Celebration of Japanese cinema tours to Sheffield
Japanese film is celebrated in the biggest festival of its kind in the UK which a cinema in Sheffield is hosting.
Hidden gems and laugh-a-minute entertainment are among the nine offerings at The Showroom from February 9-28.
The programme, which is titled Am I Right? Justice, Justification, and Judgement in Japanese Cinema, includes these highlights:
*We Make Antiques! (director Take Masaharu) on February 11. Antiques Roadshow meets Ocean’s Eleven as a wheeler dealer and shady ceramicist team up for a generational heist.
*Ichiko on February 17. A woman in her mid-20s disappears without a trace and when her boyfriend tries to file a report, the police inform him there is no record of her existence. Toda Skihiro, the director of this multi award-winning film, joins for an in-person question and answer session.
* Ghost Cat Anzu (directors Kuno Yoko, Yamashita Nobuhiro) on February 23.This animated adventure sees a moped-driving, ginger cat become a
reluctant babysitter to an 11-year-old girl.
*Let’s Go Karaoke! (director Yamashita Nobuhiro), on February 25. The lieutenant of organised crime group Yakza seeks singing lessons, to avoid the humiliating “horror” that awaits the loser of his gang’s karaoke competition.
The festival closes on February 28 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.
For the full line-up of screenings in The Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2025, go to www.showroomworkstation.org.uk