These are our ten recommended feature films from the Kaohsiung Film Festival, which is taking place from October 12 – 27, 2024 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

All Shall Be Well by Ray Yeung – Hong Kong | 2024 – 93 minutes | Taiwan Premiere

Angie and Pat are a well-off lesbian couple in their mid-60s. They have lived together for 30 years in the flat Pat owns in Hong Kong. Their relationship is accepted by their friends and families and they are valued and loved by those around them. After Pat unexpectedly dies one night, Angie is not only emotionally supported by her circle of friends, but also — at least at first — by Pat’s family. However, little by little, arguments about the burial and inheritance lead to an estrangement. Angie has no legal right to remain in the flat she shared with Pat and is at the mercy of the dwindling goodwill of her dead partner’s family. (KaohsiungFF 2024)

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Cloud by Kurosawa Kiyoshi – Japan | 2024 – 124 minutes | Taiwan Premiere

Ryosuke Yoshii is an ordinary person who supports himself by reselling things on the internet. He carelessly angers the people around him and, in the end, is dragged into a desperate struggle that risks his life. (KaohsiungFF 2024)

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Confetti by Fujita Naoya – Japan | 2023 – 80 minutes | Taiwan Premiere

Junior high school student Yuki, a member of a traveling theater troupe, changes schools to match his performance schedule. On his first day at a new school, he declares that because he’s serious about his art, he doesn’t want friends. But when he meets Ken, who is not attending school, his determination begins to falter… A junior high school student living in the world of theater is changed through various encounters and partings at the school he temporarily attends in this coming-of-age drama. (KaohsiungFF 2024)

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Idiot Girls and School Ghost: School Anniversary by Kim Min-ha- South Korea | 2024 – 90 minutes | International Premiere

Ji-yeon, a high school senior who dreams of becoming a film director but can’t manage to score higher than eighth grade on her college entrance exams, stumbles upon a video tape from 1998. She learns that her senior classmates, who played hide and seek with a ghost in the school on the night of the school’s founding anniversary, eventually scored perfect marks on their college entrance exams! Determined, she and her friends decide to play hide and seek with the ghost themselves. (KaohsiungFF 2024)

Inch Forward by Su Yu-chun – Japan | 2023 – 83 minutes | Taiwan Premiere

Kiriko Kojima wants to direct a road movie. She shares her vision with the crew while scouting locations, but her aspirations don’t fit the budget or schedule. Kiriko can’t explain her ideas to the cast and crew, which the producer constantly points out. She steals away to the seaside to scout locations but screws up the car along the way. That night, her pregnant roommate’s water breaks while they are out searching for their lost cat. Kiriko is plagued by troubles, and then she blows the meeting with her producer and lead actress the next morning. Without a lead actress or money to fix the car, she considers realistic ways to make the shoot happen. (KaohsiungFF 2024)

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Swimming in a Sand Pool by Yamashita Nobuhiro – Japan | 2024 – 87 minutes

It is summer vacation, but high schoolers Kokoro and Miku have been instructed by their PE teacher, Yamamoto, to clean the swimming pool. The pool has been drained of water and it is covered with sand from the baseball team’s field next door. Thus, under the blazing sun, they are meant to sweep the sand but distractions abound as Chizuru and Yui join them and stray in their path. Together, they initially discuss school life, love and makeup, but it isn’t long before their worries begin to overflow and their thoughts intersect… (KaohsiungFF 2024)

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Tenement by Inrasothythep Neth, Sokyou Chea – Cambodia | 2024 – 84 minutes | Taiwan Premiere

Soriya only has a faded photograph of her childhood home and relatives back in Cambodia. Her mother fled with her when she was young and she grew up in Tokyo, where she is now an aspiring manga artist. After her mother passes away, she decides to travel to Phnom Penh with her photographer boyfriend Daichi and stay in an old housing complex where her aunt and grandmother remain. Initial warm welcomes soon take a menacing edge as Soriya experiences nightmarish visions and gruesome events linked to something lurking in the building that is afflicting the residents. Soon, the couple find themselves surrounded by threats from the past and present. (KaohsiungFF 2024)

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Time to be Strong by Namkoong Sun – Korea | 2024 – 99 minutes | Taiwan Premiere

Three retired K-pop idols take a trip to Jeju Island. Leaving behind their failed careers and unspoken wounds, they seek compensation for their lost school days. However, on the first day of the trip, Sarang loses her luggage and gets caught up in an unwanted quarrel. Facing their memories of the past, the three friends slowly begin to move forward. (KaohsiungFF 2024)

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The Gesuidouz by Ugana Kenichi – Japan | 2024 – 94 minutes | Asian Premiere

Belonging to a small record company, The Gesuidouz had a large inventory of albums unsold and were performing in front of a small audience. Their manager tells the band to move to the countryside and write a new song while he financially assists them, telling them that this is their last chance. With a large amount of equipment and a stock of albums, the band takes up residence in a village with no cell phone reception… (KaohsiungFF 2024)

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Who Were We? by Tomina Tetsuya – Japan | 2023 – 101 minutes | Taiwan Premiere

On Sado Island, Kii works as a cleaner at a gold mine. One day, she finds a collapsed woman in the facility and takes the woman to her home. The woman doesn’t remember her past or even her name. The woman is named Midori by the two other girls living with Kii. One day, Midori is attracted by the presence of cats and this leads her to meet Ao, who works as a night guard at the mine. Ao tells her that he also doesn’t remember his past. Midori and Ao get attracted to each other and spend time together. One day, Midori meets Murasaki who seems to have a close relationship with Ao. This disturbs Midori. (KaohsiungFF 2024)

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For more information, please visit: https://www.kff.tw/en