“North America’s premiere showcase for Japanese film” (Firefox News), JAPAN CUTS: The New York Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema is back and bigger than ever.

In its sixth consecutive year, JAPAN CUTS 2012 presents the most feature films in the festival’s history: 37 full-length and 2 shorts, encompassing blockbusters, high-concept art house titles, mature anime, audacious documentaries, delirious rom-coms and a splatter of j-horror/gore genre busters. Taking place July 12 to 28, JAPAN CUTS 2012 again dovetails with the New York Asian Film Festival (June 29-July 15), which co-presents 12 films from July 12-15. With the two major fests’ combined rosters, nearly 100 Asian films will be presented in New York City in a four-week period.

From profound to perverted, fantastic to fetishistic, momentous to monstrous, JAPAN CUTS 2012 selections have unyielding artistry and out-of-control eccentricity, offering the hard, the rough, the sharp, the smooth and the soft edge of today’s film scene from Japan. Highlights include the irresistible blockbuster love comedy Love Strikes!; Toshiaki Toyoda’s enigmatic terrorist art house gem Monsters Club; the controversial cannibal anime Asura; the World Premiere of moral shocker Ushijima the Loan Shark, which features the impressive film debut of AKB48’s Yuko Oshima (recipient of the festival’s first-ever Cut Above Award for Outstanding Debut); Hisako Matsui’s haunting docudrama Leonie; Yoshihiro Nakamura’s mind-warping, bizarro comedy Chips; Toshi Fujiwara’s provocative and poetic documentary on post-tsunami Japan No Man’s Zone; and two older titles finally back to the big screen: Toshiaki Toyoda’s meditative jailbreak classic 9 Souls, and the original ballroom blitz Shall We Dance?, offering the impossibly rare opportunity to watch on 35mm.

This year’s fest pays tribute to the late actor Yoshio Harada, screening his final film Someday and 9 Souls, mentioned above. The festival also highlights the career of living legend Koji Yakusho, presenting five of his most iconic films: Chronicle of My Mother, Cure, Shall We Dance?, Toad’s Oil (which Yakusho also directed), 13 Assassins, and The Woodsman and the Rain. Yakusho will be on hand for the latter’s July 20 screening for an introduction, Q&A and reception. On that occasion, the festival will award the star the first-ever JAPAN CUTS prize, the Cut Above Award for Excellence in Film. Yakusho will also appear for the July 21 screening of Takashi Miike’s hit samurai action movie 13 Assassins.

Marking 16 months after Japan’s Tohoku region was devastated by the March 11, 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crises, the Focus on Post 3.11 Cinema series encompasses Women on the Edge, Chips, A Gentle Rain Falls for Fukushima, No Man’s Zone and the shorts series We Are All Radioactive.

This year’s parties include the Striking Love! JAPAN CUTS Opening Party, following the July 14 screening of Love Strikes!, with an introduction and Q&A with star actress Masami Nagasawa–this year’s recipient of NYAFF’s Rising Star Asia Award; and the DON’T STOP! JAPAN CUTS Party following the July 26 screening of Don’t Stop!, featuring an introduction with director Kenji Kohashi. Other special guests during the festival are Monsters Club director Toshiaki Toyoda for the July 15 screening introduction and Q&A; No Man’s Zone director Toshi Fujiwara for the July 22 screening introduction and Q&A; Roadside Fugitive SR director Yu Irie for the July 22 screening introduction and Q&A; and Leonie director Hisako Matsui for the July 27 screening introduction and Q&A.

Finally in the high lowbrow category, the festival includes two Anime from Hell for the 18-and-over crowd, Asura and Gyo; three delectably depraved shorts screened back-to-back as The Atrocity Exhibition; and the outrageous Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead by modern schlockmeister Noboru Iguchi (RoboGeisha, Mutant Girls Squad).

“This year’s expanded and expansive edition of JAPAN CUTS reflects our (slightly maniacal) ambition to be the ultimate platform for Japanese cinema in North America – in the world perhaps?” says Japan Society’s chief film programmer and festival curator Samuel Jamier. “In this respect, the explosive, purposefully off-balance mix of dark-themed hard-core actioners, blockbusters, hit comedies, nano-budget indie titles and philosophical art house pieces emphasizes the wild diversity of the production in the archipelago, as well as its incredible resilience, despite the rise of its East Asian neighbors and the current severe economic conditions. We might not be solving the epistemological conundrum that is Japanese and world cinema (or even the zombie apocalypse), but we’re giving it a good try.”

Tickets: $12/$9 Japan Society members, seniors and students, except for the July 14 screening of Love Strikes!, $25/$20, and the July 20 screening of The Woodsman and the Rain, $35/$25. Patrons who purchase more than 5 tickets for at least 5 different films, receive $2 off of each ticket. Special offer available only at Japan Society Box Office or by telephone (offer not available online.) JAPAN CUTS 2012 film passes are available: $315/$210 Japan Society members, seniors and students. Passes are not valid for the July 14 screening of Love Strikes! and the July 20 screening of The Woodsman and the Rain. Tickets may be purchased in person at the Box Office, by calling 212-715-1258, or at www.japansociety.org.