Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on January 2011

©2009 Red Star Cinema. All rights reserved

Shin-Bungeiza in Ikebukuro (3F, 1-43-5 Higashi-Ikebukuro, Toshima-ku; www.shin-bungeiza.com) will run an all-night marathon of films by critically acclaimed Portuguese director Pedro Costa, who is known for naturalistic works set on the fringes of Lisbon society. Included in the lineup is Costa’s latest film, Change Nothing (2009; pictured), a documentary about French actress Jeanne Balibar.

Martial arts fans will want to hustle to Shinjuku Musashinokan (3-27-10 Shinjuku; http://shinjuku.musashino-k.jp) to catch Ip Man (2008), the story of Bruce Lee’s mentor. Man, a master of the Wing Chun school of fighting, was taken prisoner during World War II but refused to teach the Japanese soldiers the secrets of kung fu.

A series of Japanese films on “delusional and atypical people” is screening at Cinema Vera (1-5 Maruyamacho, Shibuya-ku; www.cinemavera.com) through February 18. The diverse program includes The H-Man (1958), about a race of “liquid people” inhabiting the sewers under Tokyo, and Shohei Imamura’s The Pornographers (1966), a dark satire in which a group of men struggle to make a decent living by selling erotic movies.

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