100 Asian Films from 2023 (Part 3)

By Asian Film Festival on January 9, 2024 • ( Leave a comment )

I continue with my list of one hundred remarkable Asian films from 2023.

Note: This list may contain movies made by filmmakers with Asian ancestry.

in water by Hong Sang-soo – Korea | 2023 – 61 minutes

A young actor decides to give up acting and make a short film. The small crew comprising the actor himself, the cameraman and the female lead arrive on the rocky, windswept Jeju Island.

In search of an idea, the young actor explores the surroundings, waiting for the right light to emerge and watching the horizon from the coast. One day he catches a glimpse of a figure amid the rocks at the bottom of a cliff, and this prompts him to take the plunge and exchange a few words. Thanks to this conversation and a love song written years earlier, he finally has a story to tell. (TaipeiFF 2023)

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Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell by Pham Thien An – Vietnam, Singapore, France, Spain | 2023 – 179 minutes

In a noisy outdoor restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City, three men are chatting when a motorcycle accident happens on the road right next to them. Thien doesn’t pay much attention to it, but it turns out that the victim of the accident is none other than Thien’s sister-in-law. Thien now has to take her dead body and his five-year-old nephew back to their rural home. It’s also up to Thien to find his brother, who left his wife and child behind. The feature debut of the emerging Vietnamese director Pham Thien An, this stunningly beautiful and compelling film offers deep insights into life and faith. At this year’s Cannes Film Festival, it became the first Vietnamese-language film to win the Camera d′Or in thirty years after Tran Anh Hung’s The Scent of Green Papaya (1993), marking the birth of a new auteur with critical acclaim. (BOO Kyunghwan | Busan2023)

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Killing Romance by Wonsuk LEE – Korea | 2023 – 106 minutes

Hwang Yeo Rae is a popular actress, but is often mocked because of her poor acting skills. To unwind, she travels to an island in the South Pacific. There she falls in love with millionaire Johnathan Na and marries him. Retired from the world of entertainment, she will soon be pursued by a young fan who worships her. A bizarre and surreal musical comedy that functions as the Korean version of the most coloristic Takashi Miike. (Sitgest 2023)

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Kubi by Takeshi Kitano – Japan | 2023 – 131 minutes

Lord Oda Nobunaga plans to take control of Japan, a troubled country where rival warlords are battling each other in a conflict that involves several different clans. Araki Murashige, one of Lord Oda’s vassals, stages a rebellion, but promptly disappears after planning it. Takeshi Kitano returns to the samurai genre with a film where all of his obsessions as a filmmaker are present. (Sitgest 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. (KaohsiungFF 2023)

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Mad Cats by Reiki Tsuno – Japan | 2022 – 88 minutes | Canadian Premiere

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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Mad Fate by Soi Cheang – Hong Kong | 2023 – 108 minutes | Canadian Premiere

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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Man in Black by Wang Bing – France, UK, USA | 2023 – 60 minutes | Asian Premiere

The film is a portrait of 86 years old Wang Xilin, one of China??s most important modern classical composers now based in Germany. During the troubled time of the 60??s, he was the target of severe persecution, enduring beatings, imprisonment and torture. The film exhibits the body and soul of a man scarred by a life of suffering, who is yet still capable of deep and sincere compassion. With excerpts from his Symphonies, he revisits some of the horrifying events that still live on in his memory. (DMZDocs 2023)

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Mimang by Taeyang Kim – Korea | 2023 – 92 minutes

TIFF’s Giovanni Fulvi calls Mimang “A condensed Korean indie counterpart to Richard Linklater’s Before series,” the movie following a man and a woman (Ha Seong-guk and Lee Myung-ha) as they walk the streets of Seoul, a city that seems to keep changing as time goes by. Kim Tae-yang and cinematographer Kim Jin-hyeong turns Seoul’s streets into magical, amorphous landscape, changing in the way that memories can change, even between people with deep connections to a place, a time, and each other. (QCinema 2023)

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Miss Shampoo by Giddens KO – Taiwan | 2023 – 120 minutes | Canadian Premiere

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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Monster by Kore-eda Hirokazu – Japan | 2023 – 126 minutes

Fifth-grader, Minato, tells his mother that he has been abused by his homeroom teacher, his mother becomes enraged and goes to complain. Instead of investigating the matter thoroughly, the school issues a perfunctory apology. However, in the film’s next chapter, told from the teacher’s point of view, it becomes clear that Minato’s problems do not stem from the teacher’s violence. Director Kore-eda presents the events that lead to an avoidable tragedy through the eyes of various characters, including Minato and his friend Hoshikawa. Kore-Eda uses the boys’ stories to address social issues that, like Nobody Knows and Shoplifters, can only be understood by looking more deeply. Kore-eda dares to ask whose rights are protected by the education system—those of the students or those of the teachers? This issue has been in the forefront of the Korean news media recently, and thus, will undoubtedly be of great interest to viewers there and around the world. Monster features a moving soundtrack by the late Ryuichi Sakamoto. (NAM Dong-chul | Busan2023)

