The UK’s biggest festival of Japanese cinema returns to Sheffield
The Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2025 (JFTFP) delivers an unforgettable line-up of captivating films to Showroom Cinema from Sunday 9 February.
Our selection of titles from the programme: ‘Am I Right? Justice, Justification, and Judgement in Japanese Cinema’, includes nine films; from older hidden gems and laugh-a-minute entertainment to profound food for thought.
Whether you’re dipping your toe into contemporary Japanese film, or looking to meet rising, new filmmakers, there’s something for everyone this February at Showroom Cinema.
The festival starts with Bushido (Director Shiraishi Kazuya) on 9 February, a tale of revenge and modern take on the samurai genre. We Make Antiques! (Director Take Masaharu) follows on 11 February. Antiques Roadshow meets Ocean’s Eleven as a wheeler dealer and shady ceramicist team up for a generational heist.
Director Miyake Sho delivers a tender story of two co-workers, one with PMS and the other with a panic disorder, who initially clash over their shared struggles in All The Long Nights, out 16 February.
Then on 17 February, Director Toda Akihiro joins for an in-person Q&A following the screening of Ichiko. Kawabe Ichiko is in her mid-20s when she disappears without a trace. When her boyfriend tries to file a report, the police inform him there is no record of her existence.
Tea Friends (Director Sotoyama Bunji) sheds light on two underrepresented aspects of old age, loneliness and sexuality. A call girl service offers more than just company, while its elderly employees rediscover the joy in being needed by others. Watch on 21 February.
A Totoro-inspired animated adventure, Ghost Cat Anzu (Director Kuno Yoko, Yamashiya Nobuhiro), sees a moped-driving, ginger cat become a reluctant babysitter to an 11-year-old girl. While in The Inugami Family (Director Ichikawa Kon) a rich patriarch dies, leaving a foul series of murders as the family schemes for his fortune. Both 23 February.
Then in Let’s Go Karaoke! (Director Yamashita Nobuhiro), on 25 February, a yakuza lieutenant seeks singing lessons, to avoid the humiliating “horror” that awaits the loser of his gang’s karaoke competition.
The festival closes on 28 February with Japan’s first ever feature film produced in full colour, Carmen Comes Home (Director Kinoshita Keisuke). City girl Carmen returns to her rural village where the locals look down on her career as a stripper, in this iconic light-hearted comedy.
The Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2025 runs from 9-28 February at Showroom Cinema, find the full programme online: /guide/?d=20231109