The Japan-UK Season of Culture is proud to partner with the BFI as they present Japan 2021: 100 Years of Japanese Cinema. Running until the end of the year, the two-part season aims to showcase the best of Japan's iconic cinematic legacy and bring it to audiences nationwide.

For a list of films involved in the first part of BFI Japan 2021 and more details on how to book your place, please consult the full programme.

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A Message from the BFI

"We have long carried a torch for Japanese film here at the BFI. Since the first BFI London Film Festival opened with Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood in 1957, we’ve played a vital role in bringing the cinema of this culturally rich nation to UK audiences through our festivals, seasons, theatrical distribution, books and video publishing. In this major season we spotlight filmmakers who have inspired admiration and fascination around the world. We begin our story with the Golden Age of Japanese studio production and take a side-long glance at the netherworlds of J-horror.

These tumultuous years saw the rise of a studio system to rival Hollywood’s, in which popular genres and glittering stars co-existed with uniquely Japanese traditions, and filmmakers such as Kenji Mizoguchi, Yasujirô Ozu, Mikio Naruse and Akira Kurosawa crafted films that rank among the supreme masterpieces of world cinema. Yet alongside these canonical greats lies a world of cinematic riches often neglected in the west. This selection of films charts the artistic ferment that emerged from a country torn between tradition and modernity, militarism and democracy, its indigenous culture and western influence – tensions that produced truly captivating cinema.

The season also includes a BFI re-release of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (1954), a BFI Player collection focusing on Akira Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu, screenings in partnership with the BFI Film Audiences Network at selected cinemas across the UK and a tour of classic Japanese films at cinemas UK-wide."