The Best Old Movies on a Big Screen This Week: NYC Repertory Cinema Picks, December 7-13
The Little Girl Who Conquered Time (1983)
Directed by Nobuhiko Ôbayashi
Much better known for his weird horror cult film Hausu, Ôbayashi here adapts a now classic teenage science fiction novel by Yasutaka Tsutsui, better-known for an animated adaptation released in 2006. This little-seen film portrays the pains of puberty, growing up, falling in love and finding out you can travel through time. The visuals of the film seem to be inspired by the then popular shojo style of manga: Japanese comic books that focused on young high school girls falling in love with strange boys, where certain panels would forget about the physical plane, replacing the background with solid colors and patterns of flowers or stars. While not as deep as the animated version, this one has a better grasp on what falling in love feels like, adding the necessary amount of time travel hijinks to justify the title. Jaime Grijalba (December 13, 7pm at Japan Society’s Kadokawa series)