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Penguin Highway Included in 2019 Japan Touring Programme

There will be a touring programme of Japanese films from February 2 to March 28 2019, including the anime film Penguin Highway. The Penguin Highway screening details will be put up here.

Most screening details are not confirmed yet, with the exception of the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal (Tuesday March 14, 8.15 p.m.), available here.

Films from the Touring Programme, which is mounted by The Japan Foundation, will be shown at the following venues, although it's not confirmed if Penguin Highway will be screened at all of them: ICA London; Phoenix, Leicester; Depot, Lewes; HOME, Manchester; Tyneside, Newcastle; QUAD, Derby; Showroom Cinema, Sheffield; University of Stirling; Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling; Dundee Contemporary Arts; Queen's Film Theatre, Belfast; Filmhouse, Edinburgh; Watershed, Bristol; Firestsite, Colchester; Broadway, Nottingham; Exeter Phoenix; and Eden Court, Inverness.

Two other venues have already confirmed some screenings from the touring programme, but Penguin Highway is not among the listings at these venues. They are Storyhouse, Chester and Square Chapel, Halifix.

Other screenings in the touring programme include the following live-action films:

One is Destiny - Kamakura Monogatari, the live-action film adaptation of Ryohei Saigan's Kamakura Monogatari manga. Takashi Yamazaki (Always: Sunset on Third Street, Stand By Me Doraemon) directed the film, wrote the script, and handled the visual effects. The manga's story centers on mystery writer Masakazu Isshiki, who lives with his wife Akiko in Kamakura, as they encounter strange incidents and creatures such as kappa and gods of poverty. The trailer below shows the main characters, the married couple Masakazu and Akiko Isshiki, and their encounters with supernatural beings.

Another film being screened in the programme is the live-action adaptation of Kiriko Nananan's Kabocha to Mayonnaise (Pumpkin and Mayonnaise) manga. The manga focused on the relationship between Tsuchida and Seiichi, a couple living together trying to make ends meet. Seiichi is a musician and songwriter in a band that dreams big, and Tsuchida works at a clothing store to support them, but sometimes still thinks about her ex-boyfriend Hagio. Tsuchida follows the lead of a friend to work at a hostess bar for extra money, but gives in to the sexual advances of a client. When Seiichi finds out, the couple begin to grow more distant, especially after Hagio's sudden re-entry into Tsuchida's life.

Another film being screened is the live-action version of Tatsuhiko Yamagami and Mikio Igarashi's Hitsuji no Ki (The Sheep's Tree or The Scythian Lamb) manga. The manga's story is set in a former seaport town that becomes the center of a secret government project. The project involves sending former convicts to live in the town, with almost no one in the town aware that they are former criminals. The story depicts the tension between the former convicts, whose intentions are unknown, and the citizens. Ryo Nishikido stars in the lead role as Hajime Tsukisue, a kind-hearted public servant who is one of the few who know about the government project central to the story.