AAVCLUB @ AFS Cinema

*$4 off with code: AAAFF$4

Applicable for additional showtimes of the films listed below as well. Check AFS Cinema schedule for most updated showtimes.

TOKYO GODFATHERS

Directed by Satoshi Kon | Japan, 2003, 1h 32min, DCP, In Japanese

Dec. 21, 23, 26| The late, great Japanese writer/director followed up his epic MILLENNIUM ACTRESS with this unique and moving take on the Three Wise Men parable. Inspired by John Ford’s film THE THREE GODFATHERS, Kon ups the ante by placing the moral dilemma in a modern, urban context. Fair warning, this one is too dark and violent for most kids.

Directed by Hong Sang-soo | South Korea, 2024, 1h 30min, DCP, In English, French, and Korean with English subtitles

Dec. 27, 28, 29, 30, Jan. 1, 2| A comedy of improbable encounters and unlikely language lessons, A TRAVELER’S NEEDS marks the third collaboration between Hong Sang-Soo and Isabelle Huppert.
This time Huppert plays Iris, a woman who finds herself adrift in Seoul and without any means to make ends meet, turns to teaching French via a très peculiar method. Through a series of encounters, as we grow to know more about Iris and her situation, the mysteries of her circumstances only deepen.

Directed by Lino Brocka | Philippines, 1980, 1h 28min, DCP, In Filipino and Tagalog with English subtitles

Jan 1, 5|A starstruck teenager, Bona (Filipino screen legend Nora Aunor) attracts the attention of a two-bit actor. Ever happy to play the lover, she soon finds herself cast as a maid to the philandering thespian with an endless list of fans. A remarkable feminist parable about life under dictatorship.

Directed by Chloe Abrahams | USA, 2023, 1h 15min, DCP

***AAAFF 2023 Alum

Jan. 2, 9 | In Chloe Abrahams’ debut, the director probes her mother and grandmother to confront the personal and generational traumas that have shaped their lives. A powerful testament to the nature of inheritance.

Directed by Akira Kurosawa | Japan, 1950, 1h 28min, DCP, In Japanese with English subtitles

Jan. 8, 10, 11, 12 | Akira Kurosawa’s narrative structure in this film — showing the same incident through different pairs of eyes, creating a whole new form of cinematic “truth” — keeps the viewer engaged in the many threads of a story about a crime committed in the forest by a bandit (played by Toshiro Mifune in a star-making performance).

Directed by Ataru Oikawa | Japan, 1998, 1h 35min, DCP, In Japanese with English subtitles

Jan. 17, 18 | The hit series by cult manga artist Junji Itō (Uzumaki) comes to life in this peculiar tale of an evil high school femme fatale whose kiss drives men to madness. An atmospheric chiller from the J-Horror boom of the ‘90s. True beauty never dies. Starring Tomorowo Taguchi (TETSUO: THE IRON MAN) and Mami Nakamura (TOKYO TRASH BABY). Newly restored.

Directed by Gregg Araki | USA, 1987, 1h 32min, DCP

Jan. 22, 30|A gay performance artist, his video-artist best friend, and her sexually confused photographer boyfriend fall into a disorienting bisexual love triangle in Gregg Araki’s rarely-seen feature debut about “angst, despair, and coffee shops in the Modern World.” Made for $5,000 and shot across Los Angeles entirely at night (and without a crew), THREE BEWILDERED PEOPLE IN THE NIGHT is a triumph of low-budget filmmaking and a fascinating origin point for one of the most beloved queer filmmakers of the past three decades. As the film’s original press notes state, “In short, an anxiety-ridden Good Time is guaranteed for all.”
Screening with a video introduction by Queer Cinema: Lost & Found programmer Elizabeth Purchell.

Directed by Eiichi Kudo | Japan, 1981, 1h 52min, DCP, In Japanese with English subtitles

Jan. 31, Feb. 1 | Altman’s THE LONG GOODBYE meets Visconti’s DEATH IN VENICE in this existential slow-burn about a listless, down-on-his-luck blues musician (Yūsaku Matsuda, BLACK RAIN) turned private investigator whose new case rocks him back to life. A nihilistic, queer neo-noir set to its own rhythm. Newly restored.

Directed by John Nakashima | USA, 2021, 1h 59min, DCP

Feb. 9 | Presented by the Japan-America Society of Greater Austin. At the intersection of philosophy, woodworking, and architecture stands George Nakashima (1905–1990). This new film follows his spiritual and aesthetic journey through interviews, archival footage, recordings, and photographs.
Followed by a special panel featuring filmmaker John Nakashima (who is also George Nakashima’s nephew), Mark Macek and Kevin Alter from the UT School of Architecture, and moderated by Chale Nafus.

Directed by Jûzô Itami | Japan, 1985, 1h 54min, DCP

Feb. 10, 13, 14,16 | Tonally over-the-top and absolutely irresistible. Bring your appetite because TAMPOPO is a steamy love story, a food-porn movie, and the world’s first “ramen Western.” None of these flavors should work together, but they do — like a perfect bowl of noodles. Hal Hinson of the Washington Post calls it “perhaps the funniest movie about the connection between food and sex ever made.”