James Shigeta Film Festival - New York City

A/P/A Institute Presents
Thursday & Friday, December 6 & 7 First Thursdays Film Series:
— James Shigeta Film Festival —
featuring Q&A with legendary
Hollywood Studio Star James Shigeta

Thursday, December 6
Theater 200 Cantor Film Center
36 E. 8th Street from 6-10pm
“The Crimson Kimono”
kick-off screening featuring Q&A with film star James Shigeta

A Q&A with James Shigeta follows the screening of “The Crimson Kimono” moderated by Sukhdev Sandhu, Assistant Professor of English and Asian/Pacific/American Studies at NYU and the chief film critic for the London Daily Telegraph.

Co-sponsored by the Japanese American National Museum; NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, The Maurice Kanbar Institute of Film & Television, the Directors Series; Japan Foundation; the Japanese American Citizen’s League; Asian Cinevision; and series co-sponsor NYU Center for Media, Culture and History/Center for Religion and Media.

Friday, December 7
Theater 101 Cantor Film Center
36 E. 8th Street from 6:30-10pm
“Bridge to the Sun” & “Walk Like A Dragon”
James Shigeta double bill

Co-sponsored by the Japanese American National Museum, Japan Foundation, the Japanese American Citizen’s League, Asian Cinevision and series co-sponsor NYU Center for Media, Culture and History/Center for Religion and Media.

FREE to the Public: RSVP by Wednesday, December 5 to apa.rsvp@nyu.edu or 212-992-9653. For more information or to rsvp online, visit www.apa.nyu.edu

This James Shigeta film festival features the actor who gave hope for Asian males to cross into lead actor roles in the Hollywood studio. Two of the three films presented in this program discussed taboo issues of interracial relationships at a time when Asian leads were few to non-existent on the silver screen. Shigeta’s role in Samuel Fuller’s 1959 noir “The Crimson Kimono” featured the actor as detective Joe Kojaku in a rare mixed-race on-screen kiss between an Asian male actor (Shigeta) and lead Caucasian actress (Christine Downs). The film that follows, “Bridge to the Sun,” tells of the struggles of a Caucasian Gwen Terasaki (Carroll Baker), married to Japanese diplomat Hidenari Terasaki (Shigeta) during WWII. Released in 1961, “Bridge to the Sun” is also the actor’s favorite film. The final film in the festival is the 1960’s Western “Walk Like A Dragon,” starring Shigeta as Cheng Lu opposite actress Nobu McCarthy, and is not to be missed. Among Shigeta’s other well-known films includes the musical “Flower Drum Song.”

About Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU:
The A/P/A Institute brings together accomplished scholars, community builders and artists from New York City and beyond — in interactive forums, reflection and new research.
Founded in 1996 in response to student interest combined with the University’s commitment to global excellence, the A/P/A Studies Program and the A/P/A Institute at New York University are focused on community and intercultural studies within a broad, rigorous international and comparative framework.

PHOTO CREDIT: Peter Wing. Original film poster for “THE CRIMSON KIMONO” from the Yoshio Kishi/Irene Yah Ling Sun Collection, Fales Library & Special Collections, NYU.

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