About

'Cult Japan' celebrates the strange and outrageous in post-war Japanese cinema. The program includes underground and cult classics; Japan's unique variation on horror and action cinema; and the excessive, surreal and kitsch depictions of love, revenge and technology that have made Japanese genre cinema an international success.

'Cult Japan' is presented across a series of thematic strands: Strange Creatures and Dark Cities brings together science fiction and monster movies alongside anime favourites and films imagining a future of machines and social disorder; Cursed People and Places features allegories of human existence and karma expressed through ghost stories and the representation of strange and malevolent forces; Tough Guys and Dangerous Women includes stories of honour and vengeance drawn from the tradition of Japanese yakuza and exploitation cinema; and The Body Electric explores the body and technology and the boundaries of desire, morality and physical transformation. These strands are accompanied by a retrospective of Hayao Miyazaki, Japan's most celebrated animator and director whose hand-crafted fables explore the environment, social justice and the adventures of young women growing up.