Samurai!!! Japanese Film Festival

Plenty of modern Hollywood bigshots, from Quentin Tarantino to Tom Cruise, have been seduced by the Japanese legend of the samurai, but it’s still rare to find a good example of the genre on the big screen. Samurai!!! Japanese Film Festival, to be held at the University of St. Thomas, will fix that. Kon Ichikawa’s 2000 Dora-Heita, showing today, deals with a magistrate who infiltrates his town’s seedy underbelly. Yoji Yamada’s 2002 Twilight Samurai screens Saturday, offering a departure from the violence and action of the genre by focusing on a warrior who seeks a quiet family life despite his fellow samurais’ mocking. And Kihachi Okamoto’s 1968 Kill!, which screens Thursday, deals with a farmer who wants to be a samurai and a samurai who’s tired of his military life. When these directors called “Action!” they really meant it. 7:30 p.m. Anderson Hall, 3921 Mt. Vernon. For information, call 713-652-2977 ext. 2115, or visit www.houston.us.emb-japan.go.jp. Free.
Fri., March 28, 7:30 p.m., 2008