Liaf 2026: Jinsei- Animated Feature Film UK Premiere

What if one life could contain a hundred different lives? Ryuya Suzuki’s Jinsei follows an unnamed man from bullied schoolboy to aspiring J-pop idol, outcast, leader and oracle, with each new chapter bringing a new name - and a whole new reality.

What begins as an intimate coming-of-age story soon hurtles into something much stranger: social satire, revenge drama, dystopian sci-fi and existential fever dream.And then there’s the animation.

Suzuki wrote, directed, drew, edited and scored the entire 93-minute film himself, completing this wildly ambitious debut in just 18 months.

The result is raw, lo-fi and gloriously unpredictable - a handmade universe that can veer from tenderness to violence, pop culture absurdity to cosmic speculation without warning.Forget everything you think you know about Japanese animation.

Jinsei is an exhilarating one-man trip through fame, identity, catastrophe and the strange business of being alive.

Come for the J-pop, stay for the apocalypse - and see where Suzuki takes you next.Ryuya Suzuki - Director's Bio:Born in 1994 in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan.

After graduating from the Film & Media Department at Tohoku University of Art and Design, Suzuki initially aspired to become a live-action film director but found himself working as a manager at an oyster bar in Kabukicho, Tokyo.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, he began teaching himself animation, resulting in two acclaimed independent short films - Mahoraba and Lawless Love - which went on to receive numerous awards at domestic indie film festivals.

In 2022, his omnibus collection Ryuya Suzuki Short Films: Three Men was released theatrically.

His feature-length animation debut, Jinsei, was entirely hand-drawn by Suzuki alone at his family home in Sendai, funded through crowdfunding.

It is a true one-person achievement.

As well as writing and directing Jinsei, Suzuki also composed the music and sound design and is the film’s editor.