Here are other Asian films to look forward to in this year’s QCinema

Starring Gabby Padilla and Ken Yamamura, Jopy Arnaldo’s Gitling is about a translator hired by a filmmaker for a film festival in Bacolod. The two characters bond over intimate conversations, heartbreak, and a made-up language.

Gitling is a brilliant way of portraying the way people communicate with each other—both verbally and implicitly. The film has won Best Screenplay in the recent Cinemalaya Film Festival.

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A Vietnamese-language drama film written and directed by Thien An Pham, Inside The Yellow Cocoon Shell follows Thien, who roams the jungles of Vietnam in search of his long-lost brother. What transpires is a journey of spiritual discovery as he traverses the mystical landscape of his nation.

A meditative atmosphere that zooms in on our relationship with death and the afterlife, Thien Am Pham creates a sensory experience to shake viewers to their core. The film premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight section at the 76th Cannes Film Festival and won the Caméra d’Or.

A supernatural drama film that focuses on death and memories, Last Shadow At First Light tells the story of Ami, who believes that her father has been lying about her mother’s death. She travels to Japan and goes on a road trip with her uncle as they chase ghosts to discover the painful truth about love and loss.

Writer and director Nicole Midori Woodford seamlessly integrates supernatural elements in a familiar display of the Asian relationship with the afterlife. The film has won the Southeast Asia Fiction Film Lab’s (SEAFIC Lab) Open Fund and the TorinoFilmLab Feature Lab’s Coproduction Award.

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After spending years in prison for working for a syndicate, Sweet Potato tries to find redemption. But his old boss, mother, and friend Maozi all thrust their problems upon him—trying to draw him back into a life of violence and blood.

The first Taiwanese film to win the best first feature at the Venice International Film Festival, Love Is A Gun, is a sensitive portrait of directionless youth in Taiwan. Lee Hong-chi explores the topic of redemption and the willingness for it while contrasting that with the lack of opportunities to do so.

“A condensed Korean indie counterpart to Richard Linklater’s Before series,” said Toronto International Film Festival’s Giovanni Fulvi.

Mimang follows a man and a woman in the changing streets of Seoul as they run into old friends and remember past lives. The two are on borrowed time as they wait for the crosswalk light to turn green, and once the light changes, they return to their individual lives.

Writer and director Kim Tae-yang and cinematographer Kim Jin-hyeong transform Seoul into a magical landscape, changing at a moment’s notice depending on memories and the two characters’ deep connections to a place, time and each other. 

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Set in the coastal erosion-threatened Southern Thai town of Songkhla, Solids by The Seashore follows Muslim poet Shati and her meeting with artist Fon, who travelled from Bangkok to bring awareness to the imminent environmental disaster. Shati now battles her beliefs as she chooses between religion and her affection for Fon.

A story of faith, identity and modern concerns, director Patiparn Boontarig, takes a magical realist approach to portray the internal and external conflicts we face.

Depicting the literal horrors of adolescence, Tiger Stripes is about 12-year-old Zaffan, who is going through the challenges of puberty. But when the community around her discovers the unusual changes Zaffan’s body is going through, she is shunned and attacked—leaving her no choice but to accept what she is becoming.

Amanda Nell Eu captures adolescents’ fear during pubescent transformation and communicates with grotesque body horror that makes your skin crawl. Tiger Stripes premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival and won the Critics’ Week Grand Prize.

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