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 dystopic futures; ‘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, 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.