18th New York Asian Film Festival

Jun 28 - Jul 14, 2019

FilmsGuestsTalks & EventsSchedule & Tickets

Photo: © 2018 "JAM" Production Committee

North American Premiere

Jam

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Sabu’s 18th feature is an absurdist dramedy driven by random chance and fateful encounters, as three characters inch closer to crossing paths. Hiroshi (Aoyagi, also in Mr. Long) is a small-time enka singer who dreams of global stardom; Takeru (Machida) is intent on doing good deeds to undo the bad one that put his girlfriend in a coma; and ex-con Tetsuo (Suzuki) is out for revenge against the yakuza gang that sent him to prison. Jam explores themes of fate and faith, guilt and retribution, coincidence and karmic payback before finally erupting into one of the cult director’s trademark foot chases.

Director: Sabu
Cast: Aoyagi Sho, Machida Keita, Suzuji Nobuyuki, Akiyama Shintaro, Tsutsui Mariko
Languages: Japanese with English subtitles
2018; 102 min.; DCP

SCHEDULE:

Monday July 8, 6:30pm
Film at Lincoln Center

Director Sabu in attendance (Introduction and Q&A)

Sabu
サブ

NYAFF welcomes back cult auteur Sabu (born Tanaka Hiroyuki), oft imitated but never equaled, with two singular cinematic treats, Mr. Long (2017) and Jam (2018). After a decade-long career as an actor, with his first starring role in Otomo Katsuhiro’s World Apartment Horror (1991), Sabu burst on the world stage with his wildly kinetic directorial debut, Dangan Runner, in 1996. A mainstay at international film festivals ever since, he has continued to explore the lives of everyday antiheroes with trademark inventiveness across a range of coincidence-driven, blackly humorous titles, including Postman Blues (1997), Blessing Bell (2002), Kanikosen: The Crab Cannery Ship (2009), Miss Zombie (2013), Chasuke's Journey (NYAFF 2015 Centerpiece Film) and Happiness (NYAFF 2017).