Asian Cinema
Cinema has been a part of Asian cultures for more than a century. We offer a selection of films from older classic titles (King Hu's THE FATE OF LEE KHAN) to more recent family dramas by the Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda, along with films from Singapore, South Korea, Vietnam and Thailand.
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Warm Water Under a Red Bridge
Brimming with magical realism, sensuality, and humor, the final film by revered filmmaker Shohei Imamura tells the story of Yosuke Sasano (Koji Yakusho), an unemployed salaryman who arrives in a remote fishing village following a rumor of hidden treasure. Instead, he meets Saeko Aizawa (Misa Shim...
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Love's Whirlpool
Six strangers meet at an underground sex club in Japan for a night of anonymous pleasure. While first-timers and regulars collide, each member’s attitude towards sex and satisfaction becomes challenged as their kinks and inhibitions begin to reveal more than they were initially willing to let on....
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Heroes Shed No Tears
In his “first real ballistic effort” (Eastern Kicks), director John Woo demonstrates the genesis of his trademark style of hyperkinetic action and violence. Eddy Ko stars as Chan Chung, the leader of an elite Chinese commando force enlisted by the Thai government to capture General Samton, a powe...
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The Sales Girl
When college coed Saruul takes a temporary job as a clerk in a sex shop, her poker-faced indifference makes her the perfect foil for the shop’s clientele, who range from slightly sheepish and cautiously curious to downright perverse. But it’s the shop’s flamboyant, eccentric female owner who init...
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In the Morning of La Petite Mort
Matsui (Yusuke Fukuchi), a homeless food delivery driver, spends his days and nights traveling from destination to destination without any place to find true solace. Longing to make a connection, he becomes infatuated with a beautiful young prostitute, Ching (Yun-Chih Wang), but her sudden disapp...
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Are You Lonesome Tonight?
On a dark night, Xueming (Eddie Peng) hits a pedestrian with his car and flees the scene. Desperate to escape his feelings of guilt, he decides to approach the dead man’s wife, Mrs Liang (Sylvia Chang). Meanwhile, the body is discovered riddled with bullets. Chen (Wang Yanhui), the detective in c...
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White River
Yang Fan lives in quiet Yanjiao and follows a daily routine that consists of cooking, cleaning and observing strict quarantine rules. But this mundane existence soon gives way to erotic entanglements when she begins sleeping with a neighborhood waiter under the watchful eye of her husband.
The f...
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Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
An unexpected love triangle, a failed seduction, and a chance encounter with the past. Propelled by coincidence and imagination, and guided by love’s gentle current, Oscar-winning director Ryūsuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car) presents an enchanting triptych that spins mundane encounters into a world ...
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Aloners
Jina (Gong Seung-yeon) is the top employee at a call center, but despite talking to customers all day, she has shut out the world beyond her headset; she lives alone, eats alone, sleeps alone, and her cell phone is her constant companion. When one day she's tasked with training a friendly and nai...
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Yuni
Having rejected a marriage proposal and now facing limited options after graduation, Indonesian high school student Yuni (Arawinda Kirana) finds herself having to define her desires within a society attempting to prescribe her fate. Navigating her burgeoning sexuality and educational prospects wh...
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The Princess Warrior
Descended from Genghis Khan and skilled in all forms of military combat, Princess Khutulun (Tsedoo Munkhbat) is one of the fiercest warriors in the Mongol Empire. Despite her talents on the battlefield, Khutulun is still expected to marry, and her father, Kaidu Khan, arranges for a union with the...
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Still the Water
On the subtropical Japanese island of Amami, sixteen-year-old Kaito (Nijiro Murakami) discovers a young woman’s body floating in the sea. His girlfriend Kyoko (Jun Yoshinaga) attempts to help him make sense of this mystery while also coming to terms with her shaman mother’s terminal illness. Toge...
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Radiance
Misako (Ayame Misaki) is a passionate writer of film versions for the visually impaired. At a screening, she meets Nakamori (Masatoshi Nagase), an older photographer who is slowly losing his eyesight. Misako soon discovers Nakamori’s photographs, which strangely bring her back to her past. Togeth...
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578 Magnum
After leaving the Special Forces, container truck driver and single father Hùng (Alexandre Nguyen) dedicates his life to raising his six-year-old daughter. But when she gets kidnapped and assaulted, Hùng relies on his martial arts training and combat skills to hunt down the twisted millionaire re...
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I Am Sun Mu
Operating under a pseudonym which means "no boundaries", North Korean defector Sun Mu doesn't just paint about his troubled life in the world’s most reclusive and repressive state – he paints images of hope. Sun Mu's work is imbued with nuance and heartbreak, political pop art that inverts the pr...
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Pushing Hands
Having just moved from Beijing, elderly tai chi master Mr. Chu (Sihung Lung) struggles to adjust to life in New York, living with his Americanized son Alex (Ye-tong Wang). Chu immediately butts heads with his put-upon white daughter-in-law, Martha (Deb Snyder), a writer who seems to blame him for...
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Sexual Drive
Equal parts thriller, sex comedy, and gastronomy, SEXUAL DRIVE is an unconventional triptych that follows the seemingly unconnected lives of three people and their appetites – both culinary and carnal. In the first story, a designer worries about his sexless marriage. Next, an office worker strug...
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Vive L'Amour
Tsai Ming-liang's sophomore feature, VIVE L'AMOUR, follows three lonely souls sharing a Taipei apartment. Beautiful realtor May Lin (Yang Kuei-mei) brings her lover Ah-jung (Chen Chao-jung) to the vacant unit, unaware that it is secretly occupied by suicidal funeral salesman Hsiao-kang (Lee Kang-...
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Yanagawa
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...
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Looking for Lucky
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...
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They Say Nothings Stays the Same
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,...
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Sunshine That Can Move Mountains
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...
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Center Stage
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...
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Abigail Harm
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...