Kazuhiko Hasegawa\u2019s Anarchic Ethos<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n A Focus on\u00a0<\/strong>The Man Who Stole the Sun\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>Filmmaker and Associated Works<\/strong><\/p>\n May 8\u201316, 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n Japan Society<\/span>\u00a0is pleased to announce\u00a0Kazuhiko Hasegawa\u2019s Anarchic Ethos<\/em>, a long overdue focus on a crucial figure in\u00a0Japanese<\/span>\u00a0cinema, the late\u00a0Kazuhiko Hasegawa<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(1946-2026), the widely influential and tenacious director of the monumental picture\u00a0The Man Who Stole the Sun<\/strong><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(1979) and leader of pioneering 1980s independent production outfit\u00a0The Directors Company<\/strong>\u00a0(1982-1992)\u2014a cultivator for fresh, new independent talent in the post-studio era, including\u00a0Shinji Somai, Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Gakuryu \u201cSogo\u201d Ishii<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Exposed in utero to Hiroshima\u2019s radioactive fallout, the late and uncompromising Hasegawa was led to believe early in life that he would not live long as a\u00a0tainai hibakusha<\/i>\u00a0(unborn atomic bomb victim). These uncertain beginnings would instill in Hasegawa an acrimonious distrust of authority, itself ingrained within the very fiber of his every contribution to film, a sum of only two directed works:\u00a0The Youth Killer<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0The Man Who Stole the Sun<\/i>\u2014both monumental and radical in their own right. Perhaps one of the greatest tragedies in\u00a0Japanese\u00a0cinema remains that the towering \u201cGoji\u201d\u2014a nickname from Hasegawa\u2019s college football days\u2014would never make another film. His long gestating dream of a followup, the unrealized epic\u00a0United Red Army<\/i>, was rumored for decades with involvements from Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Oshima scenarist Tsutomu Tamura; Hasegawa himself would proclaim, \u201cI can’t die until I’ve made one more,\u201d but it would never come to fruition.<\/p>\n Having entered the industry under the tutelage of Shohei Imamura and then served an assistant director and scriptwriter during Nikkatsu\u2019s Roman Porno era before his two films, Hasegawa\u2019s post-directorial career phase was to build a new future for young filmmakers, leading the independent production outfit The Directors Company (Direkan), named after the Hollywood New Wave venture founded by Francis Ford Coppola, William Friedkin and Peter Bogdanovich. It would be at the short-lived Direkan that Hasegawa\u2019s vision of a \u201cdirector first\u201d mode of production would flourish, even for a short while.<\/p>\n A young wave of filmmakers\u2014including former\u00a0The Man Who Stole the Sun<\/i>\u00a0AD Shinji Somai and production manager Kiyoshi Kurosawa\u2014ushered in a new era with defining new works of the 1980s. Previously, in 2023 and 2024,\u00a0Japan Society\u00a0presented the first North American Shinji Somai retrospective and revived key works by Direkan, including\u00a0Mermaid Legend<\/i>,\u00a0The Crazy Family<\/i>\u00a0and the world premiere of\u00a0Typhoon Club<\/i>\u2019s 4K restoration. In 1980 as part of a focus on\u00a0Japanese\u00a0New Wave, the American premiere of\u00a0The Man Who Stole the Sun<\/i>\u00a0was presented at\u00a0Japan Society\u00a0with the East Coast premiere of Hasegawa\u2019s debut\u00a0Youth Killer\u00a0<\/i>presented in 1977.<\/p>\n Kicking off on May 8th with the singular The Man Who Stole the Sun<\/i>\u00a0(1979) on imported 35mm, a watershed of\u00a0Japanese\u00a0cinema history broaching his own personal history with the irradiating atom bomb, as an apathetic, gum-chewing science teacher threatens to detonate a homemade nuclear weapon, series highlights include Hasegawa\u2019s 1976 directorial debut\u00a0The Youth Killer<\/i><\/b>\u00a0on 16mm\u2014a veritable shock to the system in its nihilistic depiction of a parricide\u2014and three films scripted by Hasegawa prior to his debut, including the lauded\u00a0Tatsumi Kumashiro<\/i><\/b>\u00a0drama\u00a0Bitterness of Youth<\/i><\/b>\u00a0on 16mm.<\/p>\n Tickets:\u00a0<\/b>$16\/$14 students and seniors \/$12\u00a0Japan Society\u00a0members.