In 16th century Java, after his parents are killed by a rogue martial artist, Wiro Sableng is rigorously trained by a benevolent silat master. She sends him off to capture the culprit, who now aims to take over the throne from the king.

Mirai Takatsuki is a seemingly normal teenager, but when he was a child his life was saved from a terrible illness thanks to magnanimous donations from the local community that paid for his medical bills. Ongoing media attention and the pressure to excel have prompted Mirai to have suicidal tendencies.

This bittersweet narrative-documentary hybrid offers a precious glimpse into China’s Uighur minority. When not in school or looking after his sickly mother, young Isa spends his days wandering the fields with his best friend Kalbinur who he raises a pet lamb with.

1919: 17 year-old schoolgirl Yu Gwan-sun (Ko A-sung) is thrown in jail. Yu isn’t just any girl, she’s a fierce independence fighter and a leading figure of the March 1st Independence Movement. This is the story of her captivity in Seodaemun Prison in Japan-ruled Seoul, where she and other women are forced to live in the squalor of a 100 square feet prison cell.

Actor extraordinaire Kim Yoon-seok makes his directorial debut with this riveting film about family dysfunction, amour fou and coming of age in the oddest of circumstances. 17-year-old Joo-ri discovers her father is having an affair with the mother of her hard headed classmate Yoon-ah.

A young man is accused of killing the daughter of Hong Kong’s richest tycoon after a drunken tryst. His poor shop owner grandmother insists he is innocent and seeks legal aid.

Chen Liang, a young Chinese man working illegally in Japan, buys an ID and cell phone on the black market. When he gets a call offering a job he accepts blindly.

16-year-old Peipei lives in Shenzhen, just over the border from Hong Kong where she goes to school. In order to raise money for a trip to Japan she joins a smuggling ring, taking iPhones into the mainland. Her inconspicuous high school uniform makes her the perfect mule, but as her innocence quickly fades she may fall in too deep.

The 1960s-70s marked the Golden Age of Wakamatsu Productions, founded by revolutionary auteur Wakamatsu Koji (Caterpillar) and staffed (for nearly free) with radical young artists like avant-garde filmmaker Adachi Masao, cinematographer Ito Hideo and scriptwriter Arai Haruhiko. Shiraishi Kazuya (The Blood of Wolves) also cut his teeth making low-budget exploitation pictures at the company, and has directed this rambunctious, fact-based account of one young dreamer, Yoshizumi Megumi, who joins Wakamatsu in 1969 to make pinku eiga (softcore porn).

An informant leads world-weary police detective Kim to small time crook Kang Tae-oh who says he murdered someone for hire 10 years ago. Before Kim can pursue the case, Kang is arrested for another crime.

Fable is a legendary yakuza hitman, equal to none. Suddenly his boss orders him and his sultry associate to lay low and live a ‘normal life’ because “top assassins need that skill.”

An ultraviolent cops vs. gangsters bloodbath leaves casualties on both sides. Fast forward twenty years as surviving team member Madam Fong (Jade Leung, Black Cat) leads a new squad across borders to pursue reckless young anarchists terrorizing Macao.

This riotously irreverent manga adaptation imagines the petty rivalries between Tokyo and neighboring Chiba and Saitama (think Manhattan versus bridge and tunnel) as a seething political struggle. 'Saitamese' are downtrodden and even need a visa to enter the big city.

Action powerhouse Veronica Ngo (The Rebel, Star Wars: The Last Jedi) delivers a tour de force performance as an unassuming peasant woman who will stop at nothing to rescue her daughter from a ruthless trafficking ring. From Vietnam’s luscious countryside to its gritty back alleys, former gang leader Hai Phuong (Ngo) runs, leaps, steals motorbikes and mercilessly trounces thugs in hot pursuit of her kidnapped child.

A brooding cellist plays in his apartment. A policeman meets his prostitute lover next door.

Murakami Nijiro (Destruction Babies) stars as Toru, an aimless college student who comes upon the aftermath of a murder scene one night, and without thinking, grabs the titular weapon. He takes it home and keeps it safely hidden away, but curiosity gradually begins to consume him.

An upstanding young man commits a reckless act that ends in life changing tragedy. His doomed rival becomes his friend only to become his rival again.

Hirsute sad-sack Ukon (Yamada) and his only friend, Ushiyama (Arakawa), a kindhearted oddball, are hired by an aging nationalist to dig for the Shogun’s buried gold, so he can restore Japan’s Imperial honor. When Ushiyama finds a rusty old robot and Ukon’s tech-savvy younger brother Sakon (Satoh) revives it, they name him Roboo and take him to work.

In China, parents buy homes in certain school districts at outrageous prices just to ensure a good education for their children. Professor Fu is desperate to sell his place in order to get such an apartment to guarantee his daughter’s future. This real-life drama is painted as an existential thriller, following Fu’s dilemma with unseen obstacles at every turn. Bribery, infidelity, broken promises, and strict policy all conspire against Fu’s quest for happiness. Through striking mise en scène and a vitriolic script built on cruel twists of fate, Chen Xiaoming’s film delivers a surprisingly suspenseful critique of modern society.

