The New York Asian Film Festival is back and will run throughout most of July – July 12–22 at Film at Lincoln Center, and from July 22–28 at the SVA Theatre, with special weekend screenings and one-night-only programming from July 13–15, 18–21, and 23–25 at LOOK Cinemas W57 and a special collaborative presentation of hit films at the Korean Cultural Center New York on July 13–27.
Tickets are now on sale so what are we looking at in terms of films?
This year will feature 90+ new and classic films from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, Philippines, Thailand, South Korea, Mongolia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and elsewhere.
In terms of the Japanese films, there are a number of guests who will be attending.
So far, the names include Nobuhiro Yamashita (Linda, Linda, Linda, The Drudgery Train) who will show Let’s Go Karaoke!, Kazuya Shiraishi (Lesson in Murder, The Blood of Wolves) who brings his latest work Bushido, and special effects director Daisuke Sato, who worked on veteran tokusatsu creator Keizo Murase’s kaiju film Brush of the God, will “share tales of making the “first and last film” by 88-year-old suit maker, stuntman, and tokusatsu wizard.”
Also in town to pick up the 2024 Daniel A. Craft Award for Excellence in Action Cinema is Yugo Sakamoto of the hit hitwoman comedy-action series Baby Assassins. He will be joined by executive producer Yusuke Suzuki to present the third film in the series, Baby Assassins: Nice Days.
At the time of writing there are 11 features and 2 shorts from Japan. The number of films might increase, so I’ll update this post to reflect the changes.
Here’s the line-up!
FEATURES
BEYOND BORDERS
青春18×2 日本慢車流浪記 「Seishun 18×2 Kimi e to Tsuzuku Michi 」
Release Date: May 03rd, 2024
Duration: 123 mins.
Director: Michihito Fujii
Writer: Michihito Fujii (Screenplay), Jimmy Lai (Original Travel Essay)
Starring: Greg Han Hsu, Kaya Kiyohara, Hsiao-chuan Chang, Hitomi Kuroki, Haru Kuroki, Shunsuke Michieda
Website Twitter: @seishun18x2 IMDB
This film is a Japan-Taiwan co-production that was adapted for the screen by Michito Fujii (The Journalist). It is a love story based on a travel essay and its setting is in Taiwan 18 years ago and Japan today. Chang Chen of Happy Together, Mr. Long, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon fame is credited as the executive producer.
Synopsis: Jimmy is a high school senior living in Taiwan and working at a convenience store. It is there that he meets a Japanese backpacker named Ami. She is four years older than him but she seems innocent and cool and he develops a crush. However, as they grow close, a secret lies between the two and Jimmy has to work through feelings. This is when she departs for Japan but not before the two make a promise.
18 years later and Jimmy is 36 and struggling in life. Upon returning to his parent’s home, he rediscovers a postcard that Ami sent to him and heads to Japan to try and reconnect with the first woman he fell in love with. As he travels from Tokyo to Kamakura, Nagano, Niigata, to Ami’s hometown in Fukushima, he reminisces about their days together while listening to songs that remind him of Ami.
CROWD PLEASERS
九十歳。何がめでたい 「Kyuu Juu-sai. Nani ga medetai」
Release Date: June 21st, 2024
Duration: 99 mins.
Director: Tetsu Maeda
Writer: Satomi Oshima (Screenplay), Aiko Sato (Original Novel),
Starring: Mitsuko Kusabue, Miki Maya, Toshiaki Karasawa, Tae Kimura, Sawako Fujima, Runa Nakashima, Koki Mitani, Joe Odagiri, Mamoru Miyano,
Website Twitter: @90_medetai IMDB
This film is based on Aiko Sato’s best-selling collection of humorous essays about her interactions with the world.
Synopsis: Aiko Sato, an award-winning writer, has passed the age of 90 and stopped writing and reduced her interactions with the wider world. She spends her days in a state of depression but all of that changes when a middle-aged editor named Yoshikawa comes to her with a request to write essays. Aiko’s essay, in which she expresses her anger at a world that makes life difficult, becomes an unexpected hit and her life begins to change drastically…
カラオケ行こ！ 「Karaoke Iko!」
Release Date: January 12th, 2024
Duration: 107 mins.
