Following the widespread success of JAPAN CUTS this summer, the Japan Society of New York will continue to offer access to hand-selected Japanese films online through their newly opened Virtual Cinema. Check out the award-winning new releases, partial retrospective series, and more additions coming soon. Streaming launched this weekend and can be viewed from anywhere except Japan, depending on the title.

Creating a Virtual Cinema account is necessary for all film streamings.

Film rentals are TVOD and vary in price, last for 7 days with 48-hour viewing windows from pressing play. Some streaming locations may be restricted. Visit the Virtual Cinema webpage for more details.

20% discounted tickets are available to JASH members. Please contact JASH Administrative Assistant Lauren Hurley by email at lhurley@jas-hou.org to receive your code(s).

Now Streaming:

An Ant Strikes Back

Director: Tokachi Tsuchiya
Language(s): Japanese
Subtitle(s): English
Run Time: 1 h 38 min
Released: 2019

After years of toiling for a large moving company under dehumanizing and illegal labor conditions—including enforced unpaid overtime, unregulated salary reductions, and restricted socializing with other employees—Yu Nishimura was on the brink of literally working himself to death, a phenomenon in Japan (known as karoshi) that officially killed 5,233 people between 2005 and 2017. Tokachi Tsuchiya’s fascinating documentary offers a thrilling first-hand account of Nishimura’s fight to take on the company that exploits him as he agitates for change with a tireless labor union to insist on his right to work and live with dignity on behalf of all “ants.”

Winner, 2020 Japan Documentary Film Award, University of Pittsburgh

Edo Avant Garde

Director: Linda Hoaglund
Language(s): Japanese, English
Subtitle(s): English
Run Time: 1 h 23 min
Released: 2020

In this mesmerizing documentary, filmmaker Linda Hoaglund reveals the pivotal role Japanese artists of the Edo era (1603-1868) played in setting the stage for the “modern art” movement in the West. Featuring over 200 treasures from museums and private collections in the U.S. and Japan—including works by Sotatsu, Korin, Okyo, Rosetsu, Shohaku, and other artists who left their work unsigned—Edo Avant Garde invites viewers to experience folding screen and scroll painting masterpieces up-close in gorgeous, immersive 4K footage (handled by cinematographer Kasamatsu Norimichi) while expert curators, scholars and collectors provide insight into the contexts and details of these innovative and audacious works of art.