Date

Films

December

Wednesday, December 17

From 6 P.M.

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Special Feature "Japanese Food" - Vol. 1

The Chef of South Polar

In 1997, an 8 men research team arrived at Dome Fuji Station in Antarctica . The station is 1,000km away from the Antarctic coast. No animals, and no virus can live there... Mr. Nishimura is a chef of the team. He misses his family in Japan, but he tries to make a delicious meal to make the members happy every day. The Captain of the team is addicted to ramen, the doctor tries to train to participate in a triathlon when he returns to Japan, and the young support member likes a telephone operator whom he has never met before... Various unique people have to live together for one and a half years. What will their curious lives be going in the South Pole?

　
Directed by Shuichi Okita / Production Year: 2009 / Running Time: 125min
 

November　

Thursday, November 27

From 6 P.M.

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Special Feature "Once more with Popular Movies" - Vol. 4

Hankyu Railway - A 15-minute Miracle

  
An ordinary train commute. A familiar landscape.
Whether riding to work, to school, to shop, or to meet someone special…
the train is a medium for people’s lives and stories.
When you look up from the words on the page, when you put away your cell phone or take off your headphones, a little sliver of magic – a life-changing “encounter” -- may be waiting for you.
A slight shift in your viewpoint can make your ordinary, everyday life sparkle.

　
Directed by Yoshishige Miyake / Production Year: 2011 / Running Time: 119min
 

October　

Thursday, October 30

From 6 P.M.

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Special Feature "Once more with Popular Movies" - Vol. 3

ROBO-G

  
Consumer electronics company employee Kobayashi is ordered to develop a bipedal robot, but fails miserably. He comes up with a plan to pass off a human in a suit as a robot, and finds an elderly man named Suzuki who fits inside the suit perfectly, but...
　
Directed by Shinobu Yaguchi / Production Year: 2012 / Running Time: 111min
 

September　

Thursday, September 25

From 6 P.M.

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Special Feature "Once more with Popular Movies" - Vol. 2

Shodo Girls

  
The story is set in Shikoku Chuo City in Ehime Prefecture, the "City of Paper" that boasts the top output of paper in Japan. However, due to the long recession, the city has lost its former prosperity. Satoko is a senior in Shikoku Chuo High School. She is the captain of the calligraphy club and has won many awards for her works in various exhibitions. So in an effort to revitalize their beloved hometown and cheer up the people living there, Satoko decides to organize a "Calligraphy Performance Contest." The members of the club become a tight-knit group, and they eventually change the minds of the adults around them who had objected to their endeavor at first. The day of the Calligraphy Performance Contest arrives, and Satoko and the club members perform together. Their sincere passion for calligraphy and their earnest love for their hometown envelop the stage, and a small miracle occurs.
    

Directed by Inomata Ryuichi / Production Year: 2010 / Running Time: 120 min

August　

Thursday, August 21

From 6 P.M.

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Special Feature "Once more with Popular Movies"

Fireworks from the Heart

  
Five years ago, the Sudo family moved to Katakai, Niigata Prefecture for the recuperation of their daughter Hana who was suffering from some health issues.The small town of Katakai boasts some of the biggest fireworks displays in the world. Hana is released from the hospital on the day of the annual Katakai fireworks festival and learns that her older brother, Taro has become a social recluse. At the festival later that evening, Hana sees the town’s Young Adult Group enthusiastically planning for the following year when they would turn twenty and sponsor their own fireworks. Hana resolves to get her brother more involved in the community and forces him out of seclusion. She drags the reluctant Taro to the Youth Group Office. Later, Hana has a relapse and is hospitalized, but this time, her condition deteriorates and she passes away. Following Hana’s tragic death, Taro quits the Youth Group and takes on more part-time work with the intention of independently sponsoring his own fireworks display for Hana. He asks the head of the fireworks factory to help him create a special creation in memory of his sister.
    

Directed by Kunimoto Masahiro / Production Year: 2010 / Running Time: 119 min

June　

Thursday, June 26

From 6 P.M.

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Special Feature "Japanese Animation Movies" Vol.5

Summer Wars

  
A time where the real world and a virtual community named OZ co-exist. High school math whiz Kenji is invited on a trip to Ueda, Nagano prefecture by senior schoolmate Natsuki, whom he has a secret crush on. While spending time with Natsuki’s extended family the Jinnouchis, Kenji receives an email with a suspicious numeric code. The following day, a mysterious avatar appears in OZ, destroying its maintenance system and causing chaos throughout the real world. Under the leadership of family matriarch Granny Sakae, falsely accused Kenji and the Jinnouchi clan do battle with the enemy.
    

