In a brief sidebar to the extensive retrospective of the films of Yasujiro Ozu, we offer the chance to view two key works by a major figure of the generation that succeeded him, Masahiro Shinoda. Sparked by widespread disaffection with the past and an activism born of political protests against Japan’s renewed security pact with the United States, a distinctly Japanese New Wave movement emerged in the early 1960s. A theater student turned filmmaker, Shinoda was already working for one of the major commercial studios when he directed one of the first works of the new movement, the provocatively titled Youth in Fury. After a series of politically engaged youth and yakuza (gangster) films, Shinoda left the studio and found international acclaim for his innovative adaptation of a traditional Bunraku tale that became his masterpiece, Double Suicide. Completing the program is a special preview screening of the director’s most recent and reportedly final feature production.