Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on February 2011

Shin-Bungeiza in Ikebukuro (3F, 1-43-5 Higashi-Ikebukuro, Toshima-ku; www.shin-bungeiza.com) will honor director Sion Sono at an all-night event on February 19. The maverick filmmaker will field questions from the audience prior to a screening of Noriko’s Dinner Table (2005) and his four hour-plus Love Exposure (2008; pictured).

Shin-Bungeiza will also be running a selection of films by late director Kihachi Okamoto, who explored many genres during his five-decade career. Among the films to be screened is a domestic comedy (All About Marriage; 1958), an antiwar satire (The Human Bullet; 1968) and a sci-fi fantasy (Blue Christmas; 1978).

Cinema Vera (1-5 Maruyamacho, Shibuya-ku; www.cinemavera.com) will run a retrospective of films by influential director Heinosuke Gosho, February 19-March 11. Born in 1902 and making his debut in 1925, Gosho was a Japanese movie pioneer who became known as a maker of “women’s films,” including The Innocent Witch (1965) and The Valley Between Love and Death (1954).

Unless noted, Japanese films screen without English subtitles. Non-English-language films are shown with Japanese subtitles only