Available: Aug. 28 - Sept. 12, All USA
Limited seating
From the award-winning author of the indie hit 100 Yen Love comes this supremely cringey semi-autobiographical tale of marital disaster, sure to delight fans of Sideways and Larry David, et al. A diminutive loser screenwriter awaits his big break but is mired by perennial writer’s block and the fact that he isn’t getting any.
Available: Aug. 28 - Sept. 12, All USA
The irrepressible Louis Koo stars as a dastardly robber and prime suspect in a murder where the only witness is a talking parrot. A stoic and surprisingly principled criminal badass, he can control any situation.
Available: Aug. 28 - Sept. 12, All USA
In an audacious alternate universe a magician makes a boy disappear. When he can’t bring the child back it sets off a Rube Goldberg chain of misadventures.
Available: Aug. 28 - Sept. 12, All USA
Limited seating
Indie film star Lee Joo-young gives a tour-de-force performance as the eponymous baseball girl. A tenacious high schooler, she is a talented and passionate athlete determined to get signed by a professional team no matter how high the male chauvinist odds are stacked against her.
Available: Aug. 29 - Sept. 12, All USA
Limited seating
“No Country for Old Men meets Pulp Fiction” (THR) might be the best summary of this meteoric debut about the fateful, slow-mo collision of colorful lowlifes who clash over a bag full of cash left in a locker room.
Available: Sept. 3 ONLY, New York State ONLY
Limited seating
Beauty Water is a plastic surgeon’s wet dream that gives plain Jane Yaeji a shot at turning her life and career around. A chance encounter puts this extraordinary skincare product in the young woman’s eager hands.
Available: Aug. 28 - Sept. 12, All USA
Limited seating
The blockbuster director of Rurouni Kenshin reveals a contemplative side with his first arthouse film, set in Otomo’s hometown near the 2011 Fukushima disasters. Like its award-winning literary inspiration, the enigmatic tale of fly fishing, drinking and male bonding — between stars Ayano Go, NYAFF 2016 Rising Star Asia winner, and Matsuda Ryuhei —skirts obvious interpretation.
Available: Sept. 5 - 12, All USA
Limited seating
Benny Chan’s magnum opus is an epic period piece that boasts a who’s who of Hong Kong action cinema, with choreography by Sammo Hung and starring Sean Lau, Louis Koo, Eddie Peng and Wu Jing. Cao Shao Lun (Koo), is a powermad warlord who kills and robs his own citizens.
Available: Aug. 28 - Sept. 12, All USA
Limited seating
Maestro Johnnie To is back after a 3-year hiatus with his craziest genre mash-up yet. Is it a fight flick? A kitsch musical? A screwball comedy? All of the above!
Available: Sept. 6 ONLY, All USA
Limited seating
Sabu returns to NYAFF with a ghostly comedy sure to please fans of his trademark blend of merriment and mayhem. When a faded dancehall is slated for demolition, developer Kenji is assigned the task of exorcising the spirit of its former owner, the eponymous Mary.
Available: Aug. 28 - Sept. 12, All USA
A three-pronged drama of innocence and experience, Dear Loneliness tracks the paths of three young women on the brink of adult life, as they teeter and tangle with disconnection.
Available: Aug. 28 - Sept. 12, All USA
Two high school students find themselves trapped in a supernatural realm of vengeful spirits and demonic creatures in 1960s Taiwan. As they anxiously walk the haunted halls of their eerily empty school, in search for their missing teacher and a way out, we hear both the dark rumble of the well-crafted B movie and the chilly whispers of a refined psychological horror piece.
Available: Aug. 28 - Sept. 12, All USA
Singer-songwriter Nagabuchi Tsuyoshi marks a singular return to film after a 20-year break with this rib-tickling, heartwarming tale of a master builder named Shingo. A fiercely individualistic type whose greatest work may be his own chiseled physique, Shingo sees no problem with chasing skirt even as he remains a devoted husband and father.
