.jpg)
You may also like
On next
Japanese Film Festival: Humanity and Paper Balloons (人情紙風船)
Sun
2
Sun 2 Nov 2:00 PM
Arc Cinema
Allocated Seating
All Ages
109 Mins | Japanese Film Festival November
1937 | Unclassified – All ages | 86 mins | 4K Digital restoration | JPN | D: Sadao Yamanaka| Japanese with English subtitles
Like paper balloons, their hopes drift—too light to land, too fragile to last.
Set in the rain-slicked alleyways of Edo’s slums, Humanity and Paper Balloons is a haunting swan song from visionary director Sadao Yamanaka. Adapted from the kabuki play Shinza the Barber, the film follows the daily struggles of two neighbours, whose fates bind in a botched kidnapping scheme. While Shinza, a reckless barber, dreams of defying the powerful merchant class, penniless rōnin Matajūrō is sustained only by his wife’s work of making fragile paper balloons, and drifts between shame and desperation.
Director Yamanaka’s final work strips away the romanticised veneer of the samurai genre, portraying swordsmen not as noble warriors, but as pawns complicit in a rigid, exploitative hierarchy. Through its tightly woven script and piercing social insight, the film presents a bleak yet sympathetic depiction of life at the margins. With its sombre tone and masterful restraint, Yamanaka’s film stands as one of Japan’s most poignant prewar masterpieces, a quiet elegy for dignity lost in the shadows of power.
The screening of Humanity and Paper Balloons will be preceded by the short film Nezumikozō Jirokichi, by anime director Rintarō.
Japanese Film Festival Short: Nezumikozō Jirokichi (鼠小僧次郎吉)
2023 | Unclassified – All ages | 23 mins | DCP | JPN | D: Rintarō | Silent Film with Japanese captions and English subtitles
“Let every big wig in Edo know – there is a bounty on his head!”
In the shadowy alleys of Edo, folk hero Nezumikozō Jirokichi, known as the Rat, steals from wealthy elites to aid the poor. When Orin, a widowed mother with personal ties to Jirokichi, is targeted by yakuza members on the hunt for the Rat's identity, danger closes in. Unfazed, Jirokichi responds to the bounty on his head with his signature wit and flair. Based on the lost script by legendary 1930s director Sadao Yamanaka, this 23minute animated short is an homage to silent-era filmmaking and benshi narration brought to life by renowned anime director, Rintarō (Metropolis, 2001).
Like paper balloons, their hopes drift—too light to land, too fragile to last.
Set in the rain-slicked alleyways of Edo’s slums, Humanity and Paper Balloons is a haunting swan song from visionary director Sadao Yamanaka. Adapted from the kabuki play Shinza the Barber, the film follows the daily struggles of two neighbours, whose fates bind in a botched kidnapping scheme. While Shinza, a reckless barber, dreams of defying the powerful merchant class, penniless rōnin Matajūrō is sustained only by his wife’s work of making fragile paper balloons, and drifts between shame and desperation.
Director Yamanaka’s final work strips away the romanticised veneer of the samurai genre, portraying swordsmen not as noble warriors, but as pawns complicit in a rigid, exploitative hierarchy. Through its tightly woven script and piercing social insight, the film presents a bleak yet sympathetic depiction of life at the margins. With its sombre tone and masterful restraint, Yamanaka’s film stands as one of Japan’s most poignant prewar masterpieces, a quiet elegy for dignity lost in the shadows of power.
The screening of Humanity and Paper Balloons will be preceded by the short film Nezumikozō Jirokichi, by anime director Rintarō.
Japanese Film Festival Short: Nezumikozō Jirokichi (鼠小僧次郎吉)
2023 | Unclassified – All ages | 23 mins | DCP | JPN | D: Rintarō | Silent Film with Japanese captions and English subtitles
“Let every big wig in Edo know – there is a bounty on his head!”
In the shadowy alleys of Edo, folk hero Nezumikozō Jirokichi, known as the Rat, steals from wealthy elites to aid the poor. When Orin, a widowed mother with personal ties to Jirokichi, is targeted by yakuza members on the hunt for the Rat's identity, danger closes in. Unfazed, Jirokichi responds to the bounty on his head with his signature wit and flair. Based on the lost script by legendary 1930s director Sadao Yamanaka, this 23minute animated short is an homage to silent-era filmmaking and benshi narration brought to life by renowned anime director, Rintarō (Metropolis, 2001).
November
Price