The Murders of Oiso ある殺人、落葉のころに Dir: Takuya Misawa (2019) [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2020]

The Murders of Oiso

ある殺人、落葉のころに 「Aru satsujin, rakuyo no koro ni」

Release Date: N/A

Duration: 79 mins.

Director: Takuya Misawa

Writer: Takuya Misawa (Screenplay)

Starring: Koji Moriya, Haya Nakazaki, Yusaku Mori, Shugo Nagashima, Natsuko Hori, Ena Koshino, Chun Yip Lo, Toko Narushima,

OAFF Link

Debuting at last year’s Busan International Film Festival, The Murders of Oiso took the Japan Cuts Award at the Osaka Asian Film Festival 2020. It is the sophomore feature from director Takuya Misawa who made waves with his 2015 debut Chigasaki Story. He returns with a slice-of-life film shot with a Hong Kong crew in a cut-up narrative that has a noirish atmosphere as he looks at the shadowy side of the titular town and its citizens.

Oiso is a quiet and pristine seaside town in Kanagawa which is nestled between a beautiful coastline and scenic countryside. The location is marked by the colours of fall as the season unfolds under cold and clean sunlight with a chill in the air. This is where prime ministers of Japan retire to, a pleasant place chosen by Misawa because it could be emblematic of Japan. Beautiful on the outside, hidden inside are various instances of small-scale corruption as conducted by seemingly average people that make life harder for everyone.

Way Back Home 비밀의 정원 Dir: Park Sun-joo (2019) [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2020]

Way Back Home   

비밀의 정원 「Bimilui jeongwon」

Release Date: October 05th, 2019

Duration: 113 mins.

Director: Park Sun-joo

Writer: Park Sun-joo (Script), 

Starring: Han Woo-yun, Jun Suk-ho, Jung Da-eun, Oh Min-ae, Yeom Hye-ran, Yoo Jae-myung,

OAFF IMDB Korean Film

Director Park Sun-joo graduated from making short films to her debut feature by adapting her 2017 short Mild Fever, winner of the Asian Short Film & Video Competition Grand Prize at the 19th Seoul International Women’s Film Festival, to make Way Back Home. Taking on the potentially incendiary topic of a woman confronting the emotional fallout from her rape, the film uses a more subdued tone to deliver a realistic depiction of survivors moving on.

Miss Andy 迷失安狄 Dir: Teddy Chin (Malaysia-Taiwan, 2019) [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2020]

Miss Andy 

迷失安狄

Release Date: 2020

Duration: 108 mins.

Director: Teddy Chin

Writer: Ryan Tu (Script),

Starring: Lee Lee-zen, Ruby Lin, Jack Tan, Keshap Suria, Tou Kyzer,

OAFF Wikipedia

The human heart can be the most powerful thing as it always burns with the embers of hope for love, companionship and empathy even in the most difficult circumstances. That is what links all humans. Miss Andy is all about that hope in the face of such awful loneliness.

KAMATA PRELUDE 蒲田前奏曲 Dirs: Ryutaro Nakagawa, Mayu Akiyama, Yuka Yasukawa, Hirobumi Watanabe (Japan, 2020) [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2020]

KAMATA PRELUDE   

蒲田前奏曲 「Kamata Zensoukyoku」

Release Date: Autumn 2020

Duration: 115 mins.

Directors: Ryutaro Nakagawa, Mayu Akiyama, Yuka Yasukawa, Hirobumi Watanabe

Writers: Ryutaro Nakagawa, Mayu Akiyama, Yuka Yasukawa, Hirobumi Watanabe (Script)

Starring: Urara Matsubayashi, Kotone Furukawa, Kumi Takiuchi, Ren Sudo, Sairi Ito, Mayuko Fukada, Noa Kawazoe, Ryutaro Ninomiya, Ryutaro Kondo,

OAFF Link

Receiving its world premiere as the closing film of the Osaka Asian Film Festival 2020, Kamata Prelude is an omnibus movie split between four different directors with four distinct styles separated simply by an edit and a change in visual approach. Each director is part of a new generation of talent from the Japanese movie industry and this mix of approaches ensures a change of pace occurs often enough to keep interest in the film high.

Keeping all of these disparate elements together is the depiction of the life of a struggling actress named Machiko who lives in Kamata. Portrayed by Urara Matsubayashi (lead actress in The Hungry Lion), the film’s producer, she is the centre of these stories each of which depicts her learning what it means to be a “woman” and an “actress” in contemporary Japanese society through showing the behaviour and perceptions of those who surround her. Comic, dramatic, all sorts of emotional hues are touched upon.

