These are our ten recommended Asian films from the Göteborg Film Festival, taking place from January 26 to February 4, 2024, Gothenburg, Sweden.

City of Wind by Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir – Mongolia, France, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Qatar | 2023 – 103 minutes

In the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar, the 17-year-old high school student Ze must assume his family’s mantle, fulfill the spiritual mission, and become a shaman. One day, he is called to the 16-year-old Marla who has heart problems. She expects the shaman to be an old man, but instead, a boy her age arrives. Marla does not believe in shamanism, but she takes a liking to Ze and they enjoy their time together playing video games or reading Manga. Gradually, they become a passionate couple. Amidst all this, Ze has to manage ordinary life, family, and school. City of Wind portrays a young man who lives in two worlds and is drawn to both. – – Freddy Olsson (GöteborgFF 2024)

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Essential Truths of the Lake by Lav Diaz – Philippines, France, Portugal, Singapore, Italy, Switzerland, United Kingdom | 2023 – 215 minutes

In the year 2019, a time preceding the events in When the Waves are Gone (GFF 2023), we revisit the policeman Papauran, tormented by the task of incorporating Rodrigo Duterte’s murderous anti-drug policies. To shift his focus, he opens up an investigation into the fifteen-year-old disappearance of Esmeralda Stuart. A case that proves to weigh on him more than expected, the deeper he digs, leading him to the area around the Taal Volcano and the lake of the same name. In Lav Diaz’s films, the documentary often merges into fiction. Shortly before filming, the ash around the volcano began to smolder, and its eruption soon became a reality, becoming an integral part of the narrative. Essential Truths of the Lake adds another portrayal of a Philippines in constant flux to an unparalleled filmography that continues to fascinate. (GöteborgFF 2024)

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Evil Does Not Exist by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi – Japan | 2023 – 106 minutes

Single father Takumi leads a simple life in symbiosis with nature in the Japanese countryside, and he is an influential voice in the tightly-knit village’s consciously archaic approach. When two suits from Tokyo arrive with the aim of building a luxurious glamping resort, they realize that the path to the residents’ approval goes through Takumi, and he is offered a job. Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, whose films Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy and the Oscar-winning Drive My Car were featured at the 2022 Göteborg Film Festival, returns with a quiet and focused drama that, with virtuoso presence, depicts Takumi’s anguish in the face of the irreversible consequences of urbanization. (GöteborgFF 2024)

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Ichiko by Akihiro Toda – Japan | 2023 – 125 minutes

Hasegawa proposes to Ichiko. She is happy and moved but disappears the next day, having seen something on the TV news. The ensuing investigation reveals that Ichiko does not exist in any official records. With the help of clues and witnesses from a (very complicated) childhood and upbringing, the image of the real Ichiko gradually emerges, broken and with dreams that have faded and darkened as fate has taken its toll. In this adaptation of his own play, Akihiko Toda manages to involve us spectators in the thrilling investigation. Direction and cinematography are of the highest caliber, as is Hana Sugisaki, one of the most talented actresses of her generation. (GöteborgFF 2024)

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If Only I Could Hibernate by Zoljargal Purevdash – Mongolia, France | 2023 – 99 minutes

Ulzzi belongs to the nomadic people of the steppes but lives in extreme poverty with his siblings and mother in a tent outside Ulan Bator. His teacher discovers that the troubled boy has an impressive talent for math and encourages him to participate in the national championships. As he becomes responsible for his family’s livelihood, he is forced into petty crimes, and with each step on the criminal path, the prospect of an academic future seems even more unattainable. Despite the harsh environment and bleak prospects, Zoljargal Purevdash’s debut film is filled with warmth and hope, you could even call it a Mongolian Good Will Hunting that will leave no one unaffected. (GöteborgFF 2024)

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Last Shadow at First Light by Nicole Midori Woodford – Singapore, Japan, Slovenia, Philippines, Indonesia | 2023 – 109 minutes

Ami is a teenager in Singapore who listens to cassette tapes of her deceased mother’s voice. Her father has told her that her mother Satomi is dead, but the daughter doesn’t believe it. And one day, Ami finds a letter describing what happened. Satomi was Japanese and traveled to her hometown during the tsunami disaster in Japan, where both her parents died. With the help of her uncle, who lost his wife in the same disaster, Ami travels to the area. She has a special connection with the departed, and it becomes a very emotional journey in the valley of the shadow of death, filmed in Rikuzentakata, a city nearly obliterated by the 2011 tsunami. Nicole Midori Woodford is a debut director who has dared to tackle one of the most difficult questions: Why do I get to live when the others died? – Freddy Olsson (GöteborgFF 2024)

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Mimang by Kim Taeyang – Korea | 2023 – 92 minutes

By using a telephoto lens, Kim Taeyang successfully brings us close to the man and the woman while still including Seoul itself as an important character. The couple engages in a captivating conversation about love, careers, and the places in the city that pass by. Another time, they meet at a mutual acquaintance’s funeral. The remarkable thing about Mimang is that even though the film is filled with dialogue, it is the image that takes command. The Korean word ‘mimang’ has several meanings, and among them, it can mean precisely this: that something is difficult to describe in words. This is a debut film where the director already fully masters his visual expression. – Freddy Olsson (GöteborgFF 2024)

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Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus by Neo Sora – Japan | 2023 – 103 minutes

In the wake of successful concert films featuring artists like Taylor Swift and Beyoncé over the past year, we are presented with a different contribution to the genre here. Rarely has the cinema, with its unique qualities for focused audiovisual experiences, felt like a more fitting stage for a work than in this case. The Oscar-winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto passed away from cancer in March 2023. Before his departure, he managed to conclude his illustrious career with this final performance of 20 carefully selected pieces, including catchy Yellow Magic Orchestra songs, grand Bertolucci scores, and contemplative compositions from his last album “12.” A master’s farewell, and a beutiful and utterly indispensable musical and cinematic experience. – Johan Blomqvist (GöteborgFF 2024)

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The Monk and the Gun by Pawo Choyning Dorji – Bhutan, France, United States, Taiwan | 2023 – 107 minutes

In 2006, Bhutan’s king abdicated, and the country began its journey toward democracy, a historic turning point portrayed here with humor and warmth by Pawo Choyning Dorji, the director behind the Oscar-nominated Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom. As the authorities try to educate the population about what democracy is, register eligible voters, and conduct practice elections, an elderly lama assigns a younger monk the ominous task of acquiring two weapons. The monk succeeds, but his path crosses with an American arms collector willing to pay almost any price for the old rifle he came to take home. However, not everything can be bought with money. Bhutan’s Oscar submission and a new emerging audience favorite. – Johan Blomqvist (GöteborgFF 2024)

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Youth (Spring) by Wang Bing – France, Luxembourg, Netherlands | 2023 – 212 minutes

Chinese textile factories become somewhat like a summer camp for young workers who travel far from home for a few extra dollars in wages. They live and operate within a large complex, engaging in heavy, monotonous work while also sharing laughs and conflicts. They are young, love is blossoming, and unwanted pregnancies loom in the air. However, the gap between the bosses at the top and the workers on the floor is undeniable. Wang Bing has long been established as China’s most significant documentary filmmaker. Youth (Spring) is part of a triptych about young workers in sweatshops, and Bing’s masterful direction makes us feel the sweaty smell from the backside of our cheap Saturday shopping. (GöteborgFF 2024)

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For more information, please visit: https://goteborgfilmfestival.se/en