Here is the third part of my list of fifty remarkable Asian short films from 2023.

Gravity by Park Ji-In – Korea | 2023 – 27 minutes

Young-sun has grown up in a children’s home from the early age. She can only see her mother once a year, only on her birthday. It’s her 18th birthday and Young-sun hopes to live with her mother from now on. (BIKY 2023)

Trailer:

Hito by Stephen Lopez – Philippines | 2023 – 22 minutes

In a fascist, dystopian Philippines, a teenage girl makes friends with a telepathic catfish. In this imaginative science fiction satire, director Stephen Lopez weaves a strange tale of mad scientists and talking animals from the threads of our current oppression. (QCinema 2023)

Trailer:

Hole by Hwang Hye-in – Korea | 2023 – 24 minutes

Jeong-mi visits Gusi apartment complex to conduct a survey on child welfare, where she meets siblings, Jun-hui and Jun-seo. They claim that their parents will be back soon, but they seem to be reciting memorized lines. Then, the two lead Jeong-mi to a bedroom and point at the floor where a manhole cover is embedded in the floor, underneath the yellow linoleum flooring. The children ask Jeong-mi to go down into the manhole. (SIFF 2023)

I Look Into the Mirror and Repeat to Myself by Giselle Lin – Singapore | 2023 – 19 minutes

Director Giselle Lin talks to her sisters as they confront their parents’ impending separation, sifting through painful memories of a difficult home life, and examining the meanings of their given names. (QCinema 2023)

Innermost by Maing Caochong – China | 2023 – 15 minutes

In a technologically advanced yet collapsed society, cyberpunk SF and traditional oriental martial arts converge. The story follows the emotional entanglement between a long-lost chivalrous couple and a person with regenerated organs starting from a fight for a mystic magic lyre. From the perspective of the capabilities of regeneration technologies, it prompts audiences to contemplate the amplification or dissolution of emotional value. (BIFAN 2023)

Trailer:

Jeong-Dong by Choi Woo Gene – Korea | 2023 – 23 minutes

Yu-bin, who is suffering from a nervous breakdown due to the strange phenomenon she experiences in her new house. To understand the situation, childhood friends Sodam and Ha-seung gather at his house. Yubin, Sodam, and Ha Seung were the trio in middle school. Trauma and wounds that were rooted in their respective depths, which could not be told to each other, appear sharply. (CISFF 2023)

Trailer:

Last Days of Summer by Stenzin Tankong – India | 2023 – 15 minutes

When the village outcast starts to hear strange sounds in the mountains, everyone except his little brother writes it off as another eccentric performance. He must focus now on finding a wife to redeem himself and secure his place in the social hierarchy, but the sounds keep growing louder and louder. – Cristina Kolozsvary-Kiss (IFFR 2023)

Trailer:

Luzonensis Osteoporosis by Glenn Barit – Philippines | 2022 – 20 minutes

The latest from director Glenn Barit (CLEANERS) points to a prehistoric hominid getting ready to leave his home to work as a migrant worker overseas. When his passport goes missing, he ponder his place in the Philippines, in a surreal allegory for the country’s ongoing brain drain and relentless labour export policies. – Ariel Esteban Cayer

Trailer:

Microwave Love by Kwon Chan-young – Korea | 2023 – 27 minutes

One day, a microwave emits a sound signal to a struggling aspiring writer, initiating communication between humans and machines. They fill each other’s loneliness and get closer. As the writer watches a movie, they gradually become captivated by the charm of the microwave and mistakenly believe that this companion machine possesses facial expressions and emotions like a living being. The work raises contemplation about the formation and evolution of relationships. (YEOM Jiho)

Trailer:

My Heart is Going to Explode! by Jung In-hyuk – Korea | 2023 – 20 minutes

After a love affair full of gaslighting comes to an end, Soojin is haunted by the green-lit girl she slept with in a drunken stupor the night before. Her body was glowing; she literally emitted green light. Soojin’s friends scold her for losing her mind, but suddenly a UFO appears in the sky of Seoul and starts attacking everyone. Will Soojin be able to find the green girl in the middle of hell? The latest alien-invading sci-fi action-romance blockbuster from Jung Inhyuk, who has created his own genre by mixing minority stories with B-grade humor and clichés. (BIFAN 2023)

Trailer:

To access Part 1, please go HERE
To access Part 2, please go HERE
To access Part 4, please go HERE
To access Part 5, please go HERE