Caught by the Tides

*Only presented with Japanese subtitles

China / 2024 / 111 min
Director：JIA Zhang-Ke

Starring Jia Zhang-Ke’s longtime muse Zhao Tao, the film depicts two decades of a woman’s life centered on her relationship with a man who left her. Beginning in 2001, the story captures the sentimental tribulations of the woman and her growing independence as time passes - shifting between periods from 5 years, then 16 years, until chapter 3 set in 2022. The opening scene was shot around 2001, and by the time the protagonists return to Datong city at the end of the film, this old mining town has become a completely different world, open to the possibilities of the future. The first two chapters of the film utilize unused footage shot in various formats from the past, partially referencing the sound-era silent film format, and the fluid editing style is supported by soundtracks of pop, disco, and traditional music. This unique hybrid moving image and sound astonishingly brings back collective memories from each era. The film world premiered in the Competition program at the Cannes Film Festival.

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Blue Sun Palace ★

USA / 2024 / 116 min
Director：Constance TSANG

Amy and Didi are live-in employees at a Chinese massage parlor in Queens, New York. The women form an impenetrable sisterhood, dreaming of opening a restaurant together in Baltimore, where Didi's young daughter lives with her aunt. Meanwhile, Didi starts dating Cheung, a middle-aged construction worker who sends money to his family in Taiwan, and hopes to live together. However, when an unexpected act of violence invades Amy and Didi’s life during Chinese New Year, their dreams are shattered, and a painful absence is left behind… Director Constance Tsang beautifully captures this lingering sadness with rough textures and brooding images in her debut feature with the support of cinematographer Norm Li. Silence tells the story more eloquently than anything else, quietly calling out the loneliness of being an immigrant and how much a presence like family and community can mean when you are far from the place you once called home. The film was screened at the Cannes Film Festival Critics’ Week and won the French Touch Prize.

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Mistress Dispeller

China, USA / 2024 / 94 min
CDirector：Elizabeth LO

This documentary is a close examination, from every angle, of a love triangle between a middle-aged couple and a young woman, through a professional “dispeller” of mistresses. This profession is a variation of marriage counseling in which a wife secretively hires a relationship specialist to intervene in situations of infidelity, pulling her husband away from his lover. The film’s stunning ability to explore all three angles of the love triangle is a tribute to the skillful technique of the dispeller, Wang Zhenxi, known as Teacher Wang. She is the only one in her profession who has succeeded in convincing her clients to be filmed. The production team initially approached the husband and his young mistress under the guise of creating a documentary about love in contemporary China, and all parties also approved post-filming. This is the second feature film by Hong Kong-American director Elizabeth Lo, who gained recognition for her first film, "Stray." “Mistress Dispeller” was screened in the Orizzonti section of the Venice Film Festival and received the NETPAC Award for Asian cinema.

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Meeting with Pol Pot(Rendez-vous avec Pol Pot)

France, Cambodia, Taiwan, Qatar, Turkey / 2024 / 112 min
Director：Rithy PANH

A feature film based loosely on the journalist Elizabeth Becker's account of her visit to Phnom Penh in 1978, alongside scholar Malcolm Caldwell and journalist Richard Dudman, titled "When the War Was Over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Revolution.” It follows the three journalists as they must navigate strict official control in order to observe how government policy is implemented, leading up to their exclusive interview with Pol Pot. The officials’ meticulously crafted facade occasionally crumbles, offering the journalists a fleeting view of the terrible deeds carried out in the name of the revolution. Still, their eagerly awaited meeting with Pol Pot continues to be postponed. Rithy Panh has created a poignant and memorable piece of fictional narrative rooted in fact by incorporating not only faded archival footage and photographs into the film, but also the use of clay figurines. Panh has devoted much of his career to examining the Khmer Rouge era in his native Cambodia, and this film surely provides significant new depth to this oeuvre. It premiered in the Cannes Première section of the Cannes Film Festival.

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Abiding Nowhere

Taiwan, USA / 2024 / 79 min
Director：TSAI Ming-Liang

The tenth title of the Walker series directed by the Malaysian-born, Taiwan-based maestro Tsai Ming-Liang, starring Lee Kang-shen. Anong Houngheangsy also appears in this film, following his performance in the ninth film “Where” (2022). Commissioned by the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Asian Art, the film captures the very slow steps of an ascetic monk in sceneries of Washington D.C. and Freer Gallery of Art, inspired by the 7th century Buddhist monk Xuanzang’s pilgrimage from China to India, which inspired the famous literary work “Journey to the West.” The film had its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival Berlinale Special Section.

