NFAJ Collection: Spring 2021
NFAJ Launches Special Weekend Showcases
Venue(s): National Film Archive of Japan, B1 theatreCancelled
Language: Japanese; one film on May 7 and 16 is with English subtitles
Theater website: www.nfaj.go.jp/english/visit/access/
Tariff: General: ¥520, Student/Senior: ¥310
Advance tickets: ¥520+¥110 for service fee, buy advanced ticket at Pia site [P code: 551-455]
Title: NFAJ コレクション 2021 春 (NFAJ Collection 2021 Haru)
Director: Ko Nakahira (中平康)
The National Film Archive of Japan (NFAJ) is launching a new label, the NFAJ Collection, with titles drawn from the archive’s vast holdings of some 80,000 films, ranging from classic to modern day and spanning all genres, including Japanese and foreign fiction, documentary, animation and experimental titles. They’ll be showcasing a carefully curated selection from the NJAF Collection three times a year, with the first to run in May. Although there’s only one English-subbed film in the first lineup, it’s arguably the most unmissable. (As always, we encourage you to explore the full lineup, since it’s filled with must-see gems.)
Only On Mondays
May 7 (Fri), 2021 3:30 PM
May 16 (Sun), 2020 3:00 PM
Only on Mondays, 月曜日のユカ
93 min, 1964, Black and white
Set in the glittering 1960s nightclubs of Yokohama and released the year of the first Tokyo Olympics, Ko Nakahira’s stylish Only on Mondays earned a reputation for being the “most French” of Japan’s homegrown Nouvelle Vague films. Frothy as champagne, it tells the story of Yuka (Mariko Kaga, in an enchanting performance), a modern, sexually assertive young woman who enjoys men as much as they enjoy her, and doesn’t mind making a living off them.
The film opens with a unique introduction to the port city south of Tokyo, with voices in three languages discussing its charms. “Yokohama is the main gateway to Japan,” says the first. Then, as the camera zooms across the waters, “The women there are wonderful. They are kind and charming. It’s like paradise for sailors.” The camera stops at a rocky shoreline, where a man and woman stand up hastily as a ship pulls in: “Hurry up! Let’s get to work!” the woman says.
Only on Mondays follows Yuka through her various entanglements with the many men in her life, including her boyfriend Osamu (Akira Nakao) and her sugar daddy, “Papa” (Takeshi Kato). She seems to innately know what they expect and always aims to please. So when Papa needs her to sleep with a foreign business executive to help him close an important deal, Yuka doesn’t resist. But all good things must come to an end, and thankfully, this one isn’t tragic.
Ko Nakahira directed his most famous film, Crazed Fruit, nearly 10 years earlier, but his experiments with cinematic form are displayed to positive effect here, with framing, camerawork and editing that feels fresh and innovative even today. In the latter half of the 60s, Nakahira began working in Hong Kong, where he directed films for the Shaw Brothers Studio.
Cast:
Mariko Kaga, Akira Nakao, Takeshi Kato, Takie Kitabayashi
National Film Archive of Japan
Venue: National Film Archive of Japan, B1 theatre
Dates: May 4 and 16, 2021
Official website: www.nfaj.go.jp/english/exhibition/essential201907/
Theater website: www.nfaj.go.jp/english/visit/access/
Please be sure to check with the theater before going.