Asia

Best Asian films

If you’re looking for the best Asian films, there’s plenty to choose from. Asia holds approximately 60% of the world’s population, so it’s no surprise the continent has a wealth of great films. The continent hosts one of the world’s largest (if not the largest) film industries in India’s Bollywood, the most famous animation studio outside the U.S. in Japan’s Studio Ghibli, as well as the second largest film market in the world by box office receipts in China (second only to the U.S.).

But that’s not all. The Iranian art-house cinema scene is still booming despite government bans. Southeast Asia holds two of the most famous torch-bearers of the transcendental film movement in Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Lav Diaz. Plus, there’s South Korean, Bong Joon-ho, whose Parasite became the first foreign language film to win the Best Picture. And we haven’t even mentioned the growing film presence of the countries in Central Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, and the Caucasus.

So scroll down to see some of the best Asian films. Or, if you know where you want to go, pick a country from the links below.

Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Cyprus, East Timor, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon,Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar (Burma), Nepal, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen

*We’re still looking for the best Asian films from countries without links. Send us your recommendations.

111

The Endless Cycle (China) – Pan African Film Festival 2021

Last year at the start of the pandemic, discrimination against African immigrants in the Chinese city of Guangzhou hit the international news circuit. A McDonalds branch refused to serve Black people in the city, there were reports of Black students being evicted from their accommodations, and there were reports of a Nigerian man attacking a Chinese nurse. It’s within this context that The Endless Cycle is set, featuring a Ghanaian immigrant in Guangzhou. The opening scene addresses the tension straight away with the protagonist watching the Chinese news report on the Nigerian man that attacked a Chinese nurse.

The Endless Cycle feels like a documentary in the way that we follow the main character’s everyday life. It features the monotonous tasks in his routine, such as cycling from place to place, Face-Timing friends and relatives, and working at the office. There’s not much dialogue either to make it feel more like a drama. In his routine, we get a glimpse into life in COVID era China where temperature checks and QR code tracking are just part of the new paradigm. It looks more normal than quarantine life elsewhere in the world, making it interesting to see for the American viewer.

However, the documentary style is a bit misleading as there are some scenes which are obviously dramatized, such as the scenes between the main character and his boss’ kid at work. The dialogue in these scenes feels more forced and unnatural. The most obvious example of this is the Taxi Driver scene which ends in him fighting a taxi driver in the road. What is probably meant to highlight the prejudice against Black people in China (with the taxi driver’s avoiding him) ends up supporting ignorant stereotypes of Black male aggression and thereby ruining the otherwise interesting portrayal of the Black experience in China. It also damages the credibility of other scenes that we may have otherwise trusted. Because of the obvious dramatization in certain scenes, it feels like this is probably more of a Chinese perspective of the Black experience in China.

Therefore if you’re looking for a film which shows a Chinese perspective of the Black experience in China, The Endless Cycle is worth a watch. However, if you’re looking for a movie about the Black experience in China told by a Black person, The African Who Wanted to Fly might be the closest you can get.

Check our Pan African Film Festival 2021 page for more reviews coming out of the 29th edition of the festival.

112

Before, Now & Then – AFI Fest 2022

In Before, Now & Then, Nana finds security in a second marriage to a wealthy old man, having lost her family to the war in West Java. However, she cannot escape the dreams and trauma of her past, or the expectations of her new family and becomes a ghostly figure until she meets one of her husband’s mistresses. Together they can escape and find their own freedom.

Stylistically, Before, Now & Then feels heavily influenced by Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood for Love. Whilst the colors are more muted, the dreamy pacing and slowed down scenes between Nana and her second husband feel just like the slow romantic scenes between the two protagonists in In the Mood for Love. These scenes in both films are designed to convey uncertainty. In In the Mood for Love the uncertainty is romantic – we don’t know if the two characters will keep seeing each other. In Before, Now & Then, the uncertainty is melancholic. Similarly, we don’t know if the two characters will be together for much longer, however given that the two characters have been together for a while, it feels as if their relationship is dying instead of burning brightly.

The uncertainty of Nana’s relationship is symbolic of the state of the country. Just like the current Indonesian regime, she knows what she’s getting from her stable marriage to an older husband. Whilst it has confined her mostly to the house – and the back of the house at that, as she rarely shows her face publicly – she knows that she will be taken care of. However, there is no love in their relationship. The new freedom she gains with her husband’s mistress, in contrast, is exciting. It fills her with hope that things could be different and more free.

Whilst we have the hindsight to know that the political change happening in the background of Before, Now & Then wasn’t a positive one, the film captures the uncertainty of the times well with it’s dreaminess.

