![\"Unforgiven](\"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Website_large_unforgiven.jpg\")
<\/a>Ken Watanabe (right), stars in Unforgiven<\/em>, premiering July 15 at Japan Society in New York as part of their annual JAPAN CUTS film festival. (\u00a9 2013 Warner Entertainment Japan Inc.)<\/p><\/div>\n By<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Lyle Sylvander<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>(Yokohama-shi<\/a>, 2001-02) for<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>JQ magazine<\/em><\/strong><\/a>. Lyle has completed a master\u2019s program at the <\/em><\/strong>School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>and has been writing for the<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>JET Alumni Association of New York<\/a><\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>since 2004. He is also the goalkeeper for<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>FC Japan<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, a New York City-based soccer team.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n This year\u2019s JAPAN CUTS<\/a><\/em>\u2014North America\u2019s biggest festival of new Japanese film\u2014kicks off July 10-20 at New York\u2019s Japan Society<\/a>, continuing its tradition of showcasing the latest films from Japan along with some special guest stars and filmmakers. This year\u2019s highlights include Japan\u2019s blockbuster The Eternal Zero<\/a>, The Great Passage<\/a> <\/em>(Japan\u2019s submission for the Academy Award last year) and the post-3\/11 documentary The Horses of Fukushima<\/a>. <\/em>Below are three of the 28 films in this year\u2019s lineup that were made available to JQ<\/strong> at press time.<\/p>\n Eiji Uchida\u2019s Greatful Dead<\/a> <\/em>marks the latest entry in the \u201cdark and twisted\u201d Japanese genre. The sordid story follows Nami (Kumi Takiuchi) as she follows \u201csolitarians\u201d (old and psychotic loners) around Tokyo and snaps selfies with them when they die. She enters into a morbid friendship with one particular \u201csolitarian\u201d (Takashi Sasano) and the rest of the film explores the darker side of humanity and mental illness in modern-day Japan. Uchida also seems to be making a statement about those most marginalized in modern Japan\u2014the young and the elderly. Japan\u2019s youth have a staggeringly large unemployment rate while the aging demographic makes for a perilously underfunded social security system.<\/p>\n Also using horror conventions for social satire is Miss Zombie<\/a><\/em>, taking place in a futuristic Japan where zombies can be domesticated as servants and pets. Directed by Hiroyuki Tanaka (here using the pseudonym \u201cSabu\u201d), Miss Zombie<\/em> follows Shara, a mail order zombie whose owner, Dr. Teramoto, feeds her rotten vegetables in exchange for domestic labor. The film takes a darker turn as she is raped by two handymen\u2014an event that sexually arouses Dr. Teramoto. Soon, Shara\u2019s services are no longer limited to domestic chores. Even Dr. Teramoto\u2019s wife finds her services useful after their son drowns. Overall, Sabu brings a fresh and interesting approach to the zombie film\u2014a far cry from the works of George A. Romero and the countless imitators he inspired.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The samurai film (jidai-geki) <\/em>has long been known as the Japanese version of the Hollywood Western. The plots of both genres often feature a loner individual, or group of compatriots united in their collective isolation, at odds with their societies. Most jidai-geki <\/em>and Westernstake place in a historical time and place of relative anarchy and lawlessness, namely, the post-shogunate era and the Wild Wild West.<\/p>\n Prominent directors, such as John Ford and Akira Kurosawa, transcended the conventions of these popular genres and investigated larger themes such as violence, retribution, honor and dignity. Kurosawa even adapted Shakespeare\u2019s Macbeth <\/em>and King Lear <\/em>for his Throne of Blood <\/em>and Ran. <\/em>Western filmmakers, in turn, have also found inspiration in Kurosawa\u2019s films. Seven Samurai <\/em>became John Sturges\u2019s The Magnificent Seven <\/em>and Yojimbo <\/em>became Sergio Leone\u2019s A Fistful of Dollars<\/em>. Leone filtered Kurosawa\u2019s story through his own \u201cspaghetti Western\u201d sensibility, directed two sequels (For<\/em> a Few Dollars More<\/em> and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly<\/em>) and launched the film career of Clint Eastwood. Given this reciprocal relationship between the Western and samurai films, it is fitting that Japan has now remade Eastwood\u2019s seminal \u201canti-Western\u201d Unforgiven<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The film stays remarkably close to David Webb Peoples\u2019 original script, Norimichi Kasamatsu reproduces Jack Green\u2019s cinematography and director Lee Sang-Il mimics Eastwood\u2019s pacing and mise-en-sc\u00e8ne<\/em>. Even the breathtaking snow-capped mountains and wind-swept fields of Hokkaido look a lot like the original\u2019s sweeping vistas of Alberta, Canada. These similarities cast an uneasy feeling of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu over the film\u2014the Japanese cast and setting make it feel original, yet the narrative unfolds as a nearly shot-by-shot retelling of the original.<\/p>\n Ken Watanabe plays the Eastwood part (here named \u201cJubei the Killer\u201d), who has renounced his previously violent lifestyle. Akira Emoto plays the Morgan Freeman role, who lures Jubei into avenging the disfiguring of a prostitute, and Koichi Sato plays Gene Hackman\u2019s evil police chief. The time period is the 1880s (the same as the original), a time when samurai were left master-less after the Meiji Restoration. Like the original, this Unforgiven <\/em>explores themes of violence and retribution as it climaxes into a bloodbath. What differentiates the two films is that Eastwood and his cast effectively plumbed the depths of his antiheroes\u2019 psyches while Lee only superficially addresses these concerns.<\/p>\n