This classic from the early 90’s ‘new wave’ of old school kung fu films features Donnie Yen as Wong Kei-ying, father of real life master Wong Fei-hong. A Robin Hood styled hero known as the Iron Monkey is the scourge of the local government.

The unscrupulous owner of Crazy TV sets out to lower the channel's ratings so he can sell it to mobster Mr. David for cheap and count his losses. He promotes failing producer Yeh to program director, and fires the staff.

Sabu’s 18th feature is an absurdist dramedy driven by random chance and fateful encounters, as three characters inch closer to crossing paths. Hiroshi (Aoyagi, also in Mr. Long) is a small-time enka singer who dreams of global stardom; Takeru (Machida) is intent on doing good deeds to undo the bad one that put his girlfriend in a coma; and ex-con Tetsuo (Suzuki) is out for revenge against the yakuza gang that sent him to prison.

Stoic truck driver Jinpa picks up a silver dagger wearing hitchhiker in the desolate Kekexili plateau. The stranger suddenly reveals he’s going to kill the man who murdered his father.

Director Kim Tae-yong (Late Autumn), composer Bang Jun-seok (Along with the Gods), and 20 members of the National Gugak Center’s traditional Korean orchestra bridge art forms in a universal story of loss and redemption, steeped in Korean folklore. Melding fantasy and reality, the film incorporates an elaborate theatrical piece to celebrate Korean myths and traditions.

Suzuki Koichi, a 30-something hikikomori shut-in, allows his mother to dotingly tend to his needs. When she discovers that Koichi has killed himself, the shock is so great she loses consciousness, and her memory of that day.

Two tragic stories of motherhood converge in a phantasmagorically macabre tale of loss, sacrifice and evil. After his mother dies suddenly, Samuel goes into a mysterious cave that claims to grant wishes and asks for his mother’s life back.

A couple’s hospital tryst is caught on X-Ray. Thinking she and her boyfriend are the ones in the compromising radiograph, nurse Yoon-young goes in the next day to resign only to find that everyone has called in sick except the head doctor.

In this exciting offshoot of the popular Ip Man series, Max Zhang reprises his role as the eponymous Master Z. After his defeat by Ip Man, Master Z leaves the martial arts world.

After practically inventing the kung fu comedy genre, director Yuen Woo-ping eventually added fantasy elements to the mix, starting with this absolutely batshit crazy cult classic. The loose and wild plot involves a Qing dynasty official in conflict with the emperor that results in both his wife and the prince dead.

Singular auteur Pang Ho-cheung strikes again with his brilliant combination of uproarious lowbrow gags and insightful humanism, a Chinese New Year movie whose literal title is “Congratulations Bitches.” At its heart this freewheeling tale is about the profundity of true friendship, while on the surface it’s a wild sitcom built around a desperate scavenger hunt for breast milk.

Once upon a time street crime was the scourge of big cities and modern society. These days it’s large scaled white collar financial scams.

A dysfunctional family is forced begrudgingly into an instant reunion when they have to move their father’s grave due to construction. Four bickering sisters and one nightmarish problem child take a road trip from hell to the home of their surly uncle to settle accounts.

It’s “like Chaplin meets Miike,” a New York critic wrote about Mr. Long, and rarely has a film combined such punishing violence with such poignant humanity, working both as a hard-hitting actioner and a self-actualization tale. Long (Chang) is a Taiwanese hitman whose exceptional artistry with his 6-inch knife is as legendary as his reticence.

A rogue zombie gets way more than he bargained for after running afoul of the peculiar and opportunistic Park family. They own a rural gas station and survive more on tourist traps of their own design than bonafide repair work.

A nap on a rubber raft in a twenty foot deep swimming pool turns into a nightmare for a young couple after an unfortunate series of events puts their lives in danger. Filled with dark humor, nail biting thrills and seething with emotional turbulence, writer-director Ping Lumpraploeng’s film turns a seemingly mundane situation into an existential obstacle course as the protagonists face the greatest challenge of their lives.

Well to do screenwriter Yu Feng’s cute little dog is viciously attacked by the hefty Tibetan Mastiff from next door. Perturbed and undeterred by both the police’s apathy and the neighbor’s reluctance to settle the matter properly, Yu Feng and his family embark on a complex war of attrition.

32-year-old designer Huanyu knows he is a woman born as a man and has a support system of transgender friends, doctors and his straight best friend/roommate. However sex reassignment surgery legally requires parental approval and Huanyu's pious Christian father sees this as a deadly sin.

British director Bernard Rose (Immortal Beloved), producer Jeremy Thomas and composer Philip Glass bring Japanese history to exhilarating life with this lavish jidaigeki, set against the 1850s arrival of the infamous “black ships” that brought an end to Japan’s centuries of isolation. When feudal lord Itakura Katsuakira decides to prepare his samurai troops for the onslaught of modernization by having them compete in a marathon, his independent-minded daughter Yuki (Komatsu Nana in a breakout role) secretly joins the race.

