These are fifteen Asian feature films you shouldn’t miss at the Hawai‘i International Film Festival which will take place from October 12 -22, 2023 in O‘ahu, and from October 26 – November 5, in Neighbor Islands.

For this festival we also recommended 12 short films you can check them HERE

A Normal Family by Hur Jin-ho – Korea | 2023 – 116 minutes
Jae-wan (Sul Kyung-gu), a successful lawyer, takes on the case of a rich executive’s son, who has purposely run over and killed a man and left his daughter seriously injured. It’s Jae-wan’s job to defend a murderer, just another rung on his career’s golden-stepped ladder. His younger brother (Jang Dong-gun), on the contrary, is a scrupulous and upstanding pediatrician, who always puts the health of his patients over profit and money, often contravening the rules of the private clinic where he works. One fateful night, the two brothers bring their wives together for a meal to discuss the their family and ailing mother. But while they are out, their teenage kids sneak out for a night of drunken excess, with devastating consequences. Putting conscience to the test, the two must now decide the fate of their children… A NORMAL FAMILY is the latest work by renowned Korean filmmaker Hur Jin-ho (CHRISTMAS IN AUGUST, ONE FINE SPRING DAY). A drama about privilege, nepotism, and moral decline, the film explores the darker side of normalcy in a transglobal tale of binding blood ties that end up disintegrating the lives of its protagonists. (HIFF 2023)

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All Ears by Liu Jiayin – China | 2023 – 112 minutes
Wen Shan (Chinese superstar Hu Ge from THE WILD GOOSE LAKE) is a mediocre screenwriter struggling to make a living in Beijing. By chance, he begins to write eulogies for a living. As he restores the lives of others, he finds his own place in the city and finally realizes that ordinary people can take the center stage too. From his perpetual ennui, he soon finds meaning in his own life trajectory. Director Liu Jiayin, who is best known for her award winning hybrid documentaries OXHIDE (2005) and OXHIDE II (2009), returns after over a decade of being a film professor in Beijing. Despite not being an autobiography, ALL EARS is drawn from Liu’s personal experience and internal struggles over the years. The film world premiered at this years’ Shanghai International Film Festival, where it garnered the Best Director Prize. (HIFF 2023)

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Evil Does Not Exist by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi – Japan |2023 – 105 minutes
Deep in the forest of the small rural village Harasawa, single parent Takumi lives with his young daughter, Hana, and takes care of odd jobs for locals, chopping wood and hauling pristine well water. The overpowering serenity of this untouched land of mountains and lakes, where deer peacefully roam free, is about to be disrupted by the imminent arrival of the Tokyo company Playmode, which is ready to start construction on a glamping site for city tourists—a plan, which Takumi and his neighbors discover, that will have dire consequences for the ecological health and cleanliness of their community. The potent and foreboding new film from Oscar-winning director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (DRIVE MY CAR and WHEEL OF FORTUNE AND FANTASY, both at HIFF42) is a haunting, entirely unexpected cinematic experience that reconstitutes the boundaries of the ecopolitical thriller but with that Hamaguchi directorial touch (a neighborhood council meeting is the keynote of the film). This mesmeric journey diverges from country-vs-city themes to straddle the line between the earthly and the metaphysical. (HIFF 2023)

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If only I could hibernate by Zoljargal Purevdash – France | 2023 – 99 minutes
A poor but prideful teenager, Ulzii, lives in the yurt area of Ulaanbaatar with his family. He is a physics genius and is determined to win a science competition to earn a scholarship. When his mother finds a job in the countryside, she leaves him and his younger siblings to face a harsh winter by themselves. Ulzii will have to take a risky job to look after them all and keep his home heated. Premiering in Un Certain Regard at Cannes, this first feature from Mongolia is a drama which is rooted in the political but is never heavy-handed. The cast, particularly charismatic newcomer Batsooj Uurtsaikh as Ulzii, approach this subject with a gentle touch. The result is an assured feature debut from Mongolian filmmaker Zoljargal Puevdash, who sees these personal experiences become a microcosm of the tensions felt throughout this developing country, where traditions are being abandoned in the march for progress. (HIFF 2023)

