“All-Around Art Appraiser Q: The Eyes of the Mona Lisa” (2016, 119 minutes) will be shown on Friday, March 16, at 7:30 p.m. at West Los Angeles United Methodist Church, 1913 Purdue Ave. in Los Angeles, as part of a series of screenings of Japanese movies on the last Friday of each month.
Screenwriter Manabu Uda and director Shinsuke Sato bring the adventures of the brilliant Japanese art appraiser known as “Q” to life. Based on the award-winning and popular ninth novel of Keisuke Matsuoka’s series, the film stars Haruka Ayase as the mysterious Q, a young woman gifted with brilliant powers of deduction and reasoning that enable her to appraise any art object.
Q’s Sherlockian deductive powers successfully foil a robbery and so impress a Japanese museum gallery director that she is invited to the Louvre to participate as a special advisor to the Japan leg of the “Mona Lisa” worldwide tour, which is soon to begin. Accompanying her and equally fascinated by her abilities is a photojournalist determined to write a feature article about her. Together they uncover an astonishing 500-year-old secret Leonardo da Vinci work painted in a puzzle on the iconic masterpiece.
Known in Japan as “Bannou Kanteishi Q — Mona Riza no Hitomi,” this is the first Japanese film ever given permission to shoot in location inside the magnificent Louvre.
The cast also includes Tori Matsuzaka, Eriko Hatsune, Pierre Deladonchamps, Hiroaki Murakami and Kazue Tsunogae.
Screenings are free and open to the public. Parking is available in the church lot. For more information, call (310) 479-1379 or visit www.wlaumc.com.