The New York Asian Film Festival is set to launch for a totally in-person run and tickets are already on sale. The festival, marking its 20th anniversary, runs from July 15th to the 31st and features 60+ films, both new and classic, from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Mongolia, Taiwan, Philippines, Thailand, South Korea, Singapore, Nepal, and the Asian-American community.
What stands out in this year’s programme, in terms of non-Japanese films, there are a free outdoor screening in Hearst Plaza of Wong Kar-wai’s queer relationship classic Happy Together (1997) on July 16, The Eye (2002, dirs. Pang Brothers), The Girl on a Bulldozer (2022) by director Park Ri-woong. What about Japanese films?
At the time of writing there are 9 features and 3 shorts from Japan and some of the directors will be in attendance(!). The number of films can increase, so I’ll update this post to reflect the changes. Details are given below with dates/times/appearances coming under information/IMDB links.
Here’s the line-up!
世界は僕らに気づかない 「Seikatsu wa Bokura ni Kidzukanai」
Release Date: , 2022
Duration: 112 mins.
Director: Kashou Iizuka
Writer: Kashou Iizuka (Screenplay),
Starring: Kazuki Horike, GOW, Masafumi Shinohara, Tomoka Murayama, Kenji Iwaya,
Thursday Jul 28, 9:30pm
Film at Lincoln Center
Director Kasho Iizuka will attend the screening.
This comes from Kashou Iizuka who is a writer, director and cinematographer whose works, like his 2011 Pia Film Festival Special Jury Prize-winning autobiographical debut Our Future, are concerned with the existence of people who don’t fit neatly in society. In 2022, he released two films, Futari no Sekai, a drama concerned with transgenderism, and Angry Son, in which he tackles immigration through the prism of a single-parent family.
You can read my review of the film here and an interview with director kashou Iizuka here.
Synopsis: If ever a film lived up to its title, it’s Angry Son which presents a perma-mad protag Jungo (HORIKE Kazuki), a high school student living in rural Ota City, Gunma Prefecture. Audiences are asked to sympathise with his temper tantrums, most of which are aimed at his feisty Filipina mother Reina (GOW). Fortunately, she gives as good as she gets as she and her son navigate aggravating instances of xenophobia, being a single-parent household, and his quest to search for a father he has only ever known through child-support payments.
If you can resist the urge to dislike the angry one, you will find writer/director IIZUKA Kasho’s drama rich with incidents and issues, from exploring homosexuality and the mixed-race experience, to Filipino life in Japan. It always remains entertaining and has a heart-warming tear-jerker of a finale that replaces anger with love thanks to fully fleshed-out side characters offering a hopeful look at people learning to live together.
破戒 「Hakai」
Release Date: July 08th, 2022
Duration: 119 mins.
Director: Kazuo Maeda
Writer: Masato Kato, Norio Kida (Script), Toson Shimazaki (Original Story)
Starring: Shotaro Mamiya, Anna Ishii, Yuma Yamoto, Naoto Takenaka, Ayako Kobayashi, Yoji Tanaka, Renji Ishibashi,
Thursday Jul 28, 6:30pm
Asia Society
This is based on Toson Shimazaki’s work and has been adapted into film already, first by Keisuke Kinoshita in 1948 and then by Kon Ichikawa in 1962.
Synopsis: Ushimatsu Segawa is a popular teacher and has a budding romance with a woman from a samurai family but one thing jeopardises it all: he is burakumin. This is a class considered as “untouchables” due to low jobs they had to do. This secret is a source of anxiety but meeting the free-thinking writer and poet Rentaro Inoko helps Segawa open up and consider fighting for equal rights, especially after tragedy strikes…
わたし達はおとな 「Watashitachi wa Otona」
Release Date: June 10th, 2022
Duration: 108 mins.
Director: Takuya Kato
Writer: Takuya Kato (Script),
Starring: Mai Kiryu, Kisetsu Fujiwara, Rio Kanna, Kurumi Shimizu, Kokoro Morita, Toori Sakurada, Hirona Yamasaki, Reiko Kataoka,
Saturday Jul 23, 9:00pm
Film at Lincoln Center
Synopsis: An original romantic drama that aims to realistically depict love amongst 20-somethings, we watch an art student named Yumi and her boyfriend Naoya, an actor who she met while making flyers for his theatre troupe, negotiate finding out that she is pregnant. To add complications to the matter, Yumi is not sure that Naoya is the father. The more they try to work through things together, the more they seem to become distant…
親密な他人 「Shinmitsuna tanin」
Release Date: March 05th, 2022
Duration: 96 mins.
