These are our eight recommended films from the JAPAN CUTS which is taking place from July 10 – 21, 2024 at the Japan Society in New York, USA.

All the Long Nights by Sho Miyake – Japan | 2024 – 119 minutes

Based on Maiko Seo’s novel of the same name, All the Long Nights stars Mone Kamishiraishi as meek working professional Misa who suffers from an acute case of PMS (Premenstrual Syndrome) that leaves her mercurial—resulting in workplace incidents, inevitably contributing to her inability to hold onto jobs. After five years of unsteady employment, Misa finds a sense of belonging in the quiet offices of Kurita Science Corp. assembling parts for children’s science kits, but her peace is disrupted by the solitary and anti-social Takatoshi (Hokuto Matsumura, Suzume), whose benign everyday rituals trigger her. Takatoshi, suffering from a severe panic disorder, shares a mutual difficulty in struggling to function in everyday life, and once the pair find the right footing, they compassionately push each other to live out “normal lives” despite their debilitating conditions. (JapanCuts 2024)

Screening:
July 16, 2024 | Tuesday | Japan Society | 6:30 pm

Trailer:

Great Absence by Kei Chika-ura – Japan | 2023 – 133 minutes

Tokyo-based actor Takashi (Mirai Moriyama) reluctantly travels to northern Kyushu with his wife (Yoko Maki) after local police inform him of a distress call made by his estranged father Yohji (Tatsuya Fuji), a retired professor who shows signs of rapidly progressive dementia. Once there, Takashi becomes involved in a mystery concerning the disappearance of Naomi (Hideko Hara), the woman for whom Yohji abandoned his family 20 years ago. Did she really commit suicide, as Yohji claims? (JapanCuts 2024)

Screening:
July 18, 2024 | Thursday | Japan Society | 6:30 pm

Trailer:

Ice Cream Fever by Tetsuya Chihara – Japan | 2023 – 104 minutes

Adapted from a short story by award-winning author Mieko Kawakami, this colorful debut by Tetsuya Chihara follows four young women who intersect one summer at a Shibuya ice cream shop where they each find some sweet inspiration. Natsumi (Riho Yoshioka), a designer in a rut working part-time at the shop, becomes entranced by Saho (Serena Motola), a new customer and a writer hiding from public scrutiny. Meanwhile, frequent customer Yu (Marika Matsumoto) is surprised by a visit from her teenage niece Miwa (Kotona Minami) who is in search of her estranged father—Yu’s ex and a source of resentment between Yu and her sister, Miwa’s mother. (JapanCuts 2024)

Screening:
July 20, 2024 | Saturday | Japan Society | 12:30 pm

Trailer:

Performing Kaoru’s Funeral by Noriko Yuasa – Japan | 2023 – 100 minutes

Noriko Yuasa’s Performing KAORU’s Funeral is a riveting black comedy that captures the palpable explosion of emotions at a familial wake. Failed actor Jun receives a phone call that informs him that his elusive ex-wife Kaoru has chosen him to be the chief mourner at her funeral in her last will and testament. Traveling to Kaoru’s hometown to enact the service as a reluctant participant, Jun is met by a claustrophobic cast of family members and friends, including Kaoru’s daughter, accompanied by a flood of memories about the deceased. (JapanCuts 2024)

Screening:
July 20, 2024 | Saturday | Japan Society | 5:30 pm

Rei by Toshihiko Tanaka – Japan | 2024 – 190 minutes

Hikari (Takara Suzuki) lives and works in Tokyo. Unhappy in the big city, she can’t find meaning in her existence until she meets Masato (writer/director/producer/editor/actor Toshihiko Tanaka), a photographer from far off Hokkaido. This connection leads to an adventure, loneliness, dependency and a destructive love affair. (JapanCuts 2024)

Screening:
July 15, 2024 | Monday | Japan Society | 6:30 pm

Trailer:

Retake by Kota Nakano – Japan | 2024 – 110 minutes

Winner of the 2023 Pia Film Festival Grand-Prix, RETAKE follows a high school student who decides to make a movie over summer break with her friends. Old friendships are tested, new friendships are made, and secrets and crushes are revealed as the group makes their film. RETAKE is a dear celebration of adolescence and the raw joy of cinema. (JapanCuts 2024)

Screening:
July 21, 2024 | Sunday | Japan Society | 3:30 pm

Shin Godzilla: Orthochromatic by Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi – Japan | 2023 – 119 minutes

Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi’s 21st century masterpiece is reborn with this stunning black-and-white version, released in Japan last year in the leadup to Godzilla’s 70th anniversary. A major critical and commercial success that earned seven Japan Academy Prize awards, Shin Godzilla (2016) pays tribute to the monster movie franchise’s origins while reinventing the iconic kaiju within the context of Japan’s political present. Proposed by Anno and overseen by Higuchi, ORTHOchromatic adds new dimensions to the film’s visual impact by rendering it in orthochromatic (“ortho” for short) black-and-white, a type of monochrome characterized by starker contrasts and more pronounced blacks. The results are awe-inspiring and presents Shin Godzilla as never seen before. (JapanCuts 2024)

Screening:
July 21, 2024 | Sunday | Japan Society | 8:30 pm

The Making of a Japanese by Ema Ryan Yamazaki – Japan | 2023 – 99 minutes

Shot over the course of a single scholastic year, Ema Ryan Yamazaki’s The Making of a Japanese concerns itself with the formative qualities and values instilled by the country’s education system. Documenting first and sixth grade students in Tokyo suburb Tsukado, one of Japan’s largest public elementary schools, this rare snapshot into the country’s schools is full of revelations as it courses from one spring to the next. Following the lives of both teachers and students, and their subsequent development as individuals as well as their struggles, Yamazaki’s intimate eye captures what it means to learn and become a member of Japanese society. (JapanCuts 2024)

Screening:
July 21, 2024 | Sunday | Japan Society | 6:00 pm

Trailer:

For more information, please visit: https://japansociety.org/film/