Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on April 2013

Golden Week offers a number of animated films for young moviegoers… as long as they are able to understand Japanese dialogue. Blue Mountain Mystery [pictured], the latest film in the Thomas & Friends series will screen in a dubbed version from April 27 at Shinjuku Musashinokan (3-27-10 Shinjuku; http://shinjuku.musashino-k.jp) and Kichijoji Baus (1-11-23 Kichijoji Honcho; www.baustheater.com). The latest films featuring Future Boy Conan (www.conan-movie.jp) and Crayon Shinchan (www.shinchan-movie.com) will also be in theaters nationwide.

And now for some more grown-up fare… Those who wish to revisit Brian De Palma’s Carrie (1976) before the remake arrives this fall, head over to Shin-Bungeiza in Ikebukuro (3F, 1-43-5 Higashi-Ikebukuro Toshima-ku; www.shin-bungeiza.com), where the first-ever adaptation of any Stephen King novel is playing in a program of cinema classics, April 28-May 13. Also on offer are Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate (1967) and Midnight Cowboy (1969) and Steve McQueen in The Thomas Crown Affair (1968).

The Oscar-nominated Danish film A Royal Affair will finally get a Japan release at Bunkamura’s Le Cinema (2-24-1 Dogenzaka, Shibuya-ku; www.bunkamura.co.jp) from April 27. It tells the true story of Johann Friedrich Struensee, royal physician to the Danish court in the 18th century, who used his influence to modernize the country and bed the queen at the same time.