We present a list of twelve films you shouldn’t miss at the 19th Kaohsiung Film Festival, which will take place from October 10th – 27th, in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan.

About the festival:
The Kaohsiung Film Festival is a film festival held annually in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. Established in 2001, the festival screens both locally produced and international films, in all genres and lengths. The festival also has an international competition section where it hands out awards for outstanding short films. (Wiki)

10 Postcards from HAMASEN by Lu Yu-Jui – Taiwan | 2019 – 63 minutes

Leave all the messages for the future⋯ Hamasen is one of the first modernization regions. Since the Japanese colonization era, there had been many scenic postcards recording images of Hamasen. Some of the architectures still remained in the same places as they had been in the postcards. Over hundreds of years, this piece of reclaimed land carries memories of fishing men, customs declarers, and local elders from generations to generations. Sceneries in people’s memories intertwine with different time layers of maps of Hamasen. What kinds of messages do we intend to leave for the next generation?

Screenings:
October 27th (Sunday) | Kaohsiung Main Public Library 7F | 14:30 pm

Aesop’s Game by Ueda Shinichiro, Nakaizumi Yuya, Asanuma Naoya
Japan | 2019 – 87 minutes

Miwa is a university student. She is introverted and her only friend is a turtle. Saori is the daughter of a popular celebrity family. Koyuzu works at a revenge agency with her father. Clients hire them to get revenge. Somehow, Miwa, Saori and Koyuzu double-cross each other in extraordinary ways.

Screenings:
October 18th (Friday) | MLD Cinema 6 | 18:50 pm
October 19th (Saturday) | MLD Cinema 6 | 18:00 pm

After the rain by Nagai Akira – Japan | 2019 – 115 minutes

Akira Tachibana is a 17-year-old high school student. She was once a promising athlete, but an injury has prevented her from taking part in track and field. One day, Akira goes to a family restaurant and the manager talks to her in a tender voice. This makes Akira begin working part-time at the restaurant. The manager is 45-year-old Masami Kondo and he is divorced with a child. Akira falls in love with him.

Screenings:
October 24th (Thursday) | Kaohsiung Main Public Library 7F | 18:30 pm

Almost a Miracle by Ishii Yuya – Japan | 2019 – 120 minutes

Hajime Machida is a high school student. He is not good with his studies or playing sports. He does like people and he is loved by those around him. One day at school, Machida gets hurt and he goes to the school infirmary for treatment. There, he meets classmate Nana Inohara. She treats Machida instead of the school nurse who is not there. Inohara tells him that she does not like people. After that, Machida begins to care about her and Inohara begins to have feeling for him.

Screenings:
October 13th (Sunday) | Kaohsiung Main Public Library 7F | 16:20 pm
October 16th (Wednesday) | Kaohsiung Main Public Library 7F | 19:00 pm

Trailer:

Boluomi by Lau Kek-huat, Vera Chen – Taiwan | 2019 – 108 minutes

Over the decades, the Malayan Communist Party fought a guerrilla war in the jungle for independence. When a baby was born during the war, they sent it out of the jungle to ensure its survival. Boluomi is one of those babies.

Screenings:
October 27th (Sunday) | Kaohsiung Main Public Library 7F | 18:00 pm

Detention by John Hsu – Taiwan | 2019 – 103 minutes

In 1960’s, Taiwan under martial law, student Fang is secretly in love with teacher Chang, who is one of the underground leader of the illegal book club on campus. One day Fang wakes up from a dream to find Chang missing and the school no longer the same. The other student Wei seems to be the only one that still remembers Chang except her. The two find themselves trapped in Greenwood High School, haunted by evil creatures while they struggle to look for the way out.

Screenings:
October 27th (Sunday) | MLD Cinema 6 | 13:20 pm

Trailer:

Heavy Craving by Hsieg Pei-Ju – Taiwan | 2019 – 90 minutes

30 years old. 105 kilograms. Ying-Juan was dealt a bad hand. She works at her mother’s childcare center and has a harder time fitting in than a T-Rex in a petting zoo, until she meets Wu, a deliveryman who bears a checkered past underneath his radiant smile. Encouraged by Wu, Ying-Juan finally decides to lose weight. Just when things are getting on the right track, devastatingly, Ying-Juan’s passion for cooking seems to be fading away due to her over-aggressive diet…

Screenings:
October 20th (Sunday) | Kaohsiung Main Public Library 7F | 18:10 pm

Trailer:

Ohong Village by Lim Lung-Yin – Taiwan, Czech Republic | 2019 – 91 minutes

Ohong Village is the story of a village youth who seeks for the home that he cannot return to. In the remotest corner of southern Taiwan, the sinking fisherman’s village prepares for another carnival for the god. Sheng, young man reaching his 30s that departed years ago, now returns in disguise as an established urban elite. As the carnival escalates, Sheng confronts his persistent father Ming who farms oysters throughout his entire life, and Kun, the childhood buddy who always envies his fragile ‘successfulness’. Everyone’s got a secret to hide.

Screenings:
October 19th (Saturday) | Kaohsiung Main Public Library 7F | 16:00 pm

Trailer:

Recipe For Happiness by Yoon Jae-won – Korea | 2019 – 92 minutes

Namgoong Jin-Soo works as a low level grade 9 civil servant. He is satisfied with his life. When his father disapproves of Jung-soo, the girl he likes, he refuses to give up. However, it comes the news of a former university classmate’s death and of Jung-soo’s plan to leave Korea…

Screenings:
October 11th (Friday) | Kaohsiung Main Public Library 7F | 18:40 pm
October 12th (Saturday) | Kaohsiung Main Public Library 7F | 13:20 pm

Trailer:

The Journalist by Fujii Michihito – Japan | 2019 – 114 minutes

A Tokyo newspaper reporter named Yoshioka receives an anonymous fax. The young journalist struggles to find the truth. Meanwhile, Sugihara, the elite bureaucrat learns about the presence of a certain darkness, and is pressed to make a decision. When their lives intersect, a shocking truth comes to light.

Screenings:
October 19th (Saturday) | MLD Cinema 6 | 20:30 pm
October 20th (Sunday) | MLD Cinema 6 | 13:20 pm

Trailer:

The Tree Remembers by Lau Kek-Huat – Taiwan | 2019 – 88 minutes

Derived from the proverb “What the axe forgets, the tree remembers”, the film presents the current situation in Malaysia whereas the racial policy is still practiced in Malaysia and the victims forced to have remained in silence. This film tackles the origin of racism in Malaysia and the taboo of racial riot in

Screenings:
October 26th (Saturday) | MLD Cinema 6 | 13:00 pm

Trailer:

Wild Sparrow by Shih LI – Taiwan | 2019 – 94 minutes

Little Han lives in the mountains with his great-grandmother, Auntie Han-hsiao. In rainy days, Little Han sits in front of the fireplace listening to Auntie Han-hsiao’s colorful and mysterious tales. One day he sees an injured and dying sparrow. With sadness, he digs a small cave and buries it.

Screenings:
October 13th (Sunday) | Kaohsiung Main Public Library 7F | 13:30 pm

Trailer:

For more information about the programme please visit the official website of the festival: Kaohsiung Film Festival