DAVID BOWIE

MOVIES
More reviews: metropolisjapan.com/movies
NORTHERN EXPOSURE
BY KEVING MCGUE
The cold weather of February is the perfect
time to get inside the warmth of a theater
and sample Scandinavian films in the Tokyo
Northern Lights Festival, running
February 6-12 at Shibuya’s Eurospace (1-5
Maruyamacho, Shibuya-ku; www.eurospace.
co.jp). One highlight is Swedish director Lukas
Moodysson’s coming-of-age pic We Are
the Best! The winner of the top award at the
2013 Tokyo International Film Festival, it follows
a trio of junior high school girls who form
CINEMATIC UNDERGROUND
We Are the Best!: © 2013 Memfis Film Rights AB
a punk band in the early ’80s. Other selections
include Trespassing Bergman, a recent
English-language documentary on Ingmar
Bergman and the legendary director’s 1953
work Summer with Monika, which introduced
him to an international audience.
Not shying away from difficult topics, the 5th
Death Penalty Movie Week presents world films
that deal with one of the toughest ethical questions.
The works include the Belgian drama The
Son by directors Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne,
Nagisa Oshima’s 1968 masterpiece Death by
Hanging, and a new documentary on boxer
Iwao Hakamada, who spent nearly 48 years
on death row. February 13-19 at Shibuya’s Eurospace
(1-5 Maruyamacho, Shibuya-ku; www.
eurospace.co.jp).
The Met Live Viewing series continues to
bring the best performances from the venerable
New York opera to Tokyo movie theaters.
Upcoming works include Bizet’s Les Pêcheurs
de perles (“The Pearl Fishers”) with German
soprano Diana Damrau in the lead and running
February 6-12. Puccini’s Turandot led
by Swede Nina Stemme screens February
27-March 4. Spring will see screenings of
Puccini’s Manon Lescaut and Madama Butterfly.
At Shinjuku Piccadilly (3-15-15 Shinjuku,
Shinjuku-ku; www.smt-cinema.com) and Toho
Cinemas Roppongi Hills (6-10-2 Roppongi
Minato-ku; www.tohotheater.jp).
The life of Florence Foster Jenkins—a New
York socialite who pursued an opera career
despite a glaring lack of musical talent—is proving
to be fertile grounds for cinema. The off-key
singer is played by Meryl Streep in an upcoming
biopic and also inspired the recent French film
Marguerite, which transports the story to the cultural
salons of 1920s Paris. Catherine Frot plays
the delusional soprano, renamed Marguerite
Dumont. On from mid-February at Cine Switch in
Ginza (4-4-5 Ginza, Chuo-ku; www.cineswitch.
com) and Yebisu Garden Cinema (4-20-2 Ebisu,
Shibuya-ku; www.unitedcinemas.jp/yebisu).
EIGA
PINK AND
GREY
BY ROB SCHWARTZ
©2016「ピンクとグレー」 製 作 委 員 会
With the reported dissolution and reification
of J-pop institution SMAP, this film
couldn’t come at a more opportune time.
And it’s based on a novel by a different
idol from the same agency, the legendary Johnny
& Associates. Shigeaki Kato, of the boy band
NEWS, published the book on which this film is
based, to much acclaim, in 2012. It’s already been
adapted into manga and now gets its turn on the
silver screen. Unsurprisingly, it addresses the difficulties
of celebrity and the dangers that go with
it. Rengo (Yuto Nakajima) and Daiki (Masaki Suda)
are childhood friends who share a love of acting.
When they both become thespians, Rengo meets
with huge success but Daiki toils in obscurity.
Their friendship survives, but Rengo decides to
take his own life and involves Daiki in the clean
up. The story flashes back to how the two came
to their careers and then, it turns out, Rengo’s
suicide provides an opening for Daiki’s ascent.
Director Isao Yukisada (Crying Out for Love in the
Center of the World) is one of the finest auteurs
working in Japan, and here he weaves an intricate
tale that switches perspectives—from color to
black and white—and tones magnificently. Another
thought-provoking and challenging work
from a jewel of the current Japanese film scene.
Japanese title: Pink to Gray. (118 min)
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