Brooklyn Academy of Music is holding the Ghosts and Monsters: Postwar Japanese Horror film festival, that features a number of Japanese horror and monster films. It is part of the larger BAMcinématek which presents classic films, premieres, festivals, and retrospectives, with appearances by filmmakers, actors, and critics. There will be a number of showings of each film (listed below). It takes place Oct 26 to Nov 1 at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music), Peter Jay Sharp Building, BAM Rose Cinemas 30 Lafayette Ave Brooklyn, NY, 11217

​​In the wake of World War II and profound social upheaval, Japanese filmmakers channeled national trauma into a rich and distinctive horror cinema. As Toho Studios created new mythologies in the form of iconic kaiju—pop culture-conquering monsters like Godzilla and Mothra—visionary stylists like Kenji Mizoguchi, Kaneto Shindô, and Masaki Kobayashi drew from the past, spinning atmospheric ghost stories from classic Japanese folklore. Fantastical, otherworldly, and wildly unique, these tales of rampaging beasts and supernatural terror are triumphs of cinematic imagination.

GODZILLA
Fri, Oct 26, 2018
2pm, 4:30pm, 7pm
LOCATION: Peter Jay Sharp Building
BAM Rose Cinemas
RUN TIME: 96min
FORMAT: DCP
GENERAL ADMISSION: $15
MEMBERS: $7.50 (free for Level 4 and above)
Directed by Ishirô Honda | 1954
With Akira Takarada, Momoko Kōchi, Akihiko Hirata
When a series of underwater nuclear tests awaken a long-dormant, radioactive reptile, it’s only a matter of time before the towering, indestructible Gojira stomps his way to Tokyo—and into pop culture immortality. Atomic age anxiety spawned the most iconic (and most subsequently franchised) movie monster of the 20th century, turning national trauma into pulp mythos.

UGETSU
Sat, Oct 27, 2018
7pm
LOCATION: Peter Jay Sharp Building
BAM Rose Cinemas
RUN TIME: 96min
FORMAT: 35mm
GENERAL ADMISSION: $15
MEMBERS: $7.50 (free for Level 4 and above)
Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi | 1953
With Masayuki Mori, Machiko Kyô, Kinuyo Tanaka
Master director Kenji Mizoguchi interweaves social realism and the supernatural in this ravishing adaptation of a pair of 16th-century ghost stories. In the midst of civil war, a prideful potter’s desire for wealth draws him away from his faithful wife—and into the arms of a phantom princess. The exquisite elegance of the director’s signature long takes pushes this shivery tale of patriarchal folly into the realm of the sublime.​

MOTHRA
Oct 27—Nov 1, 2018
Sat, Oct 27, 2018
4:30pm
Thurs, Nov 1, 2018
7:00pm
LOCATION: Peter Jay Sharp Building
BAM Rose Cinemas
RUN TIME: 101min
FORMAT: DCP
GENERAL ADMISSION: $15
MEMBERS: $7.50 (free for Level 4 and above)
​Directed by Ishirô Honda | 1961
With Frankie Sakai, Hiroshi Koizumi, Kyōko Kagawa
The Toho-verse of mythic beasts continued to expand with the addition of its first female monster: Mothra, a winged avenger who unleashes pandemonium when the fairy-inhabited jungle island she protects is disturbed by explorers. Introducing a rich strain of fantasy and mysticism to his patented kaiju-gone-wild formula, Ishirô Honda crafts a pop art marvel of supreme wonder and strangeness.

Goke, Body Snatcher From Hell
Sat, Oct 27, 2018
9:30pm
LOCATION: Peter Jay Sharp Building
BAM Rose Cinemas
RUN TIME: 84min
FORMAT: 35mm
GENERAL ADMISSION: $15
MEMBERS: $7.50 (free for Level 4 and above)
Directed by Hajime Satô | 1968
With Teruo Yoshida, Tomomi Satô, Eizô Kitamura
After their plane crash lands on a remote island, a motley band of strangers find themselves menaced by an oozing, blob-like alien with a thirst for blood—and a hatred of the human race. Writ in blazing, supersaturated Fujicolor, this alternately hypnotic and thoroughly bonkers sci-fi freakout delivers an apocalyptic blend of outré grotesquerie and potent Vietnam-era social commentary.
Screening from a rare archival print of an English dubbed version of the film.

