The 54th Sitges Film Festival will take place from the 8th to the 17th of October. It is an event that has been taking place since 1964 and it is one of the most important film festivals in Spain.
The asian short film festival is a film festival that takes place in Sitges, Spain. It has been running since 1984 and it is the largest film festival in Catalonia.
We look at the Asian films that will be shown at the Sitges Film Festival (Festival Internacional de Cinema Fantàstic de Catalunya) from October 7th to 17th, 2023.
The Sitges Film Festival will feature a hybrid edition this year, including online and in-theater screenings. During the festival, fifteen Asian films will be shown. Cliff Walkers (Impasse) by Zhang Yimou, Belle by Mamoru Hosoda, Limbo by Soi Cheang, and The Medium by Banjong Pisanthanakun will participate in the official competition division.
Mamoru Hosoda’s Belle – Japan | 2023 – 121 minutes Official Competition Section
Suzu is a timid girl in the tiny mountain town where she lives with her father, but she is Belle, a music superstar with millions of fans in the virtual world of U. When Belle encounters the Beast, a fascinating but frightening monster, the barrier between these two worlds will be shattered. In a new animated treasure shown at the recent Cannes Film Festival, Mamoru Hosoda dives into the interstice between fantastic and virtual once again (SITGES 2023).
Junta Yamaguchi’s Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes – Japan | 2023 – 70 minutes Noves Visions is a section of Noves Visions.
When Kato, the proprietor of the Phalam Café, returns home at the end of the day, he sees himself on his computer screen, chatting to himself: “I’m the future myself.” “Two minutes from now.” His computer screen at home and the café’s computer screen are linked in some way. Kato returns to his business and, with the help of his usual clients, starts to investigate the phenomena (SITGES 2023).
Section: Official Competition Cliff Walkers (Impasse) by Zhang Yimou – China | 2023 – 120 minutes
In the early 1930s, four Chinese Communist Party operatives trained by the Soviets must carry out a mission in Harbin. Zhang Yimou puts his penchant for the most plastic action at the service of an espionage thriller set in Japanese-controlled Manchuria with the Qing dynasty’s complicity and beneath a cover of snow that blankets the screen in whiteness (SITGES 2023).
Chan Kin-Hand long’s Rolled Cigarette – Hong Kong | 2023 – 100 minutes Fantastic Panorama Section
When they encounter a dispute with the same Mafia organization leader, two guys from extremely different ethnic backgrounds, an ex-military man from Hong Kong of British ancestry and a young South Asian, unexpectedly meet paths. Forced to live together to address their issues, they develop a mutual understanding and a loyalty connection that will dissolve all ethnic and socioeconomic boundaries that divide them (SITGES 2023).
Takahide Hori’s Junk Head – Japan | 2023 – 101 minutes Section of Animation: Special Section
Humanity has extended its life span via genetic modification, but it is on the brink of extinction due to its inability to reproduce. Their clones, the Marigans, who revolted 1,600 years ago, now dominate the underworld. The government sends a team to examine since some of them seem to have grown pregnant. Takahide Hori created this stop motion animation picture on his own and it is a genre apex (SITGES 2023).
Shiraishi Kazuya’s Last of the Wolves – Japan | 2023 – 149 minutes Section: Fantastic Panorama
Hiroshima, Hiroshima, Hiroshima, Hiroshima, Hi Hioka Shuichi is a Yakuza leader who seeks to reconcile two warring clans. His plan works at first, but Hioka’s approach is jeopardized when a vicious mobster seeking to revenge an old death is released from jail. The sequel of Sitges 2018’s The Blood of Wolves, which revisits the best vintage Yakuza film (SITGES 2023).
Soi Cheang’s Limbo – Hong Kong | 2023 – 118 minutes Official Competition Section
There is a serial murderer on the loose. The police are forced to resort to experienced detective Cham, who will work with novice Will, due to public pressure to solve the case. The ghosts of Cham’s past, on the other hand, come back to haunt him, and the reality begins to distort. Soi Cheang, a master of thrillers, comes to Sitges with a picture brimming with fast-paced editing and existential undertones (STIGES 2023).
