These are twelve Asian feature films you shouldn’t miss at the Melbourne International Film Festival which will take place in-person from August 3 – 20, 2023, and online from August 18 – 27, 2023.

Released from jail after 10 years, Han Jiangyu returns home to Hainan. Much has changed on the island in his absence, but in a coastal barber shop he finds his former flame, Su Hong, and her young daughter – who might be Jiangyu’s. Like many in Hainan, Hong is scrambling to find a foothold among the skyscrapers that have drastically altered the landscape over the past decade, and in Jiangyu she finds a potential solution: as a local, he can buy housing; he’s also working for property tycoon Kai. But when Kai’s latest development fails, the makeshift family take matters into their own hands. (MIFF 2023)

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In the great tradition of comedic films about filmmaking, the latest from South Korean auteur Kim Jee-woon (A Bittersweet Life, MIFF 2006) stars Song (Broker, MIFF 2022) as an ambitious but beleaguered director desperately trying to finish the movie – a black-and-white melodrama entitled ‘Cobweb’ – that he’s convinced is going to be his masterpiece. The project is rife with chaos: censors are interfering, bewildered actors and producers struggle to make sense of the rewritten ending, and everything else that seemingly can go wrong does. (MIFF 2023)

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Rural tween Minato has been acting strangely since his dad’s death: drastically cutting his hair, leaping from a moving car, claiming his brain has been replaced with a pig’s. When he comes home from school injured, his mum Saori is convinced something more sinister is at play and sets out on a relentless campaign to expose Minato’s teacher, Hori, as the culprit victimising her son. In turn, Hori claims Minato is a bully. But Minato has his own perspective, focused on his new friend, with troubles of his own. (MIFF 2023)

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The Korean concept of ‘inyeon’ holds multitudes, suggesting that two souls colliding is a twist of joyous fate, perhaps predestined, but is one that can also leave a heart bound in inescapable doubt when their paths diverge. That’s the case for Seoul-born Na-young (Greta Lee, Russian Doll). Even after almost a quarter of a century – by now married to a kindly husband (John Magaro, Call Jane, MIFF 2022; First Cow, MIFF 2020), living in New York and going by the name “Nora” – she can’t seem to quite move on from the memory of her childhood friend Hae-sung (Teo Yoo, Decision to Leave, MIFF 2022). (MIFF 2023)

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Lynn prefers to stand at the peripheries rather than charge through with abandon. She reluctantly learns English after being goaded by her TikToker boyfriend, flails in pursuit of a career as a flight attendant and considers a side hustle via a sketchy egg-donor program for moneyed-up couples. But when she suddenly becomes pregnant herself, she is forced to re-evaluate her life. (MIFF 2023)

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Boisterous 12-year-old Zaffan isn’t afraid to do as her conservative religion and strict education say she shouldn’t, like removing her headscarf for TikTok dances and showing off her bra to friends. She’s also the first at school to embark on the treacherous journey of puberty, which quickly causes her status as ringleader to be replaced with being a target for mockery and ostracism. Then mysterious scars appear and Zaffan’s changing body becomes animalistic … If you rile this beast, she’ll show her claws. (MIFF 2023)

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For the workers on Happiness Road, life is anything but. This street is a microcosm of Zhili, a regional manufacturing capital 150 kilometres from Shanghai that specialises in children’s clothing, where factories are mostly manned by young recruits from neighbouring provinces. Their days are soundtracked by C-pop, which they blast to drown out the whir of industrial sewing machines, churning out wares at unfathomable speeds to meet punishing quotas. At night, they retire to dismal dormitories, too exhausted to dream of a better life. (MIFF 2023)

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Zahara is a refugee who now calls an isolated Malaysian island home. She makes a living selling turtle eggs and looks after her 10-year-old niece, whose mother was slain as part of an honour-killing ceremony. When their unexceptional life is interrupted by a mysterious stranger who claims he’s doing research on the area’s ecosystem, a mystical loop of violence and deceit ensues. (MIFF 2023)

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Nerdy, depressed Shanghai financier Haofeng is visiting wintry Yanji, on China’s North Korean border, for a friend’s wedding. When he loses his phone and misses his flight home, effervescent local tour guide Nana invites him to spend the long weekend with her … and her friend Xiao, who’s working in his family’s restaurant and nurturing a hopeless crush on Nana. Over several playful days and soju-fuelled nights, the trio begin to let their guards down. Can a shared adventure melt their chilled hearts, or will it simply bring the sadness they’ve been hiding to the fore?

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Thien, a detached and morose Saigon thirtysomething, has little idea that his life is about to be pushed towards a vast spiritual reckoning. After learning of his sister-in-law’s death in a motorcycle accident, he is given temporary custody of her five-year-old son; together, uncle and nephew begin the arduous mission of returning the body to her home village for burial while searching for the boy’s father – Thien’s long-lost brother.

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Newlyweds Hyun-su (Lee) and Soo-jin (Jung) are expecting a baby, but this may not be the only new addition to their home. One night, Hyun-su sits bolt upright in bed, declaring, “Someone’s inside,” before falling back asleep. Are his somnambulant speeches just night terrors, like the doctors suggest? Or has a more sinister presence invaded their home, as the increasingly anxious Soo-jin fears? (MIFF 2023)

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Why are we here and where do we need to be? That’s the question hanging unspoken over Japanese writer/director Yui Kiyohara’s haunting follow-up to her similarly unmooring Our House (MIFF 2018). A uni student grieving the death of a friend explores the uniquely uniform streets of Tama New Town, a commuter district in the Greater Tokyo Area. Separately, a gas company’s meter inspector helps an old man find his way home, and another woman follows a lost memory caught for eternity in a postcard. As we discover, there are ties that bind these roaming souls even as their paths do not cross. (MIFF 2023)

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We also recommended 5 Asian short films for this festival, you can check the article HERE.

For more information, please visit: https://miff.com.au/