A major retrospective of the works of Kiju Yoshida coming to Boston

by Chris MaGee

Okay, in the past year Toronto has enjoyed not only a Nagisa Oshima retrospective, but also the 24 Japanese Classics: A Wreath for Madame Kawakita, both hosted by Cinematheque Ontario, so it's hard to be jealous about this bit of news from Wildgrounds. Starting on March 27th the Harvard Film Archive in Boston will be hosting a major retrospective of the films of Japanese New Wave auteur Kiju (Yoshishige) Yoshida titled "Art Cinema, Counter-Cinema: The Cinema of Kiju Yoshida and Mariko Okada". Okada, of course is the star of such Yoshida films as "Woman in the Lake", "Joen (The Affair)", "Flame and Woman", and Yoshida's best known film "Eros Plus Massacre" (above). She is also married to Yoshida. Along with the above mentioned films "Art Cinema, Counter-Cinema" will showcase nine other of Yoshida's films including his 1986 drama "The Human Promise (Ningen no yakusoku)" made after a 13 year absence from the director's chair and the 1994 documentary "The Cinema of Ozu According to Kiju Yoshida". The Harvard Film Archive is also honoured to welcome Yoshida and Okada in person to this event. A similar retrospective of Yoshida's films screened last year at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Okay, even with Oshima and "A Wreath for Madame Kawakita" I am a little jealous. I'm only human. You can check out the full line-up of "Art Cinema, Counter-Cinema: The Cinema of Kiju Yoshida and Mariko Okada" here.