Audiences in New York City will have the opportunity to view Japanese filmmaker Koreyoshi Kurahara’s 1962 film, ”Glass Johnny: Looks Like a Beast”, for the first time with English subtitles when it is presented by the New York Japan Society on April 4th.
Part of its monthly screening program that focuses on 1960’s action films from the Japanese Nikkatsu Studio, “Glass Johnny: Looks Like a Beast” is Kurahara’s homage to Frederico Fellini’s 1954 classic, “La Strada”. In this Japanese version of Fellini’s plot, Actress Izumi Ashikawa stars as the carefree victimized girl in the role originally inhabited by Guilietta Masina.
The Japan Society’s monthly program, entitled “No Borders, No Limits: 1960’s Nikkatsu Action Cinema”, includes 8 films that will receive their first screening within the U.S. Five of those films have already been shown, including another Kurahara film, “ The Warped Ones”. The program intends to shed light on a genre of Japanese cinema, the 1960’s action film that is not widely recognized by U.S audiences or critics.
After its April 4th screening of “Glass Johnny”, the Japan Society will, on May 2nd, present Yasuharu Hasebe’s “Roughneck”. Staring Akira Kobayashi, the 1969 film tells a story of violence between gangs after a troublemaker enters into a relationship with the lover of a local boss. Hasebe’s film is the last to be screened in this eight-part program.
New York’s Japan Society is located at 333 East 47th Street, between First and Second Avenues. For more information about upcoming screenings, tickets, and additional information, visit http://www.japansociety.org/.