Japan Underground

Overview

When Surry Hills' Golden Age Cinema and Bar peers backwards into film history, Sydney cinephiles should take notice: whatever it finds, curates and fashions into a new retrospective movie program, it's always a treat. The latest impressive blast from the past: Japan Underground, aka a deep dive into Japanese cinema's cult classics. J-horror? Tick. An ace recent Godzilla flick? Tick again. The most hallucinogenic forest you've ever seen, on-screen or IRL? Keep ticking.

Kicking off on Friday, August 11 and screening on various dates until Saturday, October 28, this lineup is a treasure trove of Japanese features that everyone needs to watch once. Ringu, Ju-On: The Grudge, Audition, Pulse, Retribution: they all have the thrills and scares covered (and if you've only caught the English-language remakes of some of them, this is your chance to enjoy the originals).

The Japan Underground program also heads back to the 60s with Funeral Parade of Roses, Branded to Kill, Tokyo Drifter, Youth of the Beast and Kwaidan. Love kaiju? Shin Godzilla and Shin Ultraman have that part of Japanese cinema covered, both sending the genre roaring into the 21st century.

Also recent-ish: Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes, Funky Forest: The First Contact and its pseudo-sequel The Warped Forest, Pornostar and Videophobia.

Spanning iconic directors such as Takashi Miike, Seijun Suzuki, Masaki Kobayashi and Kiyoshi Kurosawa, every title here is a must-see.