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Inside the yellow cocoon shell by Pham Thien An – France, Singapore, Spain, Vietnam | 2023 – 182 minutes
Winner of the prestigious Camera d’Or for best first film at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, INSIDE THE YELLOW COCOON SHELL is an enthralling and meditative film from Vietnamese filmmaker Thien An Pham. A reverie on faith, loss, and nature expressed with uncommon invention and depth, the film is based on the director”s upbringing in Lam Dong province, the epicenter of sericulture and the silk industry in Vietnam. The film is a simple tale told with visual complexity: after a car accident claims the life of his sister-in-law, an aimless salary worker named Thien (Le Phong Vu) leaves Saigon for a trip back to his rural hometown to bury family and to find care for his orphaned nephew. During his meditative, wandering visit, Thien wrestles with his own agnosticism in the face of others’ religious beliefs, summons memories of his long-disappeared brother, and reconnects with a former girlfriend who now lives as a nun at a Christian church and school. With its drifting camera, evocative use of natural light, and gratifying itinerant nature, this is an exciting entry in Vietnam”s emerging arthouse cinema, reminiscent of early Tran Anh Hung and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. (HIFF 2023)

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Mondays by Ryo Takebayashi – Japan | 2022 – 83 minutes
Ever get a case of the Mondays, where going to work feels like you’re on repeat? Waking up on Monday morning after pulling an all-nighter at the creative agency where she works, Akemi Yoshikawa (Wan Marui) has a daunting week ahead of her. However, this is not a psychological rut of monotonous life, but an actual, “timey-wimey” (to quote DOCTOR WHO) time loop. She soon discovers that her whole office is stuck in a time loop, repeating the same stressful work week over and over. Together with her colleagues she has to find out how to break the loop. A mashup of SEVERANCE, THE OFFICE and GROUNDHOG DAY, this inventive riff on the time loop narrative is not only clever, since these type of stories usually only affect one or two characters, but it is also a very authentically Japanese take, where the working theory of a disgruntled boss and his unfinished manga could be the key to resetting the space-time continuum. Anyone who’s worked an exasperating office job should derive a few chuckles from Ryo Takebayashi’s MONDAYS, a frenetic comedy that starts off as a playful workplace parody that soon turns into a heartfelt, at times sentimental, exploration of personal fulfillment and second chances. (HIFF 2023)

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Monster by Kore-eda Hirokazu – Japan | 2023 – 126 minutes
There’s a beautiful nuance in Hirokazu Kore-eda’s latest masterpiece MONSTER. Once again achieving brilliant performances from child actors—much like the top films in his masterful filmography NOBODY KNOWS and SHOPLIFTERS. Returning to his native Japan after helming two features abroad (THE TRUTH and BROKER), MONSTER opens with a building on fire, and fifth-grade Minato (Soya Kurokawa) watching the inferno from a nearby balcony. What soon transpires is a RASHOMON-style story structure, told through the perspective of three different characters—Minato’s single mother Saori (Sakura Ando), eccentric school teacher Mr. Hori (Eita Nagayama), and Minato himself. As the truth is slowly revealed, a story of friendship, love and coming of age unfolds, all with Kore-eda’s humanistic signature touch. MONSTER continues the Japanese auteur’s winning streak at Cannes winning Best Screenplay after winning the Jury Prize for LIKE FATHER LIKE SON in 2013 and the Palm d’Or for SHOPLIFTERS in 2018. HIFF is honored to have presented these Kore-eda classics in Hawai‘i and to bring his latest soon-to-be masterpiece to local audiences. (HIFF 2023)

