High and Low
(1963, 143min, 35mm, English Subtitles)

12/30 (Thu) @ 7:15pm
1/3 (Mon) @ 3:30pm
1/6 (Thu) @ 3:30pm

Toshiro Mifune is unforgettable as Kingo Gondo, a wealthy industrialist whose family becomes the target of a cold-blooded kidnapper in Akira Kurosawa’s highly influential High and Low, a compelling race-against-time thriller and a penetrating portrait of contemporary Japanese society.

Tickets $10

Stray Dog
(1949, 122min, 35mm, English Subtitles)

1/4 (Tue) @ 7:15pm
1/5 (Wed) @ 4:00pm
1/6 (Thu) @ 7:15pm

When a pickpocket steals a rookie detective’s gun on a hot crowded bus, the cop goes undercover in a desperate attempt to right the wrong. Kurosawa’s thrilling noir probes the squalid world of postwar Japan and the nature of the criminal mind.

Tickets $10

Drunken Angel
(1948, 98min, 35mm, English Subtitles)

12/30 (Thu) @ 4:30pm
1/3 (Mon) @ 7:15pm
1/4 (Tue) @ 4:30pm
1/5 (Wed) @ 7:15pm

In this powerful early noir from the great Akira Kurosawa, Toshiro Mifune bursts onto the screen as a volatile, tubercular criminal who strikes up an unlikely relationship with Takashi Shimura’s jaded physician.

Tickets $10

Seven Samurai
(1954, 207 minutes, 35mm, English Language)

NEW YEAR’S SPECIAL SCREENING with RECEPTION!
1/2 (Sun) @ 1:30pm

Kick-off 2011 with one of the most thrilling movie epics of all time, Seven Samurai ! This three-hour ride featuring Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura tells the story of a sixteenth-century village whose desperate inhabitants hire eponymous warriors to protect them from the invading bandits.

Tickets $10

There was no foreseeable warning before it happened – a catastrophe of unparalleled scale and magnitude overwhelmed the entire globe. This event, recorded in history as “The Second Impact,” caused half the population of the Earth to perish and devastated the world. All that remains of Japan is Tokyo-3, a city that is now being attacked by giant creatures that seek to destroy mankind. These creatures are called Angels. Fourteen year old Shinji Ikari is called to Tokyo-3 by his father who he hasn’t seen in more than eight years. He is asked to come to the NERV headquarters to meet his father. His father reveals to him a gigantic humanoid weapons system that the special governmental agency has secretly developed to fight the Angels and then orders Shinji to pilot the giant artificial human Evangelion Unit One. With the fate of the world resting on his shoulders, how will the 14 year old boy Shinji fight? What is the truth behind “The Human Instrumentality Project,” an operation somehow related to the “Second Impact”? And who is the true enemy? The Angels, NERV, the mysterious SEELE, or the demons held within the hearts of the people involved? Gendō Ikari, a man who holds many answers to these questions, watches silently and attentively as his son fights a desperate battle…

**Find out how to win a Evenagelion poster at VIZ Cinema!

SHOW TIMES:
1/18 (Tue) – 1/20 (Thu) 7:15pm

$10 general

The landmark anime Evangelion evolves, reaching new heights of intensity in the new feature film, EVANGELION: 2.0 YOU CAN (NOT) ADVANCE. In an explosive new story full of brutal action and primal emotion, a group of young pilots maneuver their towering, cyborg Eva Units into combat against a deadly and disturbing enemy. In the battle to prevent the apocalyptic Third Impact, Shinji and Rei were forced to carry humanity’s hopes on their shoulders. Now, as the onslaught of the bizarre, monstrous Angels escalates, they find their burden shared by two new Eva pilots: the fiery Asuka and the mysterious Mari. In this thrilling new experience for fans of giant robot action, the young pilots fight desperately to save mankind – and struggle to save themselves.

**Find out how to win a Evenagelion poster at VIZ Cinema!

SHOW TIMES:
1/21 (Fri) 7:15pm
1/22 (Sat) – 1/23 (Sat) 12:30pm, 2:45pm, 5:00pm, 7:15pm
1/24 (Mon) – 1/27 (Thu) 5:00pm, 7:15pm

$12 general

SPECIAL PREMIERE EVENT:
The Red Lantern and VCinema present:
“Evangelion 2.0″ San Francisco premiere and reception: Friday, 1/21, 7:15 p.m.

The Red Lantern: Bay Area Asian Cinephiles, based in San Francisco, is the world’s largest Meetup for Asian films.
VCinema is a podcast which primarily covers films from the Asian region from the classics to contemporary; experimental, genre and mainstream.

Find out more at:
The Red Lantern: Bay Area Asian Cinephiles | VCinema podcast and Webcast