Chasuke's Journey (World Fantastic Cinema)
SABU is reunited with Ken’ichi Matsuyama, star of 2011’s Rabbit Drop, for a fantasy comedy in which an angel whose role is to make tea in heaven descends to earth in an attempt to save a young woman.
Coin Locker Girl (Bucheon Choice: Feature)
This Cannes-selected thriller may not revolutionize the crime genre in Korea but with buckets of style and a pair of impressive female leads, it feels fresher than most of its contemporaries. Kim Hye-soo (The Thieves) is a standout and Kim Go-eun (A Muse) shows why she's the hot new talent on the scene in this promising debut.
Goodnight Mommy (World Fantastic Cinema)
For many, family can be hell, and no film demonstrated that better last year than Goodnight Mommy. After setting us up in a thoroughly unsettling setting (a modern house in the Austrian countryside), first-time filmmakers Fiala and Franz turn up the tension and the horror, more psychological than anything, will stay with you for days.
Love And Peace (I'm (not) Sono Sion)
The thought of Sono Sion attempting a family film is a terrifying prospect, but I don't know what is more surprising - that the results are utterly insane, or that the film is actually rather delightful. A salaryman finally realises his dream of becoming a glam rock star, while his flushed pet tortoise discovers a magical new future in the city's sewers. The result is the year's best (quite possibly only) kaiju rock opera. Playing alongside a retrospective of the director's career.
The Ninja War of Torakage (World Fantastic Cinema)
Nishimura Yoshihiro’s latest finds room to add a little heart to the insanity and non-stop blood-letting he’s known for in this tale of a legendary ninja who has found peace and retired to the countryside to live with his wife and young son. That peace is shattered when a villainous face from the past, Nishimura regular and star of Audition Eihi Shiina, takes the boy hostage and forces the husband and wife team to embark on a dangerous mission to retrieve a sacred scroll in order to win their child’s freedom. While the blood certainly flies and the action is as in your face as ever as limbs are severed in a ballet of ninja fighting, Torakage is less gross-out and more structured than the director’s previous work and all the better for it.
Port Of Call (Bucheon Choice: Feature)
An unrecognisable Aaron Kwok goes all a bit Will Graham, as a cop who can get inside the minds of murderers, in Philip Yung's delightfully grisly crime drama that closed this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival. Cinematographer Chris Doyle does a fantastic job of exposing the city's grimy underbelly.
Spring (World Fantastic Cinema)
A lot of comparisons have been thrown at the terrific sophomore outing of directing duo Benson and Moorehead (Linklater crossed with Lovecraft comes to mind) but make no mistake about it, Spring is the real deal. Beautiful, thrilling and unexpectedly touching, this singular horror-romance will surprise and delight.
Turbo Kid (Bucheon Choice: Feature)
Twitch favorite Turbo Kid may just have had its eighties-pastiche thunder stolen by recent favorite Kung Fury, but this Mad Max-inflected tale of a boy scavenging to survive in the post-apocalyptic wasteland of 1997 pulls off enough tricks to make my must-watch list. In his review of the film Ard summed up its throwback appeal as follows, “…Turbo Kid may leave the smell of plastic in your nostrils, but it’s the right kind of plastic, the one you associate with cool toys, cool games and even cooler backyard parties.” Sounds like fun.
Two Thumbs Up (Excellent Actor Nice Guy, Simon Yam)
Hugely prolific Hong Kong actor Simon Yam is being honoured this year with retrospective screenings of a number of his best films, including Johnnie To's PTU and Election. Accompanying his older works is this wacky new crime caper directed by screenwriter Lau Ho Leung. The results are lots of fun, but worth the ticket price alone to marvel at Yam and Francis Ng's outrageous mullets.
Violator (World Fantastic Cinema)
Filipino film critic Dodo Dayao’s directorial debut is an intense exercise in creeping dread that sees a storm battered Manila react to what could, quite possibly, be the end of days. Split between vivid, doom-laden imagery and a more linear narrative which sees a demon-possessed young man hauled into a put-upon police station, Violator offers a master class in creating slow-burn, darkness-drenched atmosphere.
We Are Still Here (World Fantastic Cinema)
Ted Geoghegan is a big fan of old horror films. That much is clear within a few minutes of watching his debut, but what also quickly becomes evident is his knack for building atmosphere and showing deference to his influence while also knowing when it's time to turn the screws.
Women Who Flirt (Vision Express)
Many feared the worst when Hong Kong's enfant terrible Pang Ho Cheung headed north of the border to make a star-studded rom-com, but this loose take on the My Best Friend's Wedding scenario features a brilliant comedic turn from Zhou Xun, who does her damnedest to break up besty Huang Xiaoming's relationship so she can have him all to herself.