Bake-neko Anzu-chan

This award-winning animation is what you get when you combine the fantasy of ‘My Neighbour Totoro’ with the deadpan humour and reality of everyday life.

When a temple's chief priest finds a kitten crying, he names it Anzu and decides to look after it. 30 years later, it turns out that the cat is no ordinary cat, it can now speak and live like a human. Anzu (voiced by Moriyama Mirai) travels around on a moped and works part-time as a masseuse. One day, the head priest's son (Aoki Munetaka), a long-estranged and shifty widower with huge debts, returns to the temple with his 11-year-old daughter Karin (Goto Noa). Anzu the cat reluctantly accepts his request to look after the emotionally-drained girl. This is an incredibly charming French-Japanese co-production brings together two directors from different mediums to create this irreverent fable about bridging the human world and the afterlife. Audience Award winner for Best Animated Feature at the Fantasia International Film Festival 2024. (Subtitles)

Japan 2024 Kuno Yoko & Yamashita Nobuhiro 97m

Samurai Taimusurippaa

A clever, funny and distinctly Japanese time-travel film that sees a real samurai crash-lands in the middle of a jidaigeki (Japanese period drama) production.

As the Edo period (1603-1868) draws to its dramatic close, two swordsmen clash with a political foe. They are interrupted by a flash of lightning, heralding a bizarre paranormal event, and Kosaka Shinzaemon (Yamaguchi Makiya) awakens to find himself... in a quiet lane in Kyoto. His confusion turns to alarm when among the locals clad in the robes of old Japan, he sees people wearing unfamiliar attire. Even the folks who seem ordinary to him are behaving oddly – it turns out he’s travelled several centuries forward in time, landing right in the middle of a 21stcentury film set! Award-winning director Yasuda Junichi offers a remarkably poignant comedy drama, nailed down by the subtle and convincing performance of experienced jidaigeki actor Yamaguchi Makiya. The film is more than just a fun fish-out-of-water fantasy: it’s an homage to the waning genre of samurai cinema. Audience Award winner for Best Asian Feature at the 2024 Fantasia International Film Festival. (Subtitles)

Japan 2024 Yasuda Junichi 131m