August 2025
This issue of the Asian Cinema Digest brings a focus on Asian action flicks, from Japanese V-Cinema and samurai films to Sammo Hung’s martial-arts extravaganzas and Y2K low-budget movies from Hong Kong. Keep up with Southeast Asian films premiering at Toronto International Film Festival and upcoming festival calls for submissions.
TO SEE
Image still from Miss Wonton (2001, Meng Ong)Asian Film Archive: Off the Catalogue August 2025
As part of Off the Catalogue, the Asian Film Archive spotlights four Singaporean films from its collection which navigate cities, systems, and shifting identities. Through narratives of idealism, alienation, aspiration, and displacement, their depiction of everyday struggles and choices remain deeply resonant decades after. Don’t miss the double bill of Miss Wonton (2001) and Waves of a Distant Shore (1992) directed by Meng Ong, as well as e’Tzaintes (2003) and Faeryville (2015) by Tzang Merwyn Tong. Both sessions are accompanied by post-screening discussions with the filmmakers. Tickets and more information here.
Image still from Encounters of the Spooky Kind (1980, Sammo Hung)Criterion Channel: Sammo Hung Kicks Ass
Criterion Channel features 6 films by Hong Kong action superstar Sammo Hung spanning 40 years of his illustrious career as actor, choreographer, and director. Imbuing his films with an exuberant physicality and unexpected grace, Hung reaches heights of acrobatic transcendence while grounding the spectacle through his down-to-earth screen presence. Catch exuberant martial arts-extravaganzas including horror comedy Encounters of the Spooky Kind (1980), tonally audacious melodrama Pedicab Driver (1989), and gripping crime thriller The Bodyguard (2016). Now streaming on Criterion Channel.
Nowness Asia: Spirits of the Black Leaves (2023)
Nowness Asia presents Thaweechok Phasom’s 2023 short Spirits of the Black Leaves, an experimental university thesis film which probes the distance between truth and cinema. A young farm worker wakes up feeling like there is a hole in her chest. With no recollection of how this void came about or what it means, she goes about her daily routines. As reality and fiction blend through bizarre encounters and uncanny visions, she ventures on a transformative journey into the night.
The film explores themes of motherhood, grief, and powerlessness, set against the marginalisation of the nomadic Mlabri ethnic group of Thailand and Laos. Uncovering semblances of death, dispossession, and injustice between the lives of the Mlabri and the grieving protagonist, Phasom examines multiple marginalities amidst the state’s continual repression of violence and memory.
Image still from In Praise of Slowness (2023, Hicham Gardaf)E-flux: In Praise of Slowness
E-flux’s Staff Picks brings Hicham Gardaf’s In Praise of Slowness (2023) which confronts the global economic and technological forces reshaping cities. On the streets of Tangier, bleach vendors seem to be on the verge of disappearance, yet this filmic portrait of their supply chain—and notably their insistent chanting—conveys acoustic and visual images of endurance. Gardaf’s film attests to the accelerated urbanisation of Tangier, but also how locally situated choreographies of Slowness articulate modes of resistance to the speed of capitalism.
TO LISTEN
Heroic Purgatory Podcast: S5E6- The Sword of the Beast
John Atom and Jason Maher from the Heroic Purgatory Podcast chat with guest Jack Eason about Hideo Gosha’s The Sword of the Beast (1965). Set in 1857 at the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate, the story follows a fugitive samurai who gets involved in a scheme to poach gold from the shōgun’s mountain. Far from a simple minded samurai flick, The Sword of the Beast reflects the anxieties, tensions, and complex politics of Gosha’s time by deconstructing the faux nobility of a past era. The podcast hosts deep dive into the film, discussing the morality of its characters, and the context and reception behind Gosha’s sociopolitically rife period action flick.
TO READ
Image still from By the Stream (2024, Hong Sang-soo)Film Comment Magazine: Never the Same River Twice
Writing for Film Comment Magazine, Matías Piñeiro reviews South Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo’s latest film, By the Stream (2024). Taking place across five non-consecutive days, the film follows Jeonim (Kim Min-hee), an art teacher at a women’s university in Seoul who bears witness to the lives of multiple characters who swirl around her, sometimes stepping in to intervene.
Piñeiro likens Hong’s use of the baroque narrative and multiple storylines to a “river film” — a dynamic form created by intersecting, yet autonomous storylines which imbue the film with a sense of organic narrative drift. Accompanying his descriptions with watercolour paintings of his own, Piñeiro writes: “The river film is never a clear and crystalline surface, whether due to its muddiness or its blinding reflection. We can never grasp all aspects of the characters or the story […] Instead, portraits remain unfixed, as potentialities that are forever expanding.”
