8 films you cannot miss at the Focus on Asia – Fukuoka International Film Festival 2019

By Asian Film Festival on September 9, 2019 • ( Leave a comment )

We present a list of eight films you shouldn’t miss at the Focus on Asia – Fukuoka International Film Festival which will take place from September 13th – 19th, in Fukuoka City, Japan.

About the festival:
The Focus on Asia Fukuoka International Film Festival was launched in 1991 as a major undertaking of “Asian Month” (renamed “Asian Party” in 2013), which began in 1990 to further deepen the circle of cultural exchange with Asia fostered through the “Asian Pacific Exposition”, held in 1989 to commemorate the centennial of the founding of the City of Fukuoka.

The Film Festival Director and the Film Festival Secretariat staff, travel throughout Asia to research and select the motion pictures to be selected for festival exhibition. Film directors and starring actors and actresses to motion pictures selected for festival exhibition are invited as guests and participate in discussion sessions as well as symposiums, which are held to bring about a relationship of exchange with the audience of Fukuoka.

A Family Tour by Ying Liang
Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia | 2018 – 107 minutes

Yang’s film offends the government so she resides in exile in Hong Kong. Her mother in mainland China, however, must have a cancer operation. Yang participates in a film festival in Taiwan and brings her husband and son along to meet her mother who comes to the island on a Chinese mainland company leisure tour, but…A film that projects the film director’s very own circumstances in life. (FIFF Website)

Trailer:

Demons by Daniel Hui – Singapore | 2018 – 83 minutes

Vicky, an actress, is given the starring role in a play directed by Daniel, an esteemed stage director. Ever since, she feels empty and experiences strange hallucinations. Daniel gets scared also over the absurd behavior of those around him and the strange nightmares he has. A satirical horror film on latent terror and insanity behind artistic authority in a group society.

Trailer:

Jinpa by Pema Tseden – China | 2018 – 87 minutes

Produced by Wong Kar-wai and set in the vast plains of Tibet, the film depicts the encounter of two men named “Jinpa” using overwhelming artistic skills which merge reality with illusion. A truck driver named Jinpa accidentally runs over and kills a sheep. He later picks up a man travelling across the wilderness. Also named Jinpa, the man is out to carry out a long thought out revenge of murder.

Trailer:

Lakbayan (Journey) by Brillante Mendoza, Lav Diaz, Kidlat Tahimik
Philippines | 2018 – 118 minutes

This is an omnibus film directed by 3 masters of Philippine Art Cinema, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Filipino cinema. The unifying theme is “journey”. Diaz overwhelms us with the serene, magical beauty of his monochrome long takes. Mendoza brings us an overflowing presence of imagery through his hand-held camerawork. Tahimik offers us a vivid story of a journey with his son.

Trailer:

Manta Ray by Phuttiphong Aroonpheng – Thailand, France, China | 2018 – 105 minutes

Set in a Thailand village facing the sea near the Myanmar border where at one time, many Rohingya refugees drowned, a young fisherman finds an injured man lying unconscious in the forest. Naming him “Thongchai”, the two live together but when the fisherman disappears at sea one day, Thongchai takes over his friend’s life. Then the former wife of the missing fisherman appears…。

Trailer:

Markado: The moon devourer by Joe Bacus – Philippines | 2018 – 90 minutes

Flooding caused by a large typhoon brings devastation to the city and its people. Theft, murder, kidnapping and brutal and atrocious crime is rampant in the city. Sab, who survived, works as a drug carrier to a drug syndicate for the sake of her grandmother, the only remaining family member, but…An ambitious film using bold film structure such as stop motion animation with a miniature set.

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Other man’s wife by Dimanwan Hatta – Indonesia | 2018 – 99 minutes

Set in the Kangean Islands between the Java Sea and the Makassar Strait. With the passing of her mother, the only person who understood her, a high school girl builds an emotional wall around her. She’s in despair because the life she lives tells her “women are merely property to men, who rule the world” She merely obeys what men tell her until she meets someone, she really wants to love…

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Sivaranjani and two other women by Vasanth S. Sai – India | 2018 – 123 minutes

The husband leaves when his wife talks back. Because of “family honor”, a working housewife must disclose her diary to her husband’s family. Sivaranjani, now a housewife, is too busy caring for members of her new family to do anything else. The film depicts, through 3 women in different eras, the never-ending reality behind female discrimination in India.

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