Japan Cuts: Festival of New Japanese Film

Japan Cuts: Festival of New Japanese Film
Thursday, Jul 10, 2025 at 6:00pm
212-715-1258

North America’s largest festival of contemporary Japanese film returns for its 18th year this summer at Japan Society! Join us July 10-20 for 30 curated films from across Japan featuring major award-winners, indie darlings, up-and-coming filmmakers, restorations, documentaries, experimental and short films and anime. JAPAN CUTS Powered by GU is a showcase of the latest in Japanese cinema, featuring both today’s most popular actors and directors as well as tomorrow’s pioneering talent. Become part of our passionate filmgoer community for premieres, parties and celebrity guests in the heart of America’s biggest city!

Leading this year’s highlights:

JAPAN CUTS Powered by GU will present legendary director Kiyoshi Kurosawa with the CUT ABOVE Award for Outstanding Achievement in Film, host the premieres of his new film Cloud and recent remake of Serpent’s Path, as well as showcase revivals of License to Live and a new 4K restoration of the original Serpent’s Path.

Schedule

July 10, 2025

ChaO 

With Opening Night Reception

6:00 pm

Special Screening-Followed by Opening Night Reception. Yasuhiro Aoki’s debut feature joins the lineage of Studio 4ºC’s (Mind Game, Tekkonkinkreet) innovative oeuvre, formulating an idiosyncratic Andersen fairy tale set in the cyberpunk melange of near-future Shanghai where humans coexist with mermen. Ordinary salaryman Stephan is catapulted to instant fame when he is suddenly proposed to by Chao, the mermaid princess. Entrusted with the future of human-mermen relations, Stephan is rushed into the pairing, amid a flurry of politicking and diplomacy, and reluctantly agrees to marry the fish princess, but despite the makings of a political marriage, the effervescent Chao’s ardent affection sparks genuine connection. With its off-kilter brand of humor, unique kineticism and superb hand-drawn art style-purportedly utilizing over 100,000 hand-drawn frames-Aoki’s Chao is a fantastical spectacle with a deluge of heartfelt passion, produced over the course of seven years.

Dir. Yasuhiro Aoki, 2025, 90 min., DCP, color, in Japanese with English subtitles. With Ouji Suzuka, Anna Yamada.

Tickets

$20 Nonmembers

$14 Members

$18 Seniors/Students

$18 Person with Disability

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