Japan Cuts, North America’s largest festival of contemporary Japanese cinema, kicked off on 10 July at Japan Society in Manhattan. With screenings of 30 films over 11 days, the festival – now in its 18th year – includes premieres, documentaries and restored classics. There will also be a special award for the director and screenwriter Kiyoshi Kurosawa, and a closing reception with traditionally distilled shochu imported for the occasion. Japan Society was founded as a non-profit organisation in 1907 and is today housed in a 1971 building designed by the much-admired architect Junzo Yoshimura. Monocle spoke to Japan Society’s director of film, Peter Tatara. 

What is the festival’s theme, and how do you make your selection?
Japan Cuts is dedicated to showcasing contemporary Japanese cinema. Each year, the festival offers New York audiences a snapshot of works produced in Japan over the past 12 months – from major blockbusters, indie flicks and documentaries to shorts and experimental works. This year, we’re proud to celebrate the acclaimed director Kiyoshi Kurosawa. He will receive the Cut Above Award, which recognises his lifetime achievements, and we will be hosting the New York premiere of his new release, Cloud, as well as a screening of his recent remake of Serpent’s Path. The selection process takes approximately six months, beginning at the Tokyo International Film Festival, where we spend about 10 days meeting with Japanese film-makers and distributors. To arrive at our final list of 30 films, the team reviews more than 300 works and engages in discussions before deciding on the final selection.

What are some of the highlights?
We are thrilled to welcome Yuumi Kawai, who recently won the best actress award at this year’s Japan Academy Film Prize for her performance in A Girl Named Ann. We’ll be hosting its North American premiere, along with a screening of She Taught Me Serendipity. Further highlights include the first New York screening of A Samurai in Time, which won best film at the Japan Academy Film Prize, and Teki Cometh, which took home the grand prix for best film, as well as awards for best director and best actor at the Tokyo International Film Festival. We’re also excited to spotlight some smaller projects, and our Next Generation section will showcase works from emerging independent directors.

Tell us more about the award to Kiyoshi Kurosawa.
Every year we present a Cut Above Award, which is given to a director or actor in celebration of their contributions to cinema. Previous winners include Yuya Yagira, Joe Odagiri, Kirin Kiki, Koji Yakusho, Shinya Tsukamoto, Sakura Ando and Lily Franky. This year, we’re honoured to present it to Mr Kurosawa, recognising both his works as well as his lifelong commitment to film-making.

And restored classics too?
Every year Japan Cuts features a small selection of classic cinema, focusing on new restorations or anniversaries. With Mr Kurosawa in attendance, we’ll be showing a remastered edition of the original Serpent’s Path from 1998, and a 35mm screening of his License to Live. We’ll also be celebrating the 30th anniversary of Shunji Iwai’s feature debut, Love Letter, with the North American premiere of its 4K restoration.

The closing film sounds interesting – give us a synopsis. Can the audience expect a glass of ‘shochu’?
This is one of my favourite films of the festival. We’re closing this year’s edition with the international premiere of The Spirit of Japan. It’s a beautiful documentary about the Yamatozakura distillery in Kagoshima prefecture – one of the last handmade sweet-potato shochu distilleries in Japan. The film follows fifth-generation master brewer Tekkan Wakamatsu as he carries on 175-year-old traditions passed down by his father, Kazunari Wakamatsu. The documentary gives you a behind-the-scenes look at the shochu-making process, but it offers more than that. It’s a deeply moving portrait of a father and son and an observation of vanishing traditions. We’re honoured to share this film and excited to have director Joseph Overbey and producer Stephen Lyman – and even Tekkan Wakamatsu himself – in attendance for a Q&A. After the screening, the audience can enjoy a reception with Yamatozakura shochu, imported just for this event.

Tell us how you became interested in Japanese cinema. Any favourite films and directors?
I’ve had an interest since I was a child. I grew up in a small town and finding Japanese films on VHS was a window to another world. It made me want to learn more about the culture, the food, the language and eventually inspired me to travel to Japan – cinema is a powerful ambassador to the world. I am drawn to directors such as Kurosawa and Ozu, as well as Fukasaku. Fumihiko Sori’s Ping Pong is also one of my absolute favourites.

Which features would you recommend for novice Japanese film watchers?
If this is your first time attending Japan Cuts, beyond the major titles, I would recommend My Sunshine, a beautiful piece about teenage adolescence; the comedy Kaiju Guy!; the outlandish The Gesuidouz; and So Beautiful, Wonderful and Lovely, featured in this year’s Next Generation section. Together, they give a comprehensive introduction to Japanese cinema.

Japan Cuts runs until 20 July, at Japan Society 333 E 47th Street, New York.

However you look at it, Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the Democratic primary for mayor of New York is a marvel. A 33-year-old state assemblyman with barely four years in office handily defeated Andrew Cuomo, a former three-term governor who was discussed as a formidable presidential contender just five years ago. Cuomo had much of New York’s Democratic party establishment in his corner, while Mamdani had the city’s Democratic Socialists of America chapter in his. Many prominent billionaires, including former mayor Mike Bloomberg, paid for advertisements attacking Mamdani. Cuomo’s allies spent, at last count, $36m (€30.7m) on the race; Mamdani’s just $9m (€7.6m).
 
