Shinji Sômai's "The Friends" - New 4K Restoration

Name: Shinji Sômai's "The Friends" - New 4K Restoration
Start: 2025-09-20T17:30:00-05:00
End: 2025-09-20T19:30:00-05:00
Location: Oklahoma City Museum of Art

Schedule

Sat Sep 20 2025 at 05:30 pm to 07:30 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

Oklahoma City Museum of Art | Oklahoma City, OK

During summer vacation, three mischievous boys form an unlikely friendship with a reclusive old man in this lyrical and exquisitely crafted meditation on youth and mortality from beloved Japanese filmmaker Shinji Sômai ("Typhoon Club," "Moving"), screening in a new 4K restoration.
Shinji Sômai | 1994 | In Japanese with English subtitles | 113 minutes | NR | 4K DCP
Buy tickets: https://www.okcmoa.com/visit/events/the-friends/
Watch the trailer:

“A delicate gem from one of Japanese cinema’s most revered stylists, 'The Friends' finds the late Shinji Sōmai at his most tender and unadorned. This lyrical coming-of-age tale, newly restored in 4K, follows three curious boys over one summer as they spy on a reclusive old man rumored to be dying—only to form an unexpected friendship that gently guides them toward compassion, loss, and the quiet end of childhood. Sōmai’s signature long takes and sunwashed compositions capture the rhythms of youth with patient, poetic clarity, and feel especially resonant as the summer season draws to a close. A revelatory rediscovery and a natural companion to 'Moving'—whose revival last year introduced a new generation to Sōmai’s singular vision—'The Friends' reaffirms his influence on contemporary directors like Hirokazu Kore-eda, who called him ‘a filmmaker who captured adolescence like no other.’” -Film at Lincoln Center