Nippon Retro²

² Nippon Retro

Tokyo Stories: Lives And Shapes Of A City

August 4 – 27, 2020
DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum

After having celebrated our 20th anniversary in June 2020 online, we can now catch up in August on our retrospective in cooperation with DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum, Japanisches Kulturinstitut Köln, and the Japan Foundation in Tokyo. TOKYO STORIES: LIVES AND SHAPES OF A CITY is dedicated to films in which the city of Tokyo plays an eminent role and spans five decades. 

Kicking off, Akira KUROSAWA’s STRAY DOG (1949) offers a foray through the metropolis in the humid summer. Heinosuke GOSHO’s WHERE CHIMNEYS ARE SEEN (1953) depicts the life of ordinary people in Tokyo, while Yasujiro OZU’s TOKYO STORY (1953) has an elderly couple travel to the unfamiliar city. Women trying to stand their ground in a patriarchal society are the protagonists both in Mikio NARUSE’s WHEN A WOMAN ASCENDS THE STAIRS (1960) and in Shohei IMAMURA’s THE INSECT WOMAN (1963). Outsiders are also in the focus of Seijun SUZUKI’s pop-art gangster film TOKYO DRIFTER (1966) and Nagisa OSHIMA’s DIARY OF A SHINJUKU THIEF (1969). Last, but not least, Katsuhiro OTOMO shows with AKIRA (1988) a post-apocalyptic Neo-Tokyo in the year 2019.

The films are shown on 35mm and DCP in the original Japanese version with subtitles. Members of our film team will give a short introduction before selected films.

Venue: DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum, Schaumainkai 41, 60596 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

 

Nippon Retro Films:

Stray Dog by Akira KUROSAWA

Where Chimneys Are Seen by Heinosuke GOSHO

Tokyo Story by Yasujiro OZU

When A Woman Ascends The Stairs by Mikio NARUSE

The Insect Woman by Shohei IMAMURA

Tokyo Drifter by Seijun SUZUKI

Diary Of A Shinjuku Thief by Nagisa OSHIMA

Akira by Katsuhiro OTOMO

Festival Partners