Toho Cinemas Round-Up!

With George Chakiris in March 2011.

The night before Prime Minister Abe's emergency declaration went into effect, I went to Toho Cinemas in Roppongi to catch a screening of the Academy Award-winning classic West Side Story (1961), which I'd seen on DVD but never on the big screen. Suffice it to say, it was quite entertaining.

I was fortunate enough to meet George Chakiris (who played Bernardo to perfection) several times in Los Angeles in 2010 and 2011, before moving to Japan. It was great finally to see his performance on the big screen.

Last week, I went to the same theater to catch my sixth (!) screening of Joker (2019), my favorite movie of the last decade. With all the new movies being postponed, the upside was that Toho Cinemas began screening a lot of classics. I just wish I had the opportunity to see even more.

Now Toho Cinemas have closed across Tokyo, so it will be quite a while before I'm able to to the movies again. That said, I'm thankful I got to see the above-mentioned films (as well as two screenings of Apocalypse Now: The Final Cut) when I had the chance.