Film/Video JAPANESE NEW WAVE CINEMA WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 1999 $6 ($4 WALKER MEMBERS) ADMITS TO ALL SHOWS AUDITORIUM

THE KOUMIKO MYSTERY (LE MYSTÈRE KOUMIKO)
DIRECTED BY CHRIS MARKER
7 PM
The first of Marker's essays on Japan, this absorbing work was shot in Tokyo during the Olympics. In his portrait of Koumiko, a young Japanese woman who is uncommunicative and alienated from her surroundings, Marker uses an arsenal of devices: a cartoon strip, comments on French politics, allusions to Last Year in Marienbad, and a fond parody of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. In French with English subtitles. 1965, France/Japan, 54 minutes.

EAT THE KIMONO
DIRECTED BY CLAIRE HUNT AND KIM LONGINOTTO
8 PM
"You mustn't be eaten by the kimono. You must eat the kimono, and gobble it up," declares Hanayagi, a fiercely unconventional artist who was trained in traditional Japanese dance. Notorious for having stabbed the owner of a famous dance school in 1980 and for having denounced Emperor Hirohito (while he was still alive), Genshu travels throughout Japan, defying right-wing threats and attacking Japanese authoritarianism, militarism, conformism, and sexism in her performance pieces. 1989, U.K., 60 minutes.

THE GOOD WIFE OF TOKYO
DIRECTED BY CLAIRE HUNT AND KIM LONGINOTTO
9 PM
A witty, captivating documentary in which rock star Kazuko Hohki returns to her home town of Tokyo after having lived in England for 15 years. Accompanied by her band, The Frank Chickens, she confronts a society that, despite its ultramodernity, is still deeply traditional and ceremonious, especially in its treatment of women. But Kazuko also meets any number of "good wives" who, chafing under the constraints of tradition, find ways to rebel against the conformity of Japanese society. 1992, U.K., 52 minutes.