Loved Parasite? That was just the beginning. Discover East Asia through the eyes of the greatest filmmakers of today and of the past.

Normal

What happens in a country holding elections for the first time in its history? Elderly llamas, gun-toting monks and Himalayan villages become entangled in unpredictable mischief during Bhutan's transition from monarchy to democracy in 2006, in this madcap political satire.

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An American travels into Bhutan in search of a valuable antique rifle and crosses paths with a young monk who wanders through the serene mountains, instructed by his teacher to make things right again.

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Official Selection | Telluride Film Festival | 2023
Official Selection | Toronto Film Festival | 2023

The Monk and the Gun

The ultimate key film of Hong Sang-soo's first period, it kicks off the director's obsession with interconnected stories in his cinema, exploring the human condition through compellingly simple circumstances and ordinary interactions.

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In a movie within a movie, a young man and his first girlfriend make a suicide pact. But after the screening, the scene changes. A director in search of success recognizes the film's leading lady. He follows her and develops an obsessive desire...

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Official Selection | Cannes Film Festival | 2005

Tale of Cinema

Shipei Wen mixes Yi'nan Diao’s neo noir aesthetic with Wong Kar Wai’s fatalistic romance and Kieslowski’s metaphysical aura, and delivers one of the most impressive directorial debuts of the past years.

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A driver is involved in a hit and run. Full of regrets, he approaches the victim’s wife, while a police officer is investigating the case. Years later, the past still haunts that unforeseen triangle and the truth remains to be revealed.

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Official Selection | Cannes Film Festival | 2021
Official Selection | San Sebastian Film Festival | 2021

Are You Lonesome Tonight?

The legendary horror film from South Korea that made every train journey feel different. A family in crisis and the outbreak of the Zombie Apocalypse, all while on the move. Terror, suspense, blood, emotion, and even a commentary on class, in one of the most famous horror movies of the past decade.

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An unidentified virus sweeps through South Korea, evolves into a pandemic and turns the country’s residents into the living dead. The Government is forced to put the country in a state of emergency but not even declaring martial law is enough. The only unaffected passengers of a bullet train to Busan (a city that has stopped the spread of the virus) have to fight to the death to survive. In the 453 kms of this bloody ride, they will do everything to stay alive.

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Official Selection | Melbourne International Film Festival | 2016
Official Selection | Macao International Film Festival | 2016

Train to Busan

The film that introduced Diao Yi'nan (Black Coal, Thin Ice) as one of the most compelling young Chinese directors, is an atmospheric and dark story of a doomed love in the faceless and chaotic modern-day China.

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In a prison for criminals condemned to death, a lonely and widowed correctional officer often travels with the night train to a neighboring town to meet men through a dating service. After many unsuccessful attempts, she will feel attracted to a mysterious man, without knowing that he is hiding a secret.

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Official Selection - Un Certain Regard | Cannes Film Festival | 2007

Night Train

The film that re-established Chan-wook Park's popularity on a scale similar to that of "Oldboy". An erotic thriller during the era of Japanese-occupied Korea that magnetizes the audience due to its amazing visual work that turns it into a true celebration of the senses.

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In 1930s Korea, during the Japanese occupation, a young girl (Sook-Hee) is hired as a maid to a Japanese heiress (Lady Hideko) who lives a lonely life on a large estate in the countryside, with her domineering uncle (Kouzuki). But the maid has a secret. She is a pickpocket who has been hired by a fraudster to seduce the heiress, steal her property and have her locked up in a madhouse. Things seem to go according to plan, until Sook-Hee and Hideko "discover" an unexpected connection between them.

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Vulcain Prize | Cannes Film Festival | 2016
Best Non-English Language Film | BAFTA Awards | 2018

The Handmaiden

Four independent stories about violence and how it spreads like a virus, depicting the cruel and inhumane face of the Chinese society. The great Jia Zhangke won the Best Screenplay Award at Cannes for a film consisting of four immersive episodes.

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An angry miner rebels against the corruption of his village leaders. A migrant worker who spends New Year's day at home, discovers the limitless possibilities that a gun can offer. A beautiful spa receptionist reaches her limits when a wealthy client attacks her. A young factory worker changes one job after another to make his life better. Four people, four provinces. A reflection on modern-day China: an economic giant eroding slowly by violence.

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Best Screenplay | Cannes Film Festival | 2013

A Touch of Sin

A rainy poem of martial arts and color shades in the hands of the unsurpassed Wong Kar-wai. Starring his regular partner, Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, in delightful kung fu battles with Zhang Ziyi.

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Ip Man, the great Kung Fu Master, was born in 1893 in Foshan, China. His early education began at age 7 and, while still young, he fought the best warriors, defeating them all. His life was tragically transformed when, during the Japanese invasion and subsequent civil war, he was forced to go to exile, leaving his beloved family behind. In Hong Kong, Ip Man began a successful career as a martial arts teacher, with Bruce Lee as his most famous student.

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Nominated for Best Achievement in Cinematography | Oscars | 2014
Nominated for Best Achievement in Costume Design | Oscars | 2014

The Grandmaster

A mobster on an agonizing escape-run leaves a trail of blood all over modern-day China. An impressive neon noir thriller from the award-winning director of “Black Coal, Thin Ice”, that immerses us in a colorful darkness full of twists and riveting action scenes shot with intense precision.

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When Zhou Zenong, the leader of a small local mafia, accidentally kills a police officer, he becomes an outlaw overnight. He is thus forced to escape from both the police and the dangerous gangsters who hunt him for the reward. He hides in China's densely populated (and deeply divided) province of Wuhan, where he becomes entangled with a beautiful, enigmatic woman, who has mysterious intentions.

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Official Selection | Cannes Film Festival | 2019
Official Selection | San Sebastian International Film Festival | 2019

The Wild Goose Lake

Award-winning (including a Palme d'Or) Chinese filmmaker Qiu Yang makes his feature debut with a revealing and ambitious psychological drama that incorporates elements of film noir and thriller in its exploration of female identity.

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A 45-year-old housewife in an existential crisis unintentionally injures an elderly woman. This seemingly insignificant event will become the catalyst that will cause her life to spiral out of control and lead to her collapse.

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Special Jury Award - Encounters | Berlin Film Festival | 2024
Best Cinematography | Tribeca Film Festival | 2024
Best Actress (Yu Aier) | Tribeca Film Festival | 2024

Some Rain Must Fall

Inspired by Shakespeare's King Lear and a 16th-century Japanese myth, Ran is Kurosawa's last major cinematic epic, for which he received his only nomination for the Best Director Oscar. It is considered one of the greatest films of all time.

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At the age of seventy, after years of consolidating his empire, the Grand Lord decides to abdicate and divide his realm among his three sons. Taro, the eldest, will rule. Jiro, his second son, and Saburo will take over the command of the Second and Third Castles, but given their obedience and support to their older brother. Saburo breaks his promise of obedience and is exiled.

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Best Costume Design | Oscars | 1986
Nomination for Best Director | Oscars | 1986
Best Foreign Language Film | BAFTA | 1987
OCIC Award for Best Director | San Sebastian Film Festival | 1985

Inspired by Tarkovsky, up-and-comer Bi Gan dives into the world of the subconscious with an astounding dream-quest, through a 50-minute single shot that took the Cannes Film Festival by storm. With the star of “Lust, Caution”, Tang Wei.

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Luo Hongwu returns to Kaili, his hometown, after having been away for a long time. Almost immediately after he returns, he starts looking for the woman he loved and hasn’t managed to forget through all this time.

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Official Selection - Un Certain Regard | Cannes Film Festival | 2018
Official Selection | San Sebastián International Film Festival | 2018

Long Day's Journey into Night

The South Korean film that inspired Yorgos Lanthimos to make Bugonia is a paranoid black comedy that masterfully blends different cinematic genres, centers on conspiracy theories and class struggle, and culminates in a modern tragedy driven by a sense of justice and the instinct for revenge.

