Sunday, May 02, 2021

Movie Ads of the Week: SAMURAI SPY (1965-1999)


Masahiro Shinoda's IBUN SARUTOBI SASUKE (1965), currently showing on the Criterion Channel and still available from the Criterion Collection in their Rebel Samurai DVD box set as SAMURAI SPY, first played the U.S. at the Kabuki Theatre in Los Angeles on October 18, 1965. Four months later...
...on February 23, 1966 it arrived at the Nippon Theatre in Honolulu under the title SARUTOBI THE SECRET AGENT.
Under the SAMURAI SPY title, it played the Park Theatre in Fresno, CA during the weekend of June 30-July 2, 1972.
As the first half of a Shinoda double bill, it closed the second month-long Films of Japan festival at the Nuart in August-September 1972.
UC Berkeley's Pacific Film Archive programmed it as part of a Shinoda film fest in March 1973.
The Kokusai Theatre (formerly the Toho Theatre) in San Francisco ran it in July '73
Under the title SASUKE AGAINST THE WIND it played the Bijou (the former Toho Cinema) in New York on September 5, 1973.
It returned to New York on June 5-6, 1974 as part of the landmark ten-week Cinema East festival at the Regency Theatre.
Here it is paired with Masaki Kobayashi's HARAKIRI at the Park Square Moviehouse in Boston in February 1977...
...and at the Cento Cedar Cinema in San Francisco in September of that year, with Kurosawa's THE HIDDEN FORTRESS as part of the Samurai Festival V.
Back in Boston in December '78, this time at the Coolidge Corner with Kurosawa's IKIRU.
Again with THE HIDDEN FORTRESS, this time at the New Loft in Tucson, AZ in February 1981.
As part of a Shinoda double bill with ASSASSINATION at the Vinegar Hill Theatre in Charlottesville, VA in January '82.
As part of a samurai film fest at the Robson Square Center in Vancouver in August 1982.
The Rialto in South Pasadena screened it with SAMURAI REBELLION as part of their "Movies in Cinemascope" series in September 1987.
On a Shinoda double bill with PALE FLOWER, this time at The Screen in Santa Fe, NM in August 1999.

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