Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on August 2013

Late actor and director John Cassavetes bats a double header at Waseda Shochiku (1-5-16 Takadanobaba, Shinjuku-ku; www.wasedashochiku.co.jp), August 24-30. As a director, Cassavetes was known for the realistic, documentary-like approach he used in A Woman Under the Influence (1975; pictured), about a wife and mother struggling with mental illness, and Love Streams (1984)… As Japanese politicians mull revising the country’s pacifist constitution, check out a program of socialist and anti-war Japanese films at Shin-Bungeiza in Ikebukuro (3F, 1-43-5 Higashi-Ikebukuro Toshima-ku; www.shin-bungeiza.com), running through August 27. The lineup ranges from 1952’s Children of Hiroshima to Koji Wakamatsu’s final film, examining the suicide of author Yuko Mishima… It’s Zero Dark Thirty meets World War Z as Ikebukuro’s Cinema Rosa (1-37-12 Nishi-Ikebukuro www.cinemarosa.net) screens low-budget horror flick Osombie, until August 23. It follows a yoga instructor as she discovers there is something to conspiracy theories that Osama bin Laden was not dead when he was buried at sea…because he is in fact a zombie. We’re not making this up. KM