Japan Society Film

Japan Society Film Screening Japanese cinema from classics to contemporary premieres at Japan Society in NYC. Organizers of : Festival of New Japanese Film.

On this day in 1980, Japan Society Film presented the North American premiere of Kazuhiko Hasegawa’s THE MAN WHO STOLE T...
10/10/2026

On this day in 1980, Japan Society Film presented the North American premiere of Kazuhiko Hasegawa’s THE MAN WHO STOLE THE SUN (1979) as part of our film series “High Tide, Low Tide: The Effects of the Japanese New Wave”.

Earlier this year, we presented two sold-out 35mm revivals of this incendiary masterwork as part of the first North American retrospective on Hasegawa. Our program notes read:

“A watershed of Japanese cinema history, Hasegawa’s second and final film broaches his own personal history with the irradiating atom bomb. An apathetic, gum-chewing teacher (Kenji Sawada) threatens to detonate a homemade nuclear weapon built in his single-room Tokyo apartment, taking the country hostage for somewhat innocuous demands.”

1993 Canon New Belpia photocopier ad with Baby Godzilla, roughly translating to “Even if it’s small, it’s a Godzilla” an...
09/27/2026

1993 Canon New Belpia photocopier ad with Baby Godzilla, roughly translating to “Even if it’s small, it’s a Godzilla” and “It is born”.

In 2023, we presented director Elizabeth Lennard’s personal 16mm print of TOKYO MELODY—the first time it had been shown ...
09/26/2026

In 2023, we presented director Elizabeth Lennard’s personal 16mm print of TOKYO MELODY—the first time it had been shown since a 1985 screening in São Paulo, Brazil. Introduced by Akiko Yano and followed by a Q&A with Lennard, our revival helped spark newfound interest in the film.

Newly restored in 4K, reinstating its original stereo magnetic sound (16mm can only screen monaural), this new, definitive version (although we’ll always make a case for the 16mm!) makes its US theatrical debut at Metrograph starting today to commemorate the release of Sakamoto’s newly translated autobiography “Music Sets You Free”—now available via HarperCollins!

09/21/2026

Yusaku Matsuda, in 1949, seen here in Seijun Suzuki’s Kyoka Izumi adaptation KAGERO-ZA (1981).

Suzuki instructed Matsuda to “act as if you cannot step outside of this circle” while drawing a one-meter circle around the actor.

Legendary supermodel Sayoko Yamaguchi ( ) with Kansai Yamamoto, Takeshi Kitano and Nagisa Oshima at a 1983 Japan Society...
09/19/2026

Legendary supermodel Sayoko Yamaguchi ( ) with Kansai Yamamoto, Takeshi Kitano and Nagisa Oshima at a 1983 Japan Society screening of MERRY CHRISTMAS, MR. LAWRENCE.

Scanned from the Japan Society Film archives.

09/11/2026

Our series “Music by Ryuichi Sakamoto” runs today and tomorrow! Catch a rare assortment of Sakamoto scored gems to celebrate the upcoming publication of his autobiography “Music Sets You Free”:

📽️ ROYAL SPACE FORCE: THE WINGS OF HONNÊAMISE
📽️ Mystery Screening
📹 ALL STAR VIDEO / ADELIC PENGUINS
📽️ TOKYO DECADENCE
📽️ DONALD CAMMELL’S WILD SIDE (Director’s Cut)

🎟️ and showtimes at the 🔗 in the bio.

Exclusive copies of “Music Sets You Free” translated by Sam Bett will be available at evening screenings ahead of the book’s publication on September 22nd.

09/09/2026

Less well known than Hideaki Anno’s adaptation of its sequel LOVE & POP, novelist Ryu Murakami’s TOKYO DECADENCE is a murky descent into Tokyo’s underworld of B**M as a lovesick pr******te is whisked between high-rise lofts and dimly lit hotels to placate the quiet susurrations and unspoken desires of Japan’s wealthy and perverted.

Screening 9/12 as part of “Music by Ryuichi Sakamoto”.

The fourth and final film of eccentric filmmaker Donald Cammell, best known for his brilliant 1970 debut PERFORMANCE co-...
09/03/2026

The fourth and final film of eccentric filmmaker Donald Cammell, best known for his brilliant 1970 debut PERFORMANCE co-directed with Nic Roeg, WILD SIDE was butchered by studio interference, re-cut and taken away from Cammell who subsequently took his own life. A provocative, erotic neo-noir starring Christopher Walken in one of his most over-the-top performances, WILD SIDE indulges in a rapacious world of power, s*x, crime and money. Walken’s paranoid Bruno, a notorious money launderer, is the subject of an undercover sting operation that pulls in Anne Heche’s banker-turned-high-class pr******te, who in turn becomes enraptured with Bruno’s elegant wife (Joan Chen). Painstakingly re-cut by Cammell’s widow and longtime editor using Cammell’s notes and a personal cut, this posthumous director’s cut restores much of its original vision: its humor, avant garde leanings and non-linear plotting, along with a new score by Ryuichi Sakamoto. Screening on one of only two 35mm prints ever made.

DONALD CAMMELL'S WILD SIDE screens next Sat. 9/12 on 35mm for likely the first time in the US as part of "Music by Ryuichi Sakamoto": japansociety.org/events/donald-cammells-wild-side-directors-cut/

09/01/2026

“Fingers like that deserve a topaz.”
—Ryu Murakami, “Topaz”

The thematic through lines of Ryu Murakami’s short story “Topaz” (1988) and its novel-length sequel “Love and Pop: Topaz 2” (1998) are the dreams of its young women, reflected within the rosy depths of a gemstone. Murakami would adapt his short story into 1992’s murky S*M drama TOKYO DECADENCE while its sequel would be adapted by EVANGELION’s Hideaki Anno who had not done a live-action feature at that point. Murakami told Anno, “This work could be made into an animation, but it’s not suited to that. It would be better as a live-action film,” to which Anno responded of his plans to film it low budget and on video for a late-night slot on TV. Upon hearing the concept, Murakami would immediate approve.

TOKYO DECADENCE screens next Sat. 9/12 as part of “Music by Ryuichi Sakamoto”.

Top: TOKYO DECADENCE
Bottom: LOVE & POP

Happy Caturday with Ryuichi SakamotoOur recommended listening: “M.A.Y. in the Backyard” (1984) is named after three stra...
08/29/2026

Happy Caturday with Ryuichi Sakamoto

Our recommended listening: “M.A.Y. in the Backyard” (1984) is named after three stray cats—Modaki, Ashura, Yanayatsu—that would come by Sakamoto’s house.

“Music by Ryuichi Sakamoto” runs Sept. 11-12 at Japan Society. 🎟️ and showtimes at the 🔗 in the bio.

Exclusive copies of “Music Sets You Free” will be available at evening screenings ahead of the book’s publication on September 22nd.

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333 E 47th Street
New York, NY
10017

Opening Hours

Monday 11am - 7pm
Tuesday 11am - 7pm
Wednesday 11am - 7pm
Thursday 11am - 7pm
Friday 11am - 7pm
Saturday 11am - 5pm
11pm - 5pm
Sunday 11am - 5pm
11pm - 5pm

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