Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024 will run from March 01st to March 10th.
There will be 63 films in total and they come from North America, Europe, and Asia. Almost all of the films will have English subtitles and there will be associated events with the films, such as talks, and filmmakers appearing at various screenings – check the festival site mid-February for when they announce guests.
Once again, I had the opportunity to write about each of the films for the festival programme (please check it out!) and it was a great experience because I watched so many titles that are so well made and really moving – funny! sad! exciting! – and I want to urge people to check them out since a film festival is probably going to be the only place you can see some of these works. Indeed, there are some films that were thought lost to time or are rarely screened so this festival WILL be the best place to view them – go see them!
A common theme with every new film is an oft-used one: identity in flux and some politics by way of that. Middle-aged women in Georgia, Singapore, and Taiwan pushing back against ageism/sexism in low-key funny romantic dramas; offbeat comedies/dramas from Japan of protags who drop out of society to pursue freeter lifestyles; a Filipino story addressing the trauma of abuse through animation; people becoming Robin-hood style terrorists in Indonesia; filmmakers from minority backgrounds in Malaysia forced to give in to commercial demands expected from their ethnic group. Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024 truly gives a window into the lives of people around the world and the issues they face.
This preview will give a general overview and there will be another preview where I will take the time to highlight each of the Japanese films. Hopefully, this will inspire people to try out the films!
OSAKA ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL 2024
Dates: March 01 – March 10
Venues: ABC Hall, Cine Libre Umeda, T-Joy Umeda, the Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka, 1st Floor (more details on each venue here)
Opening Film
This will be screened twice, the first time with a Special Opening Ceremony.
盜月者 「Dao Yue Zhe」
Release Date: 2024
Duration: 107 mins.
Director: Yuen Kim-wai
Writer: Yuen Kim-wai (Screenplay),
Starring: Anson Lo, Edan Lui, Louis Cheung, Michael Ning, Keung To,
Yuen Kim-wai’s third feature film, following Heaven in the Dark (2016) and Legally Declared Dead (2019), sees him team up with members of Cantopop boyband MIRROR – one member, Edan Lui was in Hong Kong Family (2022) – and veteran actor Louis Cheung (The Narrow Road, (2022)). It’s based on a real-life case of a raid on a Tokyo watch shop by Hong Kong gangsters.
Synopsis: Vincent Ma Man-shun (Edan LUI) is an expert at making “refitted” watches. He buys pawned watches, removes parts and refits them into custom-made watches which he sells for a profit. Their legality is questionable since his products are essentially counterfeits. This is leverage used by a crooked watch dealer, the ruthless Uncle (KEUNG To), to force Vincent to put together a team of thieves to steal three valuable watches from a store in Tokyo. He will be working with veteran thief Chief (Louis CHEUNG), explosives expert Mario (Michael NING) and young master lock breaker Yoh (Anson LO). Right from the get-go, Vincent sees a lack of trust and understands that each man has an ulterior motive for joining and it all comes to a head when they find an even more valuable watch – The Moonwatch, an iconic timepiece that once graced the lunar surface – and one of the members takes it. Thus, a thrilling story where they are pursued by the yakuza ensues…
Closing Film
There will be the Awards and Closing Ceremony prior to this screening.
東京カウボーイ 「Tokyo Kaubo-i」
Release Date: June, 2024
Duration: 118 mins.
Director: Marc Marriott
Writer: Dave Boyle, Ayako Fujitani (Screenplay),
Starring: Arata Iura, Goya Robles, Ayako Fujitani, Robin Weigert, Jun Kunimura, Scout Smith,
Website Twitter: @tokyocowboyfilm IMDB
Dave Boyle and Ayako Fujitani are names that should be familiar from other US-Japanese productions such as The Man From Reno. Their latest work has the great Jun Kunimura and Arata Iura and comes from Marc Marriott, a director who studied film in Japan under Yoji Yamada.
Synopsis: Hideki is a businessman looking to turn a struggling cattle ranch into profit-turner with a plan to sell Wagyu beef, all while juggling plans to marry his long-term girlfriend, his co-worker Keiko. To do this, he switches environments and flies from Tokyo’s forest of skyscrapers to Montana’s wide plains. Under the big skies, he makes the mistakes expected of city slickers, such as stiff sartorial decisions like keeping his salaryman suit on to falling off horses that ruin said suit. However, in his efforts to win over sceptical ranch hands and friendly locals, he learns to loosen up and appreciate the people he meets and understand the places he is in, thus helping him grow.
An easy-going and big-hearted adventure about overcoming cultural boundaries, it is filmed with a wide scope for beautiful landscapes and the pleasant characters who inhabit them, the whole experience is pleasing and it might inspire people to go to Montana and try the cowboy way of life.
Competition
With 14 films chosen from across Asia, the Near East, and Europe, you’d be right in assuming that there is a big diversity in stories and protagonists.