Kwaidan
Sun, Oct 28, 2018
2pm
LOCATION: Peter Jay Sharp Building
BAM Rose Cinemas
RUN TIME: 183min
FORMAT: 35mm
GENERAL ADMISSION: $15
MEMBERS: $7.50 (free for Level 4 and above)
​Directed by Masaki Kobayashi | 1964
With Rentarō Mikuni, Tatsuya Nakadai, Keiko Kishi
Among the most visually splendorous horror movies ever made, Masaki Kobayashi’s ghostly fantasia brings together four quietly chilling tales of otherworldly encounters adapted from Lafcadio Hearn’s collections of Japanese folklore. The phantasmagoric art direction—a riot of painted backdrops and expressionistic lighting—and haunting Tōru Takemitsu score create an uncanny, all-enveloping sensory experience.

Jigoku
​Sun, Oct 28, 2018
5:30pm
LOCATION:Peter Jay Sharp Building
BAM Rose Cinemas
RUN TIME: 101min
FORMAT: 35mm
GENERAL ADMISSION: $15
MEMBERS: $7.50 (free for Level 4 and above)
Directed by Nobuo Nakagawa | 1960
With Shigeru Amachi, Utako Mitsuya, Yôichi Numata
Nobuo Nakagawa—Japan’s Roger Corman and Mario Bava rolled into one—drags us through the pits of hell in this head-spinningly hallucinatory cult classic. After he flees the scene of a hit-and-run that leaves a yakuza dead, a young man earns a one way ticket to the underworld, envisioned by Nakagawa as an abstract, Boschian nightmare of ceaseless carnage and cruelty.
Print courtesy of Japan Foundation

Pitfall
Tue, Oct 30, 2018
7pm
LOCATION: Peter Jay Sharp Building
BAM Rose Cinemas
RUN TIME: 97min
FORMAT: 35mm
GENERAL ADMISSION: $15
MEMBERS: $7.50 (free for Level 4 and above)
Directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara | 1962
With Hisashi Igawa, Kunie Tanaka, Hideo Kanze
The feature debut of Hiroshi Teshigahara was the first of his visionary collaborations—including Woman in the Dunes and The Face of Another—with writer Kōbō Abe and composer Tōru Takemitsu. Blending documentary realism with a jagged modernism, it’s an unsettlingly surreal tale of murder, conspiracy, and corporate exploitation in a desolate mining town—part anti-capitalist screed, part eerily atmospheric ghost story.​

​Kuroneko
Wed, Oct 31, 2018
7pm
LOCATION: Peter Jay Sharp Building
BAM Rose Cinemas
RUN TIME: 99min
FORMAT: 35mm
GENERAL ADMISSION: $15
MEMBERS: $7.50 (free for Level 4 and above)
Directed by Kaneto Shindô | 1968
With Kichiemon Nakamura, Nobuko Otowa, Kei Satô
Hell hath no fury like the seriously wronged undead ladies in this mesmeric tale of witchy revenge. After being brutally murdered by a band of samurai, a mother and daughter-in-law return as feline spirits who set about getting even by ripping open the throats of the men they ensnare. Shot in glittering, gorgeous widescreen black and white, Kaneto Shindô’s spectral shocker drips with dreamlike dread.​

Onibaba
Wed, Oct 31, 2018
9:30pm
LOCATION: Peter Jay Sharp Building
BAM Rose Cinemas
RUN TIME: 102min
FORMAT: 35mm
GENERAL ADMISSION: $15
MEMBERS: $7.50 (free for Level 4 and above)
​Directed by Kaneto Shindô | 1964
With Nobuko Otowa, Jitsuko Yoshimura, Kei Sato
In the marshlands of 14th-century Japan, a mother and daughter-in-law survive by robbing and murdering lost samurai—until primal passions, twisted mind games, and a demonic mask pit them against one another. Awash in psychosexual menace and indelible chiaroscuro images, Kaneto Shindô’s nightmare vision of feudal Japan lays bare the dehumanizing horrors wrought by poverty and war.

