SIX CINEMATIC VIEWS OF JAPAN
In conjunction with the exhibition Hokusai’s Summit: Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, the Doris Duke Theatre screens two months of the best new releases and short classic films from Japan. See all of them get the full scope of Japan’s many cinematic styles.

HAWAII PREMIERE
K-20: The Fiend with Twenty Faces
Director, Shimako Sato
Japan, 2008, 137 mins.
Appropriate for children 10 and up
In Japanese with English subtitles
See the trailer.

Japanese heartthrob Takeshi Kaneshiro stars in this action-packed film based on the “retro-futuristic” romance novel by Soh Kitamura. Set in an alternate universe where World War II bypassed Japan, the film features a country where the Meiji Era never ended and the nobility is firmly in place. A mysterious thief called K-20 preys on the superrich of the capital of Teito, where the aristocrats own 90 percent of the wealth. A circus acrobat named Heikichi Endo (Kaneshiro) is mistaken for K-20 and imprisoned. Using his physical dexterity, Heikichi challenges the real K-20. This spectacular Japanese thriller will have you on the edge of your seat. Rad Parkour scenes.

• Tuesday, November 3, Wednesday, November 4, Thursday, November 5, Friday, November 6, Saturday, November 7, Sunday, November 8, Tuesday, November 10,Wednesday, November 11, Friday, November 13 at 1, 4, and 7:30 p.m.
• Thursday, November 12 at 1 and 7:30 p.m.

Purchase tickets online.
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HAWAII PREMIERE
Your Friends
Director, Hiroki Ryuichi
Japan, 2008, 125 mins.
In Japanese with English subtitles

A journalist named Nakahara visits an alternative school in a small city to research children who have learning differences. There he meets school volunteer Emi, a physically delicate, fiercely reserved woman who photographs cloud formations. Intrigued by Emi’s elusiveness, Nakahara learns that her photographs symbolize Emi’s profound friendship with a girl named Yuka. With astonishingly original cinematography, this film tenderly depicts Emi, Yuka, and other Japanese children who courageously learn to accept and embrace what makes them unique.

• Tuesday, November 17, Wednesday, November 18, Saturday, November 21, Sunday, November 22, Tuesday, November 24, Wednesday, November 25 at 1, 4, and 7:30 p.m.
• Thursday, November 19 at 1 and 7:30 p.m.
• Friday, November 20 at 1 and 4 p.m.

Purchase tickets online.
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20th Century Boys 1: Beginning of the End
Director, Yukihiko Tsutsumi
Japan, 2008, 142 mins.
In Japanese with English subtitles
See the trailer. 

Based on Naoki Urasawa’s manga book phenomenon, this first installment of the 20th Century Boys film trilogy is a time-hopping sci-fi epic. It’s the late 1960s and Kenji and his friends write The Book of Prophecy, a sci-fi tale about their battle with an evil organization that is plotting to destroy the planet. Years later, Kenji works in a convenience store and raises the child of his sister who has disappeared—and the boys’ schooldays creation seems to come to pass. When a virus-spreading giant robot tries to attack Tokyo, Kenji and his friends are the only ones who can stop it. 20th Century Boys was included in this year’s Hawaii International Film Festival.

• Friday, November 27, Saturday, November 28, Sunday, November 29, Tuesday, December 1, Wednesday, December 2, Friday, December 4, Sunday, December 6 at 1, 4, and 7:30 p.m.
• Thursday, December 3 at 1 and 7:30 p.m.

Purchase tickets online.
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The Short Films of Osamu Tezuka
Total running time 79 mins.  
In Japanese with English subtitles 

One of Japan’s most influential animators, Osamu Tezuka revolutionized the comic and cartoon industries, earning him the title “God of Manga.” (Artist Takashi Murakami reveres him and included him in his 2005 exhibition Little Boy at the Japan Society). Still a major influence on Japanese popular culture, Tezuka’s creations include Astro Boy and Jungle Emperor Leo. To mark the 80th anniversary of Tezuka’s birth (he died in 1989), Barbican Film is touring an exhibition of his films. The Doris Duke Theatre screens the best of his shorts. Special thanks to Tom Vick, film curator at the Freer and Sackler Galleries of the Smithsonian Institution, for organizing the national tour of Tezuka’s films.

