12 Films you cannot miss at the QCinema International Film Festival 2017

By Asian Film Festival on October 15, 2017 • ( Leave a comment )

We present a list of twelve films you cannot miss at the QCinema International Film Festival 2017 that will take place from October 19th – 28th in Quezon City, Metro Manila (Philippines).

A Prayer Before Dawn by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire – France, UK | 2017 – 120 min.

Based on the true life experience of Billy Moore who survived his Thai prison ordeal by becoming a Muay Thai boxing champion.

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Baboy Halas (Wailings in the Forest) by Bagane Fiola – Philippines | 2016 – 105 min.

An indigenous family, one of the last forest people of old, copes with the unusual changes in their environment including the imposing lifestyle and customs of the more sociable tribes on the plains.

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Balangiga: Howling Wilderness by Khavn – Philippines | 2017 – 120 min.

1901, Balangiga. Eight-year-old Kulas flees town with his grandfather and their carabao to escape General Smith’s Kill & Burn order. He finds a toddler amid a sea of corpses and together, the two boys struggle to survive the American occupation.

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Close-Knit by Naoko Ogigami – Japan | 2017 – 127 min.

After being neglected by her mother, a little girl is taken in by her uncle and his transsexual girlfriend, who create a loving home for her.

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Dapol Tan Payawar Na Tayug 1931 by Christopher Gozum – Philippines | 2017 – 90 min.

A filmmaker revisits the town of Tayug, Pangasinan in preparation for a new feature film she is making about the folk hero Pedro Calosa and the Tayug Uprising of 1931. As she revisits the actual sites in Tayug where the infamous uprising had taken place, she imagines scenes in her new film about the subject. As she goes deeper in her research at Tayug, she uncovers the memories of the townspeople about Pedro Calosa and the Tayug Uprising of 1931.

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Dormitoryo (Mga Walang Katapusang Kwarto) by Emerson Reyes – Philippines | 2017 – 80 min.

Charles, an engineering student with an eye for beauty, just returned from school to a dormitory owned by Aling Linda, a strict, lonesome widow. Other occupants of the dorm include Max–now on his 7th year in college, Sheen–his reluctant partner, Steven–a social entrepreneur, Ramon–his cop lover, Alex–a call center agent, and Jenny–his attentive girlfriend. They all spend the evening tucked away in solitary rooms, talking about collective experiences, sharing a similar fate. And rent is due.Charles, an engineering student with an eye for beauty, just returned from school to a dormitory owned by Aling Linda, a strict, lonesome widow. Other occupants of the dorm include Max–now on his 7th year in college, Sheen–his reluctant partner, Steven–a social entrepreneur, Ramon–his cop lover, Alex–a call center agent, and Jenny–his attentive girlfriend. They all spend the evening tucked away in solitary rooms, talking about collective experiences, sharing a similar fate. And rent is due.

Trailer:

In Between Seasons by Lee Dong-eun – Korea | 2016 – 115 min.

A story of a mother who goes through emotional turmoil after discovering a long-kept secret about her son.

2016 BIFF Interview:

Medusae by Pam Miras – Philippines | 2017 – 87 min.

A documentarist’s son goes missing when she films a story on the disappearances of the firstborns in a remote island.

Trailer:

Mga Gabing Kasinghaba ng Hair Ko (Those Long Haired Nights) by Gerardo Calagui
Philippines | 2017 – 72 min.

At night, Manila’s red light Burgos district starts shining and its shops get busy welcoming tourists and women from different countries. The life of Tuesday, Amanda and Barbie is also here. Providing sexual services, the three transgender women are close friends. Tuesday hopelessly longs for romantic love. Wise Amanda visits her hometown to attend her ex-girlfriend’s son’s christening. She told her family that she works for a bank and her parents have been renovating their home with her money. To her parents, she is a great son or daughter. To her friends, she is an object of both envy and temptation. Recklessly ambitious Barbie tries to make money through drug dealing, but she feels threatened by dangers hidden everywhere. Pursuing love, success and dreams, their lives become part of a confusing night. (HONG Soin – BIFF Catalogue)

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Neomanila by Mikhail Red – Philippines | 2017 – 90 min.

Toto, a teenage orphan, is recruited by a notorious death squad. Irma, the groups leader, soon becomes a maternal figure to the young boy. As the two form a familial bond, their loyalties will be put to the test when one of their targets turns out to be a familiar face.

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Pop Aye by Kirsten Tan – Singapore, Thailand | 2017 – 104 min.

On a chance encounter, a disenchanted architect bumps into his long-lost elephant on the streets of Bangkok. Excited, he takes his elephant on a journey across Thailand, in search of the farm where they grew up together.

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Snow Woman (Yuki-onna) by Kiki Sugino – Korea | 2016 – 95 min.

One snowy night, in a mountain hut, Minokichi, a hunter, sees a snow woman killing his mentor Mosaku. “Should you tell anyone, I will take your life” she says, then drifts off. A year later, Minokichi meets and marries a beauty named Yuki. She bears him a daughter, Ume. 14 years pass and Ume blossoms into a radiant lady who befriends the sickly Mikio, the village leader’s son and Mosaku’s distant relative. Mikio soon dies in the same hut as Mosaku, with his body showing the same frostbite scars. Minokichi is reminded of that horrid night, and wonders what it was that he saw, and who Yuki really is. (TIFF 2016 Catalogue)

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