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Byung-Gu is convinced that all of Earth’s misfortunes are the work of aliens. He believes that unless he can find the prince from Andromeda before the total lunar eclipse, the planet will face total destruction. So he kidnaps the most likely suspect: the president and CEO of Yoojae Chemical Company. Can one man save the Earth before it’s too late?

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Best Director | Moscow International Film Festival | 2003

Save the Green Planet!

Liu Jian, a painter who took his art a little further, now introduces himself as a pioneer of independent Chinese animation and delivers an extraordinary postmodern noir that, behind its basic plot, reveals a set of inventive symbolisms about his country’s image.

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A suitcase full of money in a southern Chinese city will complicate the lives of strangers with different goals and motives and start a merry-go-round of unexpected events, drawing them into a bloody conflict.

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Official Selection | Berlin International Film Festival | 2017

Have a Nice Day

Through a dreamlike neo-noir narrative, Lou Ye expands the boundaries between realism and poetry, crafting one of the most important films of the so-called “Sixth Generation” of Chinese cinema. A work about the fluidity of identity and the persistent, transformative power of love.

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An anonymous cameraman narrates a story of love and betrayal between a courier and an enigmatic woman who vanishes into the river's waters when she learns that he has betrayed her. Years later she reappears. Is she a ghost? A memory? Or the same woman, who came back from the depths?

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Tiger Award | Rotterdam International Film Festival | 2000

Suzhou River

Lights, camera, zombies! The no-budget horror comedy that has already become a classic and even inspired a French remake, constantly subverts the expectations of the genre and stuns us with its endless inventiveness. You may think you know what you're going to see, but nothing is as you expect.

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An independent film crew making a low-budget zombie film encounters real-life zombies on the set. Rather than running for their lives, our fearless director Higurashi (Hamatsu) demands the cast and crew fight off the corps of corpses while capturing it all for their film.

One Cut of the Dead

With clear influences from Bresson that are not limited to the title, Zia Zhang-ke's impressive debut offers the first examples of the unique directorial vision that has made him the most important chronicler of his country's sweeping changes.

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A pickpocket in the Chinese city of Fenyang is wandering alone, aimlessly and without direction, having never managed to escape the streets like his friends. His affair with a local hostess at a karaoke bar leads nowhere and a policeman is on his trail. It's time to think about his future.

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Wolfgang Staudte Award | Berlin Film Festival | 1998
Netpac Award | Berlin Film Festival | 1998

Pickpocket

What if one day your PC monitor went ahead two minutes? In a delightful one-shot, all filmed inside a real Tokyo cafe with zero budget, five friends discover the art of time travel. Could this be the most inventive sci-fi comedy of recent years?

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Café owner Kato discovers that his PC monitor shows what will happen two minutes in the future. Another screen downstairs in his café shows the past of two minutes ago. His friends decide to place the two mysterious devices opposite each other, which creates a loop to see into the future. Naturally, chaos ensues.

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Official Selection | Sitges Catalonian Film Festival | 2021

Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes

Bong Joon-ho's impressively contrived debut reveals how the road to "Parasites" was by no means coincidental. A delightful black comedy that turns an ordinary nuisance (the barking of a dog) into a masterfully agonizing urban nightmare.

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The film spans seven adventurous days in an apartment building. A college lecturer with plenty of time on his hands gets annoyed at the sound of a dog barking and tries to find out where it’s coming from. Coincidentally, he discovers a dog in front of his neighbor’s door. He instinctively thinks that it was the culprit, kidnaps the dog and locks it in the basement.

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FIPRESCI Prize | Hong Kong International Film Festival | 2001

Barking Dogs Never Bite

The cinematic triumph of Cinobo-favourite Bong Joon-ho. A stylistic apotheosis filled with suspense and a piercing social commentary that defies genre. Rightful winner of the Palm d’ Or and the Best Picture Oscar that made Academy history.

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The Kims are a loving family, but they are all unemployed and their future seems gloom. The son of the family finds a job as a private tutor and can finally hope for a steady income. Carrying the whole family’s expectations, he goes to interview at the Park household – owners of an international tech company – where he will meet the lady of the house. After that first meeting, a cascade of unfortunate events begins.

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Best Film | Oscars | 2020
Best Director | Oscars | 2020
Best Original Screenplay | Oscars | 2020
Best International Feature Film | Oscars | 2020
Palme d'Or | Cannes Film Festival | 2019

Parasite

Palme d’Or at Cannes was the symbolic and well-deserved reward for Hirokazu Koreeda's deeply human-centered cinema, which in this movie is portrayed in its most lucid and subtly shocking moment.

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Following another petty theft, a man and his son come across a young girl in the cold. His wife, who was initially reluctant to letting the girl stay with them, finally agrees to take care of her as she understands that she has been through great difficulties. Although the family is poor, barely surviving with the couple's jobs and petty thefts, they seem to live happily together. However, an unexpected event will reveal hidden secrets and put the family's bonds in danger.

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Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film | Oscars | 2019
Palme d'Or | Cannes Film Festival | 2018

Shoplifters

Anton Chekhov would have been truly proud of this masterful homage to the subject matter of his works by Ryusuke Hamaguchi. A Cannes Screenplay Award and a well-deserved Oscar for Best International Film for a creation that is one of the greats of this century.

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A theatre actor and director tries to overcome the sudden death of his wife and undertakes to stage "Uncle Vanya", a choice that will bring him face to face with all his artistic, existential and personal dead ends.

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Best International Film | Oscars | 2022
Nomination for Best Film | Oscars | 2022
Best Foreign Language Film | BAFTA | 2022
Best Foreign Language Film | Golden Globes | 2022
Best Screenplay | Cannes Film Festival | 2021
FIPRESCI Prize | San Sebastian Film Festival | 2021

Drive My Car

Palme d'Or winner Hirokazu Koreeda (Shoplifters) in a tender tale of petty crooks, a road movie about love and family that our lucky star chooses for us. Starring Song Kang-Ho (Parasite, Memories of Murder) whose performance got awarded in Cannes.

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One rainy night, a baby is left alone in a box and two men secretly take it home. But the next day, a woman unexpectedly returns to the same spot looking for the baby, and decides to call the police when she discovers that the boy is missing. The men argue that they just wanted to find suitable parents for the child, and the woman, having no choice, decides to help them. But a police officer who has been investigating the case for months is lurking.

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Best Actor Award (Song Kang-Ho) | Cannes Film Festival | 2022
Prize of the Ecumenical Jury | Cannes Film Festival | 2022

Broker

On the backdrop of Tokyo's 2011 earthquake, this hallucinatory animated film, based on short stories by Haruki Murakami, features talking frogs and vanished cats, unfolding as an audiovisual tsunami that mirrors the efforts of a handful of lost souls trying to reinvent themselves.

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Tokyo, just days after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Kyoko suddenly leaves her husband after he spends five straight days glued to the television, watching footage from the disaster. Helpless, he takes a week off work and heads north to deliver a box to two young women. Meanwhile, his colleague Katagiri returns home one night to find a two-meter-tall frog asking for his help to save Tokyo.

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Jury Distinction | Annecy Film Festival | 2022

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman

With a Golden Lion nomination at the Venice Film Festival and with the dazzling Gong Li in the lead role, Ye Lou's Saturday Fiction ends up being a powerful spying thriller, reminiscent of those of the good old days.

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In 1941, the Allied forces hire a Chinese actress to work as a secret agent in Shanghai. She collects information successfully, until she discovers that a group of Japanese people are planning a secret attack upon Pearl Harbor.

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Official Selection | Venice Film Festival | 2019