Cover A film still from ’No Other Choice’ (2025) by Park Chan-wook, which will be featured at Venice Film Festival 2025 (Image: courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia)
A film still from ’No Other Choice’ (2025) by Park Chan-wook, which will be featured at Venice Film Festival 2025 (Image: courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia)
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From Shu Qi’s directorial debut to Park Chan-wook’s latest feature, this year’s Venice Film Festival casts a spotlight on Asian creativity
Asia continues its ascent on the global stage at the Venice Film Festival this year (August 27 to September 6, 2025) at Venice Lido in Italy, with a dynamic line-up of films showcasing regional innovation. Taiwanese star Shu Qi enters the main competition with her directorial debut Girl, vying for the Golden Lion alongside heavyweights such as Park Chan-wook (No Other Choice, 2025) and Cai Shangjun (The Sun Rises on Us All, 2025).
The island’s presence extends into immersive storytelling, with works such as Dark Rooms (2025) and Praying Mantis (2025) featured in the Venice Immersive category, which has celebrated extended reality in filmmaking since its inception in 2017. These selections underscore not only Asia’s rising presence in prestige cinema but also its bold strides in both feature filmmaking and immersive art.
Read on for the standout Asian entries at Venice 2025.
1. ‘No Other Choice’ (2025) by Park Chan-wook
Above ’No Other Choice’ (2025) by Park Chan-wook, which will be featured at Venice Film Festival 2025 (Image: Instagram/@neonrated)
’No Other Choice’ (2025) by Park Chan-wook, which will be featured at Venice Film Festival 2025 (Image: Instagram/@neonrated)
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Cannes Best Director winner Park Chan-wook returns with No Other Choice, a project two decades in the making. Based on Donald E Westlake’s 1997 horror thriller novel The Ax—one of Park’s favourites—the film follows a paper manufacturing specialist with 25 years of experience who struggles to keep his life together after being suddenly laid off. Starring Lee Byung-hun of K-pop Demon Hunters (2025) and Squid Game (2021), the film promises both compelling performances and Park’s trademark psychological tension.
2. ‘Girl’ (2025) by Shu Qi
Above A film still from ‘Girl’ (2025) by Shu Qi, which will be featured at Venice Film Festival 2025 (Image: courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia)
A film still from ‘Girl’ (2025) by Shu Qi, which will be featured at Venice Film Festival 2025 (Image: courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia)
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Taiwanese actor Shu Qi reinvents herself as a director with Girl, a coming-of-age drama set in the late 1980s. It tells the story of an introverted teenager who befriends a spirited peer as she attempts to escape her painful past. Competing for the Golden Lion, Shu explains to the festival: “The process of appreciating outstanding works has inspired my creative desire, leading me to begin writing the script for Girl.”
3. ‘Back Home’ (2025) by Tsai Ming-liang
Above A film still from ‘Back Home’ (2025) by Tsai Ming-liang, which will be featured at Venice Film Festival 2025 (Image: courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia)
A film still from ‘Back Home’ (2025) by Tsai Ming-liang, which will be featured at Venice Film Festival 2025 (Image: courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia)
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Back Home, the latest work by auteur Tsai Ming-liang, offers a delicate, dialogue-free portrait of Laotian villager Anong Houngheuangsy as he revisits his homeland. Shot with an intimate hand-held aesthetic, the documentary reveals the quiet rhythms of rural life, from market scenes to family visits. Selected for the Out of Competition category, which presents works that do not compete for the main prize, the film exemplifies Tsai’s self-styled “hand-sculpted” cinema—eschewing conventional scripts in favour of poetic intimacy.
4. ‘Vive L’amour’ (1994) by Tsai Ming-liang
Above A film still from ‘Vive L’amour’ (1994) by Tsai Ming-liang, which will be featured at Venice Film Festival 2025 (Image: courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia)
A film still from ‘Vive L’amour’ (1994) by Tsai Ming-liang, which will be featured at Venice Film Festival 2025 (Image: courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia)
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Tsai’s Vive L’amour returns to the Venice Film Festival this year, restored in 4K and selected for the Venice Classics section. This minimalist masterpiece—Tsai’s breakthrough—earned the Golden Lion and the Fipresci (International Critics’ Award) at its original Venice premiere in 1994.
With haunting long takes, sparse dialogue and raw emotional depth, it laid the foundation for Tsai’s distinct cinematic language. The festival spotlights its timeless resonance, inviting audiences to revisit a film that masterfully captures urban alienation through quiet, haunting intimacy.
