Cinematic Underground: August 23, 2015

Cinematic Underground: August 23, 2015

Recent flicks get second runs; and catch 1971’s Punishment Park

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Begin Again (© 2014 The Weinstein Company. All rights reserved.)

Second-run house Waseda Shochiku (1-5-16 Takadanobaba, Shinjuku-ku; www.wasedashochiku.co.jp) continues its run of cut-rate double features. Two music-themed flicks run from August 22—Begin Again (pictured) with Keira Knightley as a struggling songwriter in NYC, and Rudderless with Billy Crudup as a father reconnecting with his late son through his music. A pair of fashionable films will be on from August 29. Cinderella finds out what a pair of shoes can do and Dior & I takes a look at what goes into a fashion show.

Shin-Bungeiza in Ikebukuro (3F, 1-43-5 Higashi-Ikebukuro Toshima-ku; www.shin-bungeiza.com) also gives movie lovers a second chance to catch recent releases with a program running August 31-September 11. The lineup includes the thrillers Before I Go to Sleep, Blackhat, and The Two Faces of January, the musicals The Last Five Years and Pitch Perfect, and the unclassifiable Inherent Vice.

The 1971 pseudo-documentary Punishment Park gets a much delayed release in Japan this month. The fictional story of anti-government protesters being brutally treated by authorities is just as relevant as it was when it was made. On from August 29 at Cinema Qualite (3-37-12 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku; http://qualite.musashino-k.jp).