Some highlights…
The Lyricist Wannabe (2023) comes hot from Hong Kong/ Norris Wong made a big splash with her award-winning debut, My Prince Edward (2020), and she returns with her Cantopop lyric-writing-inspired sophomore work which is partially based on her own life. A 48-year-old shopkeeper in rural Georgia has a near-death experience that inspires her to pursue a man romantically in Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry (2023), a work looking at a woman’s independence that was based on a same-named book by a feminist author. It made a bit of a buzz on the international festival circuit. Salli (2023) is a Taiwanese drama-comedy film that runs along similar lines as a woman approaching middle age seeks out love for the first time. It’s enjoyable as it pokes fun at dating mores and old-fashioned views of how women should be treated.
Two films with stunning lead performances are Snowdrop (2024), by Kota Yoshida (Sexual Drive (2021)) and Trouble Girl (2023), by first-time feature director Chin Chia-Hua from Taiwan. The former is a drama about a woman navigating the welfare system as the stress of taking care of her parents becomes overwhelming while the latter is about a schoolgirl with ADHD who must come to terms with the needs of others even while people lose patience with her.
Speaking of school, there’s an absolute banger in the form of Not Friends (2023), a Thai school comedy-drama from Atta Hemwadee, that sees a craven character try to get into university by making a short film of a guy he never really knew. Lies blow up in his face, as expected, and seeing him react is funny but also lays a path for some excellent character development.
There are veteran filmmakers like Japan’s Nobuhiro Yamashita (Swimming in a Sand Pool) alongside newcomers, like Mongolia’s Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir (City of Wind) and Filipino Carl Joseph E. Papa (The Missing). Indeed, the number of filmmakers having their debut or sophomore works supported is impressive (and important for the development of new voices) as the festival balances the screening of exciting, moving, and aesthetically pleasing/engaging experiences for audiences to see on the big screen. This is especially the case with gorgeous films like Hyphen (2023, Jopy Arnaldo) and Fire on Water (2024, Dir: Sun-J Perumal) while Memories of His Scent (2024, Dir: Kahori Higashi – who I interviewed for Melting Sounds, (2022)) and Solids by the Seashore (2023, Dir: Atiparn Boontarig) are rich in atmosphere.
Spotlight
A nice mix of genres are here, from Indonesian action (13 Bombs) to Cambodian horror (Tenement), and the tones range from acerbic dry comedy from Mainland China (Sojourn to Shangri-la) to family friendly/genial martial arts movie from Hong Kong (Out of the Shadow) – like, you could show this film to kids.
In terms of 13 Bombs, it lifts from Hollywood fare but it’s as good as the Mark Wahlberg actioner Mile 22 (2018) but without the gratingly irritating and relentless macho rah-rah America posturing of the lead character. Tenement is a very Argento-esque movie – in story and style – but the overlay of Cambodian culture gives it a sheen of originality.
The shorts are especially strong with the Korean triple-bill of Flavor of Sisterhood, JungOk, and Accompany showing stories that don’t do anything too different but directors so fully in control of film language and performers so compelling, they can make the familiar still moving. One odd but immediately engaging one was The Fourth Man. No, not the sequel to the Orson Welles film but a Singaporean dating comedy where a woman finds, if not a match, then a sympathetic ear in a butcher – and there is some shocking imagery involved.
Indie Forum
Amid international highlights in the other OAFF sections, is the strong Japanese programme which I’ll go into in much deeper detail in the next preview article.
For now, the twelve titles here all grabbed me on a first viewing due to some stylistic trick or being so well made that entering the story was easy, thinking about it a pleasure, and I left each experience quite satisfied or emotionally moved. There is a focus on young filmmakers, with seven of the twelve titles made by women and one story isn’t even set in Japan.
In terms of foreign influence, All the Songs We Never Sang, a sunny and charming island-set drama of a teenage girl healing family wounds through pearl diving, and Inch Forward, a movie about making movies, are presented by a Polish and a Taiwanese director respectively. Then there is Before Anyone Else (which I have already reviewed and the director of which, Tetsuya Mariko, I interviewed), which is set in Chicago.
Wash Away tackles elder care in Japan through the eyes of a sex worker. That’s something of a family drama with a fun edge, not too dissimilar from the much more despondence-inducing A Weather Report which examines similar themes of loneliness and isolation via a road trip taken by a young woman and her estranged father. Meanwhile, On a Boat is a cringe-comedy/horror movie of a recently-minted marriage breaking apart at the seams. It features fantastic performances from Kiyohiko Shibukawa and Ryo Matsuura (December) and it is squirm inducing!
Suton and Sumiko 22 are both executed with a minimalist style that suggests indie film budgets and also points to the sort of restrained approach to storytelling increasingly dominant with younger Japanese filmmakers. For anyone who came up raised on 90s v-cinema, the slow pace, gentle tone, (and tweeness of Sumiko) might be soporific but they present an honest view of life and there are emotional riches to be mined.