Image still from Amoeba (2025, Tan Siyou)Southeast Asian Cinema at TIFF
Explore fresh Southeast Asian finds at the 50th Toronto International Film Festival including Lav Diaz’s historical epic Magellan (2025), Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s fantastical black comedy A Useful Ghost (2025), and Leon Le’s subtle love story Ky Nam Inn (2025). Tan Siyou’s debut feature Amoeba (2025) and Woo Ming Jin’s The Fox King (2025) are also set to have their world premieres at the Canadian film festival.
Image still from Danger Point: The Road to Hell (1991, Yasuharu Hasebe)Asian Movie Pulse: V-Cinema Essentials
Panos Kotzathanasis spotlights 9 films from Arrow Video’s “V-Cinema Essentials: Bullets and Betrayals”, exploring the wave of Japanese direct-to-video productions which arose from the booming home rental market in the 1990s. In a stark contrast to the prestige dramas and television tie-ins of the time, gritty hardboiled action, noir fatalism, and pulpy violence were mainstays of the genre, which was unshackled by box office constraints.
Kotzathanasis’ selection includes Teruo Ishii’s pulpy and strangely poetic crime saga The Hitman: Blood Smells Like Roses (1991) and the noir-inspired Danger Point: The Road to Hell (1991) by Yasuharu Hasebe. Pointing out the common pinku film influences, Kotzathanasis also recommends Banmei Takahasi’s Neo Chinpira: Zoom Goes the Bullet (1990) starring Sho Aikawa and Masaru Konuma’s XX: Beautiful Hunter (1994).
Image still from Diamond Hill (2000, Soi Cheang)Subway Cinema: The Cheapies
Subway Cinema brings another throwback film list, this time honing in on Hong Kong’s low-budget Y2K flicks. Affectionately termed “bargain bin movies”, these films are chock full of ridiculous plot points, attention-grabbing action sequences, and spoofy attempts to remake more successful films of the time.
Notable picks include Tony Leung Siu-Hung’s Return to Dark (2000), a stylish noir thriller starring Anthony Wong, Joey Meng, Michael Tse, and Blackio Ko who play four strangers attempting to burgle triad headquarters, and Soi Cheang’s Diamond Hill (2000), an urban gothic featuring a stacked cast of Alfred Cheung, Carrie Ng, and Maggie Poon.
TO SUBMIT
Call for Submissions: 5th Red Sea International Film Festival
The Red Sea International Film Festival is an international Saudi platform that celebrates excellence in film, embracing the vibrant creative energy of the Arab region as a whole. Running alongside an international film market, filmmaking labs, and a film funding programme, the festival caters to local creatives, cinephiles, and international industry professionals. The festival accepts feature and short films.The application guidelines can be found here, and the deadline for submissions is 17 August, 2025.
Call for Submissions: 56th International Film Festival of India GOA
The International Film Festival of India GOA aims to provide a common platform for filmmakers of the world to project their excellence in film art, contributing to the understanding and appreciation of film cultures of different nations in the context of their social and cultural ethos. The festival accepts feature films including fiction and documentaries, and will privilege entries which are Asia premieres. The application guidelines can be found here, and the deadline for submissions is 31 August, 2025.
Call for Submissions: 11th Sokcho International Food Film Festival
Since its inception in 2015, the Sokcho International Food Film Festival has established itself as a representative multi-sensory film festival in Korea through various film programs and events. This includes screening short and feature films from around the world centered on food, a ‘Dining Cinema’ where audiences can enjoy films and food together, and forums where filmmakers, audiences, and film and food experts gather for discussions. The application guidelines can be found here, and the deadline for submissions is 31 August, 2025.
Call for Submissions: 11th Asian World Film Festival (USA)
The Asian World Film Festival (AWFF) Short Film Program is dedicated to supporting and promoting filmmaking in Asia and the work of Asian/Asian-American/Multiracial-Asian filmmakers globally. Their mission is to showcase the diverse and talented voices of Asian filmmakers and provide a platform for their creative expression through its narrative shorts selection. The application guidelines can be found here, and the deadline for submissions is 31 August, 2025.
This edition of the Asian Cinema Digest was compiled by Kuo Yi Quan. The Asian Cinema Digest is a monthly compilation of content taking place internationally involving Asian cinema and the moving image. Featured programmes are not representative of AFA’s views and are unaffiliated to the AFA unless otherwise stated.
