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

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Before "Zodiac", there was Bong Joon-ho's "Memories of Murder". The 4 Oscar winning director of "Parasites" captures the true story of Korea's first serial killer murders, as two detectives follow the murderer's trail. One of the top Korean movies of all time.

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In 1986, two unsuspecting detectives take on the case of a double murder in a South Korean province. But when the killer strikes several times again, detectives realize they're on the hunt for the country's first recorded serial killer. Based only on their instinct and skills, the two detectives attempt to solve the puzzle by combining the evidence at their disposal, in a thriller based on true events. Oscar winner Bong Joon-Ho's first collaboration with the star of "Parasites", Song Kang-ho.

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Best Director | San Sebastián International Film Festival | 2003
Best New Director | San Sebastián International Film Festival | 2003

Memories of Murder

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

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

In his memory-driven narrative, Hou Hsiao-Hsien transports us to the future, filming present-day images as though they belong to a bygone era. With echoes of Wong Kar-Wai’s world, it bittersweetly captures a world that appears still, yet moves uncontrollably.

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Taipei, the year is 2011. A female voice, off-camera, looks back to the start of the century, narrating a chapter of her life marked by drift and uncertainty. Her name is Vicky - young, lovely, and aimless. Caught in an on-again, off-again relationship and torn between two men, Hao-Hao and Jack, she floats through a series of emotional entanglements, revealing a hazy portrait of lost time and fleeting youth.

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Official Selection | Cannes Film Festival | 2001
Technical Grand Prize | Cannes Film Festival | 2001
Silver Hugo Best Film | Chicago International Film Festival | 2001
Best Director | Ghent Film Festival | 2001

Millennium Mambo

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

Before "In the Mood for Love" and "2046", Wong Kar-Wai’s second feature brings his signature themes of time, desire, and distance to the forefront in an intoxicating blend of noir and romance. It also marks the director’s first collaboration with the incomparable cinematographer Christopher Doyle.

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In 1960s Hong Kong, a group of unruly young adults come together and drift apart in a slow-burning dance of suppressed desire. A disillusioned playboy who seduces and abandons women without remorse is searching for his biological mother. One woman is desperately in love with him. A police officer finds himself caught in the middle of their troubled relationship. What follows is a chain of events driven by obsession, self-discovery, and shocking violence.

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Best Picture | Hong Kong Film Awards | 1991
Best Director | Hong Kong Film Awards | 1991
Best Actor (Leslie Cheung) | Hong Kong Film Awards | 1991

Days of Being Wild

Another brilliant example of Bong Joon Ho's fascinatingly unclassified cinema, which masterly combines the genres of crime thriller, film noir, family drama and social satire to compose one of the most unconventional stories of maternal love ever screened.

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One day a young girl is found dead in an abandoned building and a 27-year-old man is accused of her murder. An inefficient lawyer and an apathetic police force that closes his case too quickly inspire his mother to act on her own—to act as Mother in its purest form. Summoning all her maternal instincts and trusting no one, she sets out to find a killer and prove her son’s innocence.

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Official Selection - Un Certain Regard | Cannes Film Festival | 2009

Mother

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

Saturday Fiction

The closest thing to Rohmer that Korean cinema has ever produced, the prolific Hong Sang-soo helms one of his best works, a sweet and melancholy observation on the lives we have or have not lived. Silver Bear for Best Director at Berlin Film Festival.

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When her husband leaves on business, Gamhee meets three friends living in different parts of the Seoul metropolis during an exciting 24-hour period.

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Silver Bear for Best Director | Berlin Film Festival | 2020
Special Mention for Best FIlm | San Sebastian Film Festival | 2020

The Woman who Ran

Under the sounds of Go West by the Pet Shop Boys, the famous Chinese creator Zhangke Jia observes the enduring westernization of his country, in a story that takes place over 3 decades, and mourns how tradition and language have fallen victims to the altar of a globalized powerful economy.

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The life of Tao, and those close to her, is explored in three different time periods that symbolize three different faces of China: the years 1999, 2014 and 2025, in this romantic drama.

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Palme de Whiskers Award | Cannes Film Festival | 2015
Official Selection | Cannes Film Festival | 2015
Audience Award | San Sebastián International Film Festival | 2015

Mountains May Depart

With an elegance and humour previously seen in Woody Allen's films, South Korean Hong Sang-soo shows his unique ability to say everything about modern human relationships in 90 minutes, through a series of humorous indoor coincidences.

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A quartet of characters become embroiled in romantic adventures when the wife of a small publishing house owner discovers a letter addressed to another woman.

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Official Selection - International Competition | Cannes Film Festival | 2017
Official Selection - International Competition | San Sebastian Film Festival | 2017

The Day After

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

Touch of Sin

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

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

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

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

The (perhaps) most important and (certainly) most relevant living Chinese director enlists his sensational wife and muse, Zhao Tao in a journey through the vast landscape of an ever-changing country, combining a gangster saga, a grandiose love story and a political commentary.

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A small-time Chinese gangster's girlfriend saves her partner from the murderous attack of a rival gang and is sentenced to five years of imprisonment for illegal gun use. When she is released, she seeks her former partner in a country she no longer recognizes.

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Official Selection | Cannes Film Festival | 2018
Official Selection | San Sebastián International Film Festival | 2018

Ash Is Purest White

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

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

A trip to Tokyo unlike any other, a European who seems out of place in the Japanese landscape, yet stays to fill an important void in his life. A generous and deeply emotional film, built on quiet details and anchored by Romain Duris’ unique performance.

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Every day, Jay drives around Tokyo in his taxi, searching for his daughter, Lily. In the nine years since his divorce, he’s never been granted custody and has slowly lost hope of ever seeing her again. Just as he’s about to return to France, Lily steps into his taxi, but she doesn’t recognize him.

A Missing Part

The eclectic Korean director Chang-dong Lee takes an older short story by Haruki Murakami and creates a slow-moving masterpiece that almost magically drifts between drama and thriller, reaching an unforgettable climax. Awarded the FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes.

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Jong-su just lost his job. He will accidentally meet Hae-mi, a girl who once lived in his neighborhood. She will ask him to look after her cat while she’s away on a trip. On her return, she introduces Jong-su to a mysterious young man named Ben, whom she met while she was away.

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FIPRESCI Prize | Cannes Film Festival | 2018
Vulcain Prize for the Technical Artist | Cannes Film Festival | 2018

Burning

An impulsive, introspective journey into our roots and the need to explore them, one that leads to many different lives in search of a missing link. Golden Athena at Athens International Film Festival and a stunning performance by Park Ji-Min, despite her being a newcomer.

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A 25-year-old woman returns for the first time to South Korea where she was born before being given up for adoption and raised in France, having made it her goal to persistently search for her biological parents.

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Official Selection - Un Certain Regard | Cannes Film Festival | 2022
Golden Athena | Athens International Film Festival | 2022

Return to Seoul

Wim Wenders travels to Tokyo and, inspired by the city’s recently redesigned public toilets, crafts a subtle yet deeply human story about the life of a cleaner. Drawing heavily on the cinema of Ozu, he creates a tender ode to simplicity and the quiet poetry of everyday life.

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Hirayama works as a public toilet cleaner in Tokyo. Content with the simplicity of his routine, he leads a quiet, structured life. In his free time, he indulges his love for music and books, and finds joy in photographing trees. Yet, through a series of chance encounters, fragments of his past gradually resurface.

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Nominated for Best International Feature Film | Oscars | 2024
Best Actor (Kôji Yakusho) | Cannes Film Festival | 2023
Prize of the Ecumenical Jury | Cannes Film Festival | 2023

Perfect Days

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

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