These are twenty Asian feature films you shouldn’t miss at the Fantasia International Film Festival which will take place from July 20 – August 9, 2023 in Montreal, Canada.

To see the second part of this article please go HERE
You can also read about the short films we recommended HERE

The top salesperson at the real-estate firm where he works, and set to marry the daughter of his boss, handsome and self-effacing Shunsuke earns the respect, and maybe the jealousy, of his friends and colleagues. The night before his wedding begins well, with a surprise party where the alcohol flows freely. After leaving and heading home, however, things take a sudden downward turn. Quite literally — Shunsuke has tumbled into a deep, dirty, concrete manhole, with a broken ladder and no passersby to hear him yelp for rescue. Worse yet, his leg has been badly gashed in the fall. His cellphone is of little use, initially, as calls to friends go unanswered and, when he finally calls the police, they are pointedly unhelpful. The one person he can reach, his ex-girlfriend, isn’t much more help, so Shunsuke turns to social media, concocting a false identity to lure assistance. As he soon finds out, pretending to be someone else can have rather complicated consequences… (Fantasia 2023)

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They’re back! Those gun-toting gamines, Mahiro and Chisato, the terrible teenage twosome of Tokyo’s murderous underworld! And once again, Mahiro and Chisato find themselves obligated to seek employment that’s a lot less exciting than their usual contract killings. Unpaid fees for a gym they signed up for and only used once have snowballed, and getting out of that jam drops them right in the middle of a bank robbery. Foiling the heist only gets them in trouble with the tediously bureaucratic assassination agency they work for. Suspended indefinitely, they’ll have to cover the cost of their sukiyaki and ice-cream sundaes with a mundane gig as shopping-arcade mascots. Meanwhile, psychopathic goofball brothers Makoto and Yuri are smalltime hitmen with big ambitions. To become Tokyo’s top killers for hire, they’ll have to take out the two young ladies currently occupying that slot. Have mopey Mahiro and chipper Chisato finally met their match? (Fantasia 2023)

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Haunted by her mother’s abandonment, young Shenxiu is beset by bad dreams. But this nightmare creature, the Hyjinx, is no figment of her imagination. On an ocean cruise with her father and step-family, Shenxiu encounters the Hyjinx as a storm rages, before being cast overboard. Her life is saved, however, by the timely arrival of a submarine – repurposed as a bizarre and wonderful underwater restaurant catering to the denizens of the deep. The deranged dining spot and its oddball staff and crew are overseen by the manic chef Hanhe, who begrudgingly takes Shenxiu under his wing. She wants to follow the many-eyed Hyjinx to the heart of the ocean, in hopes of finding her mother, but can Shenxiu count on the mercurial madman Hanhe? And can they outrun the terrible monster called the Red Phantom? (Fantasia 2023)

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Above the clouds, there’s a casino where deities wager on the lives of mortals to pass the time. Everything you can think of is embraced in the game, from thrilling horse races to the somewhat less exciting lifespan of turtles. One day, a newcomer eager to take a higher risk wants to bet on the existence of true love, with a wager of flaming clouds, implying the end of an immortal’s life. Chosen as their pawn, Sangui (Charles Hu), a newborn baby at that point, is cursed, causing everyone he kisses to fall into a deep sleep. Only true love holds the power to break the curse. Determined, Sangui sets out on a journey to White Stone City in search of a cure. During his adventures, he encounters Yu Yu (Zhou Ye), a dreamer yearning to become a princess, and a reclusive former superstar Xu Yuexia (Yao Chen, a bona fide top star herself). Finally, he arrives at his destiny, uncovering a clue that leads him to Ting Ting (Zhou Yiran), his long-lost love. However, the real test is only just beginning… (Fantasia 2023)

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The final days of the Second World War are a dire time in the Philippines. The Americans are closing in and the collapsing Japanese occupation escalates its viciousness. Teenager Tala’s father, a wealthy merchant, has left their isolated rural estate on a dubious venture to secure his family’s safety, while her mother has fallen grievously ill. Food is now scarce, so Tala and her little brother Bayani disobey the household rule and venture into the dark forest beyond the villa. There they find terrible things, grisly hallmarks of war’s toll, but Tala discovers something else in the woods, something otherworldly. In a strange, secluded hut, she comes face to face with a beautiful fairy, whose sorcerous benevolence seems too good to be true… (Fantasia 2023)

