CINEMATIC JAPAN: FILMS THAT CAPTIVATED THE WORLD

A Timeless Classic and a Vital Documentary

Venue(s): Kawakita Film Museum
From April 14 (Tue) - May 17 (Sun), 2026. The screenings with English subtitles are scheduled on 6 days.
Language: Japanese with English subtitles
Official website: kamakura-kawakita.org/screening00/cinematic_japan/
Theater website: kamakura-kawakita.org/en/home-2/
Theater website: kamakura-kawakita.org/screening/202604141400/
Theater website: kamakura-kawakita.org/screening/202605131400/
Tariff: Check the theater websites.
Advance tickets: Visit theater site for details.

Title: シネマティック・ジャパン ―世界を魅了した日本映画たち (CINEMATIC JAPAN: Sekia wo Miryoshita Nippn Eigatachi)

The beautiful Kawakita Film Museum in Kamakura is highlighting canonical Japanese films for two full months in Cinematic Japan: Films That Captivated the World, a wide-ranging program that moves from silent-era experimentation to international co-productions and late-20th-century hits. While just two titles in the lineup are confirmed to include English subtitles, we encourage you to explore the full schedule, since there are many gems.

Beyond the two subbed screenings, the program itself is expansive: from Woman in the Dunes and Kwaidan to Rashomon, Ran and later titles like Love Letter. You’ll also want to spend time exploring the small cinema museum outside the theater.

Screening Information
English-Subtitled Screenings Only

Ugetsu / 雨月物語
1953, Dir.: Kenji Mizoguchi
Language: Japanese with English subtitles

Screening dates:
April 14 (Tue), 2026
April 16 (Thu), 2026
April 17 (Fri), 2026
April 19 (Sun), 2026

The ghostly period drama Ugetsu (Ugetsu Monogatari, 1953), directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, is screening across four dates in April with subtitles. One of the most internationally celebrated works of Japanese cinema, it’s set during the chaos of civil war and follows two men—one seduced by ambition, the other by desire—whose moral failings lead them into an oneiric world where the boundary between the living and the dead dissolves.

Mizoguchi’s long takes and fluid camera movements lend the film an eerie calm, as if tragedy were unfolding in slow, inevitable currents. Even decades after its premiere at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the Silver Lion, Ugetsu retains its unsettling power.

Filming Akira Kurosawa / 映画の中の黒澤明
1985, Dir.: Mitsuhiko Kawamura
Japanese & English with subtitles

Screening dates:
May 13 (Wed), 2026
May 17 (Sun), 2026

The second subtitled film in the series is the documentary Filming Akira Kurosawa, directed by Mitsuhiko Kawamura. Screening in May with both Japanese and English subtitles, the film offers a rare, reflective look at the iconic director during the production of Ran (1985). The revealing behind-the-scenes film took some 40 years to see the light of day, since the footage first went missing for 13 years, then was not viewable until technology finally made it possible to play old U-matic tapes.

Kawamura's approach to the master does not mythologize him; it’s less a conventional making-of than a meditation on Kurosawa’s working methods, visual thinking, and philosophical concerns. Observing the director at work, the film quietly reveals how precision, patience, and scale come together in one of cinema’s most exacting creative processes.

As the production notes put it: “The film avoids retrospective narration or academic interpretation. Instead, it lets Kurosawa speak through his actions and words on set… Filming Akira Kurosawa is not only a record of how Ran was made—it is a testament to Kurosawa’s enduring belief in humanity, and in the power of cinema.”

Kawakita Film Museum