Ryūsuke Hamaguchi: Effect and Cause

Ryūsuke Hamaguchi is coming to the Walker Art Center for a retrospective that runs from October 23 to November 7. It's a full-scale look at the Japanese filmmaker's work, with a series of screenings and a live performance spread across the two weeks.

The whole thing kicks off on October 23 with a Walker Dialogue—a conversation between Hamaguchi and Toronto International Film Festival curator Andréa Picard. That's the same Dialogue series that's brought Robert Redford, Steve McQueen, and Christopher Nolan to the Walker over the years, so it's a good place to start if you want to hear him talk through his process before you dive into the films.

From there, the screenings follow in no particular order. Happy Hour plays October 24 at 1 PM; Drive My Car is October 29 at 7 PM; Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy is October 30 at 7 PM; and Evil Does Not Exist is November 6 at 7 PM. The retrospective closes on November 7 with GIFT, a live score by composer Eiko Ishibashi paired with the film. It's a fairly broad sweep of his career, from the breakout Happy Hour to the more recent Evil Does Not Exist.

If you're not already familiar with him, Hamaguchi is an Academy Award-winning director whose work sits somewhere between fiction and documentary, and he's cited Éric Rohmer and John Cassavetes as influences. He studied at the University of Tokyo and the Tokyo University of the Arts, and Drive My Car took home the Oscar for Best International Feature and the Palme d'Or for Best Screenplay at Cannes. He's known for emotionally intricate character studies and for running acting workshops and long table reads with his casts. The series is copresented by the Department of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and the Mary Griggs Burke Endowment in Asian Studies.

Tickets are $15, or $12 for Walker members, seniors, and students. The opening talk is October 23 at 7 PM in the Walker Cinema.