Japanese Film Festival

Overview

Samurai! Robots! Sword-fighting school girls! It can only be Japanese cinema.

The Japanese Film Festival, which started on November 29 and will be screening at both ACMI and Hoyts Melbourne Central, is far from being a straight forward ninja fest. The program covers an eclectic range, from opening nighter Thermae Romae, about an Ancient Roman architect travelling forward in time in search of modern toilets, to A Terminal Trust, a pensive drama tackling the hard topic of euthanasia, to Helter Skelter, a thriller set in a beauty-obsessed world of celebrity and plastic surgery. ACMI is also running a free program of sixties classics from Yasuzo Masumura, one of the key figures in Japan’s answer to the New Wave.

Now in its sixteenth year, the festival showcases the wonderful diversity of Japanese film, challenging audience expectations and defying cultural cliches. Although the sword-fighting school girls will be there too.