School in the Crosshairs
- Sat, Jun 28
- Sun, Jun 29
Director: Nobuhiko Obayashi Run Time: 90 min. Format: DCP Release Year: 1981 Language: Japanese with English subtitles
Starring: Hiroko Yakushimaru, Kôichi Yamamoto, Makoto Tezuka, Masami Hasegawa, Ryôichi Takayanagi
New 4K Restoration!
Screening Saturday, June 28 & Sunday, June 29
Obayashi’s first groundbreaking pop idol picture is a dazzling mix of special effects and blue-screen artifice—a stylistic flair perfected in his debut feature HAUSU, now utilized to depict the onset of an alien invasion. Ordinary schoolgirl Yuka’s (Yakushimaru) new term comes to an odd start when she inexplicably stops an accident by using latent psychic powers. Troubled by her newfound abilities, Yuka also senses a strange force start to take hold of the school, with students turning into mind-controlled fascists, patrolling school halls, stifling dissent and mandating the re-education of freethinkers. A psychotronic fantasy forged into a young girl’s destiny to defend the planet, SCHOOL IN THE CROSSHAIRS is a cosmic overload of extraterrestrial tyrants, preternatural powers and Obayashi’s uniquely adroit filmmaking abilities, underlaid with an existential cry for free will. – adapted from notes for Japan Society NYC Brattle Debut
Double Feature with THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME