Skip to main content
Cowboy Bebop film image; anima man aims gun into camera

Cowboy Bebop + The Cowboy Bebop Bebop Band

VIFF Live

Image: Allan Parker @adp.life

This event has passed

Get your tickets at the early bird price of $18 before August 5. Regular tickets will be $25.

Here’s the double whammy of the season! Fresh from their sold out shows at Tyrant Studios & Hero’s Welcome, the Cowboy Bebop Bebop Band (led by Steven Zhu) returns, featuring some of the hottest young Jazz musicians in Vancouver playing music from the seminal Cowboy Bebop anime.

This special performance will be paired with a screening of the 2001 Cowboy Bebop: The Movie.

RJ Abella — trumpet; Gordy Li — sax; Afu Keteca — bari sax; Patrick Kao — guitar; Rick Son — keys; Piyotr Kao — bass; Steven Zhu — drums

Live Music: 7:30 pm
Movie: 8:45 pm

 


The year is 2071. Following a terrorist bombing, a deadly virus is released on the populace of Mars and the government has issued a 300 million woo-long reward, the largest bounty in history, for the capture of whoever is behind it. The bounty hunter crew of the spaceship Bebop; Spike, Faye, Jet and Ed, take the case with hopes of cashing in the bounty…

Known in Japan as Cowboy Bebop: Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door, this visually thrilling expansion from the ever-popular anime series more than stands the test of time — in fact it feels more timely now than it did back in 2001.

A brilliant feature-length anime that’s good enough to deserve mention in the same breath as Akira, Ghost in the Shell, and Spirited Away.

Jamie Russell, BBC

Honors the affectless beauty of the original anime art and maintains the outlaw boppiness of the series concept.

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly

Even with its slow-moving observations of its recreation of the modern world and its characters’ introspections about the meaning of their lives, the film defies the idea that a feature-length episode of Cowboy Bebop would be anything less than thrilling. It simply rocks as an action movie.

Kambole Campbell, Thrillist

 

Thanks to

Director

Shinichirō Watanabe

Credits
Country of Origin

Japan

Year

2001

Language

In Japanese with English subtitles

19+
120 min

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Credits

Screenwriter

Keiko Nobumoto

Original Music

Keiko Nobumoto

Catch More Special Events at VIFF Centre

Oliver Hockenhull: Montage and AI Lecture + World Premiere FOTO CINE MAMA & I
FOTO CINE MAMA & I film image; young girl with huge sunglasses in front of background of paints blending together

Oliver Hockenhull: Montage and AI Lecture + World Premiere FOTO CINE MAMA & I

Dir. Oliver Hockenhull
138 min

In this special event, radical filmmaker Oliver Hockenhull explores ideas about photography, cinema and AI -- first in an illustrated 45 minute talk, and then with the world premiere of his latest essay film, FOTO CINE MAMA & I.

VIFF Centre - Vancity Theatre
Nosferatu With Radiohead: A Silents Synced Film
Nosferatu film image

Nosferatu With Radiohead: A Silents Synced Film

Dir. F.W. Murnau
95 min

F.W. Murnau, meet Thom Yorke. Radiohead's mind-blowing "Kid A" (2000) and "Amnesiac" (2001) albums breathe new life into the first great vampire movie.

VIFF Centre - Vancity Theatre
Theremin Man Goes to the Movies
man in red robe plays a theremin

Theremin Man Goes to the Movies

65 min

In this unique live presentation "Theremin Man", Stephen Hamm, leads us through the early electronic instrument's origins, its eclectic Hollywood career, and his own personal history with this strange instrument -- concluding with a live score improv.

VIFF Centre - Vancity Theatre

Ru + Kim Thúy in Conversation

Dir. Charles-Olivier Michaud
116 min

At ten, Tinh and her family are forced to flee Vietnam and eventually find refuge in wintery but welcoming Quebec. A lyrical, warm adaptation of the award-winning novel by Kim Thúy, who will join us in conversation after the screening.

VIFF Centre - Vancity Theatre
The Etiquette of Dying: Film + Ron Samworth Concert
The Etiquette of Dying film image; blurry diagram of drawn human skeleton

The Etiquette of Dying: Film + Ron Samworth Concert

Dir. Melissa Hubert
110 min

Guitarist Ron Samworth's brush with cancer a few years ago inspired a suite, which in turn inspired Melissa Hubert's contemplative 51-minute animated film. After the screening Ron will lead a 4-piece band in an improvised performance.

VIFF Centre - Vancity Theatre

Vampyr

Dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer
73 min

This Halloween, experimental music duo Magazinist will perform a live score to 1932 classic Vampyr using an array of supernatural contraptions, including a homemade tagelharpa, dulcimers, zithers, synthesizers, and ethereal vocal drones.

VIFF Centre - Vancity Theatre

A Page of Madness: Live Score by Anju Singh / The Nausea

Dir. Teinosuke Kinugasa
73 min

Experimental artist Anju Singh uses her project The Nausea to explore Teinsuke Kinugasa's expressionist horror masterpiece. An asylum janitor wants to help his beloved wife escape, but she doesn't want to leave...

VIFF Centre - Vancity Theatre