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Mountain Woman by Takeshi Fukunaga – Japan, USA | 2022 – 98 minutes
As MOUNTAIN WOMAN opens, Rin goes about the job of helping a family dispose of a newborn. Her Tohoku village is in its second year of a devastating famine, and babies are being discarded because the villagers are unable to feed them. Rin’s family are outcasts, and she is obliged to do the other residents’ dirty work. When a local seer declares the village cursed, Rin is chosen as the first offering to appease the gods. However, after taking the blame for a theft, Rin has fled to the forbidden realm of Mt. Hayachine. There, her quest for survival gradually transforms into a journey to self-actualization. This haunting film may be set in the late 18th century, but its existential tale of man vs. nature, of human cruelty resulting from desperation, of generational shame, and of individual resilience in the face of impossibly harsh discrimination, resonates across the centuries. Atmospherically shot in all-natural lighting by cinematographer Daniel Satinoff of “Tokyo Vice,” edited by award-winning director Christopher Makoto Yogi, and with music composition by Alex Zhang Hungtai from AUGUST AT AKIKO’S. (HIFF 2023)

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My Heavenly City by Sen-I Yu – Singapore, Taiwan, USA | 2023 – 120 minutes
Three interrelated stories about life as transplants in New York City—We follow Mavis, a lonely Mandarin English interpreter who witnesses the suffering of others, and gains new perspectives on her own life; Jack and Lulu, two young hip-hop enthusiasts who become disenchanted by their New York adventure, and find tender love in each other; and a middle-aged couple, Jason and Claire, who struggle to keep family intact while coping with their mentally ill young son. Three sets of characters connect and inspire one another in their journey to find hope in this seemingly heavenly city. The film explores the themes of loneliness, human connections and blending into America. MY HEAVENLY CITY is the directorial feature debut of Taiwanese filmmaker Yu Sen-I, who has been based in New York City for many years, and is a love letter to her adopted home. (HIFF 2023)

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Perfect Days by Wim Wenders – Japan | 2023 – 125 minutes
HIFF is honored to present two films from German auteur Wim Wenders (PARIS, TEXAS; WINGS OF DESIRE): ANSELM and PERFECT DAYS. In the latter, Wenders Tokyo-based story locates the magnificence in the everyday, casting the incomparable Koji Yakusho (HIFF 2012 Career Achievement Honoree) as the reserved yet good-natured Hirayama, who goes about his very routine hours cleaning public toilets across the city. Interacting on his rounds with a variety of Tokyo denizens whose eccentricities put his gentle nature into even more delightful relief, the middle-aged Hirayama becomes the quiet hero of his own story, doing his menial work without complaint, bemused yet often enchanted at the younger folk orbiting him, and delighted by the natural wonders poking out from the corners of the always changing cityscape. A solitary man living a monastic-like existence, is soon disrupted by someone from his past. PERFECT DAYS vibrates with the heartbeat of a working class enthusiast of music and literature, much like Jim Jarmusch”s bus driver poet in PATTERSON. Yakusho”s character is both taciturn and beguiling accentuated by Wenders”s documentarian eye. The collaboration worked, garnering the famed Japanese actor the Best Actor award at this year”s Cannes Film Festival. (HIFF 2023)

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The Breaking Ice by Anthony Chen – China | 2023 – 97 minutes
In cold wintry Yanji, a city on China’s northern border, young urbanite Haofeng, visiting from Shanghai, feels lost and adrift. By chance, he goes on a tour led by Nana, a charming tour guide who instantly fascinates him. She introduces him to Xiao, a personable but frustrated restaurant worker. The three bond quickly over a drunken weekend. Confronting their individual traumas, their frozen desires slowly thaw as they seek to liberate themselves from an icy world. Singaporean director Anthony Chen continues his globetrotting career with this compelling Generation Z drama with an unusual love triangle develops among three friends against the icy beauty of northeast China and the Changbai Mountain. HIFF43 is also screening his Greece-set refugee drama DRIFT, which premiered at Sundance earlier this year. (HIFF 2023)

