Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on March 2011

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Fans of Taiwanese romantic comedies are in for a treat when the 2010 hit Au revoir Taipei (pictured) plays at Human Trust Cinema Yurakucho on March 12 (2-7-1 Yurakucho, Chiyoda-ku ; www.ttcg.jp). The action takes place in the course of a single day, depicting a young man who wants to buy a French textbook so he can connect with his girlfriend studying abroad in Paris, but winds up falling for a bookstore clerk, played by pop singer Amber Kuo.

Shin-Bungeiza in Ikebukuro (3F, 1-43-5 Higashi-Ikebukuro, Toshima-ku; www.shin-bungeiza.com) will journey into the world of Mamoru Oshii on March 19, with an all-night screening kicking off at 10:30pm. The anime master is best known for Ghost in the Shell (1995), which helped define the cyberpunk movement. The program also Shin-Bungeiza includes lesser-seen works like Angel’s Egg (1985).

Cinema Vera (1-5 Maruyamacho, Shibuya-ku; www.cinemavera.com) is running a retrospective of films by Hong Kong director Johnnie To, who has earned a cult following for his work on crime flicks such as Election (2005). Also in the lineup is his latest work, Fulltime Killer (2010).

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