The Japanese American Cultural & Community Center presents FilmFestNEW

The JACCC and Visual Communications are proud to announce the return of Japanese classic and modern film to Little Tokyo as this year's Film Fest approaches. The festival will take place on August 31st through September 2nd and will showcase films ranging from Akira Kurosawa's Lower Depth, a definitive piece during Japan's Golden Age of Film, to more modern, family films like Gigantor. The three-day celebration will surely cross over many traditional genres to appeal to a variety of spectators. All films have English subtitles.

Katsudo Shashin (moving pictures) presents two films, Lower Depth (1957) by Akira Kurosawa and Osaka Elgy (1936) by Kenji Mizoguchi, which are tributes to the recently deceased Isuzu Yamada (1917-2012). Award winning actress Yoko Sugi will make a special appearance to introduce these films.

Date
Saturday, September 1, 2012 at 1pm

$10 General Admission

Location
Aratani/Japan America Theatre

*photo © Toho Co., Ltd

In Lower Depth, Akira Kurosawa brilliantly translates Maxim Gorky's 1902 proletariat play to Edo-period Japan. The film tells the story of a couple that is struggling to make ends meet by renting out rooms in an old, run-down tenement. The intricate storyline investigates the couple's relationship as well as the relationships throughout the community amidst infidelity, poverty, and murder.

Osaka Elegy (1936)

Aratani/Japan America Theatre

Date
Sunday, September 2, 2012 at 1pm

$10 General Admission

*photo © Shochiku Co., Ltd

Both a cultural and commercial success, Mizoguchi's Osaka Elegy takes the audience through the life of Ayako Murai (Isuzu Yamada), a young woman who becomes her employer's mistress in order to pay off her father's debt only to be arrested, ostracized by her family, and kicked out of her home. Though Ayako's struggles are atypical, the audience is able to feel both the internal and external struggles that she encounters in her personal life.

Showdown in Little Tokyo

Aratani/Japan American Theatre

Date
Saturday, September 1, 2012 at 7pm

$10 General Admission

*photo © Warner Bros.

Mark Lester's Showdown in Little Tokyo, is an action-packed film based in our very own L.A.'s Little Tokyo that follows detectives Chris Kenner (Dolph Lundgren) and Johnny Murata (Brandon Lee) as they track down a Yakuza drug lord Yoshida (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) in hopes of ceasing a growing lethal drug trade.

Movies on the plaza

Food, family, and fun come together on the JACCC plaza as this year's FilmFest features, Gigantor Revenge of Captain Spider (1963) and New Treasure Island (1964),  two of the finest anime movies to come out of Japan in the early sixties.

On the Plaza

Admission FREE!!!

Date
Friday, August 31^st, 2012 at 8pm

Gigantor (1964)

Gigantor was directed by Mitsuteru Yokoyama and focuses on a 12-year old boy named Jimmy Sparks who has a remote control robot named Gigantor. Though the robot was originally created to cause destruction it eventually changes roles into a gentle giant.

photo © Entercolor Technologies Corp.

New Treasure Island (1964)

This family film was directed by Tezuka Osamu and tells the story of a young boy who sets off to find Treasure Island after finding a map that his father left behind. His journey is one that people of all age will enjoy watching.

*photo © Radio-Television Paclagrers, Inc.

For more information call Wakana Kimura (213)-628-2725 ext.146 or visit our website at www.jaccc.org