The Japan Foundation's film programme "Once Upon a Time in Japan" played to great success in London earlier this month and is now on tour across the country. This year's showcase of contemporary Japanese cinema examines the country's past through the eyes of contemporary filmmakers such as Hirokazu Koreeda and Takashi Miike. The film programme features works by both established and lesser known filmmakers whose aim is to reinterpret, reinvent or relive moments of times past.

Films included in the programme are:

Zero Focus (Zero no shoten), United Red Army (Jitsuroku Rengo Sekigun: Asama sanso e no michi), Rebirth (Yokame no semi), Castle Under Fiery Skies (Katen no shiro), Ninja Kids!!! (Nintama rantaro), Bubble Fiction: Boom or Bust (Baburu e go! Taimu mashin wa doramu-shiki), The Blossoming of Etsuko Kamiya (Kamiya Etsuko no seishun), Mai Mai Miracle (Mai Mai Shinko to sennen no maho), Kaidan Horror Classics (Ayashiki bungo kaidan - Hazakura to mateki/Hana/Nochino hi), Hula Girls (Hura Garu).





"Once Upon a Time in Japan" will be showing at the following venues:

Showroom Workstation, Sheffield
8 February - 17 February

mac birmingham, Birmingham
18 February - 27 March

Queen's Film Theatre, Belfast
22 February - 28 February

Filmhouse, Edinburgh
1 March - 7 March

Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle upon Tyne
3 March - 24 March

Watershed Bristol
9 March - 16 March

Broadway, Nottingham
22 March - 27 March

Bubble Fiction: Boom or Bust (Baburu e go! Taimu mashin wa doramu-shiki)

Castle Under Fiery Skies (Katen no shiro)
© CASTLE UNDER FIERY SKIES Production Committee

Mai Mai Miracle (Mai Mai Shinko to sennen no maho)
© 2009 Nobuko Takagi/MAGAZINE HOUSE/"MAIMAISHINKO"film committee

The Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme is produced and organised by the Japan Foundation with kind support from the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation and Japan Airlines.

For details on film listings, please visit http://www.jpf-film.org.uk/

JICC