Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on December 2011

The Italian-Russian coproduction Sunflower (1970; pictured) made international headlines when it became the first non-Soviet film permitted to shoot inside the USSR. The drama tells the story of an Italian couple (Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Loren) whose honeymoon is cut short when he is sent to the Russian front during WWII. The lush score by Henry Mancini and the Technicolor cinematography will get the treatment they deserve as a digitally remastered print screens from December 17 at Shinjuku Musashinokan (3-27-10 Shinjuku; http://shinjuku.musashino-k.jp) and Human Trust Cinema Yurakucho (2-7-1 Yurakucho, Chiyoda-ku ; www.ttcg.jp)… The tense French thriller Switch (2011) is currently keeping viewers on the edge of their seats at Shinjuku Musashinokan. Karine Vanasse plays a Canadian woman who switches apartments with a Paris woman she meets online only to find a crime has been committed there, and flees from a detective played by former soccer star Eric Cantona. www.switch-movie.jp… Shin-Bungeiza in Ikebukuro (3F, 1-43-5 Higashi-Ikebukuro Toshima-ku; www.shin-bungeiza.com) will commemorate veteran director Yohji Yamada’s 50 years in the industry with a retrospective December 29-January 11, including several of his contributions to the Tora-san series.