Japanese film festival a feast for the senses

The festival is on at Canberra's National Film and Sound Archive from today until November 24.

It is presented in Canberra in collaboration with the Embassy of Japan and with the support of the Japan Foundation.

The archive's head cinema programmer, Quentin Turnour, said of Japanese cinema, ''For film critics and people in the know, it was one of the first non-Western countries to make an impact, with [Akira] Kurosawa.

''Before there was 'world' cinema, there was Japanese cinema. It's radical at times, the great alternative.''

While Japan produced more than 400 films a year, film buffs were lucky to have one such movie released for Western audiences a year.

''This [festival] is your chance to see the range, diversity and uniqueness of Japanese cinema.

''It's wider than anime. It's sometimes emotionally powerful. It's not all about zaniness, it covers all the moods.''

Tonight's opening film, presented free to the public, is Railways.

It tells the story of a middle-aged office worker who quits his job in Tokyo to become a rural train driver.

Highlights of the festival include Studio Ghibli's latest animation Arrietty.

Based on the children's tale The Borrowers, it features a tiny girl for whom pins are like swords. Arrietty was a box office giant in Japan when it was released.

Turnour is also partial to both the Gantz films, live action mangas. They are like ''Stanley Kubrick meets surrealism meets a computer game.''

For those who enjoy crazy comedies, there's Honeymoon in Hell, apparently a bit like Beetlejuice.

''It's nihilistic Japanese cinema with a lot of special effects.''

In wake of the March disasters in Japan, two documentaries will screen: the 1930 film Rebirth of the Capital, with live musical accompaniment, and the 2009 movie Yamakoshi. Both show rebuilding of Japanese communities after earthquakes.