The Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme (JFTFP26), the UK’s largest annual celebration of Japanese cinema, arrives for 2026 with an incredible programme offering audiences the chance to catch up with the latest and greatest selection of cinema to come out of Japan, programmed around this year’s theme Knowing Me, Knowing You: The True Self in Japanese Cinema.
KUROSAWA Akira’s Rashomon (1950), a film that helped introduce Japanese cinema to the world, is a prime example of the ambiguity inherent in comprehending the human self. In the film, conflicting eyewitness testimonies highlight self-deception, as the truth becomes increasingly unclear. Films such as this show how the notion of the self can be easily shaped through imagery and subjectively reconstructed in relation to others by those who perceive it. The films at JFTFP26 under the banner ‘Knowing Me, Knowing You: The True Self in Japanese Cinema’ offer mirror images of the world we inhabit, centring on the theme of the true self and the quest to understand it. From serious social dramas (A Bad Summer) to laugh-out-loud comedies (ANGRY SQUAD: The Civil Servant and the Seven Swindlers; Strangers in Kyoto); from sci-fi (Adabana; The Real You) to horror (Missing Child Videotape); from classics (Conflagration) to recently released films (Petals and Memories; The Final Piece), and including an incredible new work from MIIKE Takashi, one of Japan’s most internationally acclaimed filmmakers (Sham), the programme guarantees something for everyone.
Here is the full programme of 26 features presented by the Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme across the UK from 6 February to 31 March 2026:
Sham (Dir. MIIKE Takashi, 2025 129 min, UK Premiere)
Japanese cinema legend MIIKE Takashi (13 Assassins, 2010; Ichi the Killer, 2001; Audition, 1999) is best known for his wildly innovative genre work, but for his latest, he takes a more realist approach, transforming investigative journalist FUKUDA Masumi’s groundbreaking report Fabrication: The Truth Behind the Fukuoka ‘Murderous Teacher’ Case into a powerful contemporary work. The film tells the story of an elementary school teacher (AYANO Go, Let’s Go Karaoke!, JFTFP25; Rage, 2016; The Story of Yonosuke, 2012) who is forced to publicly apologise after being accused of brutally disciplining a child by the boy’s mother. Depicting the media storm and lawsuit that follows, MIIKE offers up a gripping social critique as well as moral inquiry, challenging us to question what is real, whom to trust, and how fragile the images we create of others truly are.
The Hotel of My Dream (Dir. TSUTSUMI Yukihiko, 2024, 98 min, UK Premiere)
The Hotel of My Dream is a semi-autobiographical story about the author YUZUKI Asako, writer of the UK best-selling book Butter. Transposing the book’s original story from the present day to the 1980s, director TSUTSUMI Yukihiko (Hope, JFTFP25; First Love, JFTFP22) delivers an honest account of the life of a young novelist (Non, The Fish Tale, JFTFP24; Hold Me Back, JFTFP23) who dreams of success within the Japanese literary establishment. Filled with satire and humour, this is a story about one woman’s inexhaustible power to break through.
Hakkenden: Fiction and Reality (Dir. SORI Fumihiko, 2024, 149 min, UK Premiere)
As far back as 1913, the epic Japanese novel Hakkenden has been adapted for film, but this adaptation is different. Director SORI Fumihiko (Pinpon, 2002) blends the intimate true story of the novel’s creation, involving some of Japan’s most renowned artistic historical figures (celebrated novelist TAKIZAWA Bakin, legendary ukiyo-e master Hokusai), with the spectacular fictional battles of eight mythical warriors contained within its story. Some of Japan’s finest actors including YAKUSHO Koji (Perfect Days, 2023; Cure, 1997; Shall We Dance, 1996) and UCHINO Seiyo (First Love, JFTFP22; 13 Assassins, 2010) star alongside some breathtaking visual effects to reveal the truth behind the classic household novel.
The Final Piece (Dir. KUMAZAWA Naoto, 2025, 123 min, UK Premiere)
When a skeletal corpse is unearthed deep in the mountains it becomes the catalyst for a complex case involving dark secrets and illegal gambling in the world of ‘shogi’ – Japanese chess. Internationally renowned actor WATANABE Ken (Inception, 2010; The Last Samurai, 2003) and SAKAGUCHI Kentaro (The Inerasable, JFTFP24; The House Where the Mermaid Sleeps, JFTFP20) excel in a gripping thriller which explores ambition, trauma, and the fine line between brilliance and self-destruction.
What Should We Have Done? (Dir. FUJINO Tomoaki, 2024, 102 min, UK Premiere)
In this deeply personal and emotionally charged documentary, director FUJINO Tomoaki turns the camera on his own family in an attempt to address their troubling handling of his schizophrenic sister. This powerful film has played at the internationally renowned Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival and Taiwan International Documentary Festival and presents a haunting examination of family taboos, human dignity, as well as self-destruction through illness, while posing a question for which there is no correct answer.
Blue Boy Trial (Dir. IIZUKA Kasho, 2025, 106 min, UK Premiere)
Based on the real-life “Blue Boy Incident,” Blue Boy Trial sheds light on a ground-breaking yet long- overlooked case that questioned the legality of gender-affirming surgery and, more profoundly, what it means to find happiness by being your authentic self. With empathy and precision, director IIZUKA Kasho (a transgender man – Angry Son, JFTFP23) and newcomer NAKAGAWA Miyu (a transgender woman) bring to life a moment that reshaped Japan’s understanding of LGBTQ+ issues and continues to resonate today.
The Last Blossom (Dir. KINOSHITA Baku, 2025, 90 min)
Elderly Minoru is serving a life sentence, awaiting a lonely death in his prison cell. The only real sign of life in the cell is a potted hosenka (balsam plant). One night, he begins sharing his life story with the plant and, improbably, it starts talking back. Through their conversations, he recalls his past and reflects on the meaning of his life in director KINOSHITA Baku’s thoughtful and tender anime, which explores love and life’s changes. KOBAYASHI Kaoru and TOZUKA Junki both star as Minoru, as his present and past selves respectively, in this life-affirming animation.
Like Asura (Dir. MORITA Yoshimitsu, 2003, 135 min)
Based on the hugely popular 1979 NHK drama of the same name and recently re-adapted by KOREEDA Hirokazu as a Netflix drama series, this sensitive and layered human drama comes from one of Japan’s most renowned directors, MORITA Yoshimitsu (The Family Game, 1983; Haru, 1996). Its story of the four TAKEZAWA sisters and their reunion upon learning an unsettling family secret won multiple Japanese Academy Film Prize Awards including Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Actress in a Supporting Role.
Conflagration (Dir. ICHIKAWA Kon, 1958, 99 min)
Inspired by true events, later incorporated into MISHIMA Yukio’s classic novel The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, this haunting psychological drama examines the fragile boundary between reverence and fanaticism, revealing the turbulent inner conflicts at the heart of the human condition. A key work of director ICHIKAWA Kon (The Burmese Harp, 1956; An Actor’s Revenge, 1963; Tokyo Olympiad, 1965), the film follows a tortured monk (ICHIKAWA Raizo VIII) consumed by the divine beauty of Shukaku Temple. His disillusionment with a world tainted by vanity, lust and hypocrisy will lead him into a psychological descent and a destructive decision from which there is no return. Presented here in a stunning 4K digital remastered version.
I Am What I Am (Dir. TAMADA Shinya, 2022, 104 min)
A liberating celebration of a woman who faces herself and chooses to live against Japan’s social norms, where traditional love and marriage reign supreme. MIURA Toko (Drive My Car, 2022) leads a fantastic cast of female talent including MAEDA Atsuko (The Lump in My Heart, JFTFP24) and MAEHARA Ko (Netflix series, First Love, 2022) in a story which challenges traditional ideals of love and womanhood. The film has played internationally including at Melbourne Queer Film Festival.
ANGRY SQUAD: The Civil Servant and the Seven Swindlers (Dir. UEDA Shinichiro, 2024, 120 min, UK Premiere)
One Cut of the Dead director UEDA Shinichiro adapts 2016 Korean drama Squad 38 into an action-packed, big screen comic heist, in which a straight-laced tax office employee (UCHINO Seiyo, First Love, JFTFP22; 13 Assassins, 2010) teams up with a genius con artist (OKADA Masaki, Drive My Car, 2022; Confessions, 2010) to form the ‘Angry Squad’ and take down a crooked real estate tycoon (OZAWA Yukiyoshi, Rurouni Kenshin franchise).
Teki Cometh (Dir. YOSHIDA Daihachi, 2023, 108 min, UK Premiere)
From the pen of celebrated Japanese novelist TSUTSUI Yasutaka, whose stories The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (1983, 2006) and Paprika (2006) have previously been translated to screen, comes Teki Cometh, a work the author once considered impossible to film. Director YOSHIDA Daihachi (Kiba: The Fangs of Fiction, JFTFP22; The Scythian Lamb, JFTFP19; Pale Moon, JFTFP17) crafts a visually striking black-and-white tale of a retired French literature professor (NAGATSUKA Kyozo) who lives a quiet, structured life until one day he receives an email containing a chilling message: “An enemy is coming from the north.” He initially dismisses it as a hoax, but gradually, an ominous feeling grows within him. Soon, he begins to experience haunting dreams that seem to expose his deepest sins…Is it all in his imagination?
