News
Los Angeles Theater to Show Live-Action Drifting Classroom Film
posted on by Lynzee Loveridge
The Cinefamily Theater in Los Angeles will host a series of live-action films by director Nobuhiko Ōbayashi as part of the Nobuhiko Ōbayashi: Schoolgirls in the Crosshairs film retrospective by The Japan Foundation of Los Angeles and Japan Film Festival Los Angeles. The retrospective includes Obayashi's live-action adaptations of The Drifting Classroom and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.
The Drifiting Classroom (Hyōryū Kyōshitsu) is loosely based on Kazuo Umezu's 1970s horror manga about an elementary school swallowed into a strange place after an earthquake. Obayashi adapted the manga to film in 1987 with Yasufumi Hayashi (Harmagedon, Don't Leave Me Alone, Daisy, Godzilla Vs. Destroyah) as protagonist Sho. The Drifting Classroom has yet to be released on DVD in Japan or stateside. Cinefamily is streaming their own trailer for the film on the theater's website.
VIDEO NIGHTS: The Difting Classroom (trailer) from Cinefamily on Vimeo.
The Drifting Classroom will screen on May 11 and 17.
The theater will also show Obayashi's 1983 adaptation of Yasutaka Tsutsui's The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (Toki o Kakeru Shōjo) novel. The film stars Tomoyo Harada (Shiawase no Pan, Shōnen Keniya) as the titular girl, Kazuko Yoshiyama. The novel received a live-action television adaptation in 1994, a live-action film remake in 1997 and 2010, and an anime film adaptation by Mamoru Hosoda in 2006. Cinefamily will screen the film on May 25 and May 26.
Obayashi himself will be present at the theater to talk about his work on May 9. Along with The Drifting Classroom and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Cinefamily will screen Obayashi's House and School in the Crosshairs films.
Thanks to Daniel Zelter for the news tip
