New York’s Japan Society is showcasing the 1962 classic film Destiny’s Son on Friday, February 19, at 7:30pm. In you live in the area, please be sure to check out the film and support Japan Society for their dedication towards showcasing Japanese content.
For info on screenings and for tickets, see this link.
Excerpt from site:
1962, 71 min., 35 mm, color, in Japanese with English subtitles. Directed by Kenji Misumi. With Raizo Ichikawa, Eijiro Yanagi, Yoshio Inaba, Masayo Banri. Print courtesy of The Japan Foundation with permission from Kadokawa Pictures.
“Destiny’s Son is like a haiku. Lyrical, minimalist, a true gem.”
- Patrick Galloway, Stray Dogs & Lone Wolves
In Kenji Misumi’s breakthrough film, Ichikawa seeks revenge and redemption after his family is murdered by a rival clan. An astonishing, dreamlike samurai film written by Kaneto Shindo, Destiny’s Son is a demonic masterpiece: designed with quasi-expressionist artistry, awash with surreal landscapes, and subsumed in an otherworldly beauty that fuses Zen and sword.
Destiny’s Son is a film filled with stylistic highlights: the one-take dolly shot of Ichikawa’s running battle with a battalion of swordsmen under an inky sky, the labyrinth of empty castle chambers through which he attempts to find his ambushed master, the scene in which the unarmed hero defends himself with a twig of cherry blossom, and especially the recurring flashback to his mother’s execution at the hands of her own lover, in a barren landscape beside a single, ancient tree.
– Tom Mes, Midnight Eye
About New York’s Japan Society:
Established in 1907, New York’s Japan Society has evolved into North America’s single major producer of high-quality content on Japan for an English-speaking audience. Presenting over 100 events annually through well established Corporate, Education, Film, Gallery, Lectures, Performing Arts and Innovators Network programs, the Society is an internationally recognized nonprofit, nonpolitical organization that provides access to information on Japan, offers opportunities to experience Japanese culture, and fosters sustained and open dialogue on issues important to the U.S., Japan, and East Asia.
