These are ten feature films you shouldn’t miss at the Kaohsiung Film Festival, which is taking place until October 22, 2023 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

Downfall by Takenaka Naoto – Japan | 2023 – 129 minutes | Taiwan Premiere
Kaoru Fukazawa is a manga artist. His manga series was published for eight years, but has now finished. He doesn’t have any ideas for his next work. His situation seems bleak, with his editor seeming to not care about him anymore and his relationship with his wife Nozomi Machida being troubled. He spends his days in despair and darkness. Kaoru visits a business that provides sexual services and meets a prostitute named Chifuyu, who attracts him. They decide to head to Chifuyu’s hometown together. (KFF 2023)

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Lost in Perfection by Sung Hsin-yin – Taiwan | 2023 – 115 minutes  | World Premiere
Li-mei is a TV anchor who seems to have everything: a job promotion and a wedding ahead of her. However, her perfect life soon unravels when she discovers that her father may have become the victim of a romance scam. To make matters worse, the scammer is accused of murdering men she dated. In an attempt to protect her family, Li-mei partners with the local prosecutor to investigate the crime. Yet, she quickly finds herself lost in twists and turns while trying to uncover the truth. (KFF 2023)

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Matched by Uchida Eiji – Japan | 2023 – 110 minutes | World Premiere
Rinka is single and works as a wedding planner. She is not good with dating men. Her colleague suggests trying a dating app. Rinka reluctantly registers with the dating app and gets matched to a man. When they meet, the man has a totally different appearance from his picture on the app. He seems like an ordinary man, but Rinka feels something is not right about him. Meanwhile, a series of murder cases takes place. The victims were all users of the dating app. The man that Rinka met through the app is investigated for the serial murder cases. (KFF 2023)

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Monday by Takebayashi Ryo – Japan | 2022 – 83 minutes | Taiwan Premiere
Yoshikawa, eager to be successful, wants to grow out of the small advertising agency she works at. One Monday morning, two of her coworkers tell her “We are repeating the same week!” Yoshikawa refuses to believe it, but soon realizes that the week is, in fact, repeating. It seems like her boss is causing it to happen. So begins the search for the key to make the boss notice the situation. Will they be able to escape the loop and find a brand new Monday? (KFF 2023)

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No Place to Go by Takahashi Banmei – Japan | 2022 – 91 minutes | Taiwan Premiere
Late at night in November 2020, sitting slumped on a narrow bench at a bus stop, Michiko (45) is taking a nap. Michiko used to work as a live-in part-timer at an izakaya, but suddenly lost her job and her house at the same time due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There are no new jobs, and diners and internet cafes are closed. Michiko is at her wits’ end. This is a story about the current state of Japanese society, a situation that can happen to anyone on any given day. (KFF 2023)

The Dream Songs by Cho Hyunchul – Korea | 2022 – 118 minutes | Taiwan Premiere
One day before the school trip, Sam in her dream saw her best friend Ha-eun dying. Sam is so startled that she leaves school early to see Ha-eun in the hospital. Sam wants to take Ha-eun on a school trip by all means. However, Ha-eun’s attitude is somewhat suspicious. Sam’s suspicion eventually explodes. (KFF 2023)

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The Eighth Sense by Inu Baek, Werner du Plessis – Korea | 2023 – 118 minutes
Jihyun, a freshman from the countryside, is having a hard time adapting to life in Seoul. He frequently runs into ‘Jaewon’, a returning senior returning fromafter his mandatory military service. The two become curious about each other and Jihyun joins the surfing club that Jaewon is a part of. The surfing club goes on their first trip, and Jihyun and Jaewon get to know each other. Later that night, Jaewon kisses Jihyun, but after the kiss, Jaewon acts like nothing had happened.(KFF 2023)

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The Time of Huanna by Leading Lee – Taiwan | 2023 – 139 minutes | World Premiere
Taipei City in 2022 is a dynamic, exciting and vibrant city! “Huannan” is a traditional market that sits on the triangle formed by the Tamsui River and Xindian River. It has served as the major food and beverage market for the entire capital city for over 55 years. Our tale is set in 1991.As with the unique market, secret ingredients are thrown into the story of the Huannan Gang. At that time, everyone knew that the gang was of three boys and one girl, but no one knew that the youngest member was from 2022… (KFF 2023)

White River by Ma Xue – Korea | 2023 – 91 minutes | Taiwan Premiere
This is a story about takes place in an ordinary woman, Yang Fan, and her math teacher husband, as amathteacher Yuan Yong, and a restaurant waiter, Xiao Fang. From night to day, and from sunlight to treacherous late nights, the stories between them are absurd and strange, but they are also extremely sad. The themes gowe discuss have gone beyond gender, gender relations, and love, and more . More importantly, women’s self-awakening in a patriarchal society. They The last three people in the story have become symbiotic relationships, like mutual fetters between gears, but they can’t leave each other., It is’s like the simplest game: rock, paper scissorsstone, scissors, and cloth are reincarnated forever. (KFF 2023)

You & Me & Me by Wanweaw Hongvivatana, Weawwan Hongvivatana– Thailand |2023 – 121 minutes | Taiwan Premiere
In 1999, while the world is gripped by the Y2K scare, identical twin sisters “You” and“Me” are also concerned for their future. The twins are so close with one another to the point that they share every aspect of life with each other. One day, a boy named “Mark” comes into their lives. When the twins are confronted with their “unshareable first love”, will this internal conflict lead the twins into a new phase of their lives? (KFF 2023)

For more information, please visit: https://www.kff.tw/en