Wednesday, June 15
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time & Paprika
Free Popcorn and Raffle for SFF schwag! Cash bar and candy sales benefit Variety Childrens Charity of Northern California!
6:00PM – doors and cash bar open
7:00PM – Film starts
there will be a short intermission between films
Seating is limited; first come, first seated
Suggested $5 donation at the door helps us conitnue to bring films to the SFFH community
Anime Celebration Night!
We thought long and long about what to show you folks this month — and we realized we’ve never shown two true classics of anime film. Both are wonderful examples of the anime genre, but we all tend to get lost in the Miyazaki fan squee. We’re pulling these two out of the vault, and think they are both fabulous films you’ll love. The first, very suitable for kids — the second, absolutely not. But both really great!
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006; PG; 98 mins.)
Something strange has happened to Makoto Konno. Time has suddenly stopped and moved her backwards. With her newly discovered ability to literally leap backwards in time Makoto finds that tests become a piece of cake, embarrassing situations are corrected and she can have her favorite food anytime she wants. Unfortunately her carefree time traveling somehow alters the fate of those around her. As she races back in time to fix everything, she notices that her abilities are not limitless but with every successful jump she is one step closer to discovering the most wonderful secret in her young adult life. This film showed in Japan to standing room-only audiences, and was the first recipient of the newly formed Animation Award in the Japanese Academy Awards, and won many other anime awards. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is a masterpiece of anime fantasy in its own right.
Papkria (2006; R; 90 mins.)
Anime soundly based in science fiction – great stuff! Cited by director Christopher Nolan cited Paprika as an influence on his 2010 film, Inception. Based on Yasutaka Tsutsui’s 1993 novel of the same name, and directed by renowned director Satoshi Kon, Paprika is about a research psychologist who uses a device that permits therapists to help patients by entering their dreams. The head of the team working on this treatment, Doctor Atsuko Chiba, begins using the machine illegally to help psychiatric patients outside the research facility, using her alter-ego “Paprika,” a persona she assumes in the dream world..but what happens when dreams and the real world merge has to be seen to be believed.
Paprika won the Best Feature Length Theatrical Anime Award at the sixth annual Tokyo Anime Awards during the 2007 Tokyo International Anime Fair. In the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun, reviewer Andrez Bergen wrote: “The film rates as the most mesmerizing animation long-player since Miyazaki’s Spirited Away…add to this some stunning background art, peerless integration of 2-D and 3-D animation, and some wonderful character designs by Studio Ghibli regular Masashi Ando. But Kon’s forte is in the surreal interaction of reality and dreams—which often drift into nightmares.” Rob Nelson of The Village Voice wrote that Paprika “isn’t a movie that’s meant to be understood so much as simply experienced – or maybe dreamed.” And, master animator Terry Gilliam included it in his top 50 animated film list.
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No need to RSVP for either of these events – but seating is limited, and first-come, first-seated. Once we are full — we’re full! 🙂
The Variety Preview Room Theatre
The Hobart Bldg., 1st Floor — entrance between Quiznos and Citibank
582 Market Street @ 2nd and Montgomery
San Francisco, CA 94104
Don’t Drive — BART/MUNI Montgomery Street station is right at our front door, and parking in San Francisco sucks!!! Street parking ($3.50 per hour) is metered M-Sat., til 6PM; find a parking garage here.