Part of the 2013 season: Once Upon a Time in Japan

Mai Mai Miracle

Mai Mai Shinko to sennen no maho

Director Sunao Katabuchi

Cast Mayuko Fukuda, Nako Mizusawa, Ei Morisako

2009/95min/English subtitles

Image © 2009 Nobuko Takagi/MAGAZINE HOUSE/

Inspired by her grandfather’s stories, young Shinko journeys into the past through her time-travelling imagination.

Showing at: ICA, London; Showroom Workstation, Sheffield; Queen’s Film Theatre, Belfast; Filmhouse, Edinburgh; Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle upon Tyne; Watershed, Bristol; Broadway, Nottingham.

Inspired by her grandfather’s stories, nine-year-old Shinko journeys into the past through her magical method of time travel: conjured entirely by her vivid imaginings of the past.  Upon making a new friend with the upper class Kiiko, they quickly discover they both have a fascination with history and what happened in the past, and transport back to the town a thousand years before, almost as if their dreams could become a reality.

Adapted from Nobuko Takagi’s famous novel, Mai Mai Miracle is a beautifully animated nostalgic tale of friendship in post-war Japan. A former assistant of the great Hayao Miyazaki, director Sunao Katabuchi recreates 1950s south western Japan in its full-animated glory, inviting the audience to embark on a miraculous journey into the past with young Shinko.

Screening dates

Past screenings