Film Festivals

Japanese Film Series Spring 2009
At Cleveland L1 at 7pm
Host: Vivian Kan '09

Feb 9 After Life (In conjunction with Anthr 204)
This feature film by director Hirokazu Kore-eda explores the question of memory, and the meaning of life. The film is based on interviews with 500 Japanese people, some of whom appear as characters in the film. I chose to show this film in conjunction with the book, Liquid Life (William LaFleur) about the abortion debate in Japan and Japanese Buddhist notions of the after life and reincarnation. (Joshua Roth)

Feb 16 The Funeral
The vast majority of people in Japan have their funeral in a Buddhist style, although most of them don’t consider themselves Buddhists, and therefore, do not have much knowledge about it. This comedy shows how people struggle with the complex rituals of the Buddhist ceremony that are not familiar to many people in Japan today.

March 2 Black Rain (In conjunction with German Studies 100)
Black Rain (1989), directed by Shohei Imamura is based on the novel by the same name by Masuji Ibuse (1965). Like the novel, the film reconstructs the experience and aftermath of the explosion of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima through the eyes of survivors. How do survivors communicate their experiences of the unspeakable? How do they carry on with their lives in the face of total devastation? (Karen Remmler)