The closing film of Osaka Asian Film Festival 2019 (March 08th – 17th) has been announced and it is the Vietnamese family comedy Daddy Issues. This is the Japanese premiere of a film directed by Ken Ochiai whose Kyoto-based film Uzumasa Limelight (2014) should be familiar to fans of Japanese cinema – quite appropriate since OAFF 2019’s opening film Randen is set in Kyoto. Most recently, he has been working in the Vietnamese film industry and created a comedy hit with Saigon Bodyguards which was released in 2016 and beat Rogue One in the charts and became the 4th biggest movie of that year.
Daddy Issues is based on the Japanese novel Papa to Musume no Nanokakan by Takahisa Igarashi. This novel was dramatized in Japan in 2007 and made into the movie Daddy You, Daughter Me in Korea in 2017. This was screened in OAFF 2018. The film stars Thái Hoà, a Vietnamese “comedy king” known from Let Hoi Decide and Saigon Bodyguards and Kaity Nguyen, a rising star best known from her debut film Jailbait.
Daddy Issues will have its World Premiere on Friday, March 17th at the Osaka ABC Hall after the Closing Ceremony of OAFF 2019.
On top of that, the full programme has been announced with 51 films in total, including 14 films in the Competition section. OAFF will screen 10 World Premieres and 9 International Premieres.
There’s plenty to see between the start and finish so stay tuned for further coverage over the coming weeks. Here’s the trailer for the closing film:
Daddy Issues 
Hon Papa Da Con Gai
Running Time: 115 mins.
Release Date: December 28th, 2018
Director: Ken Ochiai
Writer: Michael Thai (Screenplay), Takahisa Igarashi (Original Novel)
Starring: Thai Hoa, Kaity Nguyen
Synopsis: After the mother passed away, a childish father named Hai and a headstrong daughter named Châu find their relationship deteriorates. Châu is still 17 years old, but very independent and talented, while Hai is cowardly and unreliable and with their fiercely different personalities, they argue frequently. One day ends differently when, a magical event happens and they find that they have switched bodies! With this twist in events, the two are forced to get to know each other, how they think and their experiences, and just in time because both father and daughter will have to deal with important events in their lives.