Friday, February 1
PREMIERE
GHOST THEATER
Japanese horror-meister Hideo Nakata (The Ring, Dark Water) is among the directors for this supernatural anthology series starring Yui Yokoyama and Nana Okada, two members of Japan’s biggest J-pop group, AKB48. Across ten chilling episodes, the curtain rises on terror, as horrible, strange and unsettling stories unspool. You’ll want to watch with the lights on for episodes including “Burial,” “Final Hour” and “Carrion”.
Friday, February 1
PREMIERE
SAMURAI CAT: SEASONS ONE & TWO
A fearsome samurai desperate for cash is contracted to a take out a cat suspected of being a demon. But when it comes time to do the deed–his mark is too cute to kill. So he keeps it instead. Hilarity and action ensue across 20-episodes and two seasons as Kyutaro attempts to evade detectives, all while learning how to care for a kitty.
Friday, February 15
PREMIERE
LOST AND LOVE
After losing his two-year-old son, Anhui farmer Lei Zekuan (Andy Lau, Infernal Affairs) begins a fourteen-year-long quest in search of his missing child. On the road, he stops at a repair shop where he comes across a young car mechanic, Zeng Shuai (Jing Boran), who was also kidnapped at the age of four. LOST AND LOVE, the directorial debut of novelist and screenwriter Peng Sanyuan, is based on an actual abduction in 2010. It’s also an uplifting portrait of two lost souls who forge an unlikely friendship and, in the face of a hopelessness and despair, inspire courage and perseverance in one another.
Friday, February 22
PREMIERE
KAWAII INTERNATIONAL (SERIES)
Join a panel of fashion and pop-culture experts as they delve into the past, present, and future of this global phenomenon in this insider’s guide to Japanese kawaii culture, from innovative bento and Tokyo sneaker heads to nail art and J-beauty trends!
Friday, February 1
PREMIERE
GALAXY EXPRESS 999
All aboard for the Galaxy Express 999, a true anime classic based on Leiji Matsumoto’s original manga. Beginning at Megalopolis Station on one end of the galaxy and ending at Andromeda on the other, the Galaxy Express travels through space, yet it’s more than just a train: it’s a metaphor for life itself, with passengers constantly boarding, debarking, and dreaming along the way. Tetsuro Hoshino is a youth who’ll give anything to board the Three-Nine, including a promise to accompany a mysterious woman named Maetel all the way to Andromeda, the planet where, she tells him, he can get a free machine body to avenge the cruel death of his mother at the hands of the villainous Count Mecha. But nothing is as easy as it sounds, and Tetsuro is about to learn the true price not only for boarding the Three-Nine and avenging his mother, but for leaving his childhood behind, falling in love, and becoming a man. (Japanese, 128 minutes, Subbed & Dubbed)
Friday, February 1
PREMIERE
ADIEU GALAXY EXPRESS 999
Two years after the events of GALAXY EXPRESS 999, Earth has become a battlefield and Tetsuro is summoned once again to join Maetel on the Three-Nine to do battle against the machine people. All questions will be answered and all mysteries revealed as Tetsuro embarks on a journey the destination of which is unknown even to the Galaxy Express Railways locomotive C6248 itself… a journey which will reveal a secret so awful, even Maetel herself can hardly bear speak of it. (Japanese, 130 minutes, Subbed & Dubbed)
Friday, February 8
HIGHLIGHT
RETRO GAME MASTER: SEASON ONE
RETRO GAME MASTER, otherwise known as GameCenter CX, is a highly-addictive Japanese reality show unlike any other. Tapping into the mega world of classic gaming, the series features the ‘Kachou’, comedian Shinya Arino, attempting to play and defeat Japan’s most popular video games, mostly on old game consoles such as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), also known as the Famicom in Japan. In each episode, Arino plays a retro video game that audiences remember playing, but few could master. The goal is to finish the game in one sitting. It doesn’t always go as planned.
Friday, February 15
PREMIERE
THE JUNIOR CHRISTIAN TEACHING BIBLE LESSON PROGRAM
Directly from the highly creative mind of David Liebe Hart, a singular songwriter, singer and puppeteer collaborator on Adult Swim’s “Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!”comes this cult classic public access TV show which spanned nearly 20 years. A Christian Scientist’s children’s program, it featured Liebe Hart controlling a cast of animal puppets and ventriloquist dummies while delivering lectures on the dangers of alcohol and drugs, all while singing bible hymns. Featuring very strange video editing and visual effects, if has been hailed as one of the most bizarre children’s program ever conceived.
Friday, February 22
PREMIERE
DAVID LIEBE HART STREET ENTERTAINS AROUND LOS ANGELES
Before he was a staple on off-beat cult comedy shows like “Tim & Eric”, David Liebe Hart was a just your average weirdo with a song in his heart…and a giant, creepy puppet on his arm. Follow a young David circa 1988 in this a never-before-released program, an absurdist piece of performance art set on the mean but oddly puppet-friendly streets of LA. Prepare to be perplexed — but thoroughly entertained!