A cop waiting for his transfer, a trio of vicious thieves after a hidden trove of gold, a beautiful doctor held hostage, a local guide turned traitor: these stock characters come vividly alive in the propulsive directorial debut of screenwriter Cui Siwei (The Island). By turns droll and deadly, the film begins with an avalanche of logs atop Mt. Baekdu on the China-North Korea border, triggering a taut cat-and-mouse game as the snowfall of a lifetime rolls in.

Promising basketball star Wen Rui lost it all when he beat a spectator in a fit of rage. Now he barely gets by working shady part time jobs.

While most reviewers hated the film and buried it deep, NYAFF, faithful to its tradition of boldly going where no festival dares, unearths this most unrepentant cinematic celebration of bar culture and its attendant emotional wreckage. Like a drunk version of Wong Kar-wai’s classics, but set in his birthplace of Shanghai instead of Hong Kong, it has the Master’s signature slashed all over it, with the pop philosophy and cooler-than-thou retro melancholy that defined Wong’s earlier films, but in a stunningly bizarre yet gorgeous package.

Intoy lives in Biri, a small island town where he is the community factotum. His family barely makes ends meet thanks to the money his sister sends from Finland where she’s been working for years.

Hsiao-pei carries on her family’s fortune telling tradition, almost exclusively giving young women love advice. She also runs her college’s tarot club through which she meets the playfully cocky Chiung-nan, who uses the cards to ask her out.

1980s Saigon never looked more glorious than it does as the backdrop for this mesmerizing musical melodrama, director Leon Le’s award-winning debut. When ruthless debt collector Thunderbolt demands an overdue payment from a Cai-luong folk opera company, male star Linh Phung is immediately drawn to him.

A gruff wheelchair-ridden divorcé (Anthony Wong, Infernal Affairs) hires his umpteenth caretaker (Crisel Consunji), a Filipina who has put her dreams on hold to earn a living in Hong Kong. Despite not speaking Cantonese she gradually breaks through his rough exterior and the unlikely duo from vastly different cultural backgrounds begin to embrace their lives together through various ups and downs.

Kim Yu-ri’s ambitious and incredibly moving feature debut follows two girl's tumultuous adolescence over three separate time frames, from age 12 – 19. After Young-ha's father abandons her she continues living with her struggling mother and stepfather.

Bio: Conceived by Gerald Watson and produced by DJ 2-Tone Jones, SHAOLIN JAZZ – The 37th Chamber is a testament to the stylistic connections between both Jazz and Hip-Hop. It is a mix project whereby various Jazz songs and breaks are fused with a cappellas and vocal samples from the iconic Hip-Hop group Wu-Tang Clan.

As TV and film increasingly converge, NYAFF premieres, ahead of its August 12 broadcast, The Terror: Infamy. The haunting second season of the horror-infused anthology centers on a series of bizarre deaths that haunt a Japanese-American community during World War II. Starring Derek Mio, Sukezane Kiki (Lost in Space, NYAFF 2018 jury), Usami Shingo (Unbroken) and the renowned George Takei (Star Trek).

Luo Hanxing’s cheeky feature debut follows a 100 Yuan bill around from character to character in a close-knit Chinese town. We first meet a highly educated loan shark and his minions chain smoking and drinking their unwilling host’s tea in a hilariously sardonic set piece.

This dynamic Malaysian horror film melds tragic melodrama with startling supernatural and psychological elements. Starting as a story of a bullied young female factory worker, the film amps up its frightening tropes as it gradually escalates into a feverish nightmare.

A young woman who lost her memory is helped by a snake catcher. On their arduous quest to recover her identity, they gradually develop feelings for one another but, just as the truth comes close, disaster looms.

Andy Lau, Louis Koo and director Herman Yau (NYAFF 2013) come together in this dog-eat-dog epic of “antiheroic bloodshed.” A sequel in name only, The White Storm 2 Drug Lords is the 1990s gangster genre at its most dastardly and deadpan.

Clashing against each other like towering titans going on a rampage in the mean streets of Hong Kong, Koo and Lau play a deadly cat and mouse game of retaliation and retribution. Drugs are snorted, dead bodies are carted in and out of the frame culminating in a mind-blowing, subway station-wrecking car chase. Crime reigns in a world where tycoons are just as dirty as the triads.

A masterful one take sequence effortlessly presents the film’s milieu - the Japanese occupation of Manchuria circa 1944 - as well as its basic premise - an aging father’s attempts to maintain his family line despite this threat. With all able bodied men being forced into labor by the Japanese, he will stop at nothing to ensure his daughter-in-law produces a male heir.

In the late 90’s, wet behind the ears Lu Youhong takes a job teaching Chinese at a remote martial arts academy. His many students could care less for academics except for Zhang Cuishan, who excels at schoolwork but hates martial arts, and is bullied for it.

Kayu is the laziest soldier in Singapore’s army reserves. He fakes illness to get out of drills while also trying to avoid the wrath of his by the book commanding officer.