Japan Foundation Offers Free Screenings

If you’d like to expand your film-going options, the Japan Foundation, conveniently located on Wilshire Blvd in the Miracle Mile area, offers free screenings of Japanese feature films on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of each month.

This week, the offering is “Our Little Sister,” Wednesday, June 22 at 7 pm. The 2015 film was directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda and adapted from Yoshida Akimi’s best-selling graphic novel “Umimachi Diary.” It tells the story of  three twenty-something sisters – Sachi, Yoshino and Chika – who live together in a large old house in the seaside town of Kamakura. When they learn of their estranged father’s death, they decide to travel to the countryside for his funeral.  There they meet their shy teenage half-sister Suzu for the first time and, bonding quickly, invite her to live with them.  Suzu eagerly agrees, and begins a new life with her older sisters. 

Amidst the many and varied colors of Kamakura’s four seasons, the four sisters cause each other emotional anguish, and support each other through life’s trials, developing a very special bond in the process.  Set against the summer ocean sparkling with sunlight, radiant autumn foliage, a tunnel of gorgeous yet impermanent cherry blossom trees, hydrangeas damp from the rainy season, and brilliant fireworks heralding the arrival of another summer, their moving and deeply relatable story depicts the irreplaceable moments that form a true family. 

The film is in Japanese with English subtitles and will be released by Sony Pictures Classics in LA and New York on July 8.  Click here to watch a trailer.

Admission is free. No reservations are required.   

The Japan Foundation, Los Angeles
5700 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 100
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Tel. (323) 761-7510
http://www.jflalc.org/