From the heart-warming to the tear-jerking and hair-raising, the Japanese Film Festival returns across Australia for its 28th rendition from September 24 to November10 with an ensemble of the best new features from Japanese cinema.

This year’s program highlights a standout selection of ten fresh feature films from Japan and a free retrospective Special Series celebrating the works of the trailblazing filmmaker Shohei Imamura.

The festival will open with the feel-good opening night film, Mom, Is That You?!, a heart-warming ode to family and love and a timely and subtle social commentary on Japanese workplace culture, directed by legendary Yoji Yamada and starring four-time Japan Academy Award winner Sayuri Yoshinaga.

Audience can also catch Shadow of Fire, a heartfelt historical drama directed, written and produced by cult director Shinya Tsukamoto, revolving around a family of choice formed between a sex worker, a young orphan boy and a demobilised soldier as they are caught amongst the ruins of World War II.

Comedy buffs are in for a double feature of laughter with the whimsical comedy A Samurai in Time paying homage to Seizo Fukumoto, Japan’s most famous samurai stuntman with a record 50,000 on-screen deaths; and The Dancing Okami, when traditional Japanese hospitality meets modern tap dancing in a last-ditch attempt to save a beloved small town, inspired by the real-life tourism campaign Lady Kaga promoting Kaga Onsen in Ishikawa Prefecture.

Young moviegoers and nostalgic adults alike can catch The Imaginary, the animated masterpiece directed by Yoshiyuki Momose, who has worked on key animations for Ghibli films including Spirited Away and Whisper of the Heart. This hand-drawn and hand-painted visual feast, adapted from the critically acclaimed children’s novel by A. F. Harold, explores the limitless potential of children’s imagination.