How Mamdani managed to pull it off is no mystery. The Uganda-born son of a Columbia University professor and an Oscar-nominated filmmaker monomaniacally focused his message on the ways that the largest US city had become unaffordable for working-class people. Mamdani’s platform consisted of a handful of bold if fanciful policy promises – free buses, a rent freeze, city-run supermarkets – that he said would bring down costs. It was a pitch that Mamdani made in unconventional venues, such as on podcasts with sceptical hosts, alongside a charming social-media campaign that didn’t look like anything else in politics. A 90-second video in which Mamdani interviewed food-truck operators about why they had increased the prices of their meat-and-rice plates – a type of “halalflation” – became an instant classic of the form. The candidate suggested that the problem could be fixed by loosening regulations. 

Mamdani turned most of Cuomo’s advantages against him. Backing from big business demonstrated that the former governor had picked the wrong side in a populist conflict. Endorsements from other politicians (including Bill Clinton) became evidence of unimaginative establishment-style thinking; his decades in government were suddenly an albatross around his neck. The contrast between Cuomo – who departed the governor’s mansion amid scandal in 2021 – and the upstart half his age was best captured in a Murray Kempton line that John Lindsay, another young, dashing mayoral candidate, put on his campaign posters in 1965: “He is fresh and everyone else is tired.”

For Democrats beyond New York thrashing about for a new direction after the Biden-Harris debacle of 2024, Mamdani’s success offers plenty to mull over. Should they move further to the left or lean into class-war politics? Perhaps a focus on cost-of-living and pocketbook issues is the way forward? As they seek candidates for 2026 and 2028, should they look past traditional credentials and connections, and instead recruit outsiders unsaddled with the baggage of the party’s previous leaders? Is the most valuable communication skill not the ability to give a speech or navigate a debate but fluency in the language of Tiktok and podcasts?

There is plenty to study and probably only so much that can be learned. If Mamdani ends up beating incumbent Eric Adams in November, the spotlight will not be his alone. The likely winners of the year’s two other big races – for governor of Virginia and New Jersey – will cut a very different profile. And what works in the politics of the Empire City famously does not travel well. There is a reason that it has been more than 150 years since a former New York mayor went on to win another office. 

As Democrats dive into localised neighbourhood data in a bid to forensically analyse Mamdani’s unlikely path to victory, they shouldn’t overintellectualise the nature of his appeal. A winning personality goes a long way. 

Issenberg is Monocle’s US politics correspondent. For more insights into Mamdani and the New York mayoral race, click here. 

Quality of life – but what kind of quality? And what kind of life? These are the questions now facing New Yorkers as they embark on the first steps in choosing their city’s next mayor. Early voting is well underway for the 24 June Democratic Primary, which sees former New York state governor Andrew Cuomo essentially tied with 33-year-old state assemblyman Zohran Mamdani. The winner will then face off against current mayor Eric Adams, once a Democrat and now running as an Independent, who’s opted to sit out the highly contested primary and prepare for the general election in November.
 
Mamdani makes for an improbable frontrunner. Beyond his age, Mamdani – son of noted filmmaker Mira Nair – is also a registered socialist whose platform is laden with policies such as free childcare and public transport, a freeze on rents and reducing president Trump’s ability to arrest illegal migrants. But crucially, Mamdani wants to invest in a new, unproven Department of Community Safety rather than increase funding for the NYPD. The department, according to his plans, would have a $1.1bn budget to provide services such as mental health response teams instead of police in certain scenarios. Mamdani’s policies would drastically change New Yorkers’ quality of life – but for better or worse they represent a starkly different approach to his competitor.

Cuomo, by contrast, is a seasoned political pro and scion of New York’s most prominent political family. His campaign, at least on the surface, echoes Mamdani’s call for a more liveable, affordable, Trump-free New York. But Cuomo wants to expand, rather than downsize, the police.

Five years after the pandemic, New York – or at least New Yorkers – must figure out what kind of city it wants to be. Is Mamdani’s vision of a more radical, yet more equitable, urban landscape actually viable? Can a city contending with double-digit increases in violent crime numbers rely on citizens rather than cops to maintain an already fragile public order?
 
Meanwhile, the city is swimming in venture capital. According to a May report from the Center for an Urban Future, a think-tank, New York finds itself in the swell of a tech wave that is adding more jobs to the city than any other sector. This shift is luring the exact type of ‘elite’ young professionals that Mamdani is counting on: highly educated, suspicious of authority, well-paid and open to risk. And Mamdani is certainly a risky choice, as evidenced in a recent New York Times comment piece declaring his agenda “uniquely unsuited to the city’s challenges.”
 
Considering the outsized power wielded by New York’s City Council, much of Mamdani’s agenda would likely be constrained if he were to become mayor. But his win would send a strong message to other big Democratic-run cities – most notably Chicago and Los Angeles, both of which are also experiencing crime spikes, migrant crises and White House ire – that progressive policy can still cut through with the electorate. 
 
Cuomo is a vote for the status quo: hard on crime, soft on investment – a nod to a middle-class New York somehow managing to survive. While a win for Mamdani – young, Muslim, an immigrant and with relatively radical policies – would be a win for uncertainty, and a shift toward the policies found in progressive cities across Western Europe that are largely unknown here in the US. Both men have a strong chance at winning. But can the same can be said for New York (and its precarious quality of life)? The jury is still out.
 
Kaufman is an editor and columnist for the ‘New York Post’. For more opinion, analysis and insight, subscribe to Monocle today. And if you’re also struggling to make a decision about how to get the best out of New York, why not check out our City Guide?