Petals and Memories (Dir. MAEDA Tetsu, 2025, 118 min, UK Premiere)
Adapted from an award-winning short novel, this heart-warming film is the latest from highly versatile JFTFP favourite MAEDA Tetsu (What Happened to Our Nest Egg!?, JFTFP25; Do Unto Others, JFTFP24; A Banana? At This Time of Night?, JFTFP20). Highly rated and very popular in Japan, this beautifully crafted film stars SUZUKI Ryohei (Egoist, JFTFP24) and ARIMURA Kasumi (Flying Colours, JFTFP17) as siblings navigating a secret that threatens their relationship and a promise made to their late parents.
A Bad Summer (Dir. JOJO Hideo, 2025, 114 min, UK Premiere)
Director JOJO Hideo (Twilight Cinema Blues, JFTFP24) weaves together black comedy and psychological tension with devastating precision in this explosively emotive drama. When shy, introverted welfare department caseworker Mamoru (KITAMURA Takumi, Tokyo Revengers, 2021) learns a colleague may be coercing single mother Aimi (KAWAI Yumi, A Girl Named Ann, JFTFP25) for sex in exchange for welfare benefits, he determines to uncover the truth. Visiting the alleged victim, a personal relationship gradually forms but unbeknownst to Mamoru, Aimi is secretly entangled with a criminal underworld boss, and a nightmarish summer ensues.
Adabana (Dir. KAI Sayaka, 2024, 94 min, UK Premiere)
Acclaimed for her debut feature Red Snow (2019), director KAI Sayaka spent more than 20 years crafting this aesthetically mesmerising philosophical science fiction drama. In the near future, following a mysterious virus, the government promotes technologically cutting-edge, life-extending treatments, such as growing a cloned ‘unit’ of oneself to supply necessary parts when one’s own body begins to fail. When Shinji (IURA Arata, Undercurrent, JFTFP24) is diagnosed as terminally ill he’s put forward for a revolutionary full-body transplant procedure – a journey that will bring him face-to-face with a version of himself unsullied by the outside world.
The Real You (Dir. ISHII Yuya, 2024, 122 min, UK Premiere)
Adapted from the book of the same name by Akutagawa Prize winning novelist HIRANO Keiichiro, this film by seasoned director ISHII Yuya (The Moon, JFTFP25; Sawako Decides, JFTFP11) serves as both a possible glimpse into our future and a critique of advancing technology. The story of a factory worker (IKEMATSU Sosuke, Tokyo Night Sky Is Always the Densest Shade of Blue, JFTFP23) who seeks to bring his dead mother back to life with Virtual Figure (VF) technology, The Real You tackles issues of AI and assisted dying, while confronting audiences with the question of what we might feel when we finally learn the truth about others.
Missing Child Videotape (Dir. KONDO Ryota, 2024, 104 min, UK Premiere)
Produced by J-horror master SHIMIZU Takashi (Ju-on franchise), director KONDO Ryota’s feature-length debut, based on his award-winning short film of the same name, is a slow-burn ghost story steeped in classic J-horror atmosphere. Keita (SUGITA Rairu) is haunted by the guilt he carries over the mysterious disappearance of his younger brother in the mountains. One day, Keita receives a VHS tape from his estranged mother, capturing the exact moment his brother vanished. His friend Tsukasa (HIRAI Amon), who has psychic abilities, senses a dark, lingering presence within the grainy footage and advises him not to get too involved. But Keita, desperate for the truth, returns to the mountains to find out exactly what happened that day…
Ghost Killer (Dir. SONOMURA Kensuke, 2024, 104 min)
This thrilling and kinetic action film comes courtesy of director SONOMURA Kensuke and writer SAKOMOTO Yugo, the team behind recent hit film series Baby Assassins. Delivering sharp humour and high-octane martial arts, this is a heartfelt story of redemption and unlikely partnership between a university student (TAKAISHI Akari) and the ghost of a murdered hitman (MIMOTO Masanori). The film has played at the world’s leading genre film festivals including Beyond Fest, Fantastic Fest, Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival and Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival.
The Man Who Failed to Die (Dir. TANAKA Seiji, 2024, 109 min, UK Premiere)
Blending dry humour with the supernatural, TANAKA Seiji (Melancholic, 2018; Demon City, 2025) delivers a uniquely entertaining film that moves effortlessly between comedy, mystery and unexpected warmth, in a story where the living and the dead find unlikely common ground. Led by MIZUKAWA Katamari of comedy duo Kuuki Kaidan, playing a comedy sketch writer, and co-starring MASANA Bokuzo, who featured in Netflix hit Tokyo Vice, as a persistent ghost with an urgent request.
