Digital screenings may be the mainstream today, but there do remain cinephiles’ oases for films in 16mm and 35mm. Planet Plus One in Osaka is quite possibly one of the best of such places.
Founded in June 1974 as the Planet Film Library, what is today the Kobe Planet Film Archive has collected many 16mm and 35mm films from university libraries across the country and beyond, saving them from being thrown away. It regularly held screenings to keep them in use, and eventually opened its own cinema, Planet Plus One (also stylized as PLANET+1), in the Nakazakichō neighborhood of Osaka in 1995.
Snuck away on the second floor of an ordinary building, the “minitheater”-style cinema is sure to charm you the second you open the door and climb the steep, narrow staircase. On the walls are posters of classic Hollywood films, from The Philadelphia Story (1940) to The Sugarland Express (1974), promising excellent taste.
The screen is rather small, and there are only 25 seats’ worth of squeaky wooden chairs with cushions on them, but the speakeasy feel and the big speakers suggest a good time for cinephiles. Visible at the back of the room is the film projector, completing the old-fashioned cinema vibe.
Planet Plus One’s own tagline is “Every day is a film festival”; and sure enough, it often shows niche and obscure movies—just one or two per day—even going as far back as the Silent Era, for which it hires an organist to provide music. Whether it’s a John Ford, Corman or Truffaut, seeing a movie at the Planet is its own experience, something that might get you hooked.