Event

Translation Trouble 

A Film Series presented by Penn Humanities Forum in collaboration with Cinema Studies and International House Philadelphia with Cinema Studies and International House Philadelphia

An international and multimodal art form from its very inception, the cinema has always been intimately bound up with translation. Our 2017 series presents films in which this founding involvement with multiple systems of meaning is heightened and intensified to an extraordinary degree. In these films, translation is a strange and even dangerous process, as disturbing as it is exhilarating. 

Tokyo Tribe (2014, dir. Sion Sono, 116 min.)

In this dystopian hip-hop musical set in an alternate futuristic Japan, territorial street gangs form opposing factions collectively known as the Tokyo Tribes. An old-school-styled street gang that only wants to party and hang out is pitted against a vicious cannibalistic mobster-run syndicate. All subtitles are in rap: rhyme, rhythm, African American slang, and profanity.

Introduction and post-screening conversation: Markus Nornes, Professor of Asian Cinema, University of Michigan.

To register: www.phf.upenn.edu