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Films

NEW PEOPLE Cinema

At NEW PEOPLE
1746 Post St,
San Francisco, CA 94115
For directions, see VISIT page
Tel: 415-525-8600

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VIZCINEMA

VIZ Cinema is a 143-seat underground cinema inside NEW PEOPLE in San Francisco. Equipped with a cutting-edge HD digital projection and THX®-certified sound system, VIZ Cinema’s programming focuses on the latest and hottest films from Japan, as well as an incredible legacy of classics, favorites, documentaries and anime – making it the only venue of its kind in the United States.
Cinema Rental Details | For inquiries, please email: rentals@sffs.org

JULY

QUICK GLANCE

Saturday, 7/2 @ 2pm “CLASSIC” SUMMER WEEKENDS: Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice
Sunday, 7/3 @ 2pm “CLASSIC” SUMMER WEEKENDS: Good Morning
Thursday, 7/7 @ 6pm Das Boot: 30th Ann. special screening with Q&A
Saturday, 7/9 @ 2pm “CLASSIC” SUMMER WEEKENDS: Red Beard
Sunday, 7/10 @ 2pm “CLASSIC” SUMMER WEEKENDS: Scandal
Friday, 7/15 – Sunday, 7/17 TRIGUN: Badlands Rumble
Sunday, 7/24 @ 2pm “CLASSIC” SUMMER WEEKENDS: Vengeance is Mine
Sunday, 7/24 @ 5pm K-20 : The Fiend with Twenty Faces / Tsunami Relief For Japan Vol.5
Sunday, 7/31 @ 2pm “CLASSIC” SUMMER WEEKENDS: The Pornographers

Saturday, 7/2 – Sunday, 7/31

“CLASSIC” SUMMER WEEKENDS: JULY

VIZ Cinema is hosting the “CLASSIC” Summer Weekends continue on from June and into its July programming. Enjoy the masters and all-time favorites from the list of classic films of Japan.

Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice
(Directored by Yasujirô Ozu, Japan, 1952, 115 mins, 35mm, B&W)

7/2 (Sat) @ 2:00pm

Takeo, a capricious wife from Tokyo high-society, is bored by her dull husband, a quiet and reliable company executive raised in the country (Shin Saburi) After a crisis, she understands better his true value. A parallel sub-plot shows her niece rebelling against the tradition of arranged marriages

Tickets $12

Good Morning
(Directored by Yasujirô Ozu, Japan, 1959, 94 mins, 35mm, Color)

7/3 (Sun) @ 2:00pm

Ozu’s hilarious Technicolor reworking of his silent I Was Born, But . . Good Morning (Ohayô) is the story of two young boys in suburban Tokyo who take a vow of silence after their parents refuse to buy them a television set. Shot from the perspective of the petulant brothers, Good Morning is an enchantingly satirical portrait of family life that gives rise to gags about romance, gossip, and the consumerism of modern Japan.

Tickets $12

Red Beard
(Directored by Akira Kurosawa, 1965, 185 minutes, 35mm, B&W)

7/9 (Sat) @ 2:00pm

A testament to the goodness of humankind, Akira Kurosawa’s Red Beard (Akahige) chronicles the tumultuous relationship between an arrogant young doctor and a compassionate clinic director. Toshiro Mifune, in his last role for Kurosawa, gives a powerhouse performance as the dignified yet empathic director who guides his pupil to maturity, teaching the embittered intern to appreciate the lives of his destitute patients. Perfectly capturing the look and feel of 19th-century Japan, Kurosawa weaves a fascinating tapestry of time, place, and emotion.

Tickets $12

Scandal
(Directored by Akira Kurosawa, Japan,1950,105mins, Digital, B&W)

7/10 (Sun) @ 2:00pm

A handsome, suave Toshiro Mifune lights up the screen as painter Ichiro, whose circumstantial meeting with a famous singer (Yoshiko Yamaguchi) is twisted by the tabloid press into a torrid affair. Ichiro files a lawsuit against the seedy gossip magazine, but his lawyer, Hiruta (Kurosawa stalwart Takashi Shimura), is playing both sides. A portrait of cultural moral decline, Scandal is also a compelling courtroom drama and a moving tale of human redemption.

Tickets $12

Vengeance is Mine
(Directed by Shohei Imamura, Japan, 1979, 140mins, 35mm, Color)

7/24 (Sun) @ 2:00pm

A thief, murderer, and charming lady-killer, Iwao Enokizu (Ken Ogata) is on the run from the police. Director Shohei Imamura turns this fact-based story, of the seventy-eight-day killing spree of a remorseless man from a devoutly Catholic family, into a cold, perverse, and at times diabolically funny tale of the primitive coexisting with the modern. More than just a true-crime case, Vengeance Is Mine bares mankind’s snarling id.

Tickets $12

The Pornographers
(Directed by Shohei Imamura, Japan, 1966,127mins, Digital, B&W)

7/31 (Sun) @ 2:00pm

Subu makes pornographic films. He sees nothing wrong with it. They are an aid to a repressed society, and he uses the money to support his landlady, Haru, and her family. From time to time, Haru shares her bed with Subu, though she believes her dead husband, reincarnated as a carp, disapproves. Director Shohei Imamura has always delighted in the kinky exploits of lowlifes, and in this 1966 classic, he finds subversive humor in the bizarre dynamics of Haru, her Oedipal son, and her daughter, the true object of her pornographer-boyfriend’s obsession. Imamura’s comic treatment of such taboos as voyeurism and incest sparked controversy when the film was released, but The
Pornographers has outlasted its critics, and now seems frankly ahead of its time.

