Exhibitions
Events
On display
Spirited Away 千と千尋の神隠し
Film
Past event
Philip Carter Family Auditorium
Free / koha welcome
The Embassy of Japan in New Zealand presents this screening in collaboration with the Canterbury Film Society as part of a series of fascinating films in 2020. This Academy Award-winning masterpiece from the anime maestro Miyazaki is an enchanting magical tale for all ages.
Chihiro is a young girl who discovers a secret spirit world. When her parents are mysteriously transformed, she must call upon all her courage to free herself and return her family to the outside world.
Director: Hayao Miyazaki, 2001, 124 minutes, PG: supernatural themes. Voice cast: Rumi Hiiragi, Miyu Irino, Mari Natsuki, Takashi Naito, Yasuko Kawaguchi.
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.
