Tokyo has one of the most vibrant film scenes of any city in the world, boasting a multitude of cinemas, screening rooms, and film events that cater to every whim and taste and with films shown from every corner of the globe.

You can flick through Metropolis if you want to find out where the latest Hollywood blockbuster is screening, but bare in mind, over 600 films are released every year in Japan, and way under a third of these are made in the USA.

In the meantime the city has venues that cater to every single taste and every level of the market, specialising in the very latest in international art cinema, repertory screenings of old classics, experimental workouts in celluloid or DV, animated shorts, the faltering first movements of fledgling independent filmmakers, erotic "pink" films and musty old prints of long forgotten silents.

Few things in Japan cater for non-Japanese speakers, however. Don't expect too much in the way of English subtitles in these venues, not English-speaking staff or comprehensible schedules. But for those who aren't 100% au fait with the language, what better way to learn than to get off the beaten track and explore what really goes on under the surface.

Probably the greatest problem for the Tokyo-based film fanatic is keeping track of all that is happening on the city's screens at any one time. Midnight Eye is here on hand to let you know where to start.

This is a feature that is undoubtedly going to require frequent updating. If you here discover a new venue or spot ones that we've missed, not just in Tokyo but anywhere in Japan, don't hesitate to let us know all about it.

To find out checking what's on where, we advise checking Pia, either the website or weekly magazine.

Tokyo

Athenée Français Cultural Center

Phone: 03-3291-4339
Address: 2-11, Kanda-Surugadai, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-0062
Nearest metro: Ochanomizu (Ochanomizubashi Exit) and Suidobashi (East Exit)
Website: www.athenee.net/culturalcenter/
Map: www.athenee.net/culturalcenter/photos/map.pdf

L'Athenée Francais in Tokyo has a history of over 100 years of teaching French. But with France and culture (and not just French culture) going together like wine and cheese, it was perhaps inevitable that in 1970, the Centre Culturel was established, with the noble purpose of "promoting international exchange through film".

As well as screening films from across the world, in former days the venue served as a training ground and hangout for future filmmakers such as Kiyoshi Kurosawa, and Ryuichi Hiroki, before its programmer Masamichi Matsumoto joined forces with Eurospace's Kenzo Horikoshi to form The Film School of Tokyo.

Nowadays, it still accommodates an impressively eclectic film program on its single screen on the top floor. 2004 boasted a retrospective of Stan Brakhage, recent pink films and the full program of the 2003 Yamagata Documentary Festival.

Cine Amuse East/West

Phone: 03-3496-2888
Address: 4F Fontis Building 2-23-12 Dogenzaka Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Nearest metro: Shibuya
Website: www.cineamuse.co.jp/
Map: www.cineamuse.co.jp/about/01.html

The best place to go for Japanese independent films, with the likes of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Bright Future and Doppelganger and Shinya Tsukamoto's A Snake of June playing here, Cine Amuse shows a lot of films from the rest of the world on their 2 screens as well.

Nice cosy lobby and café. Tickets are the Tokyo standard of 1800Yen a pop, but don't forget that there's always discount tickets to be had if you run down to Tsutaya or any of the other cheap ticket vendors.

Cinema Artone

Phone: 03-5452-1400
e-mail:theater[-at-]cinekita.co.jp
Address: 1-45-15 Kitazawa, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo
Nearest metro: Shimokitazawa
Website: www.cinekita.co.jp

Another snug little 50-seater indie theatre tucked away in one of the coolest parts of town, the venue that used to be known as the Cinema Shimokitazawa is pretty difficult to miss from the outside.

Don't expect major releases here - Cinema Artone is a try-out spot for the local independent talent making their first cinematic excursions, as well as a first-run stop-off point for films primarily intended for video. This is the venue which commissioned Makoto Shinozaki's Cop Festival series, and the Love Cinema series' Visitor Q and Tokyo Trash Baby got their first airings here too. They also do some interesting retrospectives as well.

Tickets are cheap at 1000 Yen for most screenings. Oh, and there's also rather a nice café in the building.

Cinema Rise

Phone: 03-3464-0051
Email: info[-at-]cinemarise.com
Address: Udagawacho 13-17, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0042
Nearest metro: Shibuya
Website: www.cinemarise.com/
Map: www.cinemarise.com/m-index.html

A nice cinema in the heart of Shibuya, with two-large screens of 303 and 220 seats respectively, this features a lot of indie and art stuff such as François Ozon's Swimming Pool, Lars von Triers' Dogville, Morgan Spurlock's Supersize Me and Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation. Aside from that, they don't really show any Japanese films.

Ginza Cine Pathos

Phone: 03-3561-4660
Address: 4-8-7 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo
Nearest metro: Higashi-Ginza (1 minute walk)
Website: www.cinema-st.com/road/r005.html

It may not look very promising from the outside, but if you check the schedules in Pia (they don't appear to put them online), this cheap 3-screener stuck unceremoniously underneath Miharabashi bridge on Harumi-dori has some interesting offerings.