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The Cord of Life by Sixue Qiao – China | 2022 – 96 minutes
After learning his mother has Alzheimer’s, folktronica musician Alus whisks her away from his brother’s crowded city apartment back to his childhood home in the grasslands to look after her. While her mischievous wanderings make it a daunting task, glimmering moments of near-lucid nostalgia also bring her closer to her son. As humorous episodes ensue and an alluring neighbor enters the picture, a sudden vision of the past becomes Alus’ mother’s final wish. This sets the two off on a quixotic quest across the magnificent vistas of the steppes, stopping along the way to embrace the wondrous culture of their roots. This beautiful film juxtaposes Mongolian traditions against modern ambitions in a lyrical allegory for the impermanence of life. (HIFF 2023)

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This Land is your Land by Naoto Mitake – Japan | 2023 – 76 minutes
THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND is an ensemble cast film made up of eight short interconnected segments all taking place in Yaeyama, Okinawa. It features people who have lost somebody important in their lives, and in search of places where they can feel at home. Riko, a teacher on Ishigaki Island, reunites with Ao, a childhood friend who has been away in Tokyo for 10 years. As they gets closer, her father brings her an offer of marriage with another man. Riko struggles to reconcile with her parents wishes and her own desires. A high school graduate Yuuri is sent to Ishigaki island to help her uncle run his guest house. One day, she encounters the practice of traditional Yaeyama dance, learns the meaning of the choreography, and begins to reflect on her relationship with her father. Having lost his wife at a young age, a traveler visits Yaeyama every year to reminisce about her. The traveler, pulled by his feelings for the deceased, begins to sort out his own feelings while immersed in his memories. Like boats passing over the island, each story intersects with the other.This film is in celebration of the 50th reversion anniversary of Okinawa from the U.S., while also portraying the Yaeyama islands’ unique traditions through a contemporary lens. (HIFF 2023)

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Tiger Stripes by Amanda Nell Eu – France, Germany, Indonesia, Malaysia, Netherlands, Qatar, Singapore, Taiwan | 2023 – 95 minutes
TIGER STRIPES takes the viewer to a world within a world: primarily MEAN GIRLS high school life in the jungles of Malaysia. The film stars first-time actress Zafreen Zairizal as Zaffan, a rebellious and carefree 12-year-old who finds herself in the awkward position of being the first girl in class to get her period. Embarrassed and confused, and bullied by her classmate, Zaffan finds her body is changing in other, more horrifying, ways and she is faced with the decision of whether to submit to society’s shaming or embrace her true monstrous self. The feature film debut of Amanda Nell Eu, TIGER STRIPES follows a fine line between CARRIE and GINGER SNAPS, but it has its own story to tell, continuing in the Southeast Asian gothic pantheon, in worthy league with the likes of Mattie Do (THE LONG WALK) and Apichatpong Weerasethakul (UNCLE BOONMEE WHO RECALLS HIS PAST LIVES). The film also won the Cannes Critics Week Grand Prize, where it premiered this past spring. (HIFF 2023)

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You & Me & Me by Wanweaw Hongvivatana – Thailand | 2023 – 122 minutes
“You” and “Me” are identical twins studying in middle school. They are mirror images of each other and most people can’t tell them apart. The only distinguishable feature is that Me has a tiny mole under her eye. The twins use their resemblance to their advantage whether it be taking turns eating buffets for the price of one, paying for one seat at a movie but sitting in two, or taking each other’s phone calls from boys they don’t fancy. You and Me are so close to one another to the point that they share every aspect of life with each other. However, shocking news comes their way–their parents are contemplating divorce. The twins are sent to spend the summer at grandma’s in the countryside while mom and dad work things out. There they just happen to meet up with their school mate Mark, who has a crush on one of them but can’t tell them apart… yet. Love triangle shenanigans ensue as the girls have to face up to their own identities and confront the feelings of first love together. This charmingly insightful directorial debut by real-life twins Weawwan and Wanweaw Hongvivatana puts a buoyantly ironic spin on summer romance. (HIFF 2023)

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For this festival we also recommended 12 short films you can check them HERE

More information: https://hiff.org