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Melbourne Cinémathèque
The Wandering Princess
Wed 22 Nov 2023
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Wed 22 Nov 2023
Tanaka’s sixth and final film as director casts Ineko Arima (co-star with Tanaka of Ozu’s Equinox Flower) as the daughter of a legendary tea master who falls in love with Tatsuya Nakadai’s married Christian samurai. Flamboyant and feminist, the film uses the ritual of the ancient tea ceremony as a metaphor for the stifling strictures of contemporary Japanese society. Kelley Dong calls it Tanaka’s “most erotic film” and “the natural culmination of [her] vested interest in a woman’s right to refuse”. The real-life 16th century samurai who serves as the basis for Nakadai’s character was beatified by Pope Francis in 2017.
The Moon Has Risen (1955) – Wed 15 Nov, 7pm
Forever a Woman (A.K.A The Eternal Breasts) (1955) – Wed 15 Nov, 9pm
Love Under the Crucifix (1962) – Wed 22 Nov, 7pm
The Wandering Princess (1960) – Wed 22 Nov, 8.55pm
Kinuyo Tanaka (1909–77) is one of the greatest and most prolific screen actors and – after Sakane Tazuko – only the second woman to make it as a film director in the Japanese film industry. Appearing in 250 films over the span of 50 years, Tanaka acquired her first screen credit aged 14, while her major breakthrough came in films such as Ozu’s I Graduated But… (1929)...
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Australia's longest-running film society, Melbourne Cinémathèque screens significant works of international cinema in the medium they were created, the way they would have originally screened.
Melbourne Cinémathèque is self-administered, volunteer-run, not-for-profit and membership-driven.