When I first started watching Japanese films at cinemas in Tokyo nearly three decades ago, screenings with English subtitles were nonexistent. I spent a month with my Japanese teacher at the time studying the script of Akira Kurosawa's "Kagemusha"("The Shadow Warrior") so I could puzzle out its feudal-era dialogue in the theater.

Today, thankfully, most of the 600-plus Japanese films released every year are subtitled for foreign DVD releases, festival screenings and, in the case of a small but growing number, domestic theatrical release.

For information on these subtitled screenings, visit the excellent Tokyo Filmgoer site, which lists both current and upcoming films. The site owners, Koichi Mori and Karen Severns, also present monthly screenings of subtitled Japanese films at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Yurakucho, Tokyo. These are not open to the general public, but guests of FCCJ members may attend.

So, what's coming up? Two short films with offbeat, imaginative takes on the overdone zombie genre — "NEET of the Dead" ("NEET of the Living Dead") and "Yuigon" ("The Last Will") — will screen with English subtitles at Eurospace in Shibuya from June 13-26. They may not be "Kagemusha" but you also won't have to bury yourself in dictionaries beforehand to enjoy them.

For more information about Japanese films showing in theaters with English subtitles, visit tokyofilmgoer.com.