Asian Studies

Winner of the Grand Prix at the first Tokyo International Film Festival in 1985, Typhoon Club is widely regarded as the seminal film of director Shinji Somai’s career. A work of raw, elemental power, it follows an ensemble of junior high students in a provincial town, beset by a summer-y malaise as a typhoon looms. The 10th best Japanese film of all time, according to Japan’s Kinema Junpo poll.

From acclaimed Japanese filmmaker Shinji Sômai comes an exuberant farce tinted with deep shades of melancholy and real violence, P.P. Rider is an ode to the dreams of youth against authority. Adapted from a comic strip-like scenario by Leonard and Chieko Schrader, it’s a film of unparalleled freedom, and a testament to Somai’s ability to inject his work with the potent marrow of life.

A five-part docu series that chronicles the Chinese Canadian experience through the lens of small-town Asian food joints and the families that run them. Ride the rails with chef and author, Jackie Kai Ellis, as she explores Canadian Chop Suey cuisine.

In his ninth film for Hong Sangsoo, Kwon Haehyo plays Byungsoo, a film director who goes with his daughter  to a building owned by an old friend, Hong fills the building spaces with a profusion of everyday details spanning art, love, career, religion, dietary decisions and home renovations.

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival. For his 27th feature, Hong Sangsoo holds a mirror up to his own artistic process and asks what exactly it is we’re looking for from a work of art. 

In her first role for Hong, Lee Hyeyoung, a prominent theater and screen actress in South Korea, makes a captivating return to the big screen. With In Front of Your Face, Hong suggests that perhaps the most important things in this life are also the most immediate.

An official selection of the Cannes Film Festival, The Day After begins as a darkly hilarious story of a man embroiled in extramarital entanglements but soon shifts—in a way only Hong can manage—into a heartfelt portrayal of a young woman on a quest for spiritual fulfillment.

 A refreshingly sunny performance from Isabelle Huppert (The Piano Teacher, Elle) is at the center of this comic charmer from South Korean Master Hong Sangsoo. Intricately plotted with wit and charm to spare, CLAIRE'S CAMERA explores the power of images to transform us. 

THE WOMAN WHO RAN is a subtle, powerful look at dramas small and large faced by women everywhere. With characteristic humor and grace, Hong takes a simple premise and spins a web of interconnecting philosophies and coincidences. Winner of the  Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin Film Festival.

Winner for Best Screenplay at Berlin Film Festival.  For his twenty-fifth feature as director and his first as cinematographer, Hong Sangsoo offers a simple tale of young people on the edge of adulthood. Introduction cuts to the essence of who we are as people, like an unexpected hug on a winter's day.

When painter Youngsoo (Kim Joohyuk) learns that his girlfriend, Minjung (Lee Yooyoung), was recently seen having drinks with another man, he can’t help but question her about it. It doesn’t go well and they part on bad terms. The next day, Youngsoo tries to find her, but can’t. As he wanders and frets, Minjung has a series of encounters with other men. But to them it seems she’s not herself.

An aging poet, Younghwan, summons his two estranged sons to a solitary hotel beside the Han River because he feels his death is near. While waiting for them to arrive, he meets two women out walking in the new-fallen snow and is struck by their angelic beauty.

Hao (Mason Lee) is part of a team of young engineers called in to investigate a series of craters that have opened up on the edge of the city. As he and his team survey the subsiding area, another story is taking place in the same suburban landscape. A younger boy, also named Hao, spends long afternoons playing with friends and making mischief until one-by-one, his playmates start to disappear. As these parallel stories unfold, the connections between them proliferate and grow stranger. 

From acclaimed director Wang Xiaoshuai (Beijing Bicycle; So Long, My Son) comes a personal snapshot of contemporary China in all its diversity. Shot over the course of ten years on both film and video, the film consists of a series of carefully composed tableaus of people and environments, each one more extraordinary than the last. 

I’ve Got a Little Problem chronicles internationally renowned photographer and poet Ren Hang’s struggle with Chinese censorship, painful public scrutiny, and manic depression, that eventually sent his life spiraling out of control.

From master director Hong Sangsoo comes his most personal film to date, On The Beach at Night Alone.  Starring Kim Minhee (The Handmaiden, Claire's Camera)—in the role that won her the Silver Bear for best actress in Berlin.