Twists and Returns

It is hard to believe, but Filmasia is opening its third decade of existence! Having screened more than two hundred films, we continue to introduce the most interesting titles from contemporary Asian cinema. This year’s selection of films is not as much geographical as thematic. The main theme is TWISTS AND RETURNS. The audience can look forward to cult classics, as well as brand new films, linked by a spirit of subversion and playful challenges to audience expectations. The festival will feature nine films from five Asian countries, divided into three thematic sections combining different genres, directorial perspectives, and human experiences.

The section LIFE AFTER LIFE will make you believe that death is not the end. This section also includes the festival’s opening film The Last Dance presenting Anselm Chan’s nuanced dialogue between tradition and progress. This film by the acclaimed comedy hitmaker impresses with the confidence with which he explores the motif of death and its meaning for the living through a subdued drama. The Thai film A Useful Ghost is quite the opposite. Talented Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke has made a stylized take on the slow-cinema concept combined with elements of absurd comedy to tell the story of a woman unwilling to give up her love even if it means possessing her partner’s vacuum cleaner after death! The series of absurd afterlife tales culminates with the Korean hit My Daughter Is a Zombie. We already know that Koreans have perfected the genre of the undead, but this time director Pil Gam-seong raises the bar by mixing elements from zombie social drama with a touching, yet crazy family comedy.
In the Hong Kong take, “life after life” is a symbolic catalyst of intergenerational conflict, in the Thai approach, it represents the continuation of undying romantic love while the Korean concept sees it as a reinforcement of parental love and a reflection of one’s own past.

We are delighted to present two classic films under section SURVIVAL MODE. Both are subversive, brutal, sarcastic, and critical – towards us, as well as towards the system they stem from. Returning to the big screen is Battle Royale, a story where a group of Japanese school kids fight for their lives in an arena fully equipped with weapons. This satire, created by the Japanese master of crime cinema Kinji Fukasaku, draws a parallel between the struggle for survival and existence within the Japanese school system.
After leaving a mysterious prison, Oh Dae-su must also switch to survival mode. Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy belongs to the most important films in Korean cinema and, beyond its precisely stylized action, offers a profound meditation on the forms and motivations of revenge.

The third, dominantly women-oriented section, UNDER PRESSURE, combines the implicit and explicit pressure put on the women characters by their surroundings. Center Stage is a reminder of the courageous Hong Kong film production of the 1990s. In this moving film, the great Stanley Kwan tells the biographical story of the first star of Chinese cinema Ruan Lingyu — in a form you have never seen before in this genre. As a producer, Kwan also worked on the Hong Kong film Someone Like Me. Through this film, young woman director Tam Wai Ching continues the tradition of Hong Kong social drama, sensitively exploring the lives of people with disabilities and their intimate needs. Both films feature strong women characters who are systematically marginalized by people around them. Another film in this section was created under the mentorship of the cult author and driving force behind Taiwan New Wave, Hou Hsiao-hsien. Daughter’s Daughter is a generational drama about emotional scars that remain painful for decades, with acting icon Sylvia Chang delivering one of the most powerful performances of her career. Director Huang Xi’s work shows growing maturity with every film, confirming her as one of the most compelling filmmakers of today. Daughter’s Daughter is her masterpiece. A new distribution release, Park’s satire No Other Choice, which can be watched in tandem with his cult film Oldboy, is the last piece of this section.

Returns take us back. But not only to some of the famous names of Asian cinema. The characters in these films come back home to the people they once lost or left behind and face their own past – and sometimes even crossing the line between life and death.
Twists permeate every film in the programme. None of them follow the path you would expect, and at some point, each one surprises you. And what could be more beautiful than letting yourself be carried away by a film?