scope.


Tokyo Drifter
Saturday, April 27, 2013 4:00 p.m.

Directed by Seijun Suzuki (1966, 89 minutes, English subtitles, 35mm)

Swinging 60s in Tokyo: men don fitted suits with skinny ties, and women sport black turtlenecks. Director Seijin Suzuki created the modern yakuza (mafia) film. This is one of his best.

Co-presented by the Japan Foundation, Los Angeles


Street of Shame
Saturday, April 27, 2013 7:00 p.m.

Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi (1956, 87 minutes, English subtitles, 35mm)

Considered one of the greatest of Japanese directors, Kenji Mizoguchi was mostly concerned with the difficult plight of women in Japan. In this, his last film, Mizoguchi tells the stories of five prostitutes working in Dreamland, a Tokyo brothel.


She and He
Sunday, April 28, 2013 3:00 p.m.

Directed by Susumu Hani (1963, 110 minutes, English subtitles, 35mm)

Director Susumu Hani was a central figure in the Japanese New Wave of the late 50s and early 60s. "She" is a young, modern woman living in a new apartment complex. "He," a slum living just next door, is the man to whom she is drawn. Hani presents a biting review of postwar class consciousness and rigid social hierarchy.

Co-presented by the Japan Foundation, Los Angeles
©2020 Japan America Society of Southern California
1411 W. 190th Street, Suite 360, Gardena, CA 90248

tel (310) 965-9050    fax (310) 965-9010   email info@jas-socal.org

Powered by Wild Apricot Membership Software