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Natchan’s Little Secret by Tanaka Yasujiro – Japan | 2023 – 97 minutes

After drag queen Natchan dies, three of her friends travel together to her funeral at the family home. One thing makes the grieving process even more difficult: Natchan was not out of the closet to her family, which divides the opinions of the group. A fun, feel-good road movie with deliciously campy drag performances in the spirit of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. (CameraJapan 2023)

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National Anarchist: Lino Brocka by Khavn – Philippines | 2023 – 70 minutes

Maverick filmmaker Khavn assembles pieces of National Artist Lino Brocka’s filmography from various sources into an unusual collage that forms a complex and compelling biographic portrait of the filmmaker as an artist, a storyteller, and a man with many things to say about the Philippines. A work of screaming freedom set to music by the Brockas and Max Jocson, Khavn breaks apart the legend of the artist and reforms it into a chaotic yet comprehensive look into the life of another maverick. (QCinema 2023)

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Night Walk by Sohn Koo-yong – Korea | 2023 – 66 minutes

In my neighborhood, the mountain is snug and the stream murmurs, every night lulling the vibrance of day into serenity. One night, crouching on a cold rock in the midst of the dark blue brook I saw the sky in the water. The indigo gleam of the flowing moon dyed my senses and I became one with the sky and the water and the crisp air in between. Since then, taking a walk by the stream is like strolling in someone else’s dream. The soft breeze from the mountain sways my hair gently, and I wait for my sleep to be broken. (SIFF 2023)

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Nowhere Near by Miko Revereza – Philippines | 2023 – 96 minutes

Policies enacted during the Obama administration were supposed to put an end to an “undocumented immigrant” status. The director heads from Los Angeles to the Philippines, and then beyond, to trace the details of how this began. (YIDFF 2023)

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Oasis of Now by Chia Chee Sum – Malaysia, Singapore, France | 2023 – 90 minutes | World Premiere

A mother and a daughter secretly meet once every few weeks on a secluded staircase in an old apartment building. The mother, an undocumented Vietnamese in Malaysia, believes that her daughter’s best future lies in living with a Malay family, separated from her. Despite living in the same neighborhood, they pass each other as strangers every day. The mother takes on various odd jobs in the neighborhood to make a living and seeks refuge in the home of an unfamiliar elderly person to avoid the reach of immigration crackdowns. The old building and the characters within it bring a palpable weight to the narrative. However, amidst scenes that seem like mundane everyday life, significant secrets and decisions that can alter the course of life are concealed. (PARK Sungho | Busan2023)

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One Second Ahead, One Second Behind by Yamashita Nobuhiro – Japan | 2023 – 120 minutes

Hajime is a 30-year-old man who is faster paced than others. He was born in Kyoto and works at a post office there. He is a handsome man, but for some reason, his romantic relationships do not always last. He meets and dates a street musician, Sakurako.　　

On the day Hajime and Sakurako decide to go on a fireworks date, Hajime’s day is gone. Apparently, the person who knows the secret of the missing day is a woman called “Reika”, who comes to the post office every day to buy stamps. (TaipeiFF 2023)

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Past Lives by Celine Song – USA, Korea | 2023 – 106 minutes

Drawing on her own history and culture in crafting this gorgeous, deft debut film, Korean-Canadian playwright Celine Song delivers an achingly romantic drama which has universal resonance in its acute understanding of inexpressible feelings and delicate rendering of undefinable relationships. Separated for over 20 years, two childhood sweethearts are reconnected in person in New York following a brief virtual reunion in between. By then, each has settled into their respective lives. Inexorably tethered to the past, the wistful souls still share a yearning for each other, but are left to contemplate on the paths not taken and the destiny of life. (SummerIFF 2023)

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People Who Talk to Plushies Are Kind by Kaneko Yurina – Japan | 2023 – 109 minutes

Mimiko and Tsuyoshi decide to join the plushies club. At first, they are puzzled by the weird-looking, toy-cuddling members, but they soon realise plushies can help the sensitive and the introverted let out their worries and sorrows. Perhaps people who seem strange could just be shy and lonely. A sweet and delicate movie that confronts issues of masculinity, gender and acceptance in contemporary society. (CameraJapan 2023)

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Perfect Days by Wim Wenders – Japan, Germany | 2023 – 124 minutes

As in his finest movies, Wim Wenders (Paris, Texas, NYFF22) here locates the magnificence in the everyday, casting the incomparable Koji Yakusho as the taciturn, good-natured Hirayama, who goes about his solitary hours working as a public toilet cleaner in Tokyo. Interacting on his rounds with a variety of city 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. Hirayama is a creature very much of the present, devoted to a daily routine that is nearly monastic—until it is disrupted by someone from his past. Working in concert with Wenders’s documentarian eye, Yakusho, who won the Best Actor award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, makes his character’s every movement magnetic. (NYFF 2023)

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