Forever Kinuyo Tanaka

July 8–August 28, 2022

Celebrated for her performances in films by iconic directors, Tanaka also made a significant contribution to the golden age of Japanese cinema as a director. This series features new restorations of all six of Tanaka’s films, along with works representative of the scope of her acting career.

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  • Kinuyo Tanaka

  • The Wandering Princess

  • Forever a Woman

  • Love Under the Crucifix

  • Girls of the Night

  • The Moon Has Risen

  • Upcoming
    Films
  • Upcoming
    Events
  • Selected
    Objects
  • Past
    Films
  • Past
    Events

Past Films

  • Girls of the Night

    • Sunday, July 31 7 PM
    • Sunday, August 28 7 PM
    Kinuyo Tanaka
    Japan, 1961

    4K Digital Restoration

    The Sunday, July 31 screening features an introduction by Lili Hinstin.

    Focused on the efforts of one young woman to build a new life in the wake of Japan’s 1956 Prostitution Prevention Law, Girls of the Night offers a sharp critique of the mistreatment of sex workers in postwar occupied Japan.

    Introduced by Lili Hinstin

  • Let’s Go, Grandma!

    • Thursday, August 25 7:30 PM
    Shigeyuki Yamane
    Japan, 1975

    BAMPFA Collection

    A charming discovery from the BAMPFA film vault,Yamane’s denunciation of hypocrisy and greed stars Kinuyo Tanaka as the titular Grandma, whose nuanced performance, amid a catalog of wacky visual effects, adds depth to this comedy.

  • Love Under the Crucifix

    • Sunday, August 21 7 PM
    Kinuyo Tanaka
    Japan, 1962

    4K Digital Restoration

    Set in the sixteenth century, Tanaka’s final film as director employs color and widescreen cinematography to tell the story of Gin, the daughter of a respected Christian tea master who charts a fateful path of resistance, claiming her right to love.

  • Forever a Woman

    • Saturday, July 30 7 PM
    • Thursday, August 18 7:30 PM
    Kinuyo Tanaka
    Japan, 1955

    4K Digital Restoration

    The Saturday, July 30 screening features an introduction by Lili Hinstin.

    In this uncompromising account of a woman’s struggle for self-realization, Tanaka depicts the progress of poet Fumiko Nakajo from resigned submission to intellectual self-assurance, sexual fulfilment, and professional success as she battles breast cancer.

    Introduced by Lili Hinstin

  • The Wandering Princess

    • Sunday, August 14 7 PM
    Kinuyo Tanaka
    Japan, 1960

    4K Digital Restoration

    Based on the bestselling memoir of Saga Hiro, a Japanese noblewoman and wife to the brother of occupied Manchuria’s emperor, The Wandering Princess chronicles the geopolitical implications of Saga’s arranged marriage and the personal impact of the momentous historical events she survived.

  • The Life of Oharu

    • Saturday, July 23 7 PM
    • Thursday, August 11 7 PM
    Kenji Mizoguchi
    Japan, 1952

    Distinguished by Kinuyo Tanaka’s iconic portrayal of a noblewoman’s harrowing fall from grace, The Life of Oharu was deemed by many critics to be among the greatest films of all time—even Mizoguchi himself considered it his masterpiece.

  • Flowing

    • Saturday, August 6 7 PM
    Mikio Naruse
    Japan, 1956

    Imported 35mm Print

    A trio of Japan’s finest actresses—Kinuyo Tanaka, Isuzu Yamada, and Hideko Takamine—is featured in this revealing picture of traditional geishas facing the decline of their way of life and the specter of prostitution in the mid-1950s.

  • The Moon Has Risen

    • Thursday, July 28 7 PM
    Kinuyo Tanaka
    Japan, 1955

    4K Digital Restoration

    When a childhood acquaintance arrives in the picturesque town of Nara to set up a telecommunications hub, the youngest of three sisters begins a relentless matchmaking campaign to bring him together with her disinterested sibling.

    Introduced by Lili Hinstin

  • Shunkinsho: Okoto to Sasuke

    • Thursday, July 21 7 PM
    Yasujiro Shimazu
    Japan, 1935

    Imported 35mm Print

    A high point of Kinuyo Tanaka’s early career was her haunting, restrained, delicately sensual portrayal of the blind koto teacher Okoto, who is worshiped by her male servant and disciple, Sasuke.

  • Dragnet Girl

    • Saturday, July 16 7 PM
    Yasujiro Ozu
    Japan, 1933

    In Ozu’s atmospheric American-style crime melodrama, Kinuyo Tanaka brings a wide range of moods and emotions to the role of a gangster’s moll trying to get herself and her lover/accomplice out of their murky world and into “a decent life.”

    Judith Rosenberg on Piano

  • Where Chimneys Are Seen

    • Sunday, July 10 7 PM
    Heinosuke Gosho
    Japan, 1953

    Imported 35mm Print

    Set against the backdrop of Tokyo’s growing industrialization during the 1950s, Ken Uehara and Kinuyo Tanaka portray a tabi salesman and his wife, whose lives are disrupted by the arrival of an abandoned baby on their tenement doorstep.

  • Love Letter

    • Friday, July 8 7 PM
    Kinuyo Tanaka
    Japan, 1953

    4K Digital Restoration

    Based on a popular novel by Fumio Niwa and set just after the end of the American occupation of Japan, Tanaka’s impressive directorial debut reveals the stigma suffered by women compelled to engage in transactional affairs through the eyes of the embittered male protagonist.