Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on October 2011

Shin-Bungeiza in Ikebukuro (3F, 1-43-5 Higashi-Ikebukuro Toshima-ku; www.shin-bungeiza.com) is paying tribute to acting brothers Tomisaburo Wakayama and Shintaro Katsu with a series of jidaigeki films, October 26-November 8. The late actors came from a kabuki family and tried their hands at stage acting and martial arts before Shintaro went on to lead the Zatoichi series and his older brother starred in the Lone Wolf and Cub films (1972-1973; pictured)… Shin-Bungeiza will also pay tribute to iconic actress Meiko Kaji with an all-night screening from 10:45pm on October 22. Kaji was the quintessential bad girl of ’70s Japanese cinema, in films such as Stray Cat Rock: Delinquent Girl Boss (1970), Female Convict 701: Scorpion (1972) and Lady Snowblood (1973), which inspired the Lucy Liu character in Kill Bill… Famed American documentarian Frederick Wiseman will receive a complete retrospective at Shibuya’s Eurospace (1-5 Maruyamacho, Shibuya-ku; www.eurospace.co.jp), October 29-November 25. Wiseman, who studied to be a lawyer, gained recognition with his early fly-on-the-wall docos such as High School (1968) and went on to create studies of topics as diverse as domestic violence and ballet. http://jc3.jp/wiseman2011

Unless otherwise noted, Japanese films are shown without English subtitles and non-English language films are shown with only Japanese subtitles.