October 2025
This issue of the Asian Cinema Digest brings a fun selection of viewings from classic P. Ramlee films to raunchy Taiwanese films from the 70s, and a spotlight on Showa-era Godzilla flicks. Catch up with regional festival happenings and interviews featuring auteurs Jafar Panahi and Bi Gan.
TO SEE
Asian Film Archive: Matter Matters Exhibition
Asian Film Archive invites you to attend Matter Matters, a visual arts exhibition. As part of Singapore Biennale 2025, Matter Matters approaches the archive through an archaeological lens where material remnants are gathered and cared for, offering varied interpretations of what could have been, while reflecting on the Asian Film Archive’s role in the collection, preservation, and exhibition of the moving image over the past 20 years.
Through three artworks and one film programme that speculate on lost cinemas, Matter Matters uncovers fragmented memories and repressed histories, in turn reviving multi-layered sites of material culture through the third space of memory. Much as an archaeologist gathers the missing pieces, seeking to reconstitute bygone ways of life, so too do the exhibiting artists, who reconstruct lost film cultures via the archive.
Matter Matters runs at Oldham Theatre from 31 October 2025 through 31 January 2026, entry is free.
Image still from Anak Bapak (1968, P. Ramlee)KinoLounge: P Ramlee Classic Films
KinoLounge, a virtual cinema platform by Shaw Theatres Singapore, presents a series of classic films by Malaysian cinema icon P. Ramlee, including titles such as tragic melodrama Ibu Mertua Ku (1962), romance flick Masam Masam Manis (1965), and family comedy Anak Bapak (1968). Take a trip down memory lane with the black & white remastered digitized classic titles, available for rent here.
Image still from Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975, Ishiro Honda)MINT Lumens: Kaiju Fest
MINT Museum of Toys stomps in with a curation of Godzilla films from Japan’s Showa era (1954–1975), spanning the first Godzilla to Terror of Mechagodzilla. This era, produced during Emperor Showa’s reign, marked the birth of kaiju cinema, evolving Godzilla from a terrifying metaphor for nuclear destruction into a beloved cultural icon. Experience epic battles, iconic rivals, and the legacy that made Godzilla the King of the Monsters.
Catch a selection of Kaiju blockbusters including Son of Godzilla (1967), Destroy All Monsters (1968), and Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975). Look out for other Showa-era creature features including Mothra, King Ghidorah, and Rodan as they battle it out against Godzilla.
Image still from First Summer (2025, Heo Gayoung)Singapore Korean Film Festival 2025
The Korean Film Festival (KFF) is back for its 2025 edition, bringing a slew of exciting releases and arthouse deep-cuts. Catch Park Chan-wook’s critically acclaimed dark comedy No Other Choice (2025), Hong Sang-soo’s autumnal ode By the Stream (2024), and Hwang Byeong-gug’s crime-drama blockbuster Yadang (2025).
Look out for KFF’s spotlight on a selection of shorts from the Korean Academy of Film Arts, which screens on 25 October. These include Heo Gayoung’s Cannes-selected short First Summer (2025), a contemplative drama about an elderly woman who grapples with the passing of her lover and longtime dance partner.
Image still from Tomorrow is Spring (2024, Krityishaa A/P Karunagaran)SeaShorts Film Festival 2025
SeaShorts Film Festival takes place from 16 – 19 October 2025, bringing a selection of over 70 Southeast Asian shorts, along with workshops and sharing sessions by industry professionals. Highlights from this year’s programme include Heatseeker which focuses on Malaysian student films, as well as Nusantara Focus and Beyond Indian Shores which spotlight Indonesian and Tamil cinema respectively.
Image still from Banana Girl: The Spliced Edition (1972, Zheng Ching-chuan)TFAI: Taiyupian Exploitation from the TFAI Archive
During the final phase of the Taiyupian (台語片) era, a new subgenre of films emerged, pushing moral and censorship boundaries. Often released under different titles or with performers’ names hidden, they aimed to attract audiences through sensationalised titles and subject matter, and these “unconventional” films have only been recently rediscovered and brought into the public eye.
TFAI presents four unique exploitation films from their archives which confront issues including sexual violence, voyeurism, and sexual health through no shortage of scandalous affairs, salacious set-ups, and bawdy humour. These films shine a light on the turbulent transition between Taiwanese and Mandarin-language, black-and-white and color, and cinema and television.
