The Japanese Film Festival (JFF) returns for its 22nd edition, once again bringing Malaysians another exciting showcase of Japanese cinema. Running from 8 September in the Klang Valley, and running across four other regions until 18 October 2026, the JFF will feature 14 carefully curated Japanese films spanning diverse genres.
Organised by the Japan Foundation, JFF has grown into one of the country’s most anticipated international film events. Over the last two decades, the festival has attracted more than 200,000 festival-goers, screened 215 films, presented over 128 directors and film representatives to Malaysian audiences, and hosted 11 fringe events across 11 venues in five states and regions.
This year, audiences can look forward to a Special Screening of KOKUHO on 9 September at GSC Mid Valley and GSC MyTOWN, as well as a prelude screening of the beloved classic Tora-san, Our Lovable Tramp on 5 September. Complementing the film line-up are two 4K remastered classics, including one from the legendary director Akira Kurosawa, offering audiences a chance to rediscover classic Japanese films in restored quality.
2026 Programme
- Bring Him Down to A Portable Size (兄を持ち運べるサイズに): When Riko is informed by police of her estranged brother’s death, she travels to Tohoku to settle his affairs. Filled with resentment, she sets about clearing his chaotic home, but encounters a different side of the brother she thought she knew through the eyes of his ex-wife, daughter and son.
As she is forced to confront her assumptions, Riko uncovers the truth behind a man whose flaws masked a silent struggle and a deep devotion to his children. From director Nakano Ryota (Her Love Boils Bathwater) comes a tender dramedy about family, grief and forgiveness.
- Chimney Town: Frozen in Time (映画 えんとつ町のプペル 約束の時計台): After losing his friend Poupelle, the boy Lubicchi wanders into the mysterious realm known as the Millennium Fortress, where a clock tower is frozen at 11:59. To return home, he must restart it—and find the courage to believe again.
- One Last Love Letter (人はなぜラブレターを書くのか): As a girl Nazuna never sent her first love letter to a boy she always saw but never spoke with. 24 years later, a truth causes Nazuna to remember the boy she thought long forgotten.
- SAMURAI VENGEANCE (木挽町のあだ討ち): After a gruesome public beheading shocks Edo, one man searches for the hidden truth behind the avenger’s motives.
- SUZUKI=BAKUDAN (爆弾): Is Suzuki a psychic, a terrorist or something else entirely? As bombs explode across Tokyo, every riddle brings investigators closer to disaster.
- Throne of Blood (蜘蛛巣城): Fog descends on Spider’s Web castle as morality and illusion intertwine. Washizu is loyal at first but ambition and the manipulative Lady Asaji set the samurai on a bloodletting path that quickly turns to madness.
- You are the Film (君は映画): The long-awaited directorial debut of Makoto Ueda, founder of the legendary Japanese theatre troupe “Europe Kikaku” and one of Japan’s most famous playwrights, who wrote the screenplays for such award-winning films as Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes, River, Summertime Machine Blues, The Night Is Short, Walk On Girl, Rewrite and many more.
Feature: Girl Power
- FUJIKO: In the middle of a raging storm and a hospital blackout, Fujiko brings her daughter Mari into the world. Yet joy quickly turns to heartbreak when her husband’s family tears them apart, kidnapping the newborn in a display of cruelty. With her mother’s support, Fujiko fights back to reclaim her child and emerges victorious.
Defying judgement, tradition, and societal pressures, Fujiko chooses the grittiest path of them all, to raise Mari as a single mother and chase the freedom and vitality she longs for. What follows is a wild, deeply human ride of laughter, struggle, and resilience.
- Hula Girls -4K Remastered- (フラガール 4K): The year is 1965, and Iwaki City in Fukushima Prefecture is on the brink of industrial decline and soaring unemployment as Japan shifts from domestic coal to imported oil. In an effort to save the community, the local mining company launches an ambitious plan to build a lavish Hawaiian resort, complete with hot springs and hula girl dancers.
Hirayama Madoka, a strict dance instructor from Tokyo, is tasked with training the troupe, and quickly learns that shaping a group of small-town girls into polished hula performers is no easy feat. Directed by Lee Sang-il (KOKUHO), this 4K remastered edition of the 2006 classic brings renewed vibrancy to the beloved original.
- PUREHEARTED (風のマジム): Iha Majimu lives with her grandmother Kamal, who runs a tofu shop in Naha, and her mother Sayoko, and works as a contract employee for a telecommunications company. Majimu is the name her grandmother gave her, meaning “sincerity” in the Okinawan dialect.
At a bar she always frequents with her grandmother, Majimu becomes obsessed with rum and discovers that its ingredient is sugar cane. When an in-house venture competition is held, Majimu enters a project to make rum from sugarcane grown on Minami Daito Island, but it soon develops into a major project involving her family, the company and the islanders…
Yamada Yoji Retrospective
- A DISTANT CRY FROM SPRING (遥かなる山の呼び声): Director Yoji Yamada and acclaimed actor Ken Takakura from “The Yellow Handkerchief” team up again for an emotional story about a man running away from the law and a mother who struggles to run a ranch that her late husband left her in Nakashibetsu.
One day, a man comes in search of a place to stay, but leaves the next morning. The next summer, he returns and asks Tamiko to hire him. Just like “The Yellow Handkerchief,” this humanistic story is set in a cozy community in the Konsen Plains of Hokkaido, where the seasons pass by slowly.
- TOKYO TAXI (TOKYOタクシー): Film veteran Yamada Yoji returns with his 91st feature, a moving reflection on memory, compassion and human connection. Usami Koji is a hardworking but financially stretched taxi driver, hired to transport his elderly passenger Takano Sumire from Tokyo to a nursing home in Kanagawa.
Initially guarded with one another, Sumire’s warmth gradually draws out a tenderness from beneath Koji’s reserved exterior. As the streets of Tokyo pass by outside the window, Sumire begins to share the story of her life, and neither her nor Koji will be left unchanged by the time they arrive at their destination.
- TORA-SAN’S MANY SPLINTERED LOVE (男はつらいよ 浪花の恋の寅次郎): The 27th instalment in the long-running Otoko wa Tsurai yo series, which stars Kiyoshi Atsumi as the lead Tora-san and Keiko Matsuzaka as a geisha named Fumi (or ‘the Madonna’). While visiting an island in the Seto Inland Sea, Tora-san meets and falls in love with Fumi, setting out on a quest to help her find her lost brother.
Limited Screening
- Renjishi – The Father and Son Shishi Lions (連獅子): Renjishi tells the story of love and hardship between a father lion and his cubs, portrayed by the late Nakamura Kanzaburō and his real-life sons, Kankurō and Shichinosuke. Their powerful lion dance, with the white-maned parent lion and the red-maned cubs moving in perfect harmony, is the unforgettable highlight of the production.
Ticketing & Screening Details
Tickets for JFF 2026 will be sold at RM 10.00. Tickets for the screenings can be purchased one week before the first screening at each region via GSC Ticketing Kiosks, GSC e-payment at gsc.com.my, or the GSC Mobile App. Participating outlets include:
- Klang Valley (10 – 16 September 2026)
- GSC Mid Valley
- GSC 1 Utama
- GSC MyTOWN
- Penang (17 – 20 September 2026)
- GSC Gurney Plaza
- Johor Bahru (24 – 27 September 2026)
- GSC Paradigm Mall JB
- Kuching, Sarawak (8 – 11 October 2026)
- GSC CityONE Megamall
- Kota Kinabalu, Sabah (15 – 18 October 2026)
- GSC Suria Sabah
For further details, refer to the JFKL website or the JFF2026 website.
