15 Films you cannot miss at the QCinema International Film Festival

By Asian Film Festival on October 13, 2018 • ( Leave a comment )

We present a list of fifteen films you cannot miss at the 2018 QCinema International Film Festival that will take place from October 21st – 30th, in Quezon City, Philippines.

* Important note* – Some films don’t have full schedule so please be patient. We will update the dates soon…

A Land Imagined by Yeo Siew Hua – Singapore | 2018 – 95 min.
Section: Asian Next Wave Competition

Set in industrial Singapore, police investigator Lok must find a missing migrant worker named Wang. Wang suffers a worksite accident and is anxious about repatriation. Unable to sleep, Wang starts frequenting a dreamy cybercafé in the dead of the night. Hoping to look for some form of human connection in this foreign land he feels alienated from, Wang forms a virtual friendship with a mysterious gamer that takes a sinister turn. When Wang suddenly disappears, Lok digs deep into the trail leading to a land reclamation site, in order to uncover the truth beneath all that sand.

Trailer:

Ala Changso by Sonthar Gyal – China | 2018 – 115 min.
Section: Special Screenings

Ala Changso is the transliteration of a Tibetan folk song’s title meaning please drink up this cup of good wine. It tells the story of a woman who conceals her illness and the secret between her and her ex-husband and decides to go on a pilgrimage to Lhasa. The long pilgrimage reveals her inner secrets one by one. These secrets include entanglements and perplexities of love, morality, responsibility and belief between her and her ex-husband and between her and her second husband.

Trailer:

All Grown Up by Wena Sanchez – Philippines | 2018 – 70 min.
Section: DocQC Documentary

A filmmaker closely follows her teen brother as he starts a new life in college. Although her brother is smart, he is a bit of an oddball and finds it hard to navigate the world like a normal teenager. However, as she monitors his progress, the filmmaker notices similar traits on her own daughter. This makes her question her ability to help the people she loves the most.

Trailer:

An Elephant Sitting Still by Hu Bo – China | 2018 – 230 min.
Section: Special Screening

In the northern Chinese city of Manzhouli, they say there is an elephant that simply sits and ignores the world. Manzhouli becomes an obsession for the protagonists of this film, a longed-for escape from the downward spiral in which they find themselves. In virtuoso visual compositions, the film tells the story of one single suspenseful day from dawn to dusk, when the train to Manzhouli is set to depart.

Schedule:
October 28th | Sunday | Getaway Cineplex 7 – 11:30 am

Trailer:

Billie & Emma by Samantha Lee – Philippines | 2018
Section: Circle Competition

Set in the mid-90’s, the film tells the story of Billie, a troublemaker from the big city, who finds herself exiled to San Isidro to live with her spinster aunt who is also the town’s religion teacher. Determined to change her ways and get through the last year of high school without incident, Billie hides herself from the world until she meets Emma, the ambitious, star student who coaxes Billie out of her shell. They soon fall in love but things get complicated when Emma finds out that she’s pregnant. Together, they explore the fleeting nature of love and life on this journey of growth, laughter and music.

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Burning by Lee Chang-dong – Korea | 2018 – 148 min.
Section: Screen International

While on a part-time delivery job, Jong-Su bumps into Hae-mi, an old friend from high school. Hae-mi invites Jong-su over her house and asks him if he can look after her cat while she’s out on a trip to Africa. While away, Jong-su develops an interest to Hae-mi and expectantly waits for her call. When Hae-mi comes back from her trip, she introduces Ben, a young, mysterious and rich guy she met in Africa, to Jong-su. One day, Ben and Hae-mi visits Jong-Su’s rural neighborhood where Ben confesses his odd compulsion that would send Jong-su into a deep spiral of confusion.

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Come on Irene by Keisuke Yoshida – Japan | 2018 – 137 min.
Section: Special Screenings

42-year old loser Iwao Shishido screws up his one shot at love, and leaves home to go to the Philippines. He uses the 3 million yen he saved up over the years to join a tour and find a bride. After meeting with 30 local women one after another, he goes into a panic and finally picks one randomly. The girl he picks is a Filipino named Irene, who was born in a poor fishing village. Two weeks after Iwao’s sudden departure, he comes back to find his father Genzo dead, and his family in the middle of the funeral. The young Irene is revealed to a crowd of murmuring mourners. When Tsuru hears that her only son, who’s gone his entire life without ever being in love, has married a girl she’s never met, she becomes infuriated. She grabs the family’s hunting rifle and points its gleaming barrel at Irene…!

