Film Screening:

Always - Sunset on Third Street
(Takashi Yamazaki, 2005, 132 min, Japan, in Japanese with English subtitles, Color, DVD)
[View trailer]

-- Introduced by APSI's Director, Prof. Simon Partner (History)!

Set in a digitally recreated postwar Tokyo (in 1958), Takashi Yamazaki's Always - Sunset on Third Street is based on a popular manga, and was a hit in Japan, winning a number of awards. It takes place in a small community in post-war Tokyo, and follows the interweaving story threads of a number of the community's residents over the course of a single year. The film aims to capture a city and a nation on the cusp of major change, with the under construction Tokyo Tower standing as the primary image for the push to modernization.

This is an era where entire neighborhoods would turn out when someone nearby bought a television set, where a fridge was a strange and wondrous thing, where Coca Cola was first appearing on the market and rockabilly filled the airwaves. An era filled with people trying to put the memory of the past behind them and filled with hope and optimism for a better future.

-- Winner of 12 of the 13 awards at the 2006 Japanese Academy Awards, including Best Film, Director, Actor and Screenplay, as well as the Audience Award at the 2006 New York Asian Film Festival!

Cost: Free and open to the public

Sponsors: The Asian/Pacific Studies Institute (APSI), the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image (AMI) and the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (AMES)