Suzuki Centennial on 35mm film series

Join us for the Suzuki Centennial on 35mm film series at Metro Cinema from April 8-April 30th!

For those who are not familiar with his work, Suzuki began his career working in low-budget crime and youth films in the 1950s and 1960s and quickly found an audience with independent film societies for his playful formal experimentation. He developed close ties to experimental and independent filmmakers in the late 1960s, which incurred the wrath of the film studio that he worked for, resulting in his getting fired. However, this led to a massive protest against the film industry in the "Suzuki Seijun Incident" of 1968, which became a watershed moment in the collapse of the studio system and the rise of independent filmmaking in Japan. After being banished to TV production for a decade, Suzuki reemerged as an independent filmmaker in 1977, and made numerous acclaimed films over the next three decades wedding often supernatural subject matters to fever-dream-like narratives.

All of the films in the series are on English-subtitled 35mm film prints that were imported from Japan by Japan Foundation.

The series is as follows:

Saturday, April 8th: 悪魔の街 (Satan's Town, 1956, 79 minutes) + らぶれたあ (Love Letter, 1959, 40 minutes)
Friday, April 14th: 東京流れ者 (Tokyo Drifter, 1966, 83 minutes)
Sunday, April 16th: 川内カルメン (Carmen from Kawachi, 1966, 89 minutes)
Saturday, April 22nd: 悲愁物語 (A Tale of Sorrow and Sadness, 1977, 93 minutes)
Sunday, April 30th: 陽炎座 (Kagero-za AKA Mirage Theatre, 1981, 139 minutes)

For more information, visit Metro Cinema's Suzuki Centennial on 35mm page.

Special thanks to the Prince Takamado Japan Centre and the Kule Institute for their support of the series.