Japan Foundation Los Angeles provides high quality Japanese film screening every second and fourth Wednesday at 7:00 pm at JFLA Auditorium, 5700 Wilshire Blvd, suite 100, Los Angeles, CA 90036.
Free to attend. Reservation is not required.
Street Parking is available. http://www.jflalc.org/about-us.html#parking
©2014 "THERMAE ROMAE II" Film Partners
Wednesday, September 28, at 7:00PM
A Second Adventure to the Modern Japanese Bath gets Even Hotter!
Thermae Romae II (113mins, 2014)
Directed by Hideki Takeuchi
In Japanese with English subtitles
Sequel to the spectacle-laden comedy Thermae Romae, a live action adaptation of Yamazaki Mari's popular comic.
Depicts the humor arising from the contrast in time and space between bathhouses in ancient Rome and contemporary Japan.
The film is the first Japanese production shot on location in Bulgaria, and was realized on a grander scale than the first film.
Roman Empire bathhouse architect Lucius (Hiroshi Abe) for some reason travels in time to contemporary Japan whenever he's stuck for new ideas.
He becomes famous with constructing a new bathhouse and receives an order to build one in the colosseum to help gladiators recover from their wounds, but faces difficulties.
Thus, Lucius travels again to modern day Japan through the time slip but finds himself wrapped up in a conflict that divides the Roman Empire.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZt1UpP2k6Y
©2012 "THERMAE ROMAE" Film Partners
Wednesday, September 14, 7:00PM
Fantasy Comedy Adventure for Love of Bath in Modern Japan and Ancient Rome
Thermae Romae
(108mins, 2012) Directed by Hideki Takeuchi
An adaptation of Yamazaki Mari's popular manga, which has won both the 2010 Manga Taisho (Cartoon Grand Prize) and the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize for Best Short Work.
Abe Hiroshi and the rest of its cast of talented actors with sharply sculpted faces throw themselves into their roles as citizens of ancient Rome.
Another striking aspect is its large open set built at Cinecitta, Italy's largest film studio.
Lucius (Hiroshi Abe), an architect of spa baths for the Roman Empire, inadvertently travels through time and finds himself in a modern Japanese bathhouse.
He takes elements of Japanese culture that he learns there back with him to Rome and is hugely successful, which leads the Emperor to command him to build a massive spa.
In Japanese with English subtitles
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOmFSflNiQU
