January 11 - February 8, 2026 Pinku Nightmares: Four by Hisayasu Satō Series | RE-WIND, AN ARIA ON GAZES, LOVE – ZERO = INFINITY, TURTLE VISION
ABOUT THE SERIES: The American Cinematheque invites you to step into the warped cinematic world of Pinku provocateur Hisayasu Satō, whose dedication to exploring the darkest facets of desire and humanity manifests as some of the most transgressively daring art within Japanese genre filmmaking. Eerie erotic films steeped in horror and thriller motifs, Satō’s work redefines the preconceived thresholds of avant-garde storytelling with nightmarish descents into obsession and uninhibited lust in the digital age—now presented in new restorations. Our series kicked off with one of his earliest and most well known works, RE-WIND (aka CELLULOID NIGHTMARE), evoking the voyeuristic terror present in films like Michael Powell’s PEEPING TOM or David Cronenberg’s CRASH. The theme of voyeurism continues with AN ARIA ON GAZES (aka THE BEDROOM), taking place in a secret sex club full of sedated hostesses with a cameo by actual cannibal, Issei Sagawa. LOVE – ZERO = INFINITY unites two troubled strangers who become entangled in the extramarital affairs of a doctor and his young wife, eventually succumbing to violent and bloody desires. A visceral story of vengeance and rage with a scorned young woman at the center is found in TURTLE VISION, sure to shock viewers and reverberate in one’s mind days after watching.