Like Asura (Dir. Yoshimitsu Morita, 2003) Credit: © 2003 TOHO CO., LTD. HAKUHODO INC. THE MAINICHI NEWSPAPERS. NIPPON SHUPPAN HANBAI INC.
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We love a bit of cinema here in Manchester, and with festivals celebrating all kinds of world cinema and genres, it’s no surprise the UK’s largest annual celebration of Japanese cinema is coming to town – plus, it’s two brand new Greater Manchester locations. The Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme (JFTFP26) arrives in Manchester for 2026 this February, with an incredible programme offering audiences the chance to catch up with the latest and greatest selection of cinema to come out of Japan.
The films this year are programmed around the theme ‘Knowing Me, Knowing You: The True Self in Japanese Cinema‘ – exploring the concept of the self, through the medium of film, of course.
Blue Boy Trial (Dir. Kasho Iizuka, 2025) Credit: © 2025 “Blue Boy Trial” Film Partners/Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2026
Akira Kurosawa’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 to laugh-out-loud comedies; from sci-fi to horror; from classics to recently released films, and including an incredible new work from the iconic Takashi Miike, one of Japan’s most internationally acclaimed filmmakers, the programme guarantees something for everyone.
Highlights on the 2026 Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme: Sham (Dir. Takashi Miike, 2025, UK Premiere) 
Sham (Dir. Takashi Miike, 2025) Credit: Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2026
Japanese cinema legend Takashi Miike is best known for his wildly innovative genre work, but for his latest, he takes a more realist approach, transforming investigative journalist Masumi Fukuda’s ground-breaking 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 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. Yukihiko Tsutsumi, 2024, UK Premiere) 
The Hotel of My Dream (Dir. Yukihiko Tsutsumi, 2024) Credit: © 2012 Asako Yuzuki:Shinchosha © 2024 “The Hotel of my Dream” Film Partners
The Hotel of My Dream is a semi-autobiographical story about the author Asako Yuzuki, writer of the UK best-selling book Butter. Transposing the book’s original story from the present day to the 1980s, director Yukihiko Tsutsumi delivers an honest account of the life of a young novelist 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. Fumihiko Sori, 2024, UK Premiere) 
Hakkenden: Fiction and Reality (Dir. Fumihiko Sori, 2024) Credit: © 2024 Hakkenden Fiction and Reality Film Partners
As far back as 1913, the epic Japanese novel Hakkenden has been adapted for film, but this adaptation is different. Director Fumihiko Sori blends the intimate true story of the novel’s creation, involving some of Japan’s most renowned artistic historical figures, with the spectacular fictional battles of eight mythical warriors contained within its story. Some of Japan’s finest actors including Koji Yakusho and Seiyo Uchino star alongside some breath-taking visual effects to reveal the truth behind the classic household novel.
Full programme presented by the Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme across the UK from 6 February to 31 March 2026:
- The Final Piece (Dir. Naoto Kumazawa, 2025, UK Premiere)
- What Should We Have Done? (Dir. Tomoaki Fujino, 2024, UK Premiere)
- Blue Boy Trial (Dir. Kasho Iizuka, 2025, UK Premiere)
- The Last Blossom (Dir. Baku Kinoshita, 2025)
- Like Asura (Dir. Yoshimitsu Morita, 2003)
- Conflagration (Dir. Kon Ichikawa, 1958)
- I Am What I Am (Dir. Shinya Tamada, 2022)
- ANGRY SQUAD: The Civil Servant and the Seven Swindlers (Dir. Shinichiro Ueda, 2024, UK Premiere)
- Teki Cometh (Dir. Daihachi Yoshida, 2023, UK Premiere)
- Petals and Memories (Dir. Tetsu Maeda, 2025, UK Premiere)
- A Bad Summer (Dir. Hideo Jojo, 2025, UK Premiere)
- Adabana (Dir. Sayaka Kai, 2024, UK Premiere)
- The Real You (Dir. Yuya Ishii, 2024, UK Premiere)
- Missing Child Videotape (Dir. Ryota Kondo, 2024, UK Premiere)
- Ghost Killer (Dir. Kensuke Sonomura, 2024)
- The Man Who Failed to Die (Dir. Seiji Tanaka, 2024, UK Premiere)
- She Taught Me Serendipity (Dir. Akiko Ohku, 2025, UK Premiere)
- Silence of the Sea (Dir. Setsuro Wakamatsu, 2024, UK Premiere)
- Love Doesn’t Matter to Me (Dir. Aya Igashi, 2025, UK Premiere)
- Ura Aka: L’Aventure (Dir. Takuya Kato, 2020, UK Premiere)
- Kaneko’s Commissary (Dir. Go Furukawa, 2025, UK Premiere)
- NEMURUBAKA: Hypnic Jerks (Dir. Yugo Sakomoto, 2025)
- Strangers in Kyoto (Dir. Masanori Tominaga, 2025, UK Premiere)
Conflagration (Dir. Kon Ichikawa, 1958) Credit: © 1958 Kadokawa Pictures North West touring programme dates & venues
You can find tickets for The Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme here.