Asia Society presents Kyoko Kagawa Rarities, a series of five remarkable films starring the beloved Japanese actress, in partnership with Anthology Film Archives, from August 13-16, 2026.

Five Sisters
Seiji Hisamatsu, Japan, 1954, 35mm, 100 min.
In Japanese with English subtitles.

Seiji Hisamatsu’s buoyant shomin-geki (“common-people’s drama”) adapts Sakae Tsuboi’s short story collection A Calendar the same year that Keisuke Kinoshita was filming the author’s better-known Twenty-Four Eyes (1954). Set on the same island within the Seto Inland Sea, Five Sisters interrogates marriage in a contemporary Japan amidst the lively and dynamic sisterhood of the Hinata family.

With Kinuyo Tanaka as Michi, the eldest, and a great Yoko Sugi as the spirited Kuniko, Kagawa plays Mie, the youngest and the heart of the distinguished ensemble. Harboring vigor and youth in one of the clearest distillations of her predominant screen persona (emblematized by the prior year’s Tokyo Story), Kagawa stretches the canvas further in this memorable leading role given life amidst an atmospheric beauty rivaling the aforementioned films. —Joseph Eusebio

35mm print courtesy of the National Film Archive of Japan.

A limited amount of complimentary tickets will be available to NYC college students with ID at the box office on the day of the screening.