Friday | December 14, 2007 9:45 pm

A History of Postwar Japan as Told by a Bar Hostess
(Nippon sengo-shi: MadamuOmboro no seikatsu)

Screening on Film

Directed by Shohei Imamura.
Japan, 1970, 35mm, color, 105 min.
Japanese with English subtitles.
Print source: Japan Foundation

Rather than an “official story” of Japan's postwar economic miracle, Imamura offers the pointed views of the resilient, lower-caste Madame Omboro, brilliantly contrasting the bar owner's story of her life with newsreel footage of major events from 1945 to 1970: from Japan's surrender at the end of WWII through U.S. occupation to student protests and the Vietnam War.

December 1 – 14, 2007

Vanishing Points: The Films of Shohei Imamura

August 21–October 19

The Cold Heart is More Precious than Diamonds. The Cinema of Graham Greene

September 11–October 30

João César Monteiro, Poet-Provocateur

September 12

Marathon '77 All-Night Movie Marathon

September 18–November 15

Marie Antoinette and Friends, Three Films by Sofia Coppola

September 27–28

The Adventures of Lotte Reiniger

October 2–18

The Human Condition

October 23–November 20

Great Expectations: British Postwar Cinema, 1945 – 1960