The Japan Foundation Touring Film Program will present 26 Japanese features across U.K. venues, including acclaimed director Miike Takashi‘s latest film “Sham” among diverse offerings spanning comedy, drama, horror, sci-fi and animation.
The annual celebration, billed as the U.K.’s largest showcase of Japanese cinema, centers on the theme “Knowing Me, Knowing You: The True Self in Japanese Cinema,” exploring identity and self-perception across multiple genres.
Miike, known for “13 Assassins,” “Ichi the Killer” and “Audition,” takes a more realist approach with “Sham,” adapting investigative journalist Fukuda Masumi’s report about a teacher falsely accused of child abuse. Go Ayano stars as an elementary school teacher forced into a public apology after allegations from a student’s mother, triggering a media storm and lawsuit. The social critique will receive its UK premiere during the tour.
Other U.K. premieres include Tsutsumi Yukihiko’s “The Hotel of My Dream,” a semi-autobiographical story about author Asako Yuzuki starring Non; Sori Fumihiko’s “Hakkenden: Fiction and Reality,” blending historical drama with epic fantasy battles and starring Koji Yakusho and Seiyo Uchino; and Kumazawa Naoto’s thriller “The Final Piece,” featuring Ken Watanabe and Kentaro Sakaguchi investigating a murder connected to the world of shogi (Japanese chess).
Maeda Tetsu’s “Petals and Memories” stars Ryohei Suzuki and Kasumi Arimura as siblings navigating family secrets. Fujino Tomoaki’s documentary “What Should We Have Done?” examines the director’s own family’s handling of his schizophrenic sister. Iizuka Kasho’s “Blue Boy Trial” explores a groundbreaking case that questioned the legality of gender-affirming surgery in Japan.
Kinoshita Baku’s anime “The Last Blossom” follows an elderly prisoner who befriends his potted plant, with Kaoru Kobayashi and Junki Tozuka voicing the protagonist’s present and past selves.
The program includes Morita Yoshimitsu’s 2003 drama “Like Asura,” based on a popular 1979 NHK series recently re-adapted by Kore-eda Hirokazu for Netflix, telling the story of four sisters reuniting after learning an unsettling family secret.
Classic cinema receives representation through a 4K restoration of Ichikawa Kon’s 1958 psychological drama “Conflagration,” inspired by true events later incorporated into Yukio Mishima’s novel “The Temple of the Golden Pavilion.”
Tamada Shinya’s “I Am What I Am” stars Toko Miura in a story challenging traditional ideals of love and womanhood. Ueda Shinichiro’s action-comedy “Angry Squad: The Civil Servant and the Seven Swindlers” features Seiyo Uchino and Masaki Okada teaming up to take down a crooked real estate tycoon.
Yoshida Daihachi’s “Teki Cometh” adapts celebrated novelist Tsutsui Yasutaka’s work about a retired French literature professor who receives an email warning that an enemy is coming from the north.
Jojo Hideo’s “A Bad Summer” follows a welfare caseworker who discovers a colleague may be coercing a single mother for sex in exchange for benefits. Kai Sayaka’s sci-fi drama “Adabana” stars Arata Iura as a terminally ill man undergoing a revolutionary full-body transplant procedure.
Ishii Yuya’s “The Real You” tackles AI and assisted dying through the story of a factory worker who seeks to bring his dead mother back to life with Virtual Figure technology.
Kondo Ryota’s feature debut “Missing Child Videotape,” produced by “Ju-on” franchise creator Takashi Shimizu, follows a man haunted by his younger brother’s mysterious disappearance who receives a VHS tape capturing the exact moment the boy vanished.
Kensuke Sonomura and writer Yugo Sakomoto’s “Ghost Killer” pairs a university student with the ghost of a murdered hitman in an action film that has played at Beyond Fest, Fantastic Fest and Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival.
Tanaka Seiji’s “The Man Who Failed to Die” blends comedy and the supernatural, starring Katamari Mizukawa as a comedy sketch writer and Bokuzo Masana as a persistent ghost.
Ohku Akiko’s “She Taught Me Serendipity” stars Riku Hagiwara as a university student whose tedious life changes when he meets Hana, played by Yumi Kawai.
Wakamatsu Setsuro’s “Silence of the Sea” features Masahiro Motoki as a solitary painter devoted to pursuing true beauty in a world of art forgery and murder.
Igashi Aya’s “Love Doesn’t Matter to Me” follows three young women scarred by family trauma who redefine love, starring Sara Minami and Fumika Baba.
Kato Takuya’s feature debut “Ura Aka: L’Aventure” stars Kumi Takiuchi as a woman who creates a secret social media account and posts sexually provocative photos, only to see the boundary between persona and self dangerously dissolve.
Furukawa Go’s debut “Kaneko’s Commissary” features Ryuhei Maruyama as a man who runs a commissary service delivering items to prisons and faces a moral crisis when tasked with serving an unrepentant murderer.
Yugo Sakomoto’s “Nemurubaka: Hypnic Jerks,” adapted from the manga by Masakazu Ishiguro, follows two young women as one pursues musical stardom while the other realizes she’s been drifting through life. The film stars Yuna Taira and Shiori Kubo.
Tominaga Masanori’s comedy “Strangers in Kyoto” stars Mai Fukagawa as a Tokyo-based writer who marries into a traditional Kyoto family and inadvertently causes chaos by misunderstanding the city’s culture of honne (true feelings) and tatemae (outward opinions).
The tour will visit 37 venues across the U.K., including London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts, Manchester’s HOME, Edinburgh’s Filmhouse, and regional venues from Aberystwyth to York.
The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation serves as major supporter/
The Japan Foundation Touring Film Program 2026 runs Feb. 6 to March 31, 2026.
variety.com
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