<\/p>\n Series Pass (Limited):\u00a0<\/b>$70\/$50 members<\/p>\n Screenings take place in\u00a0Japan Society\u2019s landmarked headquarters at 333 East 47th Street, one block from the United Nations. Lineup and other details subject to change. For complete information, visit\u00a0japansociety.org<\/b><\/a>. Tickets are available now.<\/p>\n<\/ins>\n FILM DESCRIPTIONS<\/b> Bitterness of Youth\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/i><\/b><\/a><\/p>\n \u300e\u9752\u6625\u306e\u8e49\u8dcc\u300f(Seishun no satetsu)<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n Saturday, May 16 at 8:00 PM<\/b> Kenichi Hagiwara, Kaori Momoi, Fumi Dan.<\/i><\/i><\/p>\n Imported 16mm.\u00a0<\/b>Based on Tatsuzo Ishikawa\u2019s bestselling novel, which shares a semblance to Theodore Dreiser\u2019s\u00a0An American Tragedy\u00a0<\/i>(later an inspiration to George Steven\u2019s\u00a0A Place in the Sun<\/i>),\u00a0Bitterness of Youth<\/i>\u00a0would\u00a0<\/i>mark the mainstream debut of Roman Porno master Tatsumi Kumashiro. Set at the waning stages of the student movements, Kumashiro\u2019s Hasegawa-penned adaptation observes a growing listlessness and pragmatism from within footballer and law student Kenichiro (pop star Kenichi Hagiwara), once politically motivated but now resigned to a life after radicalism, who begins an affair with a high school graduate he once tutored (Kaori Momoi). Sex and politics stagnate under Kumashiro\u2019s gaze, who dynamically lenses this youth drama with handheld shots, zooms and his characteristic long takes, capturing an empty existence, one eclipsed by the growing disillusionment and powerlessness of a once passionate generation.<\/p>\n Evening Primrose<\/i><\/b><\/a> Saturday, May 9 at 5:00 PM<\/b> Following the success of Kumashiro and Hasegawa\u2019s Toho collaboration\u00a0Bitterness of Youth<\/i>, Nikkatsu opted to reunite the two under their studio banner. Taking its name from Takehisa Yumeji\u2019s popular song, this Taisho-set Roman Porno finds inseparable ties between love and anarchy in the libertine era. Two anarchists belonging to a revolutionary sect headed by a radical\u00a0benshi<\/i>\u00a0elope with the daughter of a political figure they kidnapped with the hopes of escaping to Manchuria. With its freewheeling nature and a soundtrack by Haruomi Hosono, this self-reflexive silent-era farce-cum-love story evokes the liberating spirit of the French New Wave.<\/p>\n The Man Who Stole the Sun<\/i><\/b><\/i><\/b><\/a><\/p>\n \u300e\u592a\u967d\u3092\u76d7\u3093\u3060\u7537\u300f(Taiyo o Nusunda Otoko)<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n Friday, May 8 at 7:00 PM<\/b><\/a>;\u00a0<\/b>Friday, May 15 at 7:00 PM<\/b><\/b><\/a><\/p>\n Dir. Kazuhiko Hasegawa, 1979, 147 min., 35mm, color, in\u00a0Japanese\u00a0with English subtitles. With Bunta Sugawara, Kenji Sawada, Kimiko Ikegami.<\/i><\/i><\/p>\n Imported 35mm Print.<\/b>\u00a0Initially titled\u00a0The Laughing Atomic Bomb<\/i>,\u00a0<\/b>Kazuhiko Hasegawa\u2019s incendiary second feature\u2014and what would amount to his final directorial work\u2014is indisputably one of the great achievements of\u00a0Japanese\u00a0cinema. Born from an idea by Leonard Schrader and starring androgynous pop star Kenji Sawada, Hasegawa\u2019s sprawling, anarchic masterpiece\u2014featuring guerrilla-shot setpieces at the National Diet, Imperial Palace and Shibuya Tokyu Department Store\u2014broaches his own personal history with the irradiating atom bomb. Makoto Kido (Sawada), a long-haired, gum-chewing science teacher, builds a homemade atomic bomb in his single-room Tokyo apartment, holding the country hostage by making exceedingly absurd demands. As he faces off with Bunta Sugawara\u2019s straight-laced, flattop inspector, Kido becomes consumed by the power, with Hasegawa\u2019s direction striking a radical balance between its weighty subject matter and breathtaking spectacle. Equal parts actioner, black comedy and momentous tragedy,\u00a0The Man Who Stole the Sun\u00a0<\/i>suggest that we are all victims of the nuclear age.<\/p>\n Retreat Through The Wet Wasteland<\/i><\/b><\/a> Saturday, May 9 at 3:00 PM<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n Dir. Yukihiro Sawada, 1973, 73 min., DCP, color, in\u00a0Japanese\u00a0with English subtitles. With Takeo Chii, Yuri Yamashina, Maki Kawamura. Screenplay by Kazuhiko Hasegawa.