Twelve films will compete at next month’s Osaka Asian Film Festival (9-18 Mar 2012) in Japan. This year’s lineup consists of 36 feature films and 10 shorts.
Highlights among the competition titles are Johnnie TO’s “Romancing in Thin Air“, Dayyan ENG’s “Inseparable“, Songyos SUGMAKANAN’s “The Billionaire” and CHENG Fen-fen’s “Bear It“. To and Cheng have previously attended the festival.
As in previous years, the event has a strong lineup of films from Southeast Asia. Two Indonesian films screen in the competition section, Lasja Fauzia SUSATYO’s “Biru’s Sky Langit Biru” and Teddy SOERIAATMADJA’s “Lovely Man”. Also competing are “Nasi Lemak 2.0” from Malaysia and “P-047” from Thailand.
Among 16 features receiving special screenings are Japan’s “About the Pink Sky”, South Korea’s “Sunny” and Mainland China-Taiwan co-production “Love”. The festival is also showing a new version of “Red Vacance Black Wedding” with a third section directed by KANCHIKU Yuri.
Several of the films reflect on issues surrounding last year’s Tohoku earthquake: Simon CHANG’s “Father’s Lullaby”, KOBAYASHI Masahiro’s “Women on the Edge and Friends”, a four-minute short directed by Hong Kong’s Adam WONG and Saville CHAN.
“Friends” is part of a special focus on contemporary Hong Kong cinema that includes screenings of Carol LAI’s upcoming “The Second Woman”, Jessey TSANG’s “Big Blue Lake” and “Lover’s Discourse” (2010), directed by Derek TSANG and Jimmy WAN.
Rounding out the Hong Kong programme, the festival close with the local premiere of “Wu Xia” attended by director Peter CHAN. As previously announced, the festival will open with the world premiere of TAKAHASHI Banmei’s “Michi: Hakuji no hito”.
Additional guests and the festival jury will be announced later this month.
Source: Film Business Asia