Director: Nobuhiro Yamashita
Writer: Akiko Nogi (Screenplay), Yama Wayama (Original Manga),
Starring: Go Ayano, Jun Saito, Kazuki Kitamura, Maki Sakai, Jun Hashimoto, Chance Oshiro, Kyoko Yoshine,
Website Twitter: @moviekaraokeiko JFDB IMDB
Nobuhiro Yamashita (Hard-Core, The Drudgery Train) and Akiko Nogi (I Am a Hero, Library Wars) have both adapted manga for the screen. This looks like it has a mix of drama and comedy. The set-up and tone makes me think of the Korean film My Boss My Hero.
Synopsis: Kyoji Narita (Go Ayano) is a high ranking yakuza member and his gang have a karaoke competition. This leads him to recruit a junior high school student named Satomi Oka (Jun Saito), a sincere and blunt boy who once had the voice of an angel who led the school’s chorus club but has since found it difficult because puberty has made his vocals change. Kyoji arranges singing lessons and the song he wants to sing is “Kurenai” by X Japan. The two gradually get to know each other.
陰陽師0 「Onmyouji Zero」
Release Date: April 19th, 2024
Duration: 113 mins.
Director: Shimako Sato
Writer: Shimako Sato (Screenplay), Baku Yumemakura (Original Novel),
Starring: Kento Yamazaki, Shota Sometani, Nao, Masanobu Ando, Nijiro Murakami, Jun Kunimura, Kazuki Kitamura, Kaoru Kobayashi,
Website Twitter: @onmyoji0_movie IMDB
This is the latest movie influenced by the best-selling novels from award-winning writer Baku Yumemakura. Indeed, there have been a few Onmyoji films released and this features an original screenplay.
Synopsis: It is the Heian period (794-1185) and Seimei Abe is studying to become an onmyoji to protect the capital from curses and evil spirits. Not that he shows any interest in it but he has the natural ability and this is why he is asked by an aristocrat to investigate a mysterious phenomenon haunting the imperial court.
Kingdom 4 Return of the Great General 
キングダム 大将軍の帰還 「Kingudamu Daishogun no Kikan」
Running Time: 145 mins.
Release Date: July 12th, 2024
Director: Shinsuke Sato
Writer: Tsutomu Kuroiwa (Screenplay), Yasuhisa Hara (Manga/Screenplay)
Starring: Kento Yamazaki, Ryo Yoshizawa, Nana Seino, Kanna Hashimoto, Hiroshi Tamaki, Takao Osawa, Koichi Sato, Yuko Araki, Masami Nagasawa,
Website Twitter: @kingdomthemovie IMDB
Shinsuke Sato is an action movie director who you may have heard of thanks to live-action versions of multiple manga like Gantz, I Am a Hero, and Inuyashiki. He tackles a historical epic with the Kingdom franchise which is set in Qin Dynasty China during the warring states period.
Synopsis: Shin continues to aid a young king named Eisei in his plan to unify all of China but it comes under threat when their land, Qin, is suddenly invaded by a rival. Eisei assigns the legendary General Ohki to handle the attack and Shin joins him and his famed Hishin Unit in fighting for a crucial victory, but a rival force approaches…
GENRE MASTERS
ベイビーわるきゅーれ ナイスデイズ 「Beibi- Warukyu-re Naisu Deizu」
Release Date: September 27th, 2024
Duration: 101 mins.
Director: Yugo Sakamoto
Writer: Yugo Sakamoto (Script),
Starring: Akari Takaishi, Saori Izawa, Atomu Mizuishi, Tomo Nakai, Tsubasa Tobinaga, Mondo Otani, Sosuke Ikematsu,
Stunt Coordinator: Kensuke Sonomura
Website Twitter: @babywalkure2021 IMDB
Synopsis: Chisato and Mahiro balance lives as assassins with part-time work but everything is upended when Yuri and Makoto, two brothers who are members of the Hitman’s Association, go after the girls to take their spot in the crime underworld.
カミノフデ ～怪獣たちのいる島～ 「Kami no fude ~ Kaiju-tachi no iru shima ~」
Release Date: July 26th, 2024
Duration: 74 mins.
