Exhibitions
Events
On display
Every Day a Good Day 日日是好日
Film
Past event
Philip Carter Family Auditorium
Free
The Embassy of Japan in New Zealand presents this screening as part of a series of fascinating films in 2020. This movie shows life’s lessons through tea, and is based on a book by Noriko Morishita.
At the recommendation of her mother, 20-year-old Noriko and her cousin Michiko start taking tea ceremony lessons with Mrs Takeda, a highly reputed teacher. At first, Noriko is confused by the intricate rules, but after two years she comes to realize the profundity of the tea ceremony.
Director: Tatsuhi Omori, 2018, 100 minutes, G. Cast: Haru Kuroki, Kilin Kiki, Mikako Tabe.
Related reading: Film, Free event, Japan
Commentary
Disruptive Landscapes
Disruptive Landscapes: Contemporary Art from Japan includes moving-image works that examine our relationships to the land, whether historical, mythological or contemporary. They reveal how landscapes at once reflect our imagination and endorse national identity and societal structures. Landscapes are the aestheticised and mediated form of our natural surroundings, encoded with politics, cultural memories and belief systems; through distinct framing and composition they assert certain politics and mindsets, such as the notion of an untouched, unoccupied land, or the ideal ecosystem for a site.
Commentary
Japan circa 1970, Landscape and Chile
In 1951, the Treaty of San Francisco formally ended the war between the Allied Powers and Japan. The United States and Japan also signed the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security (known in Japan as Anpo), in which Japan agreed to host United States military bases. Nine years later a revised version of this treaty further formalising the arrangement between the two nations was negotiated by Japanese prime minister Kishi Nobusuke (the grandfather of future prime minister Abe Shinzo) and President Eisenhower.