DESTROY ALL MONSTERS (this may be tentative as it it not listed with the other films on the main page on their site)
Thu, Nov 1, 2018
7pm
LOCATION: Peter Jay Sharp Building
BAM Rose Cinemas
RUN TIME: 90min
FORMAT: Digital
GENERAL ADMISSION: $15
MEMBERS: $7.50 (free for Level 4 and above)
Directed by Ishirô Honda | 1968
​With Akira Kubo, Jun Tazaki, Yukiko Kobayashi.
Under the control of a squadron of shimmery femme-aliens intent on conquering Earth, an all-star cast of
kaiju—including Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, and King Ghidorah—romp and stomp their way across the
globe, from New York to Moscow to Beijing. The 20th installment in Toho’s giant monster cycle
culminates in the awesome spectacle of an epic, all-beasts-on-board battle atop Mt. Fuji.

L.A. Comic Con has a list of panels up on their website including a few kaiju related panels and one that may give us a hint into the Monsterverse and 2019's Godzilla: King Of The Monsters.  Check out some of the panel info below. The Con takes place Oct 26th - 28th at the Los Angles Convention Center.

Godzilla: Secrets of the Monsterverse
Saturday, Oct 27
3:00 PM
403B
As excitement builds for the return of Godzilla to the big screen in 2019, Legendary Comics, a division of Legendary Entertainment, is proud to present an exclusive glimpse behind the scenes to explore the secrets of Legendary’s Monsterverse from the page to the screen and beyond! This in-depth hour will take you through the history of Monarch: the Monsterverse’s secret organization of monster chasers introduced in the 2014 blockbuster hit Godzilla, and expanded on the pages of comic adaptations Godzilla: Awakening and Skull Island: Birth of Kong. With Monarch set to return bigger than ever in 2019 with Godzilla: King of the Monsters, join Legendary’s team of Monsterverse experts: Barnaby Legg, SVP of Creative Strategy, George Tew, Mythology Manager, as well as Robert Napton, SVP of Comics, and illustrator Drew Johnson as they reveal Legendary Comics’ plans for Godzilla in 2019, and grant declassified access to the Monarch data archives in an info-packed panel that fans won’t want to miss! The first 500 fans in attendance will receive an exclusive signed Godzilla poster only available at the panel!

Giant Robots VS Monster Kaiju Attack Los Angeles Comic Con!
Saturday, Oct 27
12:00 PM
306
Who doesn’t love giant monsters and robots?!? From movies like ‘Godzilla’ and ‘Pacific Rim’ to TV shows like ‘Power Rangers’ and ‘Transformers’, we’re obsessed with big things that stomp on cities and send us running around like ants! Join us for a panel celebration where we discuss kaiju monsters and giant robots with a group of experts on the subject! What Godzilla films are the best? How did shows like Power Rangers influence films like Pacific Rim? Which giant robot or monster could win in a fight? And why are all these mega-sized things so awesome! Come dressed as your favorite robot or monster and join the celebration!

Sketch to Screen: Ready Player One, Rampage, and Beyond...
Saturday, Oct 27
11:00 AM
403A
Visionary concept artist, Aaron Sims (Stranger Things, Wonder Woman, Planet of the Apes Trilogy) and the ASC artist team reveal the secrets behind our character and world-building concept designs, previsualizations and visual effects for some of the most iconic film and television franchises of a generation. Through a series of designs, key scenes, 3D models, and VFX breakdowns, we’ll showcase our latest work in bringing to life the characters and worlds of Ready Player One, Rampage, Lost In Space, and more.. from Sketch-to-Screen.

Make Mine Mecha
Saturday, Oct 27
12:30 PM
303
From the early days of Tetsujin-28 to the inescapable Evangelion, Super Robots have defined anime. This panel will explore the long time history of the super robot genre spanning from the late 1960s to modern day and how each title built the world of giant robots righting monsters (and other robots).