She Taught Me Serendipity (Dir. OHKU Akiko, 2025, 127 min, UK Premiere)
Director OHKU Akiko (Hold Me Back, JFTFP23; Tremble All You Want, JFTFP19) returns to the JFTFP to deliver a beautifully captured, intensely authentic portrayal of contemporary youth and human connection. The university life of Toru (HAGIWARA Riku) is plagued by tedium. Struggling to find his place, his only joys are the antics of his classmate YAMANE (KUROSAKI Kodai), his sole friend on campus, and Sacchan (ITO Aoi), his musically gifted co-worker. Everything changes when Toru meets Hana (KAWAI Yumi), whose appearance and fearless attitude towards solitude captivates him. But just as Toru starts to rediscover joy in everyday life with Hana, a shocking event strikes them both, transforming their destiny forever.
Silence of the Sea (Dir. WAKAMATSU Setsuro, 2024, 112 min, UK Premiere)
This collaboration between veteran film director WAKAMATSU Setsuro and nationally acclaimed scriptwriter KURAMOTO So poses profound questions about who determines the value of beauty and what we ultimately seek at the end of our lives. Set in a dark world of art forgery and murder, MOTOKI Masahiro’s (Sumo Do, Sumo Don’t, 1992; Departures, 2008) portrayal of a solitary but genius painter who devotes his heart and soul to the pursuit of true beauty, is extraordinary.
Love Doesn’t Matter to Me (Dir. IGASHI Aya, 2025, 109 min, UK Premiere)
Three young women scarred by family trauma regain the courage to redefine love in a moving drama written and directed by rising filmmaker IGASHI Aya (A Crimson Star, 2018), and based on the novel by TAKEDA Ayano. This powerful drama explores issues of toxic parenting, abuse and neglect, all framed within the complex bonds of love and highlighting the strength and resilience of young women, free from the shackles of pity. It stars MINAMI Sara (The Good Father, 2022) and BABA Fumika (Rude to Love, JFTFP25).
Ura Aka: L’Aventure (Dir. KATO Takuya, 2020, 101 min, UK Premiere)
This striking feature debut from director KATO Takuya explores the desires and frustrations that women face in contemporary life, seen through the lens of secret social media identities. The film follows a woman (TAKIUCHI Kumi) who’s frustrated at work and life until she creates a secret social media account, an ‘ura aka’, and begins posting sexually provocative photos for thrills and validation, but the boundary between persona and self begins to dangerously dissolve when the online world seeps into reality…
Kaneko’s Commissary (Dir. FURUKAWA Go, 2025, 125 min, UK Premiere)
Earnest and hardworking Shinji (MARUYAMA Ryuhei) runs a small commissary service delivering items to prisons and detention centres on behalf of inmates’ families. When the classmate of his son is found murdered and Shinji is tasked with delivering the goods to the unrepentant murderer, his anger towards the man and doubt about his own work grows. In his debut feature, director FURUKAWA Go masterfully tells an original story of conflicted emotions and the truths that lie beneath the surface.
NEMURUBAKA: Hypnic Jerks (Dir. SAKOMOTO Yugo, 2025, 106 min)
A tender and stirring portrait of youth, ambition and the bonds of sisterhood, NEMURUBAKA: Hypnic Jerks is adapted from the popular manga by ISHIGURO Masakazu and directed by SAKOMOTO Yugo of the hit Baby Assassins trilogy. A tender story about ambition, sisterhood, and finding your own path, the film follows two young women, one (TAIRA Yuna) who follows her dreams to musical stardom which causes the other (KUBO Shiori, River, 2023), to realise she’s been drifting through life.
Strangers in Kyoto (Dir. TOMINAGA Masanori, 2025, 96 min, UK Premiere)
Determined to understand the exquisite essence of Kyoto after recently marrying the 14th-generation heir to a traditional folding-fan shop in the city, Tokyo-based freelance writer Madoka (FUKAGAWA Mai, Photograph of Memories, 2021) sets out to write a comic essay about life in the city’s historic businesses and the centuries of tradition they embody. Unfortunately, as an outsider, Madoka is unaware of Kyoto’s culture of honne (true feelings) and tatemae (outward opinions) and soon comes under fire from angry locals in this a laugh-out-loud comedy directed by TOMINAGA Masanori (Pumpkin and Mayonnaise, JFTFP19).
The Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2026 takes place in cinemas around the UK from 6 February to 31 March 2026
For further information visit their website.
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