Also told with minimal fuss is Blue Imagine which was at this year’s Rotterdam International Film Festival. It is a #MeToo inspired film made by young women in the industry that methodically lays out how abuse happens and the support victims require to stand up to it.
ブルーイマジン 「Buru- Imajin」
Release Date: March, 2024
Duration: 93 mins.
Director: Urara Matsubayashi
Writer: Minami Goto (Screenplay),
Starring: Mayu Yamaguchi, Asuka Kawatoko, Yui Kitamura, Yuzumi Shintani, Iana Bernardez, Hirobumi Watanabe,
Urara Matsubayashi has risen from being an actress (The Hungry Lion) to producer (Kamata Prelude, Saga Saga) to this film where she is a director. It tackles sexual assault and predatory directors in the Japanese film industry and also shows why solidarity with victims, and showing kindness and understanding, is important.
Synopsis: Noel is an aspiring actress who has maintained her silence as a rape victim. When she finds a share house for women called “Blue Imagine”, she begins a slow process of healing as she interacts with other inhabitants who have been through similar experiences of abuse. The camaraderie she finds allows her to come to the aid of another actress who was targeted by the same director and the two publicly speak out. The two encounter prejudice and backlash but are able to confront their past and try to confront a culture hostile to women.
If you want more stylistically audacious works and stories that are just straight-up unconventional you can turn to the more experienced filmmakers/storytellers. It Must Be Love is a mash-up of stage and screen as actors perform in a theatre-like environment the year’s long story of relationships between people made bitter and unhinged by love. Ririka of the Star is an ode to the power of striptease, as told via a mostly silent film and it features veteran directors Takashi Miike and Ryuichi Hiroki in the cast.
Performing KAORU’s Funeral is the sophomore feature of Noriko Yuasa – a filmmaker who impressed me at OAFF 2018 with Ordinary Everyday and whose other films I have reviewed AND who I’ve interviewed. I actually wrote about the Kickstarter to this film back in 2020… Her blackly comic drama of the friends, family, lovers, and rivals of a TV writer is a perfectly acted film that explores all sorts of themes, from being a woman and facing challenges in work to the faults of the film/television industry.
Special Programs – Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong
Okay, I’m going to race through this section – thanks for reading if you’ve made it down this far! – and just highlight a few titles because some of these titles are in the Competition and Spotlight Sections.
Thailand has shorts and features and what stands out the most is the resurgence of horror movies. Okay, Thailand never really stopped producing them but you have vets of the genres like Phontharis Chotkijsadarsopon (the Pee Nak series) with Hoon Payon and Taweewat Wantha with the really good (I mean, this is really well made and has scary bits) Death Whisperer.
Taiwan has a number of high-quality shorts but the standout title to my mind is the digitally remastered version of The Winter of 1905, a landmark title in that it is a historical drama of a Chinese artist-later-philosopher-monk who travels to Japan to learn art that brought together many people involved in the Taiwanese New Wave movement. Edward Yang was on screenwriting duties and even appears in the film – and Hong Kong director Tsui Hark has a role!
Hong Kong has an artful short in Life of Cloud and a phone-based comedy in Everyphone Everywhere but people should check out the 4K restoration of the Director’s Cut of Nomad. See it on a big screen and GO IN WITHOUT READING AAAAANYTHING. Then read my review after watching it!
Special Screenings
There are two special screenings, one for Amalock and the other from a crowdfunded indie kaiju-ega called The Brush of the Gods. The first features comedy that is… an acquired taste while the second is an earnest tribute to the genre from a legend, Keizo Murase (Ultraman, Godzilla, Matango).
Special Presentations
Nakanoshima Museum of Art (Free Admission)
Rickshaw Girl will be screened twice and there will be a symposium, all done in conjunction with Kobe College, Department of English.
A really exciting screening is 240 Hours in One Day, the last cinematic collaboration between Hiroshi Teshigahara and writer Kobo Abe. It was once thought lost but was rediscovered and yet has been screened a few (literally FEW) times. There will be a lecture following the screening.
Housen Cultural Foundation
The Housen thread of the festival always has a gems that are worth watching and, best of all, they are free to view for anyone who has the time to go to the National Museum of Art.
National Museum of Art (Free Admission)
We have graduation films and recently-released shorts that were made with funding from the Housen Foundation. Satoru Hirohara has featured at OAFF twice before (at least) with Girl Returned (2017, OAFF 2018) and Silent Movie (OAFF 2023) and he is back with Girls and Boys.
Perfect Nervous is a visually resplendent film that reminded me of In Her Room, simply because of all of the indoor foliage.
There are plenty of others that are worth checking out AND. THEY. ARE. FREE. TO. VIEW! Just take yourself down to the museum – plenty of convenience stores around at the bottom of the hill if you want a snack before or after the screening.
OKAY. SO THAT IS ENOUGH FROM ME. Apart from saying, I’ll do a preview post for the Japanese films next week. Other than that…
Be Cool!