Much of what screens here seems to be destined for the video-market, an exclusive one-stop for V-cinema releases before they hit their intended market so they can boast a theatrical release on their press notes - the Gun Crazy movies for example, played here, and lower end Korean horror movies.

2004 also saw a big Koji Wakamatsu retrospective, and numerous late show screenings keep the program moving quickly.

Eurospace

Phone: 03-3461-0211
Address: Tobu Fuji Building, 24-4-201 Sakuragaoka-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo.
Nearest metro: About 5 minutes walk from South exit, Shibuya Station
Website: www.eurospace.co.jp/
Map: www.eurospace.co.jp/map.htm

Small, cosy two-screen art house venue with a European bias, but also a major player in making sure that Japanese films make it from conception to the screen. Kenzo Horikoshi, who runs the cinema, is also one of the presidents of The Film School of Tokyo, or Eiga Bigakko, and so Eurospace was the venue of choice when it came to screening the works of the Eiga Bancho project in 2004, in which film school students had their works screened along more established masters such as The Grudge director Takashi Shimizu and Takahisa Zeze. The venue also showcased the animation works of Koji Yamamura, and previous PIA Film Festival winners Borderline and Yoshino's Barber Shop. It also has its own video distribution label.

Image Forum

Phone: 03-5766-0116
Email: info[-at-]imageforum.co.jp
Address: 2-10-2, Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0002
Nearest metro: Shibuya
Website: www.imageforum.co.jp
Map: www.imageforum.co.jp/map/map-eng.html

Founded in 1977, a haven for screening and promoting the work of experimental filmmakers and the cutting edge of world cinema, organising workshops and retrospectives and boasting its own magazine and DVD label. It also is host to the annual Image Forum Festival, held at the end of April.

Laputa Asagaya

Phone: 03-3336-5440
Email: asagaya[-at-]laputa-jp.com
Address: 2-12-21, Asagaya North, Suginami-ku, Tokyo 166-0001
Nearest metro: Asagaya
Website: www.laputa-jp.com/laputa/main/
Map: www.laputa-jp.com/annai/index.html

About 15 minutes west down the Chuo line from Shinjuku at Asagaya lies one of Tokyo's most curious-looking film venues, the Cinema Laputa. As the name suggests, it looks like something out of a Ghibli film - or at the very least, designed by the same hand as the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, which is not so far away down the same track.

Not only does the venue screen some pretty off-the-wall animation (Kihachiro Kawamoto's A Winter's Day played here), but there's a constant program of Japanese classics, mainly from the 50s or 60s. Past delights include a Setsuko Hara tribute and a Nikkatsu "Akushun" retro. Tickets on the day are a very reasonable 800Yen

Aside from the cinema screen, its tower-like design boasts the Samsa theatre and exhibition space on the second floor and a bistro restaurant which comes highly-regared by the locals, Wildcat House (Yamaneko-ken) on the top, making this a perfect date venue. A wonderful place.

Matsuda Productions: Friends of Silent Film Association

Phone: 03-3605-9981
Email: matsuda[-at-]infoasia.co.jp
Address: Matsuda Film Productions, 3-18-4 Towa Adachi-ku, Tokyo 120-0003
Nearest metro: N/A
Website: www.infoasia.co.jp/subdir/matsuda/indexe.html

Not a venue as such, but an organisation dedicated to promoting silent film culture, and especially the art of benshi katsuben narration, utilising an in-house staff of benshi narrators led by the charismatic Midori Sawato.

Drawing from their archive of silent films, established by the late Shunsui Matsuda, screenings are held in a number of locations all over Tokyo. You'll need to check the website on a monthly basis to find out what is screening where, and prices vary per venue.

If you are based in Tokyo, you should try and experience at least one benshi performance. Also important to remember that aside from regular screenings of Chaplin films and western classics such as Blood and Sand or Lady Windermere's Fan, Matsuda Productions do have a lot of films in their archive that you simply cannot see elsewhere. Hopefully they'll get round to releasing them on DVD someday.

National Film Centre

Phone: 03-3561-0823
Email: webstaff[-at-]momat.go.jp
Address: 3-7-6, Kyobashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0031
Nearest metro: Kyobashi
Website: www.momat.go.jp/FC/fc.html

You'll want to keep your eyes permanently on the schedule of this place if you are interested in the history of Japanese film. Recent programs have included pre-War animation, retrospectives of Yasujiro Ozu, Hiroshi Shimizu, Kon Ichikawa and actress Hideko Takamine, Japanese documentary, and a whole host of previously believed lost silent films recently returned by the Russians, who captured them from Manchuria after the war.

Two very impressive screens, and tickets are an absolute bargain at 500Yen, though students get in for 300Yen. So do senior citizens, which is really the venue's only shortcoming - the NFC never show silent films with any soundtrack, so during a lot of the screenings all you can here is the distracting sound of snoring old men!

The National Film Centre also boasts a good research library and a very impressive museum on the top floor full of rare Japanese film ephemera.