Director: Mayu Nakamura
Writer: Mayu Nakamura (Script/Story),
Starring: Asuka Kurosawa, Fuju Kamio, Yu Uemura, Shogen, Shiro Sano, Mitsuko Oka,
Thursday Jul 21, 7:00pm
Director Mayu Nakamura will attend the screening.
Mayu Nakamura, director of the documentary Alone Again in Fukushima, and Covid-19 short film Among Four of Us (interview with director Mayu Nakamura), for which she gave me an interview, shot this post-Covid psychological thriller which is led by Asuka Kurosawa (A Snake in June, Cold Fish) in a role you don’t often see from Japan, a woman in her 40s allowed to be sensual.
Synopsis: Megumi Ishikawa is a 46-year-old part-time salesperson at a clothing store. It seems like her routine is simple except she has been waiting for her son, Shinpei, who went missing a year ago. When a cash-strapped 20-year-old young man named Yuji claims to know Shinpei’s whereabouts, Megumi invites him to stay with her and the two develop a mysterious relationship, one less like lovers and more like a parent and child. Their close proximity to each other reveals hidden secrets and an ever-shifting sense of who is predator and who is prey.
死刑にいたる病 「Shikei ni Itaru Yamai」
Release Date: May 06th, 2022
Duration: 128 mins.
Director: Kazuya Shiraishi
Writer: Ryo Takada (Script), Riu Kushiki (Original Story),
Starring: Sadao Abe, Kenshi Okada, Takanori Iwata, Miho Nakayama, Yu Miyazaki, Ryo Sato, Takuji Suzuki, Miki Kamioka, Ririka Kawashima,
Thursday Jul 21, 9:30pm
Kazuya Shiraishi of The Blood of the Wolves / Last of the Wolves teams up with Sadao Abe (Eyes of the Spider) for a serial killer story.
Synopsis: Masaya (Kenshi Okada) spends his days going to a second-choice university so you can imagine how negative his days are. Fate brings further darkness into his life when he is contacted by a serial killer named Yamato (Sadao Abe) who used to run a bakery that Masaya went to as a school student. Now on death row, Yamata is facing his final days but he claims that he did not commit the last murder that he is accused of. Masaya decides to investigate… rather than leaving it alone and concentrating on his studies to get into a better university.
牛首村 「Ushikubi Mura」
Release Date: February 18th, 2022
Duration: 115 mins.
Director: Takashi Shimizu
Writer: Takashi Shimizu, Daisuke Hosaka (Script),
Starring: Koki, Rinka Otani, Haruka Imou, Riko, Riku Hagiwara,
Tuesday Jul 19, 9:00pm
Director Takashi Shimizu will attend the screening.
This is the third film from highly talented director Takashi Shimizu (Ju-On) based on a scary village. Apparently it is the best yet, which is a good thing because Howling Village (2019) was not very good. It uses the same formula of curses, folk horror, urban legends, found footage, and supernatural scares.
Synopsis: A video of a girl wearing a cow head mask while she is trapped in an abandoned building located in Ushikubi Village goes viral online. This girl is one of a trio of high schoolers who went missing after a prank went wrong and she bears an uncanny resemblance to Kannon who becomes determined to find out the truth behind the video…
Release Date: February 25th, 2022
Duration: 107 mins.
Director: Non
Writer: Non (Script),
Starring: Non, Daichi Watanabe, Rio Yamashita
Thursday Jul 21, 4:30pm
Non (Hold Me Back) makes her debut feature movie as director/editor/writer with this coming-of-age drama inspired by an interview with an art college graduate who said that she considered a work that she had spent a year making felt like trash because she could no longer exhibit it due to a lockdown.
Synopsis: Itsuka (Non) is at art university, or she was before Covid-19 forced classes to be cancelled. With students told to take work home or risk it being trashed, the kids are left devastated as their efforts look to have been wasted. Their future seems equally uncertain. After returning home to her concerned parents and sister, Itsuka finds her frustrations building as both her art education and career seem to be floundering as jobs dry up and her anger builds until it can be contained no more and explodes (via CG ribbons!).
シン・ウルトラマン 「Shin Urutoraman」
Release Date: May 13th, 2022
Duration: 112 mins.
Director: Shinji Higuchi
Writer: Hideaki Anno (Script),
Starring: Takumi Saito, Masami Nagasawa, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Soko Wada, Daiki Arioka, Akari Hayami,
Saturday Jul 23, 1:00pm
Director Shinji Higuchi and Producer Tomoya Nishino will attend the screening.
