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Japanese Currents

April 5 – April 14, 2019

This year’s 12th annual Japanese Currents series highlights recent noteworthy Nipponese films, ranging from anime to documentary to comedy, all while exploring issues important to contemporary Japanese society. Collectively, these selections offer a fresh take on Japanese culture and showcase the wealth of creative invention at work in Japan today.

 

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Complicity

Directed by Kei Chikaura

Written, directed, and edited by rising star Kei Chikaura, debut feature Complicity is a timely immigration drama that evokes deep …

Cure

Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Kurosawa’s first feature released in the United States, Cure follows detective Kenichi Takabe as he investigates a series of bizarre …

Forgotten Planets

Directed by Takayuki Fukata

Two young women gradually find themselves adrift from their creative outlets and lost in modern Japan. Rui, a screenwriter, is …

Mirai

Directed by Mamoru Hosida

Sibling jealousy leaves young Kun feeling alone and ignored after the arrival of his new little sister Mirai. Escaping his …

Mori, The Artist’s Habitat

Directed by Shûichi Okita

This contemplative and funny film explores the later days in the life of Morikazu Kumagai (Tsutomu Yamazaki), a profound recluse …

Night is Short, Walk on Girl

Directed by Masaaki Yuasa

A free-wheeling adventure through college-aged Otome’s (voiced by Hanazawa Kana) alcohol-, passion-, and used book-injected evening as her Senpai (voiced …

Sennan Asbestos Disaster

Directed by Kazuo Hara

Pathbreaking documentarian Hara continues his examination of unjust situations with this 2017 film about the legal proceedings and protests stemming …

The Kamagasaki Cauldron War

Directed by Leo Sato

Shot on beautiful 16mm, this “humanity comedy” follows the characters and real inhabitants of Kamagasaki—an Osaka slum—as they search for …

Tremble All You Want

Directed by Akiko Ohku

Socially awkward 24-year old-Yoshika (Matsuoka Mayu) has never had a boyfriend, but still holds a flame for an unrequited (and …

We Make Antiques!

Directed by Masaharu Take

Take (100 Yen Love) directs this caper comedy about an underdog antiques appraiser who, after being tricked by a convincing …

The Northwest Film Center recognizes and honors the Indigenous peoples of this region on whose ancestral lands the museum now stands. These include the Willamette Tumwater, Clackamas, Kathlemet, Molalla, Multnomah and Watlala Chinook Peoples and the Tualatin Kalapuya who today are part of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, and many other Native communities who made their homes along the Columbia River. We also want to recognize that Portland today is a community of many diverse Native peoples who continue to live and work here. We respectfully acknowledge and honor all Indigenous communities—past, present, future—and are grateful for their ongoing and vibrant presence.