Summer Wedding (Japan, 2022) [OAFF 2022]
Azusa Hieda’s profound short film Summer Wedding uses the Covid-19 pandemic as a prompt for the self-reflection and change in its main character. The titular summer wedding...
Guidance (China, 2021)
Can love exist without honesty? Can it exist without deception? “Above all, to thine own self be true” says Polonius to Laertes, but even he...
Blue Island (Hong Kong/Japan/Taiwan, 2022) [CAAMFest 2022]
Since the region’s harrowing protests in 2019, Hong Kong’s tumultuous political landscape continues to erode in the face of ongoing retaliation from its mainland counterparts....
Dawning (USA, 2022) [CAAMFest 2022]
A mix of drama, thriller, and horror, Dawning is an examination of trauma how some people cope by writer-director Young Min Kim. Haejin Park (Kim...
Angry Son (Japan, 2022) [OAFF 2022]
For transgender director Kasho Iizuka, representation matters. Starting with his 2011 Pia Film Festival Special Jury Prize-winning autobiographical feature debut, Our Future, his works have...
Mixed (USA, 2022) [CAAMFest 2022]
Nothing encompasses the struggle to fit in more than existing between worlds. Premiering at CAAMFest 2022 is Mixed, a superb documentary by Caty Borum Chattoo...
Ip Man: The Awakening (China, 2022)
In recent memory, Wing Chun master, Ip Man, may have already surpassed the mythical status of his student turned famous screen actor Bruce Lee. Adding...
Out of TOKYO 202x (Japan, 2022) [OAFF 2022]
From George Pal’s classic The Time Machine (1960) to Robert Zemeckis’ crowd-pleaser Back to the Future (1985), to Shane Carruth’s puzzling low-budget indie Primer (2004) and...
Boy Sprouted (Japan, 2021) [OAFF 2022/Short Shorts Film Festival and Asia 2022]
A battle of wills between a boy (Seitaro Hara) who dislikes tomatoes and his mother (Kanako Higashi) who is determined to make him to get...
North Shinjuku 2055 (Japan, 2022) [OAFF 2022]
Daisuke Miyazaki is an exciting filmmaker to follow because his work not only genuinely reflects the concerns of younger generations but is often unpredictable in...