This month, Portland venues will close out summer with a psychedelic swirl of films merging myth and magical adolescence. Teen girls time-travel and chat with dolphins; cosmic heroes emerge from horse goddesses. Meanwhile, here on earth, a sex worker undertakes her own journey from a donut shop to a laundromat in Los Angeles.
Screenings are of the “rare” and “for real, don’t miss this” varieties, like Gakuryū Ishii’s surreal August in the Water, Nobuhiko Obayashi’s lesser-known teen dreams, and a little glittery Y2K irony. Microdosers, I hope you’re listening.
Church of Film: August in the Water
For fans of petrographs, water signs, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010).
Last month’s screening of Gakuryū Ishii’s The Crazy Family at Clinton Street Theater showcased the director’s anarchic, satirical style. But in the ‘90s, Ishii abandoned his earlier manic energy to explore a dreamlike approach. The tonal shift culminated in what might be his most poetic and overlooked film, August in the Water (1995).
The story follows Izumi, a cool, enigmatic champion diver at a Fukuoka high school. She attracts the attention of two teenage boys, who trail her past the diving pool’s electric-blue shimmer and through the scorched, drought-laden city. There, meteorite crashes and an organ-petrifying illness threaten something otherworldly. Meanwhile, Izumi might be more than human; rumors swirl that she conjures water and telepathically talks to dolphins.
August in the Water is unlike any film you’ve seen. It’s part teen melodrama and part cosmic mystery; ritualistic moments, like a water-throwing festival, lend a weird, elemental resonance. A minor character who decodes horoscopes with an ancient computer exemplifies the film’s adolescent ennui and deep metaphysical inquiry. Hiroyuki Onogawa’s ethereal, minimalist score is a standalone sound art piece echoing Japan’s environmental music movement—pull up this related compilation on Bandcamp if you need to focus.
The film remains unstreamable—found only on Internet Archive and YouTube rips—and has never received a physical reissue, which makes screenings like this all the more rare and vital. Ishii’s noir-adjacent, existential mystery Labyrinth of Dreams, screening at Clinton Street Theater on September 18, is a dreamy follow-up. (Dream House, 412 NE Beech, Sept 8, 8 pm, free/donations encouraged, more info, 21+)
Beyond House
For fans of Jang Joon-hwan’s Save the Green Planet! (2003), Shinji Sōmai’s Typhoon Club (1985), Juzo Itami’s Tampopo (1987).
Initiates of Nobuhiko Obayashi’s ‘77 cult classic House will be at least somewhat prepared for the director’s lesser-known, yet equally idiosyncratic sci-fis and pop-art fantasias. While House’s Scooby-Dooian antics have long overshadowed Obayashi’s other output, the Hollywood’s Beyond House series makes headway by screening four of his most vibrant seishun eiga (coming-of-age films). Jittery neon magic spells, random dance numbers, and telekinetic teens are involved.
One of cinema’s most avant-garde pop artists, Obayashi blended kitschy teeny-bopper hyperbole with gonzo special effects. His green screen use stayed playful and unpolished; Obayashi’s visuals feel dreamed up by his teen characters themselves. School in the Crosshairs follows a high schooler with telepathic powers and a brush with celebrity—the plot’s marginally more coherent than House, which doesn’t say much. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, adapted from Yasutaka Tsutsui’s ‘67 novel, centers a student who sniffs a lavender scent and wakes up with time-travel capabilities.
The Beyond House series will screen these alongside the breezy road romance His Motorbike, Her Island and The Island Closest to Heaven, a grief-struck summer vacation film. (Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy, Sept 11-Oct 2, $10-$12, more info, not rated)
Son of the White Mare
For fans of Suzan Pitt, György Kovásznai’s Bubble Bath (1979), Eiichi Yamamoto’s Belladonna of Sadness (1973).
Academy Theater’s monthly international series will screen a hallucinogenic swirl of Eurasian folklore and mythic archetypes with Son of the White Mare, Hungarian animator-director Marcell Jankovics’ cult masterpiece. The film (presented in a 4K restoration) draws from ancient steppe poetry and Freudian dream logic to illustrate a dark night of the soul, complete with a quest to the underworld and a hero who suckles a horse.
Its cosmogony is built from the equine goddess, who sends her sons on a dangerous mission (slaying dragons, freeing princesses). Familiar fairy tale motifs echo throughout, but the film’s visual inventiveness carves new territory. Jankovics’ animation style is difficult to oversell, a riot of color and motion, swirling, elemental, and sublime. Steadied by a cosmic oak, it is eye-poetry with a primordial sensibility. Plus, stoned people online often proclaim the film to be the greatest they’ve ever seen, and who are we to doubt them? (Academy Theater, 7818 SE Stark, Sept 19-25, $6.50-$9.50, more info, not rated)
Cinema 21 Centennial Celebration, and Yi Yi
For fans of Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank (2009), Kelly Reichardt’s Wendy and Lucy (2008), Yasujirō Ozu
Cinema 21 first opened its doors in 1925 with a live organ and a steady rotation of silent films. It has held many names—State Theatre, Vista, 21st Ave Theatre—remaining a pillar of Portland’s independent film culture all the while. The theater will celebrate its 100th birthday with a 10-day slate of films, one worth a loop around the block in Nob Hill: Sean Baker’s Tangerine (2015).
Shot on an iPhone 5S, Tangerine serves as an early example of Baker’s interest in depicting intersectional class struggle—the film follows a trans sex worker’s search for her cheater boyfriend across lo-fi Los Angeles on Christmas Eve. Fresh off his 2024 Best Director Oscar win for Anora, Baker will offer an in-person Q&A with former Oregonian film critic Shawn Levy.
But the week’s true jewel isn’t part of the Centennial Celebration lineup. Edward Yang’s Yi Yi (2000) slipped onto the schedule amid the festivities. A paragon of Taiwan New Cinema, Yi Yi is delicate, observational, and maintains an ultra-rare 4.5 Letterboxd rating. It’s rarely screened; here’s your chance to catch a fresh 4K restoration. (Cinema 21, 616 NW 21st, Centennial Celebration Sept 19-28, pricing and times vary, more info, Yi Yi Sept 20-21, $8-$11, more info, not rated)
Also worth it:
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
Studio Ghibli’s other incredible filmmaker, Isao Takahata, created some of the studio’s gentlest and most lyrical output (like Only Yesterday, a personal fave). His folklore-inspired 2013 film The Tale of the Princess Kaguya employs a floaty, windswept animation style. (Academy Theater, through Sept 11, more info)
Josie and the Pussycats
Pairing metallic pleather with unparalleled dialogue (“If I could go back in time, I would want to meet Snoopy,”) Josie and the Pussycats (2001) is the Dr. Pepper Lipsmacker of cinema history: cloying, nostalgic, and somehow perfect. (Hollywood Theater, Sept 6, more info)
La Ciénaga
Argentine director Lucrecia Martel’s 2001 feature debut follows a wealthy family’s languid summer; a quiet plot unfolds amid a creeping, heat-struck malaise. La Ciénaga introduces the hallmarks of Martel’s later films, with nuance found in class-informed atmospheres. (Clinton Street Theater, Sept 23, more info)
Dogtooth
Prep your nervous system for Yorgos Lanthimos’ forthcoming sci-fi Bugonia with Dogtooth, the director’s breakthrough 2009 feature. It’s (perhaps predictably) a story of psychosexual absurdity and bizarre endurance—David Lynch called it a “fantastic comedy.” Jonathan Glazer and Julia Ducournau’s fans can stomach its freakiest scenes. (Tomorrow Theater, Sept 27, more info)
