Beijing Watermelon
Leaving May 31
•
2h 15m
Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi • 1989 • Japan
Starring Bengal, Masako Motai, Yasufumi Hayashi
Overflowing with warmth and unpredictable cinematic invention, this humanist gem from Nobuhiko Obayashi unfolds on the outskirts of Tokyo, where a Japanese grocer (Bengal) becomes a kind of benefactor to a succession of struggling Chinese exchange students, extending a compulsive generosity that crosses cultural boundaries, but which may go too far when he begins putting others before his own health and livelihood. As always, Obayashi stuffs each frame to the max with incident and eccentric experimentation, here in the service of creating a rich, vivid sense of a bustling multiethnic community.
Up Next in Leaving May 31
-
Hummingbirds
Directed by Estefanía Contreras and Silvia del Carmen Castaños • 2023 • United States
In HUMMINGBIRDS, directors Silvia Del Carmen Castaños and Estefanía “Beba” Contreras tell their own coming-of-age story, transforming their hometown on the Texas-Mexico border into a wonderland of creative expr...
-
A Prince
Directed by Pierre Creton • 2023 • France
Starring Antoine Pirotte, Pierre Creton, Grégory GadeboisShortlisted for the Cannes Queer Palm award, this subtly surreal pastoral from ever-fascinating outsider auteur Pierre Creton is a strange and sensuous saga of botany and sex that unfolds across g...
-
The Grandmaster
Directed by Wong Kar Wai • 2013 • Hong Kong
Starring Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Zhang Ziyi, Chang ChenWong Kar Wai brings his intoxicating visual lyricism and swooningly romantic sensibility to the martial-arts genre with this sumptuously stylized, ten-years-in-the-making action epic. Tony Leung star...