5. ‘Praying Mantis’ (2025) by Joe Heish
Above A film still from ‘Praying Mantis’ (2025) by Joe Heish, which will be featured at Venice Film Festival 2025 (Image: courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia)
A film still from ‘Praying Mantis’ (2025) by Joe Heish, which will be featured at Venice Film Festival 2025 (Image: courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia)
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Independent Taiwanese animation director Joe Heish presents Praying Mantis, an 18-minute short competing in the Orizzonti category, an international competition for films that represent new aesthetic and expressive trends in cinema. The story follows a mutant mantis who seduces men in a desperate bid to save her child, only to confront the dark secrets of her past. Heish describes the work as “a celebration of maternal love and selfless sacrifice”, underlining his fascination with the darker edges of human nature.
6. ‘The Sun Rises on Us All’ (2025) by Cai Shangjun
Above A film still from ‘The Sun Rises on Us All’ (2025) by Cai Shangjun, which will be featured at Venice Film Festival 2025 (Image: courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia)
A film still from ‘The Sun Rises on Us All’ (2025) by Cai Shangjun, which will be featured at Venice Film Festival 2025 (Image: courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia)
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Cai Shangjun returns to Venice with The Sun Rises on Us All, the first Guangdong-produced film to secure a place in the main competition. The drama reunites former lovers Meiyun and Baoshu seven years after their separation, unearthing layers of regret and reconciliation. With its nuanced handling of intimacy and memory, the film offers a contemplative study of time and love.
7. ‘Scarlet’ (2025) by Mamoru Hosoda
Above A film still from ‘Scarlet’ (2025) by Mamoru Hosoda, which will be featured at Venice Film Festival 2025 (Image: courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia)
A film still from ‘Scarlet’ (2025) by Mamoru Hosoda, which will be featured at Venice Film Festival 2025 (Image: courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia)
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Japanese director and animator Mamoru Hosoda makes his Venice debut with Scarlet, premiering in the Out of Competition section. The film follows Princess Scarlet, who awakens in the bleak “Land of the Dead” and embarks on a vengeance-fuelled odyssey toward an enigmatic realm—or face oblivion. With bold imagery and a darker tone than Hosoda’s earlier works, Scarlet explores themes of life, death and redemption through striking visuals.
8. ‘La Magie Opéra’ (2025) by Jonathan Astruc
Above A film still from ‘La Magie Opéra’ (2025) by Jonathan Astruc, which will be featured at Venice Film Festival 2025 (Image: courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia)
A film still from ‘La Magie Opéra’ (2025) by Jonathan Astruc, which will be featured at Venice Film Festival 2025 (Image: courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia)
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La Magie Opéra, directed by Jonathan Astruc, premieres in the Venice Immersive section as a 25-minute virtual reality journey. A French–Taiwan co-production, the project is driven by Vive Arts, led by executive director Celina Yeh, alongside French partners.
Set in the legendary Palais Garnier, the experience follows soprano Céleste as she slips between reality, memory and operatic fantasy. Blending cutting-edge immersive technology with iconic works such as Rusalka, Tosca and Carmen, the film reimagines opera through the lens of VR artistry and international collaboration.
9. ‘Dark Rooms’ (2025) by Mads Damsbo, Laurits Flensted Jensen and Anne Sofie Steen Sverdrup
Above A film still from ‘Dark Rooms’ (2025) by Mads Damsbo, Laurits Flensted Jensen and Anne Sofie Steen Sverdrup, which will be featured at Venice Film Festival 2025 (Image: courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia)
A film still from ‘Dark Rooms’ (2025) by Mads Damsbo, Laurits Flensted Jensen and Anne Sofie Steen Sverdrup, which will be featured at Venice Film Festival 2025 (Image: courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia)
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Dark Rooms, co-directed by Mads Damsbo, Laurits Flensted Jensen and Anne Sofie Steen Sverdrup, also premieres in the Venice Immersive section. This 35-minute experience pushes the boundaries of VR storytelling through sensory design and narrative experimentation. Taipei-based NAXS Studio, known for its bold artistic vision, anchors the Taiwanese co-production role alongside Danish and German collaborators. The result positions the island at the forefront of global extended reality innovation.
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Zabrina is the Senior Editor, Arts and Culture of Tatler Hong Kong. She specialises in performing arts, visual art and film. Her wanderlust was first fuelled by the Mighty Rovers Antarctica Expedition 2010. Over the years, she has interviewed A-list artists and filmmakers, including Oscar winners Chlóe Zhao and Tim Yip, Golden Horse winner Sylvia Chang, In the Mood for Love cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Pachinko author Min Jin Lee, and Coachella’s first Chinese solo singer Jackson Wang. She won gold at the WAN-IFRA Asian Media Awards for her 2021 feature on the waves of hate crimes targeting Asian Americans.
