Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on April 2011

The touching family documentary Sona, the Other Myself (2009; pictured) is screening at Pole Pole (4-4-1 Higashi Nakano, Nakano-ku; www.mmjp.or.jp/pole2) through April 22. The film is directed by Yong-hi Yang, a second-generation Korean in Osaka, whose pro-Pyongyang brothers immigrated to North Korea, bringing along a niece, Sona, whose life mirrors that of the director’s in Japan… In January, Shin-Bungeiza in Ikebukuro (3F, 1-43-5 Higashi-Ikebukuro Toshima-ku; www.shin-bungeiza.com) held a screening of 1930s films starring late child actress Hideko Takamine, who was known as “Japan’s Shirley Temple.” But the actress, who died last December, had a career spanning nine decades, and a second screening, from April 21, will focus on her adult roles in the ’50s and ’60s… The critically-acclaimed Russian film Burnt by the Sun (1994) told the story of Stalin’s sweeping revolutionary reforms impacting the life of a former revolutionary hero and his young daughter. Sixteen years later, its follow up Burnt by the Sun 2: Exodus (2010), screening from April 16 at Shinjuku Musashinokan (3-27-10 Shinjuku; http://shinjuku.musashino-k.jp), has the lead actor and actress reprise their roles as the father and daughter fight to reunite in the last days of WWII.

Unless otherwise noted, Japanese films are shown without English subtitles and non-English language films are shown with only Japanese subtitles.