The Cine Family at the Silent Movie Theatre presents “R100 and the Films of Hitoshi Matsumoto” from Jan. 23 to 29.
Breakout filmmaker/star Hitoshi Matsumoto (“Big Man Japan,” “Symbol”) has emerged from the same Japanese TV comedy milieu once traveled by the legendary Beat Takeshi, to create an audacious body of meta-movies that never cease to tickle and surprise.
Starting with its title as a riff on the Japanese movie rating system (“R18” is the equivalent of “NC-17”), Matsumoto’s latest outlandish jam is a cross between David Fincher’s “The Game” and Ken Russell’s “Crimes of Passion.” A lonely father (“Ichi the Killer’s” Nao Ohmori) with a secret taste for BDSM hires the services of a clandestine boutique dominatrix agency — one that specializes in increasingly insane, guerilla acts of public degradation.
At every turn, “R100” yanks itself into previously unknown corners, even stirring in Godardian framing devices and a special American visitor into the rough-and-tumble comedic melee.
Screenings of “R100” (2013, 100 minutes) include double bills with Matsumoto’s “Scabbard Samurai” (2010, 103 minutes), “Symbol” (2009, 93 minutes), and “Big Man Japan” (2007, 113 minutes). The schedule is as follows.
Friday, Jan. 23, at 8 p.m.: “R100” and “Symbol”
Saturday, Jan. 24, at 7:30 p.m.: “R100”
Sunday, Jan. 25, at 7:30 p.m.: “R100” and “Big Man Japan”
Monday, Jan. 26, at 10 p.m.: “R100”
Tuesday, Jan. 27, at 8 p.m.: “R100” and “Scabbard Samurai”
Wednesday, Jan. 28, at 10 p.m.: “R100”
Thursday, Jan. 29, at 10 p.m.: “R100”
Tickets are $12 general, free for members. Showtimes are subject to change. The theater is located at 611 N. Fairfax Ave. in Los Angeles. For more information, call (323) 655-2510, email info@cinefamily.org or visit www.cinefamily.org. Reservations can be made online.