The Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme (JFTFP26), the UK’s largest annual celebration of Japanese cinema, arrives for 2026 with an incredible programme offering audiences the chance to catch up with the latest and greatest selection of cinema to come out of Japan, programmed around this year’s theme Knowing Me, Knowing You: The True Self in Japanese Cinema.
KUROSAWA Akira’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 (A Bad Summer) to laugh-out-loud comedies (ANGRY SQUAD: The Civil Servant and the Seven Swindlers; Strangers in Kyoto); from sci-fi (Adabana; The Real You) to horror (Missing Child Videotape); from classics (Conflagration) to recently released films (Petals and Memories; The Final Piece), and including an incredible new work from MIIKE Takashi, one of Japan’s most internationally acclaimed filmmakers (Sham), the programme guarantees something for everyone.
