Li Dong and Li Chun are brothers with completely different temperaments. Though they both live in Beijing, the two have been estranged for many years. One day, while reconnecting at a Japanese restaurant nestled within the busy streets of the city, they reminisce about their beloved childhood sw...

When Chen's estranged wife reappears asking for a divorce, their music-loving daughter decides she will live with the parent that can provide her with a piano. After efforts to borrow money and even steal a piano fail, Chen concocts a preposterous plan – he'll make a piano from scratch! He persua...

Struggling graduate student Zhang Guangsheng (Ding Xinhe) loses his professor’s dog and enlists his deadbeat dad (Yu Hai) to help retrieve the missing pooch before his careless mistake jeopardizes both his graduation and future career.

The feature debut from Chinese writer/director Jiang Jiache...

Toichi (Akira Emoto), an aging ferryman in a remote Meiji-era community, lives a peaceful, cyclical existence, given meaning by the essential role he plays in transporting people, livestock, and goods across the water, connecting villages and lives. When news arrives that a bridge is being built,...

A shy high school student thinks no one listens to the science-fiction radio drama he produces daily until one day he starts to receive recorded responses from a mysterious female student.

DIRECTED BY TAKUYA CHISAKA
JAPAN | 2020 | JAPANESE WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES

Upon learning that his younger brother had an accident and has slipped into a vegetative state, Tibetan monk Tenzin Banjue leaves his monastery and embarks on the long walk back to his home village. Once there, he finds himself caught between faith and desire when his mother encourages him to sta...

International superstar Maggie Cheung (In the Mood for Love) embodies tragic screen siren Ruan Lingyu, known as the "Greta Garbo of China," in this unconventional biopic by Hong Kong New Wave master Stanley Kwan (Rouge). Praised for her moving and emotive onscreen presence, Ruan’s private life, w...

Abigail Harm (Amanda Plummer) reads books to the blind and lives alone on the outskirts of the city. Keeping her eyes turned away from everyone, she secretly watches, listens and hopes. One day, Abigail recalls an old story about a woodcutter who saves the life of a mystical deer and is granted h...

Investigative filmmaker Yuko (Kumi Takiuchi) is putting together a piece about the bereaved families connected with a bullied schoolgirlʼs suicide. Determined to shed light on the truth, Yukoʼs uncompromising nature brings her in conflict with the conservative-minded management at her television ...

While vacationing with his wife at a seaside resort, Kenji, a struggling writer (Hidetoshi Nishijima, Drive My Car), becomes fascinated with a mysterious couple he notices by the pool. Later, from outside their hotel room window, he witnesses the older man (Takeshi Kitano) methodically filming th...

32-year-old Ichiko (Sakura Ando, Shoplifters) lives at home in self-indulgent grunginess with her parents and recently divorced younger sister. One morning, after a particularly heated argument, Ichiko decides to leave for good. With few options to support herself, she finds a job at a 100 yen sh...

Amid the ashes of post-WWII Japan, the bittersweet sounds of American traditional country music drifted through the radio airwaves. Although intended for the U.S. occupying forces, a vast "ghost audience" of young Japanese quickly warmed to the soothing, yet foreign, sounds.

Since falling in lov...

Following his Cannes Jury Prize-winning drama HARMONIUM, director Koji Fukada returns with “another emotionally palpable tale of perception” (IONCINEMA). Ichiko (Mariko Tsutsui) is a private home nurse who has worked for the elderly matriarch of the Oisho family for years. Unexpectedly, her quiet...

During the Ming Dynasty, a Buddhist abbot charged with protecting the sacred scroll of Tripitaka prepares to name his successor. An aristocrat and a general arrive at his secluded mountaintop monastery promising to help in his search, but are in fact scheming to secure the scroll for themselves. ...

After years of toiling in bit parts, aspiring actress Nina Wu (Wu Ke-Xi, who also co-wrote the script based on her own personal experiences) finally gets her break as the female lead in a big-budget espionage thriller. The role, which calls for nudity and explicit sex scenes, is made all the more...

After Tsuji (Win Morisaki), a floundering toy salesman, rescues Ukiyo (Kaho Tsuchimura), a mysterious woman whose car stalls on the train tracks, she inadvertently whisks him into an epic series of misadventures involving gangsters, strange interlopers, kidnapping and other sundry crimes.

Singul...

Alliance of Women Film Journalists Selection! Read an excerpt from Margaret Barton Fumo's AWFJ review: "Cathy Yan’s 2018 film DEAD PIGS is a dazzling debut ahead of her better-known followup, the blockbuster superhero film BIRDS OF PREY (2020). DEAD PIGS premiered at Sundance, where it won a Spec...

Alliance of Women Film Journalists Selection! Read an excerpt from Liz Whittemore's AWFJ review: "At the suggestion of her niece, lonely middle-aged Setsuko takes English lessons. When her plucky teacher John goes missing, Setsuko gets on a plane to California in search of love and a life-changin...

Burmese immigrants sneak into Thailand on a well-trafficked route across the Mekong River, down quiet country roads and past bribed police checkpoints. Along this treacherous path to Bangkok, Lianqing (Wu Ke-Xi) and Guo (Kai Ko) meet, and their fates become entwined. After finding work, the coupl...

From acclaimed Japanese auteur and 2018 Palme D'Or winner Hirokazu Kore-eda (SHOPLIFTERS, LIKE FATHER LIKE SON) comes one of the most critically acclaimed dramas of 2017, earning a New York Times Critic's Pick and Village Voice Choice designation, and Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Dwelling ...

The film follows the follies that ensue when a man and his wife shack up with a family that owns a printing press in their building. The husband takes it over, and the couple begin inviting a motley crew of friends.

DIRECTED BY KOJI FUKUDA
JAPAN | 2009 | JAPANESE WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES

In late 19th century Vietnam, fourteen-year-old May becomes the third wife to a wealthy landowner. She quickly learns that she can gain status and security if she gives birth to a male child, but her burgeoning attraction to Xuan, the second wife, puts her fragile standing in jeopardy. As May obs...

In his follow-up to the critically acclaimed A TOUCH OF ZEN, trailblazing filmmaker King Hu brings together an all-star female cast, including Hong Kong cinema stalwart Li Li-hua and Angela “Lady Kung Fu” Mao, in this lively martial arts adventure. When Lee Khan, a powerful general of the oppress...

In his explosive directorial debut Japanese renaissance man-cum-comedian-extraordinaire Takeshi "Beat" Kitano plays vicious rogue homicide Detective Azuma who takes on a sadistic crime syndicate only to discover widespread internal corruption in the police force. Facing criminal charges for his u...