Tickets $12

CLASSIC SUMMER WEEKENDS continues onto August >>

Thursday, 7/7 @ 6pm

Das Boot Special screening with Q&A
( Directed by Wolfgang Petersen, 208 min. (director’s cut),1981, German with English subtitles)

Das Boot 30th Anniversary:
“Das Boot” was nominated for 6 Academy Awards and won the German Film-Award as well as the German “Golden Screen” making it one of Germany’s most successful films in history and buying director Wolfgang Petersen a ticket to Hollywood. This year marks Das Boot’s 30th anniversary, and Wolfgang Petersen’s digitally restored and fully remastered epic will be available on Blu-ray Disc by July 5th, 2011 (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment).

**Producer Ortwin Freyermuth will be attending the screening for a Q&A session after the film around 9:45pm.

Synopsis: It is 1942 and the German submarine fleet is heavily engaged in the so called “Battle of the Atlantic” to harass and destroy English shipping. With better escorts of the Destroyer Class, however, German U-Boats have begun to take heavy losses. “Das Boot” is the story of one such U-Boat crew, with the film examining how these submariners maintained their professionalism as soldiers, attempted to accomplish impossible missions, while all the time attempting to understand and obey the ideology of the government under which they served.

Tickets $15

Friday, 7/15 – Sunday, 7/17

TRIGUN: Badlands Rumble
( Original Story by Yasuhiro Naito, 90 mins, 2010, Japanese with English Subtitles, )

TRIGUN is a popular sci-fi action anime series with the original storyline created by Yasuhiro Naito. The setting takes place in a remote planet of the near future. It portrays the life and actions of a wanted man named Vash, an extreme pacifist by nature bizarrely nicknamed as “the human typhoon”. Yasuhiro Naito’s work was adapted into an animated TV series in 1998, and gained massive following throughout the world despite being aired at midnight. Fighting scenes filled with action and the meticulous designs captivated the audience. The production was done by Madhouse, which also worked on NARUTO, DEATH NOTE TV series, and SUMMER WARS. The story and designs have been renewed for this animated film, so that not only fans, but people who haven’t read the original manga or seen the animated TV series could enjoy the work.

SHOWTIME:
Friday, July 15: 5:00pm, 7:00pm
Saturday, July 16: 1:00pm, 3:00pm, 5:00pm, 7:00pm
Sunday, July 17: 1:00pm, 3:00pm, 5:00pm, 7:00pm

Tickets $12

***RAFFLE CLOSED – winners are Samantha Y and Tiffany S!

ELEVEN ARTS and FUNimation Entertainment are bringing the feature length followup film of the popular Trigun anime series, TRIGUN: BADLANDS RUMBLE, to the big screens across North America this summer! Come enjoy the screenings at VIZ Cinema during 7/15 – 7/17!

© YASUHIRO NIGHTOW /SHONENGAHOSHA, FLYINGDOG. LICENSED BY FUNIMATION(R) PRODUCTIONS, LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Sunday, 7/24 @ 5pm

K-20 : The Fiend with Twenty Faces
Tsunami & Earthquake Relief For Japan Vol.5
(2009, 137 min, Digital, English subtitled, Directed by Shimako Sato)
Cast: Takeshi Kaneshiro, Takako Matsu, Toru Nakamura

K-20 : The Fiend with Twenty Faces K-20 : The Fiend with Twenty Faces starring Takeshi Kaneshiro! Sunday, 7/24 @ 5pm
© 2008 “K-20″ Film Partners.
NEW PEOPLE’s 5th fundraiser film for the tsunami and earthquake victims of Japan is Japan’s all-time favorite villain K-20. Starring pan-Asian sensation Takeshi Kaneshiro!

**The admission is free with suggested donations from $10 that could be donated at VIZ Cinema or through our online box office ( For online purchases, online service fee will be charged. ) More donation could be made at VIZ Cinema on the day of show. Thank you!

100% of proceeds will be donated to EARTH DAY TOKYO TOWER of Japan. Earth Day Tokyo Tower Volunteer Center started its activities In response to the Northeastern Japan’s tsunami and earthquake devastation on March 11, 2011. The group sends volunteers into the devastated area to clean up, make food, hold events to cheer up children, setting up food courts, and more. The weekend volunteers are sent to the hard hit regions on buses running on used tempura oil.

It is 1949 in Japan, in a world where World War II never happened and the nobility system is still in place. Heikichi, a circus acrobat, is deceived by “The Fiend (Kaijin) with Twenty Faces”, a.k.a. K-20, and is set up to take the fall for the phantom thief. Now, Heikichi must wage war against K-20. Starring Takeshi Kaneshiro, Takako Matsu, and Toru Nakamura. Based on the bestseller mystery novel series by Ranpo Edogawa.

* All programming is subject to change. * Showtimes in ( ) indicates matinee price.

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