Indian-American teenager Samidha (Megan Suri) is feeling torn between two environments where all isn’t entirely well: home, where she’s pressured by her traditionalist mother Poorna (Neeru Bajwa), and school, where she doesn’t quite fit in and is subject to microaggressions even from her friends. Her heritage and her present collide when her childhood friend Tamira (Mohana Krishnan), who has lately been acting strange and distant, confronts her bearing a mason jar. Something lives inside that jar — something hungry that has Tamira terrified. She tells Sam that the stories of demons they heard as kids are true, and Sam discovers just how right Tamira is when the thing escapes its glass captivity, invades Sam’s life, and threatens everyone she loves. (Fantasia 2023)

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In this age of instant celebrities heralded for the oddest of accomplishments, Yeo-rae (Lee Ha-nee) has hit the jackpot. After setting a Guinness World Record for excessively consuming a popular soft drink, she establishes herself as a model and actress. However, what goes up quickly comes down, and hard. An embarrassing performance in a ridiculous B-movie makes her the laughingstock of the entire country. Exhausted and disillusioned, Yeo-rae travels to a Pacific island where she meets Jonathan Na (Lee Sun-kyun), a wealthy environmentalist, whom she immediately marries. Seven years later, the couple return to Korea and Yeo-rae has another painful reckoning. Her Prince Charming is in reality a narcissistic, controlling, violent jerk who treats her like a luxury doll, keeping her prisoner in his castle. But the tide could be turning, as her neighbour Bum-woo (Gong Myoung), a bumbling student, is in fact her number-one fan, desperate to see her back on the screen. The unlikely duo decide to do away with Jonathan, but the best laid plans of Yeo-rae’s knight in shining armour are dubious at best. (Fantasia 2023)

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Is your cat plotting world domination behind your back? MAD CATS provides a glimpse of what that would look like! Ever since his archeologist brother Mune went missing, Taka’s life has mostly consisted of drinking, sleeping, and enduring the landlady’s nagging over unpaid rent money. One fateful day, after receiving a mysterious message containing clues to Mune’s whereabouts, he finally musters up the courage to leave his trailer and embarks on a quest that eventually leads him to a strange mansion inhabited by a gang of heavily armed warrior women with extraordinary feline abilities. With the help of two friends he met along the way — a hilarious homeless man with nothing better to do, and an enigmatic young woman with a taste for vengeance — Taka is about to uncover a secret involving ancient Egyptian catnip and shameless pet shop owners… But can he really rescue his brother? (Fantasia 2023)

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Can one beat fate at its own game? When a madcap fortune teller named The Master (Gordon Lam) crosses path with “born psychopath” Siu-tong (Lokman Yeung), he foresees the young man is destined to murder. Using every feng shui trick in the book to change fate itself, the unlikely duo begins a peculiar song and dance, engulfing themselves in a world of omens, signs, portents and visions teetering on the edge of complete psychic annihilation at every turn. Meanwhile, a veteran detective is on their trail, convinced to pin a murder, while The Killer is still on the loose — leaving a gruesome trail of bodies for all to get tangled into… a cosmic game of chess pulled by the messy strings of a mad, mad, mad fate. (Fantasia 2023)

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Apprentice Fen (Vivian Sung, TAIPEI SUICIDE STORY), works tirelessly to become a full-fledged hairdresser at a dingy hair salon. One night, wounded Triad boss Tai (Hong Yu-Hong) storms in, desperate to hide from a rival gang. Fen manages to get him out of hot water, and soon becomes the gang’s dedicated stylist and protégée… and Tai’s number-one infatuation. Tai’s obsession with the hairdresser sends a wave through the gangster community and soon, every underling sports a new, ridiculous hairdo. As the pair get to know each other, one question remains hanging in the air like a hair in the soup: will the hairdresser and the gang boss learn to overcome their differences in the name of love? (Fantasia 2023)

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To see the second part of this article please go HERE
You can also read about the short films we recommended HERE

For more information, please visit: https://fantasiafestival.com/en/