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Where

Taiwan / 2022 / 91 min
Director：TSAI Ming-Liang

The 9th film in the Walker series, produced in conjunction with Tsai Ming-Liang’s extensive retrospective and exhibition “Une Quête” held at the Center Pompidou in Paris from November 2022 to January 2023. Following his performance in “Days” (2020), Anong Houngheuangsy plays himself in this film where he encounters a pilgrim played by Lee Kang-shen in the bustling streets of Paris. According to the producer of this film, Tsai considers this and the 10th film of the Walker series “Abiding Nowhere” (2024) as sister films, and this film is intended to position later in the sequence. Anong Houngheuangsy draws many lines with a charcoal on a very large white canvas-like cloth placed on the floor of the large space in Centre Pompidou, and the pilgrim walks very slowly beside him. Despite the extreme slowness of their movements, the encounter between the two is very thrilling.

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Audience Award

An Unfinished Film

Singapore, Germany / 2024 / 107 min
Director：LOU Ye

The film begins in 2019, when an inactive computer activates after 10 years. Inside, there is an unfinished film, and the director reaches out to the lead actor suggesting resuming the production. Although hesitant for a variety of reasons, the lead joins the crew as they prepare for the shoot before the Chinese New Year in January 2020. The news on COVID lockdown starts to spread shortly after production started, and a few cast members decide to leave. Soon the entire hotel is forced into lockdown, leaving the actor and crew trapped in their rooms… This docu-fiction illustrates a film crew that reunites to complete a queer film that remained unfinished. The process of making the film and surviving the pandemic intersects by a scene in which the production is interrupted by the spread of a virus, and everyone is quarantined in a hotel. From there, the boundary between fiction and reality blurs even more, yet the overflowing sincerity and truthfulness is the essence of this film. The film was shown as a special screening at the Cannes Film Festival.

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Sujo

Mexico, USA, France / 2024 / 125 min
Director：Astrid RONDERO / Fernanda VALADEZ

In rural Michoacán, a hotspot for drug trafficking, Sujo was born to a hitman father but then orphaned at age four. His aunt, Nemesia, who lives in a remote hilltop home, takes him in after the rules of the cartel make him a target. He grows up among danger, with　Rosalia who has a sisterly bond with Nemesia, and Rosalia’s two sons. As he matures, he begins to uncover the bloody legacy his father has bequeathed him. A coming-of-age story that portrays a boy's patient journey to find his own path amid cycles of violence. Although direct violence rarely appears on screen, the audience acutely senses its ever-present, looming threat. The film through its masterful script effectively blends realism and lyricism, depicting the violence and intergenerational trauma fueled by the cartel's activities. Like filmmaking duo Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez’s last feature "Identifying Features" (2020), this film was also screened at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Award.

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The Damned

Italy, Belgium, USA, Canada / 2024 / 89 min
Director：Roberto MINERVINI

In 1862, a volunteer regiment from the Union is tasked with a reconnaissance mission in the northwest frontier of the United States. The diverse group includes young and old, the devout and the unbelieving. Most lack experience with firearms, forget about having ever killed anyone. However, the real enemies they face are endless monotony and the persistently harsh climate of the northwest. They grapple with doubts about God's existence, debate about good and evil, and try to understand their growing sense of disillusionment, and it almost feels as if battle will never come. Italian director Roberto Minervini, who has spent over twenty years depicting overlooked peripheries of America, chooses to focus on the Civil War in this film. Minervini’s favorite themes of faith, dreams, hope, class, and community—elements that have shaped the identity of the United States—are explored in a slightly different manner in this period piece. The film premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Best Director award.

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The GESUIDOUZ

Japan / 2024 / 93 min
Director：UGANA Kenichi

Hanako, just turned twenty-six, is the singer in a struggling band called The Gesuidouz. Frustrated with their lack of success, their manager decides to take advantage of a relocation support program to send them to the countryside and be rid of them. Aspiring to either die at twenty-seven like her rock heroes or perform at the Glastonbury Festival, Hanako forges ahead writing new songs in the unfamiliar environment. A fantastical rock movie that pays homage to punk music and horror films, featuring a whimsical narrative reminiscent of Aki Kaurismäki's Leningrad Cowboys series. Ultimately however, what makes the film resonate with us is its ability to transcend boundaries of genre and still capture the essence of numerous popular culture phenomena. This film is meant for anyone who has felt their lives changed by "trivial" popular culture. It had its world premiere in the Midnight Madness section of the Toronto International Film Festival.

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