News
Japan Touring Film Programme Update
posted on by Andrew Osmond
The website for the touring programme of Japanese films from February to March has been updated since the report in December, including changes to the scheduled screening dates.
The programme includes the Madhouse anime film Mai Mai Miracle, and Takashi Miike's live-action Ninja Kids!!!, adapted from an anime series.
The venues and dates are the following:
ICA London: February 1 - 7, including Ninja Kids!!! on February 2 and Mai Mai Miracle on February 3.
Showroom Workstation, Sheffield: February 8 - 17, including Ninja Kids!!! on February 9 and Mai Mai Miracle on February 16.
mac birmingham: February 18 - 27, but neither Ninja Kids!!! nor Mai Mai Miracle is currently listed at relevant page.
Queen's Film Theatre, Belfast: February 22 - 28, including Ninja Kids!!! on February 23 and 24; Mai Mai Miracle on February 24.
Filmhouse, Edinburgh: March 1 - March 7, including Mai Mai Miracle on March 2 and Ninja Kids!!! on March 6.
Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle Upon Tyne: March 3 to March 24, including Mai Mai Miracle on March 17 and Ninja Kids!!! on March 24.
Watershed, Bristol: March 8 - 16, including Mai Mai Miracle on March 9 and Ninja Kids!!! on March 16.
Broadway, Nottingham: March 22 - 27, including Mai Mai Miracle on March 23.
Directed by Sunao Katabuchi, Mai Mai Miracle is adapted from Nobuko Takagi's Mai Mai Miracle (Mai Mai Shinko to Sennen no Mahō) novel. The story is set in 1955 in a town in southwestern Japan, where a nine-year-old girl named Shinko has an ancient family connection to a thousand-year-old province known as Suō. Shinko joins Kiiko, a new transfer student from her school, on a magical adventure.
Directed by Takashi Miike, Ninja Kids!!! is a live-action film adaptation of the long-running children's anime and manga Nintama Rantaro. In the film, Rantaro (8 year-old actor Seishirō Katō) and his fellow ninja apprentices train at an elite ninja academy and face various challenges and eccentric characters. The anime began in 1993 and ran for 19 seasons and about 1,500 episodes on NHK.
The tour programme, called "Once Upon a Time in Japan." is organised by The Japan Foundation.
