These are our ten recommended short films from the Ho Chi Minh City International Film Festival which is taking place from April 6 – 13, 2024 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Basri and Salma in Never-Ending Comedy by Khozy Rizal – Indonesia | 2023 – 15 minutes

A husband and wife married for 5 years, own an Odong-Odong at the carnival together, spending their days entertaining and taking care of other people’s children without any of their own. Between meddling relatives, self-doubt and an explosive confrontation, they uncover why they have not been blessed with a child. (HIFFVN 2024)

Trailer:

Break No. 1 & Break No. 2 by Lei Lei – China | 2024 – 17 minutes

Photographs, snowy mountains, videotapes. Two stories of love and death. Episode 1: The Lost Photographs. Episode 2: The unfound movie videotapes. (HIFFVN 2024)

Circle by Yumi Joung – Korea | 2024 – 6 minutes

The girl draws a circle on the ground. Passersby step into it, one by one. Soon the circle is full of people, struggling to stay within. Once the girl returns and erase the circle, people start heading their way. (HIFFVN 2024)

Trailer:

Cross My Heart and Hope to Die by Sam Manacsa – Philippines | 2023 – 17 minutes

Mila struggles as she remains unpaid at work and a love interest becomes a source of comfort through his constant phone calls. But a promise of hope may also lead to tragedy and sad love songs. (HIFFVN 2024)

Trailer:

Home is Where the Star Fruits Taste Sour by Nuy Nguyen – Germany | 2024 – 24 minutes

Huy‘s transcontinental relationship with his grandparents alternates between closeness and distance. After years of absence he visits them and embarks on a highly personal journey to the source of emotional conflict between the generations within his family. (HIFFVN 2024)

Howling by Aya Kawazoe – Japan | 2023 – 23 minutes

“The face of my younger brother upon his death was my own.” Shusaku Aota sees himself in the face of his deceased brother. Distant howling that comes from an unknown location. His younger brother’s memories. His bedridden pupil Kaoru Nogi appears out of thin air. “It’s me, after all.” Shusaku loses sight of where he stands, where he is, where he exists. (HIFFVN 2024)

Trailer:

Our Pain by Shunsaku Hayashi – Japan | 2023 – 16 minutes

Our common pain, although experienced individually and uniquely, is what connects us. It is the ambiguity and variety of our existence that allows us to imagine an infinity of variables, some of these alternatives may be malignant, and some benign. (HIFFVN 2024)

Trailer:

Saigon Kiss by Hồng Anh Nguyễn – Vietnam, Germany, Australia | 2023 – 22 minutes

Mơ roams through the rush hour traffic to avoid an unwanted phone call. When she meets Vicky by the side of the street with her broken motorbike, a visceral chance encounter unfolds between the two young queer women on the loud streets of Saigon.​​ (HIFFVN 2024)

Trailer:

The Altar by Moe Myat May Zarchi – Myanmar | 2023 – 10 minutes

A buddhist fable-like story about the guilt of a childhood incident of killing an ant while washing hands in the sink. Animated through photographic sequences painted with golds and grays, the Zen-like visuals sweep into one another with whispering monologues and glitching noises reflecting the realms of cosmos, power, guilt, prayers, and existence. (HIFFVN 2024)

Trailer:

The Parade by Ryan Benjamin Lee – Singapore, USA | 2023 – 6 minutes

In Singapore, politics is often described as a dance: one step forward and two steps back; a city where socio-economic change moves with incremental cautiousness. However, in this animated film, the quiet city-state transforms into a rowdy street parade synthesised by a manic flurry of pop culture, karaoke and colour. The Parade uses the classic 80s film, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off as a site of departure to talk about the politics of togetherness, public space in Singapore. In the film, Ferris is a kid who wants to seize the day, a mischievous trickster who always ‘gets away with it”. I wanted to imagine what that could mean in Singapore, a country in a constant state of surveillance and public space often does not feel like it belongs to its citizens. (HIFFVN 2024)

More information: https://hiff.vn/