Your Name Engraved Herein 刻在你心底的名字 Director: Liu Kuang-hui (2020) Taiwan Osaka Asian Film Festival 2020

Your Name Engraved Herein   

刻在你心底的名字 

Release Date: June 26th, 2020

Duration: 118 mins.

Director: Liu Kuang-hui

Writer: Chu Yu-ning (Script), Keralino Sandrovich (Original Novel)

Starring: Tseng Chin-hua, Chen Hao-sen, Wang Shih-sian, Leon Dai, Fabio Grangeon, Edward Chen, Mimi Shao,

OAFF IMDB

The first LGBTQ+ film since the legalisation of gay marriage in Taiwan, Your Name Engraved Herein makes itself emblematic of the gay experience by tacking its story of characters accepting their homosexuality and coming out to the easing of cultural conservatism in the 1980s and the embrace of a new openness in Taiwanese society experienced now.

Heavy Craving 大餓 Dir: Hsieh Pei-ju (2019, Taiwan) [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2020]

Heavy Craving   

大餓　 「Daikatsue」

Release Date: June 30th, 2019

Duration: 90 mins.

Director: Hsieh Pei-ju

Writer: Hsieh Pei-ju (Script), 

Starring: Tsai Jia-Yin, Samantha Ko, Yao Chang, Chang En-Wei, Lai Lene, Hsieh Tsu-wu,

OAFF IMDB

One woman’s battle to lose fat forms the basis of this heavy drama that comes wrapped with some light comedy as the weight of societal expectations on the physical appearance of people is skewered.

My Prince Edward Dir: Norris Wong (Hong Kong, 2019) Osaka Asian Film Festival 2020

My Prince Edward   

Release Date: November 17th, 2019

Duration: 92 mins.

Director: Norris Wong

Writer: Norris Wong (Script),

Starring: Stephy Tang, Chu Pak-hon, Jin Kaijie, Paw Hee-ching , Hailey Chan, Eman Lam, Hui So-Ying, Creamy Yick,

OAFF IMDB

Lucky Chan-sil 찬실이는 복도 많지 Director: Kim Cho-hee (South Korea, 2019) [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2020]

Lucky Chan-sil   

찬실이는 복도 많지 「Chan-sil-i-neun Bok-do-man-ji」

Release Date: October 04th, 2019

Duration: 96 mins.

Director: Kim Cho-hee

Writer: Kim Cho-hee (Script), 

Starring: Kang Mal-geum, Youn Yuh-jung, Kim Young-min, Yoon Seung-ah, Bae Yu-ram,

OAFF IMDB Korean Film

The old writer’s adage that it is better to write what you know is put into perfect effect by director Kim Cho-hee in her sprightly and amusing debut feature film, a somewhat autobiographical movie full of wry comedy and existential angst which won both the KBS Independent Film and CGV Arthouse awards at the 2019 Busan International Film Festival. 

Happy Old Year, Dir: Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit, Thailand (2019) [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2020]

Happy Old Year   

Release Date: December 24th, 2019

Duration: 105 mins.

Director: Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit

Writer: Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit (Script),

Starring: Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying, Sunny Suwanmethanont, Sarika Sartsilpsupa, Thirawat Ngosawang, Apasiri Chantrasmi,

OAFF IMDB

Perched perfectly between satire and drama, Happy Old Year sees writer/director Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit test the limits of ruthlessness needed to conduct the Marie Kondo minimalist lifestyle with a main character who is wholly unlikeable and yet, by the end, quite sympathetic.

The Garden of Evening Mists 夕霧花園 Dir: Tom Lin (2019, Malaysia) [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2020]

The Garden of Evening Mists   

夕霧花園　 「Yugiri Hanazono」

Release Date: January 16th, 2020 (Malaysia)

Duration: 120 mins.

Director: Tom Lin

Writer: Richard Smith (Script) Twan Eng Tan (Novel)

Starring: Lee Sinje, Hiroshi Abe, Sylvia Chang, Julian Sands, John Hannah, Serene Lim, David Oakes,

OAFF IMDB

The opening film of the 2020 Osaka Asian Film Festival is a handsomely shot historical drama featuring an international array of talent as they bring to life the same-named novel by Malaysian writer Tan Twan Eng. The Booker Prize shortlisted story takes place during decades of conflict in Malaysia and is seen from the perspective of one character caught in the grasp of its history and a risky romance. It is a hefty work so Taiwanese director Tom Lin and British writer Richard Smith adapt the material with a schematic approach that uses flashbacks to gradually reveal wartime secrets, traumas and the redemptive effect of love in a slow-burn story that ends on a satisfying note.