These are our ten recommended short films from the Osaka Asian Film Festival which is taking place from March 1 – 10, 2024 in Osaka, Japan.

Flavor of Sisterhood by Hwang Inwon – Korea | 2023 – 25 minutes

She may have moved out but Yeon-ju cannot escape her older sister Seon-ju.

After spending their twenties together, the younger sister has moved into a tiny apartment which gets invaded by her bossy bigger sibling who wastes no time embarrassing Yeon-ju with reminiscences (shown via flashback) and diktats over how to live alone. It isn’t long before the two fall back into old routines, helped along by the fact they shared the same possessions, and a long history together. The actors at the centre of the film have such great chemistry that they convince as sisters, intimate and obnoxious with each other, casual in behaviour but, as revealed with amusing dialogue, deeply committed to their sisterhood. Such warmth generated by the actors serves to reveal the gaps that have developed between the two sisters, thus evoking a sense of loss. [Jason MAHER]

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How We Say Goodbye by Thunyachanok Aphisumphokul – Thailand | 2023 – 29 minutes

Roommates Ing and Tarn are seniors at university and they are friends. With the approach of their final semester, changes are afoot, especially for Tarn who is about to embark on a long journey and go to London. We drop in on their final days together as they prepare to say goodbye to people, places, and each other, see the way that friendships fill their worlds. and the bittersweet pain of seeing their world change. [Jason MAHER]

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JungOk by Yoo Jimin – Korea | 2023 – 18 minutes

Jungok is a housewife who has started her menopause. No need for sanitary pads then! That is the mindset her amiable (and somewhat thoughtless) husband adopts as he merrily tries to flog unopened packs on an internet auction site while Jungok downheartedly goes through her days. Understandably, she must feel like she is reaching the end of her journey but getting an order for the pads puts Jungok in contact with a teenage girl in a desperate situation because she has started moving forward into her journey into womanhood…

Periods and menstruation are still regarded by some to be a taboo subject but they are brought out naturally in a warmhearted and finely-shot short that reminds people that, despite pains and inconvenience, these natural bodily functions can also be considered a fresh start. [Jason MAHER]

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On a Boat by Heso – Japan | 2024 – 32 minutes | World Premiere

Have you ever met a couple and thought, “what do they see in each other?”

Perhaps people who make up such couples never really look at each other to begin with. This might be the case with SARA and CHU. He is 12 years older than her and, thanks to him, SARA now has a new home. SARA just has to be in love because CHU seems nice but exhibits possessive behaviour. Everything in his house has to be “just so” otherwise he gets petty and vindictive. SARA has a difficult night ahead as a house-warming party with her “friends” takes a nasty turn when CHU realises that SARA and co cannot be managed like objects…

On a Boat offers a tightly-shot polite-but-savage mask-pull experience that will make you squirm in your seat as a petty little man unravels in the face of a wife he cannot control and the humiliation he puts his wife and himself through. [Jason MAHER]

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Playground by Lin Yaxing – USA, China | 2023 – 16 minutes

A lonely young girl named Jiajia enters the night in search of her mother and stumbles upon the woman’s job in an adult entertainment club. Framing events from the point of view of a child, director LIN powerfully describes the fragile bond between a daughter and a mother in a world that is mostly cold and disinterested in them. [Jason MAHER]

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Ririka of the Star by Shiota Tokitoshi – Japan | 2023 – 28 minutes

Everyone has a dream. For Moe, it is to be a stripper, much to her father’s objections as he resents her unknowingly living up to the legacy of her absent mother. Is there something that can change his mind? Perhaps seeing the art of stripping for himself…

This is long-time actor, critic, programmer SHIOTA’s directorial debut and he has gathered together experienced talent such as cinematographer ASHIZAWA Akiko behind the camera and veteran directors HIROKI Ryuichi and MIIKE Takashi in front of the camera. The result is a tongue-in-cheek silent film that invites viewers to experience the magic of stripping as the tastefully-shot climactic moment is given full sound and dazzling visuals to celebrate the beauty of the nude body. [Jason MAHER]

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Sojourn to Shangri-la by Lin Yihan – China | 2023 – 19 minutes

Sojourn in Shangri-la amusingly shows the behind-the-scenes indignity of a glamorous fashion shoot on a beach gone awry as a put-upon art assistant named Cal is tasked with rescuing an installation swallowed by the sea. With models waiting on instructions, finance guys on the phone, and a director on the warpath, Cal faces off against on-set hierarchies, petty technicians, and time itself as she tries to track down the structure. Her tireless efforts will see her situation become tinged by the supernatural, a sense richly evoked by director LIN Yihan’s choice to shoot in luminous black and white, the look of which lends proceedings an otherworldly atmosphere as the film segues from the mundane to the surreal. [Jason MAHER]

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Suton by Watanabe Rikako – Japan | 2024 – 41 minutes | World Premiere

Suton is a kind of sound used to describe coming to an “understanding” or “settling” something.

The story starts when the main character, a woman living alone in Tokyo, begins working at a neighborhood café. Her life seems placid, but an encounter with a customer triggers an avalanche of memories from her past, revealing the background of the bitter consequences of having her work canceled because of COVID-19, the effect of which affected her mental health and cut short her career as an actress. Now that she has reached her bottom and settled, she begins to live life without a script and absorbs the words and ways of life of the people she meets. Succinctly shot vignettes and agile leaps between place and time make this a touching character study marked by poignancy over ideas such as aging and separation but also the warmth of her connections with others. [Jason MAHER]

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Sweet Lime by Fatema Abdoolcarim – Hong Kong, UK | 2023 – 11 minutes

The ability of children to understand and adapt is often underestimated and that is an idea explored in Sweet Lime as a ten-year-old girl named Amra sits in the back seat of her mother’s car on the drive from collecting her aunt Hawra from the airport. She is alternately ignored and left to listen to the women discuss marriage woes and family gossip or fussed over because she is too “vulnerable.” At a critical moment, during a pause on their journey, she discovers a tragic secret relating to one of the adults and faces a weighty choice as to how to handle it… [Jason MAHER]

The Horse by Lan Yi-Tzu – Taiwan | 2023 – 15 minutes

Jing is moving out and her apartment is awash with many cardboard boxes and objects. As she moves from room to room with the intention to start packing, she finds it difficult to control her emotions and focus when faced with so much stuff from her past. This is when a horse appears out of nowhere, much to her surprise. When it begins to act rebellious, Jing must tame it to move on. [Jason MAHER]

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More information: https://oaff.jp/en/