Saturday, December 5, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
*Presented by the UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Yanai Initiative* An old man lost in the woods stumbles onto a band of boisterous *tengu*, bird-like goblins of Japanese folklore, who demand to be entertained in this wonderfully detailed Japanese animated fairytale. Director: Yasuji Murata. *Print courtesy of the National Film Archive of Japan.* Japanese animation pioneer Noburō Ofuji’s first film, *The Thief of Baguda Castle *premiered on the same bill with Teinosuke Kinugasa’s *A Page of Madness* in 1926. While Kinugasa was advancing live-action cinema, Ofuji introduced his own new stop-motion technique using cut outs of colorfully patterned paper called *chiyogami*. The film’s main character, Dangobei, a roustabout who nevertheless wins the favor and hand of a princess with help from some obliging spirits, became a recurring character in Noburo’s later work. Director: Noburō Ofuji. *Print courtesy of the National Film Archive of Japan.* *North American premiere of new restoration!* Japanese novelist (and later Nobel Prize winner) Yasunari Kawabata devised the scenario (with contributions from other members of the radical literary movement known as Shinkankakuha) for director Teinosuke Kinugasa’s visionary masterpiece. Believing his wanton cruelty drove his wife insane, a guilt-wracked husband devotes himself to her care as a janitor at the asylum where she’s incarcerated. When it appears her illness may prevent their daughter from getting married, he gradually loses his own grip on reality. Kinugasa’s fantastical images, disorienting super impositions and rapid montage confirmed the expressive power of Japanese silent film. The Archive is honored to premiere this new restoration from the National Film Archive of Japan on the film’s centennial. DCP. Director: Teinosuke Kinugasa. Screenwriters: Yasunari Kawabata, Teinosuke Kinugasa, Minoru Inuzaka, Bankō Sawada. With: Masao Inoue, Yoshie Nakagawa, Ayako Iijima. *Restored by the National Film Archive of Japan*