It’s been 35 years and now it’s finally time to discover “Tokyo Pop” in a brand-new 4K restoration at the Brattle Theatre this weekend.
“Nobody had a chance to see it when it was originally released,” Fran Rubel Kuzui, 75, explained in a phone interview last week.
Kuzui would go on to make the 1992 “Buffy the Vampire Killer” movie and serve as executive producer on the “Buffy” series and “Angel,” its spin-off.
For “Tokyo Pop” Kuzui, co-writer and director, created an East meets West romance between an aspiring American singer (Carrie Hamilton) in Japan who joins a local rock band led by Hiro (Diamond Yukai). As the band soars, so does their affair.
Kuzui was inspired seeing the spectacular results of another woman directing a small indie film, Susan Seidelman with “Desperately Seeking Susan” starring Madonna.
“It was a good time for women to be directing movies,” she said, “because you could make an independent film. You didn’t have to get somebody to tell you, you were a director. If you could find the money and you could find the script and the actors, you could make a movie.
“So many people encouraged me. It was a time when we all would be there for each other, especially in New York. I was very friendly with Keith Haring” – the celebrated graffiti artist – “and he flew to Japan, just to keep me company for the first week of shooting. At one point, he said to me, ‘Who’s going to be doing the opening credits for the film? And do you need a poster? Why don’t I do it?’
“And you know, he just gave it to me.”
The restoration was financed in part by Carol Burnett, in memory of her daughter Carrie who was 38 when she died of cancer in 2002, Dolly Parton, Kuzui’s “Buffy” partner for 30 years, and Jane Fonda’s fund for women directors.
Casting Hamilton followed a fruitless search to get a famous name. “So they said to me, ‘If you could find a relative of somebody famous that would help.’ But we couldn’t find anybody. I showed Juliette Lewis” – now in “Yellowjackets” –“ a picture I had clipped from People of Carol Burnett and her daughter. I said. ‘This is what I’m looking for, someone who looks like that.’
“And she looked at me and said, ‘But that’s Carrie Hamilton. She’s on ‘Fame’ on TV. She’s a wonderful actress.’
“I flew out to LA to meet Carrie. Five minutes after we met, she said. ‘When do I leave for Tokyo?’ It’s one of those wonderful magical stories of filmmaking.”
“Tokyo Pop” screens at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge Friday through Sunday.