Head to our AFI Fest 2022 Hub for more reviews from AFI Fest 2022.

113

Someday or One Day – Tragedy Strikes Love in a Puzzling Story

By Sebastian Torrelio

More so than the mystery of where Huang Yu-Xuan (Ko Chia-Yen) and Wang Quan-Sheng (Hsu Kuang-Han) have gone—where their spirits have bounded off too, whom takes the place of which body and how they return—is the mystery of how Someday or One Day, an adaptation of the hit Taiwanese television drama, went so terribly south. Primary director of the original Tien Jen Huang returns here to create a baffling story of dualities reflected against identical-looking dualities, an improbable mess that only rides so far on cute delicacy before the tape unwinds entirely.

At first, things seem steady, though speedy. A wistful camera wanders over pristine decorative interiors like a gift shop, so much of the plot to come only teased through low-budget VFX snapshots. Quan-Sheng and Yu-Xuan, having met-cute at record pace, are two entities who spend most of their time longingly sighing and staring out into the distance, their vague young adult concerns very present, though indecipherable. Teens at odds with their singularity, so commonplace in the drama of modern Chinese media, cannot just be scanned for relatability – something needs to be presented to the viewer, clearly.

And so enters the plot of Someday or One Day – shocked from the sudden death of Quan-Sheng, Yu-Hsuan spends her years daydreaming away from society, stuck in her own head, before waking up years later in the body of a mutual friend Chen Yun-Ru (also Ko playing a double role) years prior before her love’s demise. Yun-Ru finds herself in the most complicated role perceivable, forced to convince her friends from their past of their oncoming danger, barely able to articulate the hell she’s been pacing through ever since.

To Ko and Hsu’s credit, nothing about their performances here drag, the success of their well-established chemistry is the only real ingredient to make the movie’s breakthrough romantic first kiss come close to operating. Quan-Sheng and Yu-Xuan relate through their favorite couple song, lifted from the TV series; they incur the abusive collateral of time spent together equal to time spent apart. If everything seems trivially, tonally normal in their lives, maybe it’s because it should be, for the most part.

The most interesting thing at play with Someday, as with a lot of Chinese rom-coms in this vein, is the relationship of everyday individuals to their romantic fate: if it’s coincidence that brought us together, is it coincidence that is keeping us together? Altogether, not a bad question that “Someday asks directly at least once. Huang even guides us to a different existential question: are dreams the barrier to our happiness? The normalcy of a relationship growing into, outward and apart can and has been subject to a more inspective eye than this hundreds of times, on better and easier to ascertain platforms.

The original TV series, spanning 13 episodes that dive deeper into the sinister mystery behind Quan-Sheng and Yu-Xuan’s body bouncing history and conundrum, gained acclaim for its nourishing continuum, a collective audience experience that intertwines pop tendencies and true-hearted romance. How this film adaptation, branded neither specifically as a sequel nor a creative reboot, functions parallel to that is beyond comprehension.

Seen at AMC Atlantic Times Square 14, Monterey Park

114

Top 10 Best Anime Films from Japan – Anything Missing?

Look to Japan for some of the best anime films. Japan is an animation powerhouse! Whilst Hollywood has Disney, Japan had Studio Ghibli, led by Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. The creativity of the Japanese films in this list are often unmatched by their American counterparts. You are missing out if you haven’t seen at least a handful of these!

The Top 10

1. Princess Mononoke

Princess Mononoke is a classic. It is Miyazaki’s return to the more political realms of Nausicaa and Laputa – films which promote awareness of global issues such as discrimination, global warming, and war. Plus, the animation is beautifully created and the storyline is an adventure epic. For more, follow this link to check out my analysis of Princess Mononoke.

2. Spirited Away

Spirited Away is Miyazaki’s most celebrated work, and rightly so. The film follows a young girl who gets lost in a spirit world which she has to navigate to save her parents. I am in awe of how Miyazaki dreamed up everything in this film, it is the one of the most magical films you could watch.

3. Pom Poko

Oh yes! Pom Poko! This entry from Isao Takahata is framed as a sort of documentary. It follows some shape-shifting raccoons who rise up against the growing industrialisation/expansion of Tokyo to protect their habitat. One of the comedic highlights is seeing these raccoons parachute using their scrotum (don’t worry it’s completely PG). Pom Poko promotes awareness of industrialisation with this hilarious comedy.

