Japan Cuts: Festival of New Japanese Film

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 14, 2025

Teki Cometh

6:00 pm

New York Premiere. Gisuke (Kyozo Nagatsuka) is a retired college professor who lives a quiet life alone, until one day he finds a post on the internet about an approaching “enemy” and the world around him begins to melt into paranoia, dream, delusion and fantasy. Director Daihachi Yoshida (Kiba: The Fangs of Fiction, JC 2021) presents a beautiful, thought-provoking and arresting film pulled from what many considered an unfilmable novel by Tsutsui Yasutaka. Stunningly-lensed and deeply affecting, Teki Cometh poses challenging questions about aging, mortality, and the faulty relationship between memory and reality without offering any easy answers. Widely acclaimed in Japan, Teki Cometh won Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor at last year’s Tokyo International Film Festival.

Dir. Daihachi Yoshida, 2024, 108 min., DCP, black and white, in Japanese with English subtitles. With Kyozo Nagatsuka, Kumi Takiuchi, Yuumi Kawai, Asuka Kurosawa.

A Samurai in Time

8:30 pm

New York Premiere. The biggest Japanese indie phenomenon since One Cut of the Dead! This low budget film financed entirely by director Junichi Yasuda was initially shown in only one theater, but through word-of-mouth grew into a sensation across Japan and ultimately took home Best Film at this year’s Japan Academy Film Prize. At the end of the Edo period, a flash of lightning sends a samurai into the present day, and to survive, he takes a job as an actor in jidaigeki movies. This fish-out-of-water comedy is a love letter to movie-making and especially a heart-felt tribute to Japan’s jidaigeki industry.

Dir. Junichi Yasuda, 2024, 131 min., DCP, color, in Japanese with English subtitles. With Makiya Yamaguchi, Norimasa Fuke, Yuno Sakura.

Tickets

$20 Nonmembers

$14 Members

$18 Seniors/Students

$18 Person with Disability

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