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.
-
Red Peony Gambler 3: The Flower Cards Game
Maestro of Japanese cinema Tai Kato simultaneously satiates and transcends genre tropes in his masterful direction of the celebrated third film in the Red Peony Gambler series. From its classically melodramatic opening set piece involving an oncoming train, the stage is set for a visually rich ta...
-
Green Night
Trapped in a cycle of oppression, Chinese immigrant Jin Xia (Fan Bingbing) works in customs at South Korea's Incheon Airport, where she encounters a mysterious green-haired girl (Lee Joo-young) acting suspiciously at the security checkpoint. Overcome by the unspoken attraction between them, she t...
-
Violent Panic: The Big Crash
Takashi, an expert bank-robber, plans to pull off the biggest heist of his career, stealing 300 million yen before fleeing to Brazil. However, when the robbery goes awry, Takashi finds himself alone and his getaway foiled. Trailed by the police, his lover, his partner-in-crime’s brother, and coun...
-
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...
-
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....
-
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...
-
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...
-
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...
-
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 ...
-
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...
-
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...
-
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...
-
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...
-
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...
-
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-...
-
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...
-
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...
-
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,...
-
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...
-
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...
-
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...
-
A Balance
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 the Women Are Sleeping
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...
-
A Girl Missing
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...