The University of Michigan Center for Japanese Studies (CJS) owns a record: It has sponsored the longest-running Japanese film series in the world.

That's not a surprise considering CJS is also one of the original Japanese studies programs in the U.S. and the oldest interdisciplinary center, founded in 1947.

While CJS records indicate the film series started in 1975, the center has screened Japanese films since the 1960s. The tradition continues in the "Winter 2026 Japanese Film Series: Comedy" at the State Theater, from January 22 to April 16. All the showings are free.

Check out trailers and descriptions of the films in CJS's winter series—plus two more films of Japanese origin that will be at the Michigan Theater as part of another ongoing series.

WINTER 2026 JAPANESE FILM SERIES: COMEDY

Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes
(2020)
January 22 at 7 pm 
From director Junta Yamaguchi, the Europe Kikaku theater troupe. A chaotic one-take film in which a cafe owner discovers that the TV in his cafe suddenly shows images from the future, but only two minutes into the future. The film is an example of Nagamawashi, a microgenre of mostly low-budget one-shot Japanese films that have gained popularity with films like One Cut of the Dead.

Tampopo
(1985)
February 5 at 7 pm 
From acclaimed director Juzo Itami. A truck driver stops at a small family-run noodle shop and decides to help its fledgling business. The story is intertwined with various vignettes about the relationship of love and food.

Linda Linda Linda
(2005)
February 19 at 7 pm
Only three days before their high school festival, guitarist Kei, drummer Kyoko, and bassist Nozomi are forced to recruit a new lead vocalist for their band. They chose Korean exchange student Son, though her comprehension of Japanese is a bit rough. It’s a race against time as the group struggles to learn three songs for the festival’s rock concert—including a classic ’80s song by the Japanese punk rock band The Blue Hearts called “Linda Linda."

The Legend of the Stardust Brothers
(1985)
March 19 at 7 pm
A shady music mogul brings together two wannabe stars—punk rock rebel Kan and new-wave crooner Shingo—and transforms them into the Stardust Brothers, a girl-friendly, silver-jumpsuited, synth-pop sensation. Along with their No. 1 fan, who herself dreams of a music career, the duo rockets to stardom.

Good Morning
(1959)
April 2 at 7 pm
A lighthearted take on director Yasujiro Ozu’s perennial theme of the challenges of inter­generational relationships, Good Morning tells the story of two young boys who stop speaking in protest after their parents refuse to buy a television set. Ozu weaves a wealth of subtle gags through a family portrait as rich as those of his dramatic films, mocking the foibles of the adult world through the eyes of his child protagonists. Shot in stunning color and set in a suburb of Tokyo where housewives gossip about the neighbors’ new washing machine and unemployed husbands look for work as door-to-door salesmen, this charming comedy refashions Ozu’s own silent classic I Was Born, But . . . to gently satirize consumerism in postwar Japan.

School in the Crosshairs
April 16 at 7 pm
Yuka Mitamura (Hiroko Yakushimaru) is a normal, shy middle school student who has psychic powers. When a new student with similar powers begins to show her skills by stealing the student government election, transforming their school into a conformist, almost fascistic staging area for an alien takeover of the Earth, while coercing her classmates into going along. Discovering her own latent telekinetic abilities, Yuko teams up with Koji, her budding boyfriend from the kendo club, to fight off the invaders. (This film is also known as Psychic School Wars.)

MONSTER MATINEES
While not part of CJS's "Winter 2026 Japanese Film Series," the Michigan Theater is showing two Godzilla films in January as a double feature.

Godzilla
(1954)
January 31 at 1 pm
After a dinosaur-like beast—awoken from undersea hibernation by atom bomb testing—ravages Tokyo, a scientist must decide if his similarly dangerous weapon should be used to destroy it.

Godzilla vs. Hedorah
(1971)
January 31 at 3:15 pm
A toxic, ever-evolving alien life-form from the Dark Gaseous Nebula arrives to consume rampant pollution, and neither humanity nor Godzilla may be able to stop it. (This film is also known as Godzilla vs the Smog Monster.)

Visit marquee-arts.org/cjs and marquee-arts.org/monster-matinees for tickets and more information. Two other geography-centered film series are also running at the Michigan and State theaters this winter: "Korean Cinema Now" and the Palestine-focused "Falasteen on Screen."