Available: Aug. 28 - Sept. 12, All USA
Limited seating
20 years after the breakthrough blockbuster Shiri, stars Han Suk-kyu and Choi Min-sik reunite for this sumptuous period piece about two eminent dreamers whose shared vision changed history. When King Sejong the Great appoints low-born Jang Yeong-sil as his science officer, a lasting bond forms.
Available: Aug. 28 - Sept. 12, All USA
The children are not all right in this tale of unspeakable cruelty. When a 13-year-old boy incites heart-wrenching tragedy with a crossbow, all he can do is deny it. This fascinating twist on the scourge of bullying takes no prisoners.
Available: Aug. 28 - Sept. 12, All USA
Movie genres madly mix and mash up in this no-holds-barred, no-brow comedy about two young aspiring directors, BS (Roy Chiu, of Dear Ex fame) and Wenxi (Huang Di-yang). Sick of indulging in the stuff and fluff of pipe dreams, they decide to turn fantasy into reality and make a real zombie flick.
Available: Aug. 28 - Sept. 12, All USA
Limited seating
A virtuous family steeped in the traditions of silat, the local martial art, find their home encroached on by gangsters. When the youngest son flirts with the dark side and absconds with the land deed, his sister and brother must get it back and stop the greedy lowlifes at all costs.
Available: Aug. 28 - Sept. 12, All USA
A nameless department store worker (played by Janine Gutierrez, who took the Best Actress award at QCinema International Film Festival) is lambasted by her boss, leered at by ne'er-do-wells, and intimidated by a creepy coworker. When she finds a discarded gun, it ignites an explosive chain reaction whose trail blazes and slithers its way through a city crumbling under the weight of its own moral rot.
Available: Aug. 28 - Sept. 12, All USA
Limited seating
When people disappear in an inexplicable flash of light one morning in a small city in central China, ordinary couples start reevaluating their relationships. The plot thickens when it is revealed the mysterious disappearances are a countrywide occurrence, and maybe even a global phenomenon.
Available: Sept. 5 - 12, All USA
Limited seating
Stand-up comedian Dayo Wong wrote, directed, and stars in this farce as a kung fu master whose lifework is knocked out cold when he is beaten by a woman on the street. In the tradition of Stephen Chow and Gallants (NYAFF 2010), this screwball comedy pulls no punches in a non-stop cavalcade of wacky hijinks.
Available: Aug. 28 - Sept. 12, All USA
Limited seating
Ying-Juan is spunky, smart... and 230 pounds. She cooks at a preschool where the kids call her Ms. Dinosaur. Even her mom, who’s also her boss, constantly fat-shames her. But she just doesn’t give a damn… until an unwanted membership to a weight loss program and an encounter with two misfits prompt her to change and put her on an uphill path to self-acceptance, paved with crash diets and boot camp workouts.
Available: Sept. 12 at 5pm EST ONLY, All USA
Limited seating
The main attraction in hell is an ostentatious, kitsch game show where the departed scare the wits out of the living. Newly arrived Wong Hui Kwai doesn’t fit there: he is so apathetic he doesn’t even know how he died. The one thing he remembers is the girl he had a crush on. Madcap supernatural antics ensue as he finds himself back on earth embroiled in the competition.
Available: Aug. 28 - Sept. 12, All USA
Limited seating
In what might just be the feel-good comedy of the year, Kwon Sang-woo radiates charisma as a top-secret government assassin turned loser cartoonist who relies on his wife to pay the bills and his daughter to give him creative tips.
Available: Aug. 28 - Sept. 12, All USA except California and Hawaii
Eerily timely in its focus on formalized paranoia as a lifestyle, the film follows the prudent footsteps of Po-Ching and Chen Ching, two young oddballs cursed with germaphobia and OCD, as they walk through life clad in personal protective equipment.
Available: Aug. 28 - Sept. 12, All USA
With technology literally at everyone’s fingertips, scathing scrutiny from one’s peers is inescapable. After a video of 14-year-old John Denver attacking a classmate goes viral it triggers relentless cyber-bullying.
Available: Aug. 28 - Sept. 12, All USA
Limited seating
Young mother Kim Ji-young starts having strange episodes, as if possessed by ghosts. Flashbacks chronicle a lifetime of systemic sexism that has led her, at 34, to a crisis of confidence.
Available: Sept. 5 ONLY, New York State ONLY
Limited seating
An insurance investigator visits the dilapidated home of a most unusual client and makes a shocking discovery. He soon finds himself mired in a mystery surrounding the homeowner and his blind wife, whom he suspects is in danger.
Available: Aug. 30 - Sept. 12, All USA
A sweeping historical epic, full of sound and fury, but with a decidedly feminist upgrade, this Kazakh actioner traces the real-life exploits of nomad Queen Tomiris and her female Amazon warriors.
Available: Aug. 28 - Sept. 12, All USA
Limited seating
A spunky female sendup of the Hong Sangsoo genre of filmmaking, minus the male chauvinism, and with the additional bonus of poignancy and profundity: Lee Chan-sil is a down-on-her-luck film producer.
Available: Aug. 28 - Sept. 12, New York State ONLY
Limited seating
Would-be musician Ugyen begrudgingly accepts an assignment to teach children at the remotest school on earth. Throughout his long journey to nowhere he regrets his decision. Yet once he comes to know the locals, including the studious yak, Ugyen slowly absorbs the sublimity of nature.
Available: Sept. 5 - 12, All USA
Limited seating
This insightful omnibus of gently told stories waxes nostalgic for old Hong Kong while reflecting its rich multicultural fabric.
Available: Aug. 29 at 7pm EST ONLY, All USA
Miss Evon, a.k.a. Andy, has paid a steep price to don a dress and finally be herself, at age 55. Having lost her job and family, and been faced with daily indignities, it’s a crushing blow when she learns her best friend has died. But then she meets illegal immigrant Sophie and her son, and her generous acts of humanity help restore hopes for a brighter future, albeit briefly.
Available: Aug. 28 - Sept. 12, All USA
Mariko Tetsuya (Destruction Babies) takes flying fists, obsessive love and viewer discomfort to a whole new level in this must-see film. Ikematsu Sosuke (The Long Excuse) stars as overly impassioned Miyamoto, the would-be protector of Yasuko (Aoi Yu, Japanese Girls Never Die), who uses the hapless salaryman to get rid of an unwanted boyfriend, but then falls for him
Available: Aug. 28 - Sept. 12, New York State ONLY
Limited seating
This quotidian chronicle of a family in unexpected circumstances is a marvel of delicacy. Post-divorce and with options scarce, a father, his teenage daughter and tweener son move in with grandpa. The kids’ aunt, fleeing a failed marriage herself, soon joins them.
Available: Aug. 28 - Sept. 12, All USA
Limited seating
Fresh off the massive success of Ne Zha, Mr. Miao shows China breaking new cinematic ground in an epic animated adventure of historical and mythological proportions.
Available: Sept. 4 at 7pm EST ONLY, New York State ONLY
Limited seating
Fong’s whole life revolves around matrimony. She works in a popular bridal shop, is engaged to her boss, and is in the throes of her own wedding plans. When her sham marriage with a mainlander resurfaces, her life goes into a tailspin.
Available: Sept. 6 at 8pm EST & Sept. 11 at 6pm EST ONLY, All USA
Limited seating
NYAFF bad boy hall-of-famer Shiraishi (The Blood of Wolves, Dare to Stop Us) is back with a dark, multilayered meditation on the stigma of violence and scars that fail to heal. His first exploration into the family dynamic, it stars Satoh Takeru, Suzuki Ryohei and Matsuoka Mayu as siblings traumatized by a shocking act of desperation, parental abandonment and, in adulthood, dead-end dreams.
Available: Aug. 28 - Sept. 12, All USA
This darkly electric debut, shot with breathtaking brio on the mean backstreets of Ho Chi Minh City, follows 14-year-old Ròm, a lottery ticket runner who earns commissions only when he picks the lucky numbers for his neighborhood’s debt-ridden slum dwellers.
