化け猫あんずちゃん (Bake-neko Anzu-chan)

The Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2025

Dir. KUNO Yoko, YAMASHITA Nobuhiro
2024| 97 mins | Japan
Japanese with English Subtitles
MORIYAMA Mirai, GOTO Noa

One rainy day, a temple’s chief priest finds a kitten crying inside a cardboard box. He names the cat Anzu and raises it with love and care. But…30 years on, not only is Anzu still alive, he can also speak human language and does human things, from travelling around on a moped to working part-time as a masseuse!

One day, the head priest’s son (voiced by AOKI Munetaka), returns to the temple with a huge debt and an11-year-old daughter Karin (voiced by GOTO Noa). Anzu, the cat, reluctantly accepts his request to look after the emotionally-drained girl, who is fed up with her father’s absence and pining for her mother who has died. Karin is not impressed with the oafish, oversized ginger cat.

Together, Anzu, the cat and Karin, the girl, make a day trip to Tokyo, but things get entirely out of control when an unexpected detour, by way of an out-of-service toilet, invokes the wrath of a legion of infernal demons…

Directed in live action by YAMASHITA Nobuhiro and rotoscoped under the direction of KUNO Yoko, Ghost Cat Anzu is a charming French-Japanese co-production that blends reality with fantasy and deadpan with tenderness.

The Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2025
Am I Right?
Justice, Justification and Judgement in Japanese Cinema

The UK’s biggest festival of Japanese cinema, the Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme (JFTFP), is back for its latest and greatest instalment!

In a world where injustice runs rampant, cinematic expressions of justice seem inexhaustible: time and time again, heroic protagonists fend off malicious antagonists or enact their revenge, the constant injustices they face mirroring audiences’ own. Japan is no exception to this, and the JFTFP25 promises to showcase how Japanese filmmakers use the language of cinema to explore the concepts of criminal, social, and moral justice, along with the ways people respond to external judgement. Featuring everything from thought-provoking hidden gems to laugh-a-minute entertainment, UK audiences are invited to join us in questioning the very concepts of justice, justification, and judgement against today’s backdrop of ever-changing values and perspectives

In collaboration with:

Major supporter: Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation

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Sponsors in Kind: Athletia, Calbee, Clearspring, Pentel and SUQQU

VENUE: EXETER PHOENIX, STUDIO 74

*Subject to a £1.50 ticketing system charge. We don’t charge this to make a profit. Find out more >>