Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on October 2010

©Madhouse Pictures Entertainment Japan Inc.

Waseda Shochiku (1-5-16 Takadanobaba, Shinjuku-ku; www.wasedashochiku.co.jp) will pay tribute to pioneering Japanese animator Satoshi Kon, who died of pancreatic cancer in August at age 46. Kon’s work was highly influential both in Japan and abroad—Darren Aronofsky paid homage to the director’s Perfect Blue in his Requiem for a Dream, and Christopher Nolan’s hit Inception has parallels with Paprika. The retrospective, running October 30-November 5, includes Millennium Actress (2001), Tokyo Godfathers (2003) and Paprika (2006).

European cinema fans will want to check out the Finnish Film Festival, October 30-November 5 at Ebisu Garden Cinema (4-20-2 Ebisu, Shibuya-ku; http://kadokawa-gardencinema.jp). The seven films include Kielletty Hedelmä (“Forbidden Fruit”; 2009), the story of two teenage girls raised in a conservative religious community who travel to Helsinki for the first time, and Käsky (“Tears of April”; 2008), about a female soldier in the Finnish Civil War of 1918. For more info, see http://meturl.com/finnfest.

Mères et filles (“Hidden Diary”; 2009), the 106th film by celebrated French actress Catherine Deneuve, is screening at Ginza Theater Cinema (1-11-2 Ginza, Chuo-ku; www.ttcg.jp/theatre_ginza) from October 23. Deneuve plays a woman with painful memories of her late mother and a difficult relationship with her daughter, but the three generations come together when the daughter discovers her grandmother’s diary hidden in the kitchen of their summer home.