4. Laputa: Castle in the Sky

Whilst not the best film title to translate into Spanish, this animation is another excellent addition from Miyazaki. It was the first film released by Studio Ghibli and set a very high bar for the rest of their films. In this adventure, a young girl searches for the island in the sky whilst trying to evade those who want to find it before her.

5. Howl’s Moving Castle

Yes, Studio Ghibli rounds out my top 5. Howl’s Moving Castle is one of Miyazaki’s most recent films and one of his most imaginative. Moving castles, talking fire, and a jumping scarecrow are three things you’ll find in this movie. Another brilliant example of Miyazaki’s celebrated career, this one also serves as an allegory for war.

6. Grave of the Fireflies

Isao Takahata’s animation of the bombing of Japan during World War Two is heart wrenching. There are some pretty sad moments in a number of Pixar films, but nothing on this level. This will hit you on another emotional level. In addition, learn about life in Japan during World War Two and how terrible war is!

7. Paprika

You thought Inception was original? Well you obviously didn’t see Paprika when it came out in 2006. Paprika is set in a future where patients can use devices to start lucidly dreaming. The problem is that some people are hacking into other people’s dreams. Not great if these skills fall in the wrong hands…

8. My Neighbour Totoro

This is the perfect film to watch for the little ones. My Neighbour Totoro is very peaceful and calm – there are no chases or conflict like some of the other Miyazaki films. However, in true Miyazaki fashion there is his trademark fantasy. And of course, there is Totoro! (a great addition to all the Disney merchandise).

9. Akira

Set in a dystopian future where society is crumbling, Akira is the anime equivalent of The Matrix. Pay attention to the superbly animated setting of ‘Neo-Tokyo,’ a city which resembles a mix of Bladerunner’s Los Angeles and Tron. Read a full preview of Akira here.

10. My Neighbors the Yamadas

Rounding out the top 10 is another entry from Isao Takahata. The star of this film is the hilarious skits of a family living in Tokyo. The snippets reminded me of things my family would do. The bare-bones animation adds to the simplicity of the film. It’s an ode to the regular family.

Conclusion

There are plenty more Japanese anime films to check out, so take this list as an entry point. I’ve included some more to watch later, that only just missed out on the top 10.

Nausicaa, The Wind Rises, Whisper of the Heart, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.

115

Deleter (Philippines) – Social Media Musings Fail to Muster Maliciousness

By Sebastian Torrelio

Mikhail Red is at this point a public figure in the scope of Filipino cinema against the world. His latest, Deleter—sub-technological mystery horror and 2022 Metro Manila Film Festival Best Picture-winner—follows no tighter premise than the act of a haunted house’s outreach transformed into an office building’s Wi-Fi signal. Lyra (Nadine Lustre) works an outsourced job as a content moderator for a Facebook-esque website, constantly spending her few remaining sane hours wide-eyed against a computer screen, either passing or deleting through the gore, obscenities and disturbed cell phone clips that everyday citizens pick up, for innocent or malicious intention in equal.

Their task is to “handle data … not people,” as Lyra explains away for her friend Aileen (Louise delos Reyes), the only character of concrete stakes in the film. It makes sense – drag a role into the dark mentally, and the steps to embed them in darkness physically become smaller in turn.

The first act of Red’s modern thriller doesn’t seem to entirely know what to do with Lyra’s occupation anyhow, letting the scanned-through Internet play on its own tempo almost too seamlessly with the randomness of delight the Internet actually triggers. Most of her job, pre-dramatics, plays from a third-person angle as confusing, if not unintentionally humorous.

Not that Lyra’s view of social media is self-seriousness taken astray, more so that Red’s frame seems consistently imperfect, a beck and call to keep the digital world’s barrier into our own stable & threatening, but without the camerawork to persistently keep a hypnotized audience on the cusp of realism. Unlike recent postmodern breakthroughs, namely Jane Schoenbrun’s We’re All Going to World’s Fair, Deleter finds no rooted connection through the wiring, a sustained vibe of unrevealed horrors cut off by doldrums of meaningless white-collar task-mastering.

When the film’s final act is settled on its tracks veering toward the goalposts, the threatening aura of Red’s attempted sophisticated edge has whittled down a blunt stub. The last 30 minutes of Deleter, a repercussion of traumatic happenings that have surrounded Lyra’s life in the days prior, scurries into an oblique darkness – characters floating around the office building’s hallways to the willingness of intermittent red security lighting, every shot performed for set-placing without allowing the actors any presence within their own space. If actors are not given the occupied space to connect, life cut short via aerial camera becomes errant, death then in turn whimsical.

Seen at Cinemark Carson and XD