FILM - MONTHLY CLASSICS

Afraid to Die

からっ風野郎 (Karakkaze Yaro)

Fri., May 10 at 7 pm

Clad in a black leather jacket, renowned Japanese writer Yukio Mishima struts and preens as a small-time yakuza underboss in this oddity of postwar Japanese cinema directed by Yasuzo Masumura. Fresh out of jail and hiding out above a rundown Tokyo movie theater, the unsympathetic tough is hounded by a rival gang and an asthmatic killer-for-hire as he struggles to reconcile his criminal life with a newfound love interest (Ayako Wakao). Afraid to Die screens in celebration of a brand new English translation of Mishima’s 1961 novella Star (New Directions Publishing, 2019), a fictionalized account of his experience working on Masumura’s film.

Tickets: $14/$11 seniors & students/$5 Japan Society members

1960. 96 min. 35mm, in Japanese with English subtitles. Directed by Yasuzo Masumura. With Yukio Mishima, Ayako Wakao, Eiji Funakoshi, Takashi Shimura.

Introduced by Star translator Sam Bett, followed by a book signing. Copies of Star will be available for purchase courtesy of New Directions Publishing.