The Center for Integrated Japan Studies (CIJS) at Tohoku University is pleased to announce a special screening of the acclaimed filmmaker Kazuhiro Soda’s latest documentary, "The Cats of Gokogu Shrine" (2024), followed by an international talk session on Thursday, August 6, 2026, at sendai mediatheque.

Utilizing his signature "observational film" method—which eschews scripts, narration, and artificial music—Director Kazuhiro Soda captures the delicate coexistence between stray cats and the human residents of Ushimado, a beautiful but aging port town in the Seto Inland Sea. The film masterfully portrays the quiet rhythms of their daily lives while subtly revealing the underlying challenges faced by contemporary local communities in Japan.

This special event will feature a high-definition Digital Cinema Package (DCP) screening, providing an immersive cinematic experience equivalent to a commercial theater. Following the film, we will host a distinguished panel discussion featuring Director Kazuhiro Soda, Producer Kiyoko Kashiwagi, and Professor Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano (Kyoto University), a leading scholar in cinema and visual culture.

Moderated by Ran Wei (Assistant Professor, CIJS), the talk session will explore the representation of "locality" in contemporary visual media and examine the concepts of community and symbiosis between humans and animals from the perspectives of film studies and the humanities.

We welcome students, faculty members, researchers, and the general public who are interested in documentary cinema, visual culture, and regional community issues. We look forward to your participation.
 

【Event Overview】

• Date & Time: Thursday, August 6, 2026 | 16:00 – 19:30 (Doors open at 15:30)

• Venue: sendai mediatheque, 7F Studio Theater (2-1 Kasugacho, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi)

• Admission: Free (Registration required / Capacity: Approx. 150 seats)

• Language: * Film Screening: Japanese audio with English subtitles

  • Talk Session: Japanese only

• Program:

  1. Screening of "The Cats of Gokogu Shrine" (119 min.)

  2. Talk Session & Q&A

• Organizer: Center for Integrated Japan Studies (CIJS), Tohoku University
   

【Speakers & Panelists】

• Kazuhiro Soda / Film Director An award-winning independent filmmaker and pioneer of the "observational film" technique. His works, including Campaign (2007), Mental (2008), and Inland Sea (2018), have been screened at prestigious international film festivals worldwide, including the Berlin International Film Festival, receiving critical acclaim.

• Kiyoko Kashiwagi / Film Producer Producer for all of Kazuhiro Soda's observational films. She co-founded the production company "Laboratory X" alongside Director Soda, breaking new ground for independent documentary filmmaking and international co-productions.
  
  

• Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano / Professor, Kyoto University Professor at the Headquarters for Admissions and Education Strategy, Kyoto University. Her research interests encompass cinema studies, visual culture, and digital humanities, with a particular focus on East Asian cinema history and visual representations of environmental and disaster issues from a global perspective.
  
  

• [Moderator] Ran Wei / Assistant Professor, Tohoku University Assistant Professor at the Center for Integrated Japan Studies (CIJS). Her research focuses on East Asian cultural representation, particularly in literature and cinema, exploring how contemporary visual media shapes narratives of locality and regional identity.
   

【Inquiries】

Center for Integrated Japan Studies (CIJS), Tohoku University
E-mail: cijs-ura@grp.tohoku.ac.jp