Tales of the Street Corner
1962, 38 mins.
In Tezuka’s first film, he draws from apparently unrelated elements to reach a single tragic climax that is profoundly anti-war.

Jumping
1984, 6 mins.
One of the most technically dazzling achievements of its day, this film was shot in a single cut with 4,000 images that show a boy skipping and gradually striding higher and higher into the sky until he leaps across war torn countries and looks down on human activity as if he were a god.

Broken Down Film
1985, 6 mins.
A heroic cowboy not only fights a conventional villain but also battles a film so old that it breaks down. Tezuka’s affection for the craft of silent film fills every frame.

Legend of the Forest
co-directed by Kouji Ui
1987, 29 mins.
Set to Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony, Tezuka planned to review the history of animation in four episodes, but completed only two segments. Animals and fantasy creatures warn humans about the danger of destroying natural habitats, while Tezuka cautions against cheap, limited TV animation that will decimate manga’s rich heritage.

• Tuesday, December 8, Wednesday, December 9, and Thursday, December 10 at 1, 4, and 7:30 p.m.  

Purchase tickets online.
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Adrift in Tokyo
Director, Satoshi Miki
Japan, 2007, 101 mins.   
In Japanese with English subtitles 
See a clip of the movie.

In this hilarious, quirky comedy, law student Takemura owes 800,000 yen to mullet-sporting loanshark Fukuhara, who gives him 72 hours to pay his debt. But the thug has a change of heart, and offers Takemura the deal of a lifetime—a million yen for accompanying Fukuhara across Tokyo. When Fukuhara introduces Takemura to his old haunts, the two bond as they encounter eccentric, wacky characters that appear and sometimes just as quickly disappear in the nearly surreal streets of Tokyo. 

•Friday, December 11, Sunday, December 13, Tuesday, December 15, Wednesday, December 16, Thursday, December 17, Friday, December 18, Saturday, December 19 at 1, 4, and 7:30 p.m.

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WORLD PREMIERE
Oh, My Buddah!
Director, Tomorowo Taguchi
Japan, 2009, 114 mins.    
In Japanese with English subtitles 

The coming-of-age story gets uproariously comedic treatment in this film based on the novel by Jun Miura. The narrator—Jun—is a first-year student at an all-boys Buddhist school in Kyoto in 1974. He idolizes Bob Dylan and writes his own songs as he trudges through his dull, middle class life. One day he and his friends are invited to an island of “free sex,” and suddenly the summer sparkles with unexpected surprises.

• Tuesday, December 22, Wednesday, December 23, Saturday, December 26, Sunday December 27, Tuesday, December 29, Wednesday, December 30, Saturday, January 2, Sunday, January 3, Tuesday, January 5,Wednesday, January 6, Thursday, January 7 at 1 p.m., 4 p.m., and 7:30 p.m.
• Thursday, December 24 and Thursday, December 31 at 1 p.m.

Purchase tickets online.
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Coming next year: Art + Copy, 3rd Annual Bollywood Film Festival featuring Kaminey, Maqbool (an Indian version of Macbeth!), Swades (from makers of Lagaan!) Dil Bole Hadippa, and much more.

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General information: The Doris Duke Theatre opens its doors on Kinau Street one half-hour before each showing.
Tickets for films may be purchased at the theater door on the day of screening, beginning one half-hour before each showing.
Admission: $8 adults; $7 seniors, students and military; $5 Academy members.
Parking: For weekday matinees, theater patrons may park in the lot behind the Academy Art Center at Linekona (entrance on makai side of Beretania) for $3 with theater validation. For evening screenings, you can park free at the Academy's lot at 1035 Kinau St., Diamond Head of Victoria Street. Handicapped parking is available in the small Luce Pavilion lot on Victoria Street. Patrons using handicapped stalls should proceed to the main entrance on Kinau Street.
For the hearing impaired: The Doris Duke Theatre is equipped with the Easy Listener Hearing Assistance System. You can pick up a receiver at the ticket counter.