Asian Drama

In the early days of the Republic, legendary martial artist Ye Ruzhou suffers a severe injury, losing her memory and winding up in the impoverished alley of Minfu Lane. By a twist of fate, she crosses paths with the carefree Chen Awang, and the two fall for each other. When local tyrant Zheng Juehou intensifies his hold over the neighborhood, Ye Ruzhou rises to defend her new community. Her actions, however, draw unforeseen danger, and together with Chen Awang, she faces the challenge to protect Minfu Lane’s hard-won peace.

A fatigued man wakes up at a bar with a bartender who will forever change his life as he gets to know more about her. Three criminals have somewhat accomplished their task of kidnapping their target, but their overall mission seems to go nowhere in the end. In the late 1970s, a mysterious woman runs a bar where a deadly situation will affect the lives of everyone. Two killers are looking for their faceless victim, who shows up at a diner every day at 6 o'clock sharp. Four incredibly talented Korean filmmakers, four intriguing cinematic visions, four astounding stories revolving around murderers for hire. (Source: fantasiafestival.com) ~~ Adapted from the short story "The Killers" by Ernest Hemingway. ~~ Release dates: Jul 24, 2024 (Festival) || Oct 23, 2024 (Cinema)

Duration: 1 hr. 59 min.

Content Rating: 18+ Restricted (violence & profanity)

The story follows a young man who has been single for a year after his boyfriend suddenly disappeared without a formal breakup. One night, while scrolling through a dating app, he encounters someone who looks strikingly similar to his ex. After a spontaneous hookup, he discovers that this new acquaintance is actually his ex’s twin brother. As he navigates this unexpected twist, he finds himself drawn into a complicated web of emotions. Will he end up choosing between the two brothers, or will he find himself entangled with both?

Duration: 11 min.

Content Rating: Not Yet Rated

The film depicts a coming-of-age story centered on the two sugar babies, Kotone, who is unemployed, and Sakura, a college student, in the coronavirus pandemic, as they try their best to live at the mercy of frivolous men.

Adapted from the novel "Tsuyu no Ato Saki" (つゆのあとさき) by Nagai Kafu (永井荷風).

Duration: 1 hr. 45 min.

Content Rating: 15+ - Teens 15 or older

A corrupted customs officer, Choi Ik-hyeon, faces losing his job. Then, his life turns around as he meets ganster Choi Hyeong-bae who has connection with the Yakuza. They quickly form a partnetship; Hyeong-bae helps Ik-hyeon set up a business with the money from drug trafficking while Ik-hyeon lobbies for his partner Hyeong-bae. As the government declares war on crime, however, their partnership begins to crack.

Chan Wing Yan, a young police officer, has been sent undercover as a mole in the local mafia. Lau Kin Ming, a young mafia member, infiltrates the police force. Years later, their older counterparts, Chen Wing Yan and Inspector Lau Kin Ming, respectively, race against time to expose the mole within their midst.

Wang Jicai and his wife Shihua have been guarding the small Kashan island on the Chinese border for 32 years.

The Story of a Man Who Became a Train Operator at the Age of 49

Koji Tsuruta, often considered the yakuza genre’s first star, kills it in the savage classic Blood Of Revenge. The story takes place iin Osaka, 1907. Asajiro (played by Tsuruta) must keep his business functioning smooth like cream, keep his late oyabun’s hot-blooded son in check, and deal with his emotions for a beautiful geisha named Hatsue (Junko Fuji). Director Tai Kato skillfully seizes every moment of conflict, and succeeds in displaying rampant blood-gushing.

Vivek is a hacker who troubles girls by hacking their phones and laptop computers. Because of his hacking, Sameera even loses her job. Sameera and Rohan decide to teach Vivek a lesson but Sameera ends up murdering Vivek. However, Vivek's hacking action saves Sameera from the clutches of law. How this happens is shown in the climax.

Mu Zi's parents' old apartment is still there. A bed, an abandoned chair, a window falling off its hinges – the remnants of a relationship that has moved on. Her father has started a new family, her mother has friends abroad; it seems like only Mu Zi cares about this place. In The Cloud in Her Room, she wanders several times through this static past.

In her palpably personal debut film, Chinese filmmaker Zheng Lu Xinyuan follows her 22-year-old protagonist as she returns to Hangzhou, where she was born, for the New Year's celebration. She arranges to meet old friends, makes some new ones and visits her parents, with whom she is mostly on friendly terms. It's like she doesn't really fit in anywhere. Mu Zi is living in limbo: like the apartment, she has stopped, caught between past and future.

Zheng Lu, who shot her film in black-and-white, underlines Mu Zi's alienation through directorial decisions that are at times daring. She combines handheld documentary footage, in which Mu Zi interviews people around her, with more distant camerawork. As a child of separated parents, born at the time of the one child policy and having grown up in a China where everything is changing at breakneck speed, Zheng Lu has made a melancholy, topical film about her generation and the society in which they are growing up. At the same time, it is a universal story about love, relationships, the impossibility of keeping these going and the loneliness this causes.