Trailer:

Dog Days by Timmy Harn – Philippines | 2018
Section: Circle Competition

Dog Days follow the agony of being Michael Jodran Ulili, a teenager without family, a basketball superstar without a team. As he uncovers the myth of his destiny, he speeds into his own road to ruin, a dark path where crystal meth and blood magic ultimately test his capability to sustain a life that he doesn’t know what to do with.

Trailer:

Hintayan Ng Langit by Dan Villegas – Philippines | 2018
Section: Circle Competition

Lisang is two years late. After dying from a complication of diabetes in her 60’s, Lisang has overstayed in her waiting room in purgatory, occasionally causing other souls trouble for her own entertainment. But today her waiting ends. Today, she is finally set to crossover and her room is to be leased to a new tenant: Manolo, her newly deceased ex-boyfriend.

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Manta Ray by Phuttipong Aroonpheng – Thailand | 2018 – 118 min.
Section: Screen International

Near a coastal village of Thailand, by the sea where thousands of Rohingya refugees have drowned, a local fisherman finds an injured man lying unconscious in the forest. He rescues the stranger, who does not speak a word, offers him his friendship and names him Thongchai. But when the fisherman suddenly disappears at sea, Thongchai slowly begins to take over his friend’s life – his house, his job and his ex-wife…

Trailer:

Masla A Papanok by Gutierrez Mangansakan II – Philippines | 2018
Section: Circle Competition

A princess seeks refuge in a Convent to escape an arranged marriage. A young prince tries to make sense of his station. A giant bird mysteriously appears after centuries of absence. MASLA A PAPANOK (AVE) mixes history, myth, memory and magic to reimagine the Spanish colonial period in Mindanao like never before.

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Oda Sa Wala by Dwein Baltazar – Philippines | 2018
Section: Circle Competition

Sonya is an old maid stuck in a town that long ceased to recognize her existence but only until one fateful morning when a mysterious corpse arrives at the footsteps of their family owned funeral shop. Bringing forth strange luck and fortune, Sonya instantly gets drawn to the corpse’s mystique, reinvigorating not only her life but also that of her father Mang Rudy. But luck would eventually dry up, provoking further distress back to Sonya’s life. She faces the reality that her existence is nothing more that of the corpse, at the tail end of its mortality staring life wither away.

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Pag-ukit Sa Paniniwala (Carving thy faith) by Hiyas Baldemor Bagabaldo
Philippines | 2018
Section: DocQC Documentary

A sculpture believed to have been imported in town during Spanish colonial conquest, locally known as Mahal na Señor Sepulcro, is celebrating its 500 years. Meanwhile, composed of non-actors, Senakulo re-enacts the sufferings and death of Jesus. As the local community yearly unites to commemorate the Passion of Christ, a laborious journey unfolds following local craftsmen in transforming blocks of wood into a larger than life Jesus crucified on a 12-ft cross. The film is a 5-year visual ethnography of traditional yet practical orchestration of Semana Santa in a small town where religious woodcarving is the livelihood. An experiential film on neocolonial Philippines’ interpretation of Saints and Gods through many forms of rituals and iconographies, exposing wood as raw material that undergoes production processes before becoming a spiritual object of devotion.

Trailer:

Shoplifters by Kore-eda Hirokazu – Japan | 2018 – 121 min.
Section: Opening Film

Osamu struggles to make ends meet for his family’s survival by committing petty crimes. While shoplifting at a grocery store, Osamu and his son find a little girl in the freezing cold and take her home. Although reluctant to take care of the girl at first, Osamu’s wife agrees after discovering evidence of abuse against the child. Barely making enough money to survive, Osamu’s family seems to live happily until an unforeseen incident tests the bond that unite them.

Trailer:

The Third Wife by Ash Mayfair – Vietnam | 2018 – 96 min.
Section: Asian Next Wave Competition

In 19th century rural Vietnam, 14-year-old May becomes the third wife of wealthy landowner Hung. Soon she learns that she can only gain status by asserting herself as a woman who can give birth to a male child. May’s hope to change her status turns into a real and tantalizing possibility when she gets pregnant. Faced with forbidden love and its devastating consequences, May finally comes to an understanding of the brutal truth: the options available to her are few and far between.

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