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Tezuka by night

TEZUKA BY NIGHT

1001 Nights

1001 Nights (Senya Ichiya Monogatari) 1969 Ages 18+
5.30pm Tuesday 10 April / Cinema A

35MM, 128 MINS, COLOUR, MONO, JAPAN, JAPANESE (ENGLISH SUBTITLES) / DIRECTOR: EIICHI YAMAMOTO / ORIGINAL MANGA: OSAMU TEZUKA / PRINT SOURCE/RIGHTS: TEZUKA PRODUCTIONS / SCREENING FORMAT: DIGITAL BETACAM

Beautifully dated and hedonistically constructed, 1001 Nights stays true to the sensory backdrop of Scheherazade’s tale-spinning. Tezuka remolds the story into something resembling an escapist fantasy trip wherein a 1960s-era salary man is transported back to an era of entirely fictitious Arabian details. Seemingly at odds with itself, 1001 Nights consistently unfolds in a way that combines Playboy graphics, Arabian rug design and traditional Japanese scroll paintings. Groovy.

Baggy

Baggy (Bagi) 1984 Ages 15+
7.30pm Friday 13 April / Cinema A

BETACAM SP, 90 MINS, COLOUR, MONO, JAPAN, JAPANESE (ENGLISH SUBTITLES) / DIRECTOR: OSAMU TEZUKA / PRINT SOURCE/RIGHTS: TEZUKA PRODUCTIONS / SCREENING FORMAT: DIGITAL BETACAM

Part Italian western, part all Japanese sci-fi, Tezuka’s Bagi is an oblique response to the Japanese government’s approval of genetic experimentation in the early 1980s. The eponymous hero is a genetically-altered pussycat befriended by Ryosuke, whose mother engineered the creature. A minor encyclopedia of adventures unfolds in various continents.

Black Jack

Black Jack (Burakku Jakku) 1998 M
5.30pm Friday 13 April / Cinema A

35MM, 90 MINS, COLOUR, JAPAN, JAPANESE (ENGLISH SUBTITLES) / DIRECTOR: OSAMU DEZAKI / ORIGINAL MANGA: OZAMU TEZUKA / PRINT SOURCE/RIGHTS: TEZUKA PRODUCTIONS, MADMAN ENTERTAINMENT

Brooding, near-psychotic, mysterious — Black Jack is a tormented soul blessed with superior surgeon skills. Debarred and now a renegade high-priced doctor, his encounters notch-up the suspense normally applied to medical dramas. In this feature version, Black Jack battles to save the onslaught of a bizarre viral injection that creates ‘super humans’, only to have them wither and die as their immune systems collapse. Forebodingly topical and refreshingly inventive, Black Jack retains the core themes of Tezuka’s long-running adult manga. 

Cleopatra

Cleopatra (Kureopatora) 1970 Ages 18+
5.30pm Thursday 12 April / Cinema A

35MM, 112 MINS, COLOUR, MONO, JAPAN, JAPANESE (ENGLISH SUBTITLES) / DIRECTORS: OSAMU TEZUKA, EIICHI YAMAMOTO / PRINT SOURCE/RIGHTS: TEZUKA PRODUCTIONS / SCREENING FORMAT: DIGITAL BETACAM

Fulfilling Tezuka’s desire to openly eroticise his characterisation of the famous Egyptian queen, Cleopatra is a riotous romp — in many senses of the word. Tezuka has tackled numerous classical and European archetypes and narratives, but rather than putting them through the Joseph Campbell grinder, he reinvents legend and lore with refreshing irreverence. Adorned with beautiful detailing echoing the manga page and its hyper-graphic sensibility, Cleopatra is a heady historical brew of passion and pathos.

Metropolis

Metropolis (Metoroporisu) 2001 PG
6.30pm Thursday 5 April / Cinema A

35MM, 113 MINS, COLOUR, STEREO, JAPAN, JAPANESE (ENGLISH SUBTITLES) / DIRECTOR: RIN TARO / ORIGINAL MANGA: OZAMU TEZUKA / PRINT SOURCE/RIGHTS: SONY PICTURES RELEASING

Tezuka’s original 1947 manga, Metropolis, was inspired by an image from Fritz Lang’s seminal sci-fi of the same name. Tezuka free forms narrative and thematic possibilities in all his manga; this resulting film retains the frenetic and eclectic patchwork of the manga’s adventures, while focusing them in on the inimitable Mitchy — the unisexual robot who was to be the template for many of Tezuka’s cyborg creations.