These are our ten recommended films from the Golden Horse Fantastic Film Festival, which will take place from April 12 – 21, 2024 in Taipei, Taiwan.

Don’t Lose Your Head! by Kawai Hayato – Japan | 2024 – 120 minutes

The much-disliked lord of the Kira clan is slain in Edo Castle, leading the Ako clan leader, his assailant, to perform seppuku. This event triggers a crisis for both families. Takaaki Kira, an underachiever, conceals the death of the lord and impersonates his brother to deceive the Shogun, who seeks to exterminate the family. Takaaki forms an unlikely alliance with Oishi Kuranosuke, a retainer of the Ako clan and supposed enemy, to save their people from retaliation.

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Problemista by Julio Torres – USA | 2023 – 105 minutes

Alejandro is an aspiring toy designer from El Salvador, struggling to bring his unusual ideas to life in New York City. As time runs out on his work visa, a job assisting an erratic art-world outcast becomes his only hope to stay in the country and realize his dream. The film takes us on a surreal adventure through the equally treacherous worlds of New York City and the U.S. immigration system.

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Raging Grace by Paris Zarcilla – UK | 2023 – 100 minutes

A hybrid of horror, suspense and social satire, and a bold coming-of-rage story of an undocumented Filipina immigrant who takes a job as a caregiver for a terminal old man in the hope of securing a better life for herself and her daughter Grace, whom she smuggles into the house and hides in the closet. But a disturbing discovery jeopardizes everything she has achieved and holds dear.

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Revolver Lily by Yukisada Isao – Japan | 2023 – 139 minutes

In 1924, Yuri, a former spy with a dark past, attempts to start anew. However, her life takes an unexpected turn when she encounters an orphan, Shinta. Shinta’s families were all murdered, and the surviving boy holds the key to a valuable treasure sought by the Imperial Japanese Army. Beneath their fateful meeting lies an earthshattering secret, propelling them into a sprawling conspiracy and a fight for their lives.

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Ripples by Ogigami Naoko – Japan | 2023 – 121 minutes

Sudo Yoriko devotes herself in new religious group Ryokumei-kai (Green Life Society) that worships water. She lives peacefully, praying every day and studying about Ryokumei-kai. As part of her morning routine, she draws ripples in the sand as she tends to her garden, but the sudden return of her husband, who has been missing for a long time, triggers the explosion of her emotions that has long been suppressed.

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River by Yamaguchi Junta – Japan | 2023 – 86 minutes

Mikoto, a waitress who works at the Japanese Inn Fujiya, is called back to work while standing by the Kibune River behind the annex. However, something strange happened, not only to Mikoto but also the clerk, waitresses, chefs, and guests. They are “looping”. Every two minutes, time rewinds and everyone returns to where they were, though their memories continue. Some want to get out of the loop, others want to stay, yet they all have issues they need to solve.

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Superposition by Karoline Lyngbye – Denmark | 2023 – 98 minutes

The creative Danish couple Stine and Teit and their young son Nemo leave their urban life in Copenhagen behind in favor of an isolated forest in Sweden, where they hope to find themselves as individuals. However, their son’s disappearance brings them face to face with their doppelgangers. The branches become prison bars, the woods a distorting canvas and they must fight for their survival.

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The New Boy by Warwick Thornton – Australia | 2023 – 116 minutes

A mission for Aboriginal children run by a renegade nun, Sister Eileen, has a new charge delivered – a boy who appears to have special powers. When the monastery takes possession of a precious relic, the new boy encounters Jesus for the first time. However, his Indigenous spiritual life does not gel with the mission’s Christianity and his mysterious power becomes a threat.

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The Promised Land by Nikolaj Arcel – Denmark, Sweden, Germany | 2023 – 122 minutes

In 1755, the impoverished Captain Ludvig Kahlen sets out to conquer the harsh, uninhabitable Danish heath with a seemingly impossible goal: to build a colony in the name of the King. But the sole ruler of the area, the merciless Frederik de Schinkel, arrogantly believes this land belongs to him, doing everything to drive the captain away. Kahlen will not be intimated and takes up the unequal battle with all he has.

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When Evil Lurks by Demián Rugna – Argentina | 2023 – 100 minutes

When two brothers discover that a demonic infection has been festering in a nearby farmhouse, they attempt to evict the victim from their land. Failing to adhere to the proper rites of exorcism, their reckless actions trigger an epidemic of possessions across their rural community. Now they must outrun an encroaching evil as it corrupts and mutilates everyone it is exposed to, and try to stop this supernatural plague.

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More information: https://www.goldenhorse.org.tw/