Empty Orchestras and the Speed of Your Voice

Intro and Q&A with dir. Nao Yoshigai, dir. Yohei Suzuki and actress Elisa Yanagi

The human voice exhibits new texture when housed in the audiovisual containers of cinema. These works let the oral utterance sail while the image plays along, whether sounding out non-verbal affect, revealing the architecture of breath, reciting historical fantasy, or following a whistle into the sky, and scream through the night. (Total running time approx. 87 min.)

Part of JAPAN CUTS 2018

Tickets: $15/$12 seniors & students/$10 Japan Society members

Box Office Policy

New York Premiere WAAAH Sawako Kabuki A baby’s wail reverberates through life and its wrenching physical sensations. 2018. 1 min. DCP.

World Premiere Breathing House Nao Yoshigai Last gasps of the Seiza-sha house in Kyoto devoted to Torajiro Okada’s still-sitting meditation method from the late-Meiji era’s intercultural ferment. 2017. 12 min. DCP.

U.S. Premiere Bivalvia: Act I Yu Araki Songs reverberate between mollusk shells, karaoke lyrics guiding a history of seaborn tragic lovers from different shores. 2017. 20 min. DCP.

World Premiere Stories floating on the wind Nao Yoshigai Along with vegetable and sea life, the camera is but one element of a sensual ride along a coastal road and playground in this masterful short. 2018. 9 min. DCP.

North American Premiere YEAH Yohei Suzuki From the director of Ow (2015), YEAH finds a young woman (Elisa Yanagi) investigating the sonic properties of its titular exclamation and enigmatic qualities of artificial light. 2018. 45 min. DCP.