Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on April 2013

Viva il cinema Italiano! Ginza’s Cine Switch (4-4-5 Ginza, Chuo-ku; www.cineswitch.com) continues its run of contemporary Italian films this month. The comedy Scialla! (“Easy,” 2011, pictured), screening from April 13, peeks into the life of a professor looking forward to retirement whose life is turned upside down when he learns that his troubled student is actually his son. Bernardo Bertolucci’s latest Io e te (“Me and You,” 2012), on from April 20, tells the story of an introverted teenager who hides out in the basement when his parents think he is on vacation.

April welcomes the Japan release of David Cronenberg’s latest film, Cosmopolis. Shinjuku Musashinokan (3-27-10 Shinjuku; http://shinjuku.musashino-k.jp) takes the opportunity to look back at the Canadian horror auteur’s earliest works. The late-show weirdness kicks off on April 13 with the evil kid-horror flick The Brood (1979) and continues with the psychological thriller Scanners (1981) and its two sequels.

Opera fans in Tokyo who cannot make it to the Opera National de Paris this season can do the next best thing by heading to Shibuya, where Bunkamura’s Le Cinema (2-24-1 Dogenzaka, Shibuya-ku; www.bunkamura.co.jp) is continuing its series of live opera screenings with Bizet’s Carmen, April 13-19, 6:55pm. The new production transfers the tragic tale to the era of WWII.