Beijing Watermelon

Introduced by writer and film programmer Marc Walkow

Based on the true story of a Tokyo greengrocer who started helping out poor exchange students from China, Beijing Watermelon is a delicious oddity in Obayashi’s filmography. While again using his stock cast of actors like Toru Minegishi and Yasufumi Hayashi, he gives the starring role to Bengaru, a journeyman by-player, and keeps his camera at a distance, letting the performers fill the screen with wonderfully anarchic movement and the soundtrack with busy, overlapping dialogue. The result is a kind of Japanese masala, a multi-ethnic mix of spices.
 
1989, 135 min., 35mm, color, in Japanese with live English subtitles. With Bengaru, Masako Motai, Toru Minegishi, Takashi Sasano, Akira Emoto.
 
"Quirky, original and unpredictable."
–Kevin Thomas, The Los Angeles Times

Part of Nobuhiko Obayashi: A Retrospective.

Tickets: $12/$9 Japan Society members, seniors & students

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