THE FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER ANNOUNCES SIX BY KORE-EDA, NOVEMBER 19-22

A series of six films by the acclaimed director to coincide with the theatrical release of the Palme d’Or–winning Shoplifters 

New York, NY (October 25, 2018) – The Film Society of Lincoln Center is pleased to present a selection of films by Japanese master Hirokazu Kore-eda, November 19-22, on the occasion of the theatrical release of the 2018 Palme d’Or–winning Shoplifters (opening at the Film Society November 23 from Magnolia Pictures).

Kore-eda ranks among the best-known and most acclaimed directors in world cinema today. Each of his films is marked by a subtle dramatic touch, a gentle yet assured feeling for the profundity and emotional charge of everyday life, and an enduring fascination with the role of the family in contemporary Japanese society.

The six selected films in the series showcase Kore-eda’s varied approaches to exploring his signature themes on human connection and family. Six by Kore-eda includes the director’s first narrative film, Maborosi, a delicate portrayal of resurrection after the loss of a spouse; After Life, a fantasy in which one can choose a single treasured moment to relive forever; the touching Like Father, Like Son, a selection of NYFF51 and 2013 Cannes Jury Prize winner; Nobody Knows, a harrowing fictionalized retelling of a true story of child abandonment; Still Walking, a detailed snapshot of a family over the course of one day; and I Wish, which follows the adventures of two young brothers who long to be reunited following their parents’ separation. The series leads up to the release of Kore-eda’s masterful NYFF56 selection and 2018 Palme d’Or–winning Shoplifters. Six by Kore-eda provides thorough insight into the filmmaker’s humanist body of work.

Organized by Florence Almozini and Tyler Wilson.

Tickets for Six by Kore-eda go on sale November 1, and are $15; $12 for students, seniors (62+), and persons with disabilities; and $10 for Film Society members. See more and save with the 3+ film discount package. Learn more at filmlinc.org.

Acknowledgments:Magnolia Pictures

FILMS & DESCRIPTIONSAll screenings held at the Walter Reade Theater (165 West 65th Street) unless otherwise noted.

After Life / Wandafuru raifuJapan, 1998, 118mJapanese with English subtitlesIn this wistful, understatedly moving fable, Kore-eda imagines an afterlife in which the dead must choose a single memory to retain for eternity. The film centers on the day-by-day work lives of two civil servants tasked with interviewing the newly dead about their happiest recollections, then recreating those moments on film. Here, death is presented as a benevolent institution of quiet banality, and paradise as an act of cinematic preservation, rooted in the very human impulse to look back on one’s existence as a story to be told. Kore-eda’s film is a masterful meditation on lost love, bygone happiness, and what it means to live a good life.
Monday, November 19, 8:45pmThursday, November 22, 7:00pm

I Wish / KisekiJapan, 2011, 35mm, 128mJapanese with English subtitlesThis subtly powerful family drama-turned-road movie follows two young brothers living apart who desire nothing more than to be reunited. Following their parents’ separation, Koichi lives with their mother and Ryunosuke with their father. Played by real-life brothers Koki and Ohshiro Maeda, the boys recruit a group of friends to accompany them on an expedition to find the point where two passing trains will meet, in hopes of orchestrating a miracle. Kore-eda returns to his perennial themes of childhood yearning, evoking the transformative and world-making bond between siblings with his signature mode of gentle yet unflinching realism.
Wednesday, November 21, 4:00pmThursday, November 22, 1:30pm

Like Father, Like Son / Soshite chichi ni naruJapan, 2013, 114mJapanese with English subtitlesThe life of workaholic architect Ryota (Masaharu Fukuyama)—one of comfort and quietly ordered affluence with his wife Midori (Ono Machiko) and son Keita (Keita Ninomiya)—is overturned when hospital administrators reveal the unthinkable: Keita is not his biological son. Due to a mistake made by a negligent nurse, his “true” son has been raised in the disheveled but warm-hearted home of working-class shopkeeper Yudai (Lily Franky) and his wife (Yôko Maki). The different approaches of both couples to their excruciating dilemma and the gradual emotional awakening of the all-too-rational Ryota are at the core of this sensitive drama of family feeling, which allows Kore-eda to revisit his ongoing preoccupation with family dynamics and parent-child relationships. An NYFF51 selection.
Tuesday, November 20, 8:45pmWednesday, November 21, 1:30pm

Maborosi / Maboroshi no hikariJapan, 1995, 35mm, 110mJapanese with English subtitlesKore-eda made his narrative feature debut with this delicate portrait of loss and regeneration. Five years after a young wife and mother loses her husband in an unforeseen tragedy, she remarries and moves to a small rural fishing village. She adapts gradually, but still finds herself subject to an ache she can’t soothe or name. Like Yasujiro Ozu before him, Kore-eda has a rare sensitivity to the place of individuals within the natural world, a cautious faith in the restorative powers of nature, family and romantic love, and an equally strong conviction, expressed with the lightest of touches, that some things can never be restored.
Monday, November 19, 6:30pmWednesday, November 21, 9:00pm

Nobody Knows / Dare mo ShiranaiJapan, 2004, 35mm, 141mJapanese with English subtitlesInspired by a real-life incident of child abandonment, this piercing family drama is a testament to the everyday resilience of four young siblings left to survive on their own in a Tokyo apartment. When young single mother Keiko (You) leaves home to pursue a mysterious job and a new romance, 12-year-old Akira (Yuya Yagira) must look after his younger sisters and brother, keeping the household together as money dwindles and months pass without word. With wrenching clarity and unvarnished lyricism, Kore-eda captures the precarious balancing act of hope and vigilance that sustains children forced to grow up much too quickly.
Tuesday, November 20, 6:00pmThursday, November 22, 4:00pm

Opens November 23Shoplifters / Manbiki kazokuJapan, 2018, 121mJapanese with English subtitlesKore-eda’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner is a heartrending glimpse into an often invisible segment of Japanese society: those struggling to stay afloat in the face of crushing poverty. On the margins of Tokyo, a most unusual “family”—a collection of societal castoffs united by their shared outsiderhood and fierce loyalty to one another—survives by petty stealing and grifting. When they welcome into their fold a young girl who’s been abused by her parents, they risk exposing themselves to the authorities and upending their tenuous, below-the-radar existence. The director’s latest masterful, richly observed human drama makes the quietly radical case that it is love—not blood—that defines a family. An NYFF56 selection. A Magnolia Pictures release.

Still Walking / Aruitemo aruitemoJapan, 2008, 35mm, 114mJapanese with English subtitlesUnfolding largely over the course of a daylong gathering of a family still mourning the loss of its eldest son many years earlier, Kore-eda’s fine-tuned elegy—full of personalizing details and the sense memories of childhood—was a direct response to the death of his mother, whom he nursed in the last two years of her life. Kore-eda grants his characters no epiphanies, but allows them moments of dawning awareness. In this quietly anguished domestic drama, resentments go unaired and problems remain unsolved, but they are privately recognized and even understood—which is at least one definition of family love.
Wednesday, November 21, 6:30pm
Thursday, November 22, 9:15pm

FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER
The Film Society of Lincoln Center is devoted to supporting the art and elevating the craft of cinema. The only branch of the world-renowned arts complex Lincoln Center to shine a light on the everlasting yet evolving importance of the moving image, this nonprofit organization was founded in 1969 to celebrate American and international film. Via year-round programming and discussions; its annual New York Film Festival; and its publications, including Film Comment, the U.S.’s premier magazine about films and film culture, the Film Society endeavors to make the discussion and appreciation of cinema accessible to a broader audience, as well as to ensure that it will remain an essential art form for years to come.

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