The Thousands

When you think Japanese cinema, you probably think about anime, right? Or samurai flicks. Or mind-f*ck horror. Or a lurid blend of bizarre sex and graphic violence. For 12 years now, The Japan Foundation has been bringing discerning cinemagoers all this… and much, much more!

Like wasabi hitting your sinuses, the festival kicks off with plot-twisting crime comedy AFTER SCHOOL. Three high school alumni and a dodgy detective get tangled in a web of deceit as they trace a missing businessman.**Our other picks include ski-action rom-com SEASON OF SNOW, cult anime EVANGELION 1.0: YOU ARE (NOT) ALONE, incredibly silly lo-res creature flick MONSTER X STRIKES BACK: ATTACK THE G8 SUMMIT, and LOVE AND HONOUR, a period drama that scooped the 2007 Japanese Academy Awards. Blinded by poison, a young samurai must win his wife back by defeating a dastardly swordsman.

The festival ends with DEPARTURES, Japan’s official entry to the 2009 Oscars. This movie about an unemployed cellist who becomes a mortician could have been a total bummer, but you’ll leave DEPARTURES punching the air and going, "Woo-hoo, I’m alive!"