Takayuki Hirao’s Pompo: The Cinéphile – Japan | 2023 – 94 minutes Animation is a section.
Pompo is a B-movie magnate, the energetic and exuberant granddaughter of retired producer J.D. Peterzen. Gene is a production assistant who is terrified by the prospect of becoming a director. Pompo, on the other hand, has plans for him that will alter his life and bring him closer to the secret of filmmaking success. Adapted from Shogo Sugitani’s manga of the same name (SITGES 2023).
Yusuke Hirota’s Poupelle of Chimney Town – Japan | 2023 – 100 minutes Animation is a section.
Chimney Town, which is teeming with chimneys and smoke, is the home of teenage chimney sweep Lubicchi, whose father Bruno has vanished. Bruno was a Kamishibai storyteller (paper street theater) who would tell stories about the marvels of the world outside of the city. Something brilliant falls from the sky one day, and a weird creature emerges. The garbage guy, who is shunned by everyone, meets Lubicchi, and the two go on an amazing journey together (SITGES 2023).
Masayuki Miyaji’s The Deer King – Japan | 2023 – 113 minutes Section: Special Sessions
Soldier Van is forced into slavery and transported to the salt mines after defending his homeland against a great empire. A group of weird canines assaults the mine one night, and a terrible illness spreads. Van meets Yuna, and being the sole survivors of the disease, they go on a trip together as father and daughter, despite the fact that they are not related by blood (SITGES 2023).
Takashi Miike’s The Great Yokai War: Guardians – Japan | 2023 – 117 minutes Section: X-Treme at Midnight
Kei Watanabe, a fifth-grader who watches for his younger brother, is a Yokai monster hunter from a long pedigree. When the monsters decide to resurrect, Kei will face them with the assistance of different friends. Takashi Miike returns to the Yokai universe with a children’s film brimming with his usual grandeur (SITGES 2023).
Official Competition: The Medium by Banjong Pisanthanakun – Korea, Thailand | 2023 – 131 minutes
It’s never a good idea to go too deeply into the shamanic realm. And that’s precisely what a documentary team in Northern Thailand does when they come across a girl with odd habits that seem to originate from her shaman ancestors. In an exercise that combines horror and legend, The Medium looks into the history of a shaman from the Isan area, and is produced by Korean thriller master Na Hong-jin (SITGES 2023)
Rob Jabbaz’s The Sadness – Taiwan | 2023 – 99 minutes Section: X-Treme at Midnight
In the middle of the turmoil caused by a pandemic outbreak, a young couple is driven to the brink of sanity as they attempt to get together. The illness transforms people who contract it into vicious and wicked monsters capable of murder, torture, and mutilation. Rob Jabbaz, the gore genre’s counterpart of The Raid, presents one of the most innovative films in the Festival’s history to Sitges (SITGES 2023).
Jiro Nagae’s The Samejima Incident – Japan | 2023 | 81 minutes Section: Fantastic Panorama
Nana Sasaki attends an online meeting with her old high school friends Yuki and Suzu, where they relive the horrific Samejima Incident, an urban legend that has been spreading through the Internet for two decades with the threat that anyone who uncover the truth would be cursed and die. Jirô Nagae’s ode to Japanese horror from the 1990s (SITGES 2023).
Japan | 1975 – 86 minutes | Wolf Guy by Kazuhiko Yamaguchi Seven Chances Section
Akira Inugami, the sole survivor of an ancient werewolf clan, employs his magical abilities as a detective. Inugami learns that the Japanese secret service wants to take his lycanthropic blood for research while investigating a fresh case involving a string of brutal murders perpetrated by an unknown power. One of Toei’s most outstanding and unclassifiable B movies starring Sonny Chiba (SITGES).
The san diego asian film festival 2023 is a film festival that promotes Asian cinema. It takes place every year in San Diego, California.
