A ROMANTIC fantasy about a cinema fan who brings his silver screen heroine to life opens a special series of films from the Far East bound for Cumbria.

The Brewery at Kendal is hosting the Japan Foundation’s touring film programme which will see the arts centre join a select group of only 19 cinemas across the UK to host the special screenings.

Showing on Thursdays from February 14 (8.15pm) until March 21, the overarching theme of the programme is Love.

Embracing other emotions that go hand in hand with love, the programme aims to provide a more comprehensive picture of Japanese relationships, ranging from conventional love stories, LGBT issues, familial devotion, compassion for the fellow man, transgressive attractions, to profound renderings of the devastation felt with the loss of love.

The Japanese romantic fantasy shown on Thursday is Tonight, at the Movies. Set in the 1960s, at a time when the Japanese cinema industry faced decline with the rising popularity of television, a struggling assistant director Kenji (Kentaro Sakaguchi) is looking for his big break. His position being little more than an errand boy, he whiles away his free time at a theatre watching long-forgotten black-and-white films. A particular favourite of his is The Tomboy Princess. One day, an auspicious power outage causes the monochrome object of his admiration to magically step off the screen.

Following on is Her Love Boils Bathwater on February 21 (5.15pm), a drama about a single mother determined to reunite her family after she is diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Tremble All You Want, a quirky comedy about a young 20-something professional woman torn between two lovers is screened on February 28 (8.15pm) and the off-beat and outrageous live-action Manga steeped in legend and the supernatural, Destiny: The Tale of Kamakura, is on the Brewery's big screen on March 7 (8.15pm).

Screened the week after (March 14, 8.15pm) is Penguin Highway, an Anime fantasy about a schoolboy investigating the mysterious reason behind the sudden appearance of penguins in his village, and concluding the programme on March 21 (8.15pm) is Thicker than Water, a gripping drama exposing the turbulent relationships between two pairs of siblings.

Box office 01539-725133.