<\/i><\/i><\/p>\n Far removed from Nikkatsu\u2019s typical Roman Porno offerings, Yukihiro Sawada\u2019s mordant critique of the police state\u2014steeped in abuse, corruption and brutality\u2014was at one point slated to be Hasegawa\u2019s directorial debut. Opening with the raid of a church\u2019s funds by a group of masked men who then sexually assault a young woman before reappearing at the crime scene as the very officers assigned to inspect the incident,\u00a0Retreat Through the Wet Wasteland\u00a0<\/i>dispenses with any sense of moral code within its opening minutes. Coolly detached ringleader Harada (Takeo Chii), a ruthless inspector sporting dark lenses, is tasked with apprehending a former associate, now an escaped patient from a sanatorium. Despite Hasegawa\u2019s apolitical stances, Nikkatsu\u2019s labor union would declare that his \u201cscript represents the ideas of a Trotskyist who unnecessarily provokes authority.\u201d<\/p>\n The Youth Killer<\/i><\/b><\/a> Saturday, May 9 at 7:30 PM<\/b><\/a>;\u00a0<\/b>Saturday, May 16 at 5:00 PM<\/b><\/b><\/a><\/p>\n Dir. Kazuhiko Hasegawa, 1976, 132 min., 16mm, color, in\u00a0Japanese\u00a0with English subtitles. With Yutaka Mizutani, Mieko Harada, Etsuko Ichihara. Screenplay by Tsutomu Tamura.<\/i><\/i><\/p>\n Imported 16mm.\u00a0<\/b>Polemical and provocative,\u00a0The Youth Killer\u00a0<\/i>announced Kazuhiko Hasegawa as a striking new voice in\u00a0Japanese\u00a0cinema with its visceral adaptation of Kenji Nakagami\u2019s short story\u00a0Snakelust<\/i>\u00a0(which in turn was inspired by a 1974 incident of patricide). Initiated by a protracted double murder of a young man\u2019s parents, Hasegawa\u2019s debut follows the troubled path of young Jun (Yutaka Mizutani) who perpetrates the violent act after his parents oppose his relationship with local girl Keiko (Mieko Harada). Hasegawa\u2019s complex psychological study, flickering back and forth through time and memory, exudes an alienated melancholia amid its rage, with the filmmaker approaching the incident as an everyday horror that befalls a seemingly ordinary man. Realized through a joint venture between mentor Shohei Imamura\u2019s production company and ATG and soundtracked by Godiego\u2019s Beatles-esque songs,\u00a0The Youth Killer<\/i>\u00a0was a shocking arrival, an immediate triumph that led Kinema Junpo to declare it the best film of 1976.<\/p>\n SCREENING DATES<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n FRIDAY, MAY 8<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n 7:00 PM \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Man Who Stole the Sun<\/b><\/b><\/a><\/p>\n SATURDAY, MAY 9<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n 3:00 PM \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Retreat Through The Wet Wasteland<\/b><\/b><\/a><\/p>\n 5:00 PM \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Evening Primrose<\/b><\/b><\/a><\/p>\n 7:30 PM \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Youth Killer<\/b><\/b><\/a><\/p>\n FRIDAY, MAY 15<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n 7:00 PM \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Man Who Stole the Sun<\/b><\/b><\/a><\/p>\n SATURDAY, MAY 16<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n 5:00 PM \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Youth Killer<\/b><\/b><\/a><\/p>\n
\nAll films are listed alphabetically.<\/i><\/i><\/p>\n
\nDir. Tatsumi Kumashiro, 1974, 85 min., 16mm, color, in\u00a0Japanese\u00a0with English subtitles. With\u00a0<\/i><\/i><\/p>\n
\n<\/i><\/b>\u300e\u5bb5\u5f85\u8349\u300f(Yoimachigusa)<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n
\nDir. Tatsumi Kumashiro, 1974, 96 min., DCP, color, in\u00a0Japanese\u00a0with English subtitles. With Y\u00f4ko Takahashi, Kenji Takaoka, Isao Natsuyagi.<\/i><\/i><\/p>\n
\n<\/i><\/b>\u300e\u6fe1\u308c\u305f\u8352\u91ce\u3092\u8d70\u308c\u300f(Nureta koya o hashire)<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n
\n<\/i><\/b>\u300e\u9752\u6625\u306e\u6bba\u4eba\u8005\u300f(Seishun no satsujinsha)<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n
![\"Kazuhiko](\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Kazuhiko-Hasegawa-poster-729x1024.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/ins>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"