Available: Sept. 5 at 8pm EST & Sept. 8 at 5pm EST ONLY, All USA
Limited seating
Deceptively kicking off as a deadpan corporate drama about the frustrations of legal trainee Tae-soo (rising star Ahn Jae-hong), a bottom feeder at his law film, Secret Zoo is actually a laugh-out-loud comedy that treats matters like friendship and resilience very seriously.
Available: Sept. 5 - 12, All USA
Limited seating
It’s the end of days… in one week. As our extinction draws nigh, some people just go about their daily routine while others try to think of ways to save the world.
Available: Sept. 5 - 12, All USA
Limited seating
Driven by a fierce sense of justice, Ji-woo (Lee Si-young) is a female detective who doesn’t play by the rules in a world where cops are now assisted by AI software that feeds data straight through their eyes.
Available: Sept. 5 - 12, All USA
Limited seating
Death is no longer the end in a world where the human brain and AI can be connected to give the dead an afterlife. After her son dies in an accident, Hye-ra (Moon So-ri) has him resurrected by merging his brain with an artificial conscience.
Available: Sept. 5 - 12, All USA
Limited seating
In a world devastated by fine dust pollution, society has been divided into two categories: the "Cs" and the "Ns". People classified as "C" are privileged and injected with a vaccine at birth, which allows them to live up to 100 years; the others, known as "N", only live to age 30.
Available: Sept. 5 - 12, All USA
Limited seating
Romance stands at the crossroads between the real world and virtual reality in a future where half of the world population uses the ‘Love Virtually’ app. People match the partners they want with the faces they want, using a “fictional” ID, which has become the universal norm.
Available: Sept. 5 - 12, All USA
Limited seating
In a world where chance has all but disappeared, an AI fortune-telling app called “Manxin” (a pun on the Korean word for shaman) boasts a stunning 96% accuracy and has come to dominate and dictate all aspects of daily life.
Available: Sept. 5 - 12, All USA
Limited seating
In the near future, at a nursing home entirely run by machines, a woman has been in a coma for 10 years. The nursing robot who looks after both the patient and the caregiver becomes distressed when she has to decide who she should save: the bedridden woman or the helper.
Available: Sept. 5 - 12, All USA
Limited seating
Juno has all the things celebrity can get her; a star game broadcaster, she enjoys a vast following of close to a million subscribers. But when a former classmate claims she made up her own past, Juno’s fall from grace is swift and brutal.
Available: Sept. 2 - 12, All USA
A brother and sister find a strange girl wandering aimlessly in the woods and bring her home to their mother. That was their first mistake. After spending the night she delivers an ominous prophecy: Their family will all soon die.
Available: Sept. 3 ONLY, All USA
Limited seating
If you expected something fashionably modern from actor Odagiri Joe’s feature debut, you’ll be surprised to find it feels more like the measured work of a classic auteur. Set in Meiji era Japan but timeless in its concerns —the sacrifices made in the name of progress, the loss of cherished traditions — it follows a lonely old ferryman (Emoto Akira), whose life is transformed when he rescues a mysterious young woman from drowning.
Available: Aug. 29 - Sept. 5, All USA
Limited seating
This classic comic book-style fight yarn hits all its targets, both dramatically as well as in combat, with dazzling aplomb. Its undaunted hero is a martial artist who teaches at an underdog gym by day and is an underground fighter by night.
Available: Sept. 5 at 9pm & Sept. 12 at 7pm ONLY, All USA
Limited seating
One kid kills another kid in cold blood. The victim’s mother remembers her sweet son striving to break out of their lower class strata. The perpetrator on the other hand is entitled and vicious, motivated by petty jealousy over a girl.
Available: Aug. 28 - Sept. 12, All USA
Gritty, erotic, poetic, this is the tale of Li, a beautiful broken girl, suddenly tasked to raise her estranged son, Han.