Japan’s biggest tokusatsu-vs.-kaiju series gets a revival courtesy of Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi, the team behind Shin Godzilla, to bring a new, more modern take on Ultraman. Apparently, “they haven’t tampered with the franchise’s campy bravura, rapid-fire technobabble or odd camera framing.”
Synopsis: When Kaiju start attacking Japan on the regular (just one is bad enough) and conventional weapons aren’t, the government gathers specialists and establishes the “Kaiju Special Countermeasures Office Task Force” led by Kimio Tamura (Hidetoshi Nishijima), Hiroko Asami (Masami Nagasawa), and Shinji Kaminaga (Takumi Saitoh), a man who can transform into a hero the size of a giant.
異動辞令は音楽隊！ 「 Ido Jirei wa Ongakutai!」
Release Date: August 26th, 2022
Duration: 119 mins.
Director: Eiji Uchida
Writer: Eiji Uchida (Script),
Starring: Hiroshi Abe, Nana Seino, Hayato Isomura, Kiyohiko Shibukawa, Mitsuko Baisho, Ai Mikami,
Friday Jul 22, 6:00pm
Film at Lincoln Center
Director Eiji Uchida and Actor Hiroshi Abe will attend the screening.
Not yet released in Japan, this has a good leading man in Hiroshi Abe (Still Walking, After the Storm) working on an original film by Eiji Uchida Greatful Dead (2013), Lowlife Love (2015), and Love and Other Cults (2017)!
Synopsis: Tsukasa Naruse (Hiroshi Abe) is a veteran detective of 30 years until he breaks some rules by going after a suspect without a warrant and gets busted from loose-cannon to the unwilling drummer of a police band. It looks bad but Naruse soon finds a chance for redemption with the backing of the band.
SHORTS
骨嚙み 「Honekami」
Release Date: 2021
Duration: 10 mins.
Director: Honami Yano
Writer: Honami Yano (Script),
Starring: Ayamo Tano
Thursday Jul 28, 3:30pm
Film at Lincoln Center
Honami Yano’s short animation was produced by Koji Yamamura (Mount Head) and won the Grand Prize for Short Animation at the Ottawa International Animation Festival.
Synopsis: A little girl living on a small island recalls moments with her father in this impressionistic, pointillist-style animated work that reflects beautifully on loss and impermanence.
往訪 「Ouhou」
Release Date: 2021
Duration: 17 mins.
Director: Kenichi Ugana
Writer: Kenichi Ugana (Script),
Starring: Ryuta Endo, Haruki Itabashi, Saki Hirai, Shiho,
Thursday Jul 28, 3:30pm
Film at Lincoln Center
Director/writer Kenichi Ugana will attend the screening.
Synopsis: A horror thriller about former bandmates who visit Souta in the countryside, where things get creepier by the minute… and survival is a game that only the hardiest can win!
Release Date: 2021
Duration: 16 mins.
Director: Shuna Iijima
Writer: Shuna Iijima (Screenplay),
Starring: Kaori Takeshita, Shuna Iijima,
Thursday Jul 28, 3:30pm
Synopsis: Natsuko (TAKESHITA Kaori) lives with her husband in the countryside. A few times a year, he goes away for two days to meet his daughter from his previous marriage and it is during these times, while waiting for his return, Natsuko deals with her dark emotions.
In this exquisitely shot short, IIJIMA’s experience on screen clearly informs what she records and how as a lively yet observant camera captures the tiniest of gestures from a powerful performance by TAKESHITA Kaori. Through evocative sets and locations, we get Natsuko’s background and her character’s turbulent emotions come out through TAKESHITA’s restless body and dialogue delivery that aches with resignation and frustration.
Just to circle back to the stellar drama The Girl on a Bulldozer, director Park Ri-woong and actor Kim Hye-yoon will attend the screening!
This year’s festival is the 20th anniversary of the event. It is co-presented by the New York Asian Film Foundation and Film at Lincoln Center, and takes place from July 15–28, 2022 at FLC’s Walter Reade Theater (165 West 65th Street), and on July 23 and July 28–31 at Asia Society (725 Park Avenue)
Tickets for the 20th New York Asian Film Festival are already on sale and prices for individual films clock in like this:
$15 for General Public;
$12 for students, seniors (62+), and persons with disabilities
$10 for FLC Members.
See more details about pricing and places at the bottom of this page.
Past coverage of the festival:
New York Asian Film Festival 2021
New York Asian Film Festival 2020
New York Asian Film Festival 2019
New York Asian Film Festival 2018