Shimbashi Roman Gekijo / Shimbashi Bunka

Phone: 03-3431-0595
Address: 3-25-19, Shimbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Nearest metro: Shimbashi (3mins)
Website: www.cinema-st.com/classic/c005.html
Map: www.shinnihoneizo.co.jp/gekijou/chizu/shinbasi.html

It's great to know that there are still places where you can see the likes of Hisayasu Sato's Lolita Vibrator Torture on a Monday afternoon. For pink fans, one of Tokyo's best grindhouses tracks lies just under the tracks of the Yamanote line, 3 mins south of Shinbashi station, a wonderfully sleazy 81-seater full of aging salarymen smoking, drinking beer and munching on dried squid, hoping no one will notice that they've just slipped out of the office.

For 1300 Yen you get to stay as long as you like, throughout a triple bill that mixes the latest pink with Nikkatsu Roman Porno and Shintoho classics from the 70s and 80s. The schedule changes on a weekly basis.

You get a similar deal next door, at the joint-owned Shimbashi Bunka, though this time its 2nd run recent mainstream films such as Chronicles of Riddick or Terminator 3.

Shinjuku Kokusai Gekijo / Shinjuku Kokusai Meiga-za

Phone: 03-3352-4314
Address: 3-35-16, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo
Nearest metro: Shinjuku (3 mins from South exit)
Website: www2u.biglobe.ne.jp/~p-g/menu.htm

Two misleadingly-named pink theatres, the Shinjuku "International Theatre" and "International Masterpiece Theatre", the one in the basement deals with the latest offerings from Kokuei and Shintoho, and the other with the films of the companies Okura Productions and Excess.

Like all pink theatres, for your 1800 Yen you get a triple bill which changes on a weekly basis. Neither cinema put their schedule online, so if you really want to make sure you don't watch the same film twice, then check out the PG website.

Conveniently located, beware, the screening facilities are pretty rudimentary - the tinny sound system makes it difficult to hear the dialogue and the lights are only slightly dimmed throughout the screening, apparently to stop unwelcome distractions from some of the less savoury members of the clientele…

Shin-Bungeiza

Phone: 03 3971 9422
Email: staff[-at-]shin-bungeiza.com
Address: Maruhan-Ikebukuro Bldg 3F, 1-43-5 Higashi-Ikebukuro.
Nearest metro: Ikebukuro (3 mins from the East exit)
Website: www.shin-bungeiza.com/
Map: www.shin-bungeiza.com/theater.html

The place to go if you have nowhere to lay your head on a Saturday night, Ikebukuro's Shin-Bungeiza is renowned throughout the Tokyo film community for its all-nighters. A brief click on the website revealed an evening devoted to the works of 60s maestro Yasuzo Yasumura (Manji, Moju), while all-nighters of adaptations of top horror writer Edogawa Rampo or the revolutionary works of Shuji Terayama to crop up on a fairly frequent basis.

Shin-Bungeiza's basic fare is second-run, either Japanese or older Hollywood movies, and tickets are 1300Yen. The screen is nice and big as well.

Theatre Pole Pole

Phone: 03 3371 0088
Email: info[-at-]cinemarise.com
Address: Higashi Nakano 4-4-1, Nakano-ku, Tokyo 164-0003
Nearest metro: Higashi Nakano
Website: www.mmjp.or.jp/pole2/
Map: www.mmjp.or.jp/pole2/map1.gif

Great little venue for Japanese film that offers a variety of first run indie releases, retrospectives and special events. Recent highpoints include a complete retrospective of Kiju Yoshida. Tickets are 1700 Yen, or 1400 Yen for students.

Tollywood

Phone: 03-3414-0433
Email: tollywood[-at-]nifty.com
Address: Mini-Cinema Tollywood, 5-32-5 Daizawa, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 155-0032
Nearest metro: Shimokitazawa
Website: homepage1.nifty.com/tollywood
Map: homepage1.nifty.com/tollywood/map2004setumeitukikaisei1.htm

A great little place tucked away in the trendy suburbs of Shimokitazawa, one of the welcome number of independently run "micro-cinemas" that grace the capitol, and micro it certainly is - there's barely room to swing a cat!

The Tollywood's brief is mainly short films, but it also plays a number of longer independent features. Very good for new cutting edge animation. Voices From a Distant Star screened here, and the works from the Canadian Animation Festival screen every April. Ticket prices are a very reasonable 600Yen.

Tsutaya

Website: www.tsutaya.co.jp

Okay, we cheated somewhat. These aren't cinemas, they're Japan's biggest and best chain of video rental outlets. But if you are really into cinema and you've just moved to Tokyo, you'll want to sign up for a membership card as quickly as possible, because whether its Japanese, Hollywood, French cinema or whatever you want to watch, chances are if you can't find it here, you won't find it anywhere in the country.

The best branches are Shibuya and Shinjuku.

Uplink Factory

Phone: 03-6821-6821
Address: UPLINK Factory, Totsune building, 37-18 Udagawa-cho, 2F Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Nearest metro: Shibuya
Website: www.uplink.co.jp
Map: www.uplink.co.jp/about/img/map.gif