TO LISTEN
Image still from The Arch (1979, T’ang Shushuen)Deep Cut Pod: T’ang Shushuen: The Arch (featuring Lisa Dombrowski)
In this episode of the Deep Cut Pod, hosts Wilson, Ben, and Eli are joined by Prof. Lisa Dombrowski, Professor of Film Studies and East Asian Studies at Wesleyan University. In light of its recent and upcoming screenings at the New York Film Festival and M+ Restored programmes, they do a deep dive into T’ang Shushuen’s The Arch (1979). Considered one of Hong Kong’s first arthouse films, T’ang’s adaptation of a popular Chinese folktale draws the portrait of a 17th century Chinese woman, torn between passion and virtue.
Lisa shares about the film’s unconventional transnational production context, and they examine various elements of its groundbreaking use of film form to portray the female subjectivity— from its use of deep staging and fractured images, to its fraught engagement with cultural context and societal norms.
TO READ
Image still from It Was Just An Accident (2025, Jafar Panahi)Interview Magazine: Director Jafar Panahi on Making Movies in the Age of Authoritarianism
Jeremy O. Harris interviews Director Jafar Panahi while he’s in town for the New York Film Festival, speaking about It Was Just an Accident (2025), winner of the Palme d’Or award at the Cannes Film Festival this year. Set in Iran, the film follows Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri), an auto mechanic who bumps into Eghbal (Ebrahim Azizi), the man he believes to be his former torturer. Vahid begins plotting his revenge, but doubt sets in as Eghbal fiercely denies his hand in it.
Panahi shares about the spirit of resistance and the certain levity which he observes within his culture, and the way he incorporates these elements into his filmmaking. He also addresses the continued push against the authoritative regime through his practice and expresses hopes for his film’s message to reach a global audience.
Image still from Resurrection (2025, Bi Gan)Film Comment: Interview: Bi Gan on Resurrection
Writing for Film Comment, Dennis Lim interviews Bi Gan about Resurrection (2025), his long-awaited third feature and winner of the Special Jury Prize at Cannes this year.
The film follows Miss Shu (Shu Qi) in a world where dreaming no longer exists, except among a cohort of rebel illusionists known as the Fantasmers. One of the Fantasmers (played by Jackson Yee), is mutated into a Frankenstein’s monster of cinema after a whirring projector is installed in his torso, and serves as a shape-shifting guide through an epic, drifting odyssey that alights on various eras and cinematic modes.
Bi Gan speaks to Lim about the film’s impulse to engage self-reflexively with the daunting question of humanity and the figure of the ‘cinema monster’. They touch on various key moments of the film, including its opening silent-film chapter and the elaborately choreographed extended take which unfolds on the brink of doomsday. In his most extravagant film to-date, Bi encompasses the 20th century and the many lives of cinema contained within.
TO SUBMIT
Call for Submissions: 22nd Glasgow Film Festival
Back for its 22nd edition, Glasgow Film Festival (UK) has a diverse programme which celebrates every corner of world cinema and provides a fantastic showcase for the best of Scottish film. The festival is accepting feature films over 60 minutes, including both fiction and documentaries. The application guidelines can be found here, and the deadline for submissions is 24 October, 2025.
Call for Submissions: Tokyo Anime Award Festival
Tokyo Anime Award Festival 2026 calls for feature and short animated films with high potential and strong messages from all over the world. It aims to screen high-quality animated films, provide opportunities to inspire audiences as well as creators, and contribute in the development and promotion of animation cultures and industry. The festival is accepting feature animation (over 60 minutes) and short animation (under 30 minutes). The application guidelines can be found here, and the deadline for submissions of animation shorts is 31 October, 2025.
Call for Submissions: 24th Pune International Film Festival
Pune International Film Festival (India) was started in 2002 with the idea of building and promoting a healthy film culture in Pune. The festival comprises competition categories including World Competition, Marathi Competition, Global Cinema, Country Focus and Retrospective. PIFF is accepting feature films that are of minimum 70 minutes in length. The application guidelines can be found here, and the deadline for submissions of animation shorts is 31 October, 2025.
Call for Submissions: CPH: DOX- Copenhagen International Documentary Festival
The CPH:DOX– Copenhagen International Documentary Festival (Denmark) features a festival programme which ranges from spectacular premieres to experimental film/video works in the field between cinema and visual art, going beyond the traditional boundaries of documentary to offer new perspectives on the intersection between cinema and media art. The festival is accepting documentaries of any duration, as well as VR and AR experiences. The application guidelines can be found here, and the deadline for submissions of animation shorts is 1 November, 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.