Director: Keizo Murase
Writer: Ken Nakazawa (Screenplay),
Starring: Rio Suzuki, Takeru Narahara, Takumi Saitoh, Shinji Higuchi, Yumiko Shaku, Shiro Sano,
Website Twitter: @Kaminofude IMDB
Brush of the God is billed as the first and last movie by MURASE Keizo, the veteran sculptor, suitmaker who has made monster suits for many tokusatsu and kaiju classics including Godzilla, Gamera, and Kamen Rider.
His story follows a schoolgirl named Akari Tokimiya and the fantastical adventure which occurs when she visits the memorial service of her grandfather Kenzo, a master special effects man. She has unhappy memories of the old man and his passion projects, the last of which he died during the making of. At the memorial service, she meets classmate Takuya, a tokusatsu superfan, and a strange person named Hozumi, the star of the movie Kenzo was making when he died. Hozumi has with him a prop from the film, the titular “Brush of the God,” which transports Akari and Takuya into the world of the movie where they face fearsome Kaiju, including the legendary Yamata-no-orochi who is attempting to destroy everything. If they are to survive and get back to their homes, Akari and Takuya must find out the secret of the movie.
UNCAGED AWARD FOR BEST FEATURE FILM COMPETITION
市子 「Ichiko」
Release Date: December 08th, 2023
Duration: 125 mins.
Director: Akihiro Toda
Writer: Akihiro Toda, Naho Kamimura (Screenplay),
Starring: Hana Sugisaki, Ryuya Wakaba, Yuki Morinaga, Yuki Kura, Ruka Ishikawa, Shohei Uno,
This features selection of great performers like Ryuya Wakaba (Over the Town), Shohei Uno, and Ruka Ishikawa (colorless). This was screened at Busan 2023.
Synopsis: Ichiko and Yoshinori have been together for three years. That seems long enough to get to know someone and so Yoshinori proposes to Ichiko. She disappears. Yoshinori finds himself discovering that he never knew Ichiko at all after a detective visits him and reveals more. Yoshinori begins to track down Ichiko through the people she knew and he uncovers a shocking past.
STANDOUTS
ゴールド・ボーイ 「Go-rudo Boi」
Release Date: March 08th, 2024
Duration: 129 mins.
Director: Shunsuke Kaneko
Writer: Takehiko Minato (Screenplay), Joker Sun, Pan Yi Ran (Original Series: The Bad Kids (China)),
Starring: Masaki Okada, Haru Kuroki, Jinsei Hamura, Anna Hishino, Yo Maede, Rena Matsui, Kazuki Kitamura,
Website Twitter: @goldboy_movie
Shusuke Kaneko of the Heisei Gamera trilogy has adapted a story that first saw life in a Chinese novel before being adapted into a Chinese TV series. The setting has been moved from China to Okinawa.
Synopsis: Three boys and a girl accidentally record a man pushing his rich in-laws off a cliff. They decide to blackmail him. Things. Go. Awry…
碁盤斬り 「Gobangiri」
Release Date: May 17th, 2024
Duration: 129 mins.
Director: Kazuya Shiraishi
Writer: Masato Kato (Screenplay),
Starring: Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, Kaya Kiyohara, Taishi Nakagawa, Takumi Saito, Kyoko Koizumi, Jun Kunimura,
Website Twitter: @gobangiri_movie JFDB IMDB
This is the first jidaigeki by Kazuya Shiraishi, a director who has carved a path of gangster and true-crime features such The Blood of Wolves, Last of the Wolves, and Lesson in Murder.
Synopsis: Kakunoshin Yanagida was a proud samurai before being falsely accused of a crime and cast out of his domain. This was the start of his journey into becoming a ronin living in Edo with his daughter and along the way, he loses his wife but when the truth behind his downfall comes to light, he finds himself heading back to his old home to take revenge, even if it means that he sacrifices his relationship with his daughter…
SPOTLIGHT ON 852 FILMS
怨泊 ONPAKU 「ONPAKU」
Release Date: July 19th, 2024
Duration: 99 mins.
Director: Shogo Fujii
Writer: Shogo Fujii (Screenplay),
Starring: Josie Ho, Lawrence Chou, Kazuya Takahashi, Tomoko Kurokawa, Kazuki Shirakawa,
Website Twitter: @onpaku_movie IMDB
This is a Hong Kong-Japan horror from Shogo Fujii (Mimicry Freaks) and starring Josie Ho (Dream Home, So Close, Dead or Alive: Final).
Synopsis: Sarah, the CEO of a company in Hong Kong, has embarked on a business trip to Tokyo after breaking up with her boyfriend. Things go awry as soon as she touches down as the person handling work on the Japan side is an ex lover and the hotel she had booked is unable to accommodate her due to the sudden visit of the President of the United States to Tokyo. She is forced to stay at a private accommodation run by an old lady and this is where things go from bad to scary as she has visions of a man hurting a woman in a room, and a rotting body is found under the floor. It turns out that the house has a dark history and Sarah has a connection to it…
Shorts
オン・ア・ボート 「On A Bo-to」
Release Date: 2024
Duration: 32 mins.
Director: Heso
Writer: Heso (Screenplay),
Starring: Kiyohiko Shibukawa, Ryo Matsuura, Nairu Yamamoto, Yuuka Nakao, Sayaka Wada, Anna Melody,
I wrote about this one for Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024 synopsis, reviewed it AND I had the chance to interview the director, Heso, too!
Director Heso deploys the sort of precise direction and gets perfectly-calibrated performances from leads Kiyohiko Shibukawa and Ryo Matsuura to gift us an experience akin to seeing absolute acid biting through the screen. It is done via a toxic relationship, specifically the male side of things as Shibukawa plays a man who initially seems nebbish but has the sort of hidden anger that is scary.
Have you ever met a couple and thought, “what do they see in each other?”
Perhaps people who make up such couples never really look at each other to begin with. This might be the case with SARA and CHU. He is 12 years older than her and, thanks to him, SARA now has a new home. SARA just has to be in love because CHU seems nice but exhibits possessive behaviour. Everything in his house has to be “just so” otherwise he gets petty and vindictive. SARA has a difficult night ahead as a house-warming party with her “friends” takes a nasty turn when CHU realises that SARA and co cannot be managed like objects…
On a Boat offers a tightly-shot polite-but-savage mask-pull experience that will make you squirm in your seat as a petty little man unravels in the face of a wife he cannot control and the humiliation he puts his wife and himself through.
ボトルジョージ 「Botoru Jo-ji」
Release Date: 2024
Duration: 13 mins
Director: Daisuke “Dice” Tsutsumi
Writer: Daisuke “Dice” Tsutsumi, Akihiro Nishino (Screenplay), Akihiro Nishino (Original Creator),
Starring: Daisuke “Dice” Tsutsumi, Nodoka Kumeda, Hajime Takagi.
Animation Production: Tonko House, dwarf studio
Synopsis: Bottle George is a stop-motion animation where a father’s addiction to alcohol is told via him being trapped in a bottle. His bond with his daughter and her efforts to take care of him provide heartfelt drama.
New York Asian Film Festival tickets go on sale today, June 20, at 2pm ET, with early access to FLC screenings for FLC Members beginning June 20 at 12pm ET. FLC tickets are $19 for General Public; $17 for students, seniors (62+), and persons with disabilities; and $14 for FLC Members.
For more on ticket prices for specific events and bundles, head to this page and scroll to the bottom.
NYAFF 2024 VENUES
● Film at Lincoln Center (FLC), July 12–22 Walter Reade Theater, 165 West 65th Street, New York, NY
● SVA Theatre, July 22–28 333 West 23rd Street, New York, NY
● LOOK Cinemas W57, July 13–-15, July 18–-21, July 23–-25 657 West 57th Street, New York, NY
● Korean Cultural Center New York (KCCNY), July 13, 18, 20, 27
● 122 East 32nd Street, New York, NY
Past coverage of the festival:
New York Asian Film Festival 2023
New York Asian Film Festival 2022
New York Asian Film Festival 2021
New York Asian Film Festival 2020
New York Asian Film Festival 2019
New York Asian Film Festival 2018