Donald Keene Center

Events 1998

September 14 - December 9

Film Series: Japanese Society in Film
Altschul Auditorium, 4th floor, International Affairs Building, Columbia University (118th St. & Amsterdam Ave.) 6:30 PM
The opening night of Japanese Society in Film, a free fourteen-film series presented as part of two university courses on Japan: "Social Change Reflected in the Literature and Film of Modern Japan" (East Asian - History V3610; Prof. Carol Gluck) and "Tokyo: History, Form, and Spirit" (History - Japanese W4850; Prof. Henry Smith).
§ All are welcome.
§ Films will be shown in Altschul Auditorium (International Affairs Building, 4th Floor)

Film: Night Drum (Yoru no tsuzumi)
Directed by IMAI Tadashi
Starring Mikuni Rentaro, Arima Ineko, and Mori Masayuki (Shochiku, 1958, 95 min.)
Altschul Auditorium, 4th floor, International Affairs Building, Columbia University (118th St. & Amsterdam Ave.)
6:30 PM

Night Drum is a powerful film adaptation of Chikamatsu's Bunraku play Horikawa nami no tsuzumi (The Drums of the Waves of Horikawa), portraying the despair of a samurai wife, left at home while her husband serves his feudal lord in Edo. When she is caught in an adulterous affair, the strict samurai code requires her death. Though her husband loves and forgives her, he must exact a penalty he does not believe in.

September 16

Brownbag Lecture: Film and the Teaching of Japanese History
Thomas Keirstead(Professor of Japanese History, University of Buffalo)
East Asian Institute Common Room, 9th floor, International Affairs Building, Columbia University (118th St. & Amsterdam Ave.)
12:30 - 2:00 PM
Film: Eijanaika
Directed by IMAMURA Shohei (Imamura Productions, 1981, 151 min.)
Starring Izumi Shigeru, Ogata Ken, Momoi Kaori and Baisho Mitsuko
Altschul Auditorium, 4th floor, International Affairs Building, Columbia University (118th St. & Amsterdam Ave.)
6:30 PM

Imamura's exuberant account of the Tokugawa shogunate in collapse and the birth struggle of a post-feudal consciousness. Through the eyes of lowlife entertainers and cunning entrepreneurs on the fringes of Edo society, he depicts the oppresiveness of a tradition-bound government and the vigor of the uprisings that contributed to its eventual overthrow.

The film will be introduced by Thomas Keirstead, Professor of Japanese history at the State University of New York at Buffalo

September 21

Brownbag Lecture: The Japanese Film Today
Donald Richie (Film historian, critic, essayist and novelist)
East Asian Institute Common Room, 9th floor, International Affairs Building, Columbia University (118th St. & Amsterdam Ave.)
12:30 PM - 2:00 PM

Donald Richie, one of the world's leading authorities on Japanese film, is well known for his many books chronicling contemporary Japanese culture. A series of films by the director Hani Susumu, organized by Mr. Richie, is currently running at the Museum of Modern Art.

 

September 22

Demonstration: Incense Demonstration
Professor Seiji Lippit (Assistant Professor of Modern Japanese Literature, Department of East Asian Languages & Cultures, UCLA)
403 Kent Hall, Columbia University (116th St. & Amsterdam Ave.)
4:00 PM - 6:00 PM

The appreciation of incense was a favorite pastime of Japanese courtiers and aristocrats, and incense contests were frequently described in The Tale of Genji and other literary works. Hata Masataka (Director of Shoeido Incense Co., Kyoto), Ota Kiyoshi (Professor of Buddhist Studies at Koka Women's College and Master of the Shino School of Incense), and Morita Kiyoko (author of The Book of Incense) will demonstrate ancient Japanese incense rituals and speak on the relationship of incense and classical Japanese poetry.

September 23

Film: The Mistress (Gan; also known as The Wild Geese)
Directed by TOYODA Shiro (Daiei, 1953, 106 min.)
Starring Takamine Hideo and Akutagawa Hiroshi
Altschul Auditorium, 4th floor, International Affairs Building, Columbia University (118th St. & Amsterdam Ave.)
6:30 PM

An adaptation of Ogai Mori's novella about a woman who becomes the mistress of a selfish pawnbroker in order to support her ailing father, Toyoda's film captures beautifully the atmosphere of downtown Tokyo during the late Meiji period. Takamine's subtle portrayal of the heroine O-Tama is one of the finest performances by this celebrated actress.

September 30

Film: Sorekara
Directed by MORITA Yoshimitsu (Toei, 1986, 105 min.)
Starring Matsuda Yusaku, Fujitani Miwako, Kobayashi Kaoru, and Ryu Chishu
Altschul Auditorium, 4th floor, International Affairs Building, Columbia University (118th St. & Amsterdam Ave.)
6:30 PM

A stately film adaption of Natsume Soseki's novel of the same name. A love triangle between Daisuke, a young dilettante unable to find a place for himself in the new society of late-Meiji Japan, his opportunistic banker friend, and the banker's unhappy wife who had earlier been the hero's girlfriend. A visually arresting depiction of Tokyo at the turn of the century.