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For more than 20 years, the Japan Foundation has been showing subtitled Japanese films overseas as part of its efforts to introduce Japanese culture to the world. Last year the Japan Foundation began offering these English-subtitled prints to foreign residents of Japan so that they would have the opportunity to experience the wealth of Japanese cinema. We began this endeavor with "Masters of Japanese Cinema" which was held in June 2004, followed by "When Masters Were Young—1960s" in March 2005, "Flashback/Flashforward: Staging the Past" in June 2005 and "The Best of Japanese Horror" in September 2005.

Our latest series is titled "The Masters' Gaze on Women in Hanamachi." The focus this time is on women working in “Hanamachi”—where various forms of pleasures were provided by women—in many different capacities, some as prized and gifted entertainers, others as proprietress of tea houses, and yet some others as call girls.

Emergence of Hollywood film Memoirs of Geisha (05) has made more people than ever being interested in the exotic world of geisha. But long before it attracted international attention, masters of Japanese cinema had been fascinated by the geisha world, with its rich drama, its ups and downs in life, and its condensed relationships.

This film series will be accompanied by a lecture by TSUNEISHI Fumiko (Film Curator, National Film Center).

• Dates

• March 17 (Fri.) to March 19 (Sun.) 2006

• Venue

• The Japan Foundation Forum, Akasaka

Presented by The Japan Foundation
With the special cooperation of TOKYO FILMeX Organizing Committee
With the cooperation of Kadokawa Pictures, Inc. , Toei Co., Ltd , and Nikkatsu Corporation

• Price

• A single ticket: 600 yens at the door only.
  (A single ticket for members of JF Supporter's Club: 500 yen at the door only.)
  *Lecture: Admission Free

• Info

• Tel: 03-3560-6394 (till 3/17, 11:00-17:30 Weekdays only)
  The Japan Foundation Forum
  

PROGRAM *Door open: 15 mins. before

• March 17 (Fri.)  
  
• 19:00 YOSHIWARA THE PLEASURE QUARTERS

• March 18 (Sat.)  
   
   
   
   
   
  
• 13:30 WOMEN ARE BORN TWICE
  
  15:15 "Women in Hanamachi—Seen through the Japanese Cinema"
  Lecture by TSUNEISHI Fumiko (Film Curator, National Film Center)
  *in Japanese with Translation into English
  
  18:00 THE WORLD OF GEISHA

• March 19 (Sun.)
   
   
   
  
• 13:30 THE WOMAN OF THE RUMOR (aka The Woman in Question)
  
  15:30 UNDER SILK GARMENTS
  18:00 NIHONBASHI

* All Screenings with English Subtitles.