Student Film Screening

Join us on Tuesday, January 25 at 7pm in the Meachum Auditorium to view the twelve OU student films which will be shown at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in February.

Films:

• Melencholy Two Step by Reilly Smith
• Coming Home by Sean Hardrick
• Nearth by Meryl Brock
• Innovative by Todd and Alex Greenlee
• The Incident by Kendal Madison, Jr.
• Awkward Silences by Dylan Scott
• Monster by Ezra Gentle
• The Lord’s Warriors by Jacob Garrison
• Untitled by Jalissa Haggins
• Wander by Sean Collins
• The Rotten Ones by Courtney Cunniff
• Gimme Pizza by Kevin Lough

“The Face of Another” Monday, Nov 8th 7pm in Meacham

The Face of Another (Tanin no kao) 他人の顔
B & W / 1966 / 124 min.
Directed by: Teshigahara Hiroshi

Free Admission. In Japanese with English subtitles. Beautiful 35mm print

Okuyama was badly burned on his face in an accident. His face, covered with bandages attracts the glares of others, even those close to him. Rejected by his friends and even by his wife, he begins to have doubts about his past relationships with those close to him. Unable to believe in others, he begins to scheme a plan that he become “another” man with a different face and seduce his wife.

Okuyama visits a doctor of psychiatry for carrying out his plan. Interested in the clinical and scientific nature of the experiment, the doctor accepts the job of making a mask for him on the condition that Okuyama report to him all of his behaviors while wearing the mask.

After successfully creating the mask, Okuyama’s first activity as a new man is to venture out into the streets. Although Okuyama wants to become another, the feeble-minded daughter of his apartment manager discovers his true identity. Flustered, he tries out the secretary of his company to see if she can recognize him. Encouraged by her unawareness, he begins to carry out his plan to seduce his wife. His wife accepts him.

Feeling jealous at her accepting this ‘other man’, he reproaches his wife for her betrayal. To his surprise, however, she tells that she knew he was her husband from the beginning, and she leaves him.

Wandering the streets at night in a confused state, he begins talking to himself, “I cannot be identified by anyone, I am ‘another’,” he suddenly attacks a woman sexually. The policeman who arrests him thinks he is mad, and calls the doctor, whose card was found in his wallet. The doctor comes and requests that he return the mask, but Okuyama refuses. Okuyama suddenly stabs the doctor to death.

Behind this scene, people, all with the same faces, are slowly walking away.

“Age of Assassins” — Japanese Films of the 1960s in Meacham Auditorium

Please join us Monday, September 27 at 7pm in Meacham Auditorium for the first in a series of five films presented by the Japan Foundation: Age of Assassins.  These films, screened in 35 mm, are all classics of 1960s cinema.  The series is co-sponsored by SIAS, the Film and Video Studies Program, and the Oklahoma City Musuem of Art.

All films in the series are screened in Japanese with English subtitles.  All are free and open to the public.

Age of Assassins (Satsujinkyo jidai) 殺人狂時代
B & W/ 1967 / 99min
Director: Okamoto Kihachi

Dr. Mizorogi, director of an insane asylum, has formed a secret organization called the Great Japanese Population Regulation Council in league with former Nazis. He uses his own patients, insane paranoiacs, and trains them to kill the “useless” of society. Mizorogi selects three names from the phone book and assigns his assassins to quickly kill two of them.

The third target, however, is Kikyo Shinji, a near-sighted, bumbling criminal psychologist more concerned with his athlete’s foot than his personal appearance. Mizorogi’s killer tries to murder Shinji with a deadly playing card but Shinji miraculously escapes when a statue falls on the assassin’s head. Shinji, figuring someone is after him, tries to find help but only ends up gaining the assistance of Keiko, a tabloid reporter, and Bill, a petty crook. After receiving a fashion make-over from Tetsuko, Shinji is again targeted by several of Mizorogi’s assassins but manages to miraculously survive each time.

Keiko and Bill, however, are captured by Mizorogi’s accomplices with only Bill managing to escape with Shinji’s help. In the meantime, Mizorogi, fascinated with Shinji, meets with him at a bar and explains his philosophy: everyone is a killer and there is nothing more enjoyable than murder. Shinji learns from one of the assassins that Keiko is being held at the foot of Mt. Fuji. He and Bill go there only to find themselves in the middle of a Self-Defense Force firing range, another of Mizorogi traps. Thanks to Shinji’s ingenuity and a bit of pure luck, the two again miraculously escape.

Mizorogi, suspicious of both his Nazi colleagues and Shinji, invites Shinji to the asylum to confront him with the truth. The Nazi’s were after Shinji because of the diamond, Cleopatra’s Tears, implanted in his body during WW II. Shinji admits he is not who he seems: his bumbling guise has been a ruse designed to lure the Nazi’s into action. The two fight a “Spanish” duel in front of the patients and the Doctor is killed and Keiko saved. On the way back, however, Keiko unsuccessfully tries to kill Shinji. She reveals that she is Mizorogi’s daughter and, ashamed at her failure, she kills herself.
Afterwards, Bill looks for Shinji but only finds a man who does not recognize him. The man Bill knew, it turns out, was Shinji’s identical twin brother, a trained killer.