The Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme
Tom Grieve, Cinema Editor
The Japan Foundation is making its touring film programme free this year, with a streaming selection of titles available for you to watch from home without charge. Running from 9th February to 10th March, the UK’s largest festival dedicated to Japanese cinema is hoping to bring movie lovers together with a curated set of 18 films loosely based around themes of existence and belonging.
From comedies, to crime pictures, period dramas and films centring LGBT issues, the idea is that there should be something for everybody, with British film fans provided with a glimpse into the variety on offer in a Japanese multiplex.
Of note is Mrs Noisy, Amano Chihiro’s comedic inspired-by-true-events tale of a neighbourly dispute that escalates into a viral sensation. Kōji Fukada’s (Harmonium) A Girl Missing is a tense drama with much to say about Japanese societal convention. Meanwhile, the mammoth Labyrinth of Cinema is an experimental, kaleidoscopic journey through the violent history of Japanese film — it is also the final work by Japanese master director Nobuhiko Obayashi (House.)