Directed by Mamoru Hosoda / Production Year: 2009 / Running Time: 114 min

May　

Thursday, May 22

From 6 P.M.

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Special Feature "Japanese Animation Movies" Vol.4

The Place Promised In Our Early Days

  
In an alternate timeline, post-World War II Japan has been divided and occupied by
two rival powers. Hokkaido has been annexed by the UNION while Honshu and
the other southern islands have come under U.S. occupation. Hiroki, Takuya and Sayuri
are two young boys and a girl living in Aomori, the closest province in Honshu to Hokkaido.
These three young classmates become fascinated by the gigantic yet mysterious tower that
they see across the Tsugaru Strait, promising that one day they will build and fly an aircraft
to the tower to unravel its mystery. However, their project is abandoned after Sayuri's sudden
disappearance. Three years later, Hiroki finds out that Sayuri has been in a coma for the past
three years, a state that is somehow linked to the secrets of the UNION tower.
 

Directed by Makoto Shinkai / Production Year: 2004 / Running Time: 91min

April

Thursday, April 17

From 6 P.M.

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Special Feature "Japanese Animation Movies" Vol.3

Children Who Chase Lost Voices

One day, a girl named Asuna hears a mysterious song on her crystal radio, a memento of her father. She is never able to forget it. On the way to her favorite mountain hideout she is attacked by a strange beast and is saved by a young man named Shun. Coming from a faraway land called “Agartha”, he tells her he came to the surface because he wanted to meet someone. The two begin to open their hearts to each other, but Shun suddenly disappears and Asuna is not able to find him. Just then, a boy who looks just like Shun appears before Asuna, as well as Mr. Morisaki who has been searching for Agartha in hopes of reuniting with his late wife. With the entrance to Agartha before her eyes, Asuna makes up her mind: “I want to see him, once again.” Asuna, Mr. Morisaki, and Shin, each with their own feelings in their hearts, set out on a journey into a land of legends…

Directed by Makoto Shinkai / Production Year: 2011 / Running Time: 116min

March

Thursday, March 20

From 6 P.M.

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Special Feature "Japanese Animation Movies" Vol.2

The Voices of a Distant Star

Middle school students Mikako Nagamine and Noboru Terao are close friends and members of the same club activities. But in the summer of 2046, Mikako tells Noboru that she has been chosen as a Select Member of the United Nations Space Army. Mikako leaves Earth in the winter of 2047, while Noboru goes on to high school in Japan. Separated by space, the two try to stay in touch by mobile mail. However, as Mikako goes farther out in the solar system on board the Lysithea spaceship, it takes increasingly longer for each to receive the other's mail. Noboru stays on Earth, frustrated by his situation and resigned to the fact that he can only wait for Mikako's emails. As time goes by, the Lysithea fleet approaches a time warp, a situation that make both Mikako and Noboru acutely aware of the time gap separating them.

Directed by Makoto Shinkai / Production Year: 2002 / Running Time: 25min

5 Centimeters Per Second

Takaki and Akari became best friends after transferring into the same elementary school. However, the two are separated following their elementary school graduation. As they placed their feelings for each other behind them, time simply passed by. Then one snowy day, Takaki is about to be reunited with Akari. As he sits on the train from Tokyo, memories of the past rush through Takaki's head, his meeting time with Akari drawing ever closer.

Directed by Makoto Shinkai / Production Year: 2007 / Running Time: 63min

February

Thursday, February 20

From 6 P.M.

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Special Feature "Japanese Animation Movies" Vol.1

First Show in Egypt!

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

Subtitled in English

The film tells the story of Nausicaä, a young princess of the Valley of the Wind who gets involved in a struggle with Tolmekia, a kingdom that tries to use an ancient weapon to eradicate a jungle of mutant giant insects. Nausicaä must stop the Tolmekians from enraging these creatures.

Directed by Hayao Miyazaki / Production Year: 1984 / Running Time: 116min

January

Thursday, January 30

From 6 P.M.

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Special Feature "Director Shinobu Yaguchi" Vol.6

My Secret Cache

Sakiko loves money. She worked as a bank clerk just to be near money, but was still not satisfied because it was not her own.

One day, she is abducted by bank robbers who take her to the Aokigahara forest near Mt. Fuji. There the robbers crash and burn: only Sakiko survives, going over waterfalls and into an underground lake, kept afloat by a suitcase full of money.

Sakiko is treated as a hero in the hospital but all she can think about is the money that she knows survived but which everyone else thinks burned up in the crush...

Directed by Shinobu Yaguchi / 1997 / 83min.