Skip to main content

2016 San Diego Asian Film Festival

Special Presentations

The feature presentations of this year’s San Diego Asian Film Festival include tales of border crossing, celebrations of Asian American entertainment pioneers, and spotlights on two legends of Asian cinema.

  1. Watch Trailer Watch Trailer

    AKA SEOUL

    Jon Maxwell / Special Presentations / USA / 2016 / Documentary, LGBT / 70 mins
    Five Korean adoptees raised all around the world arrive in Seoul, where their complex identities – professional, sexual, cultural – emerge out of their interactions with the culture and terrain of the city. AKA SEOUL rewrites the adoption narrative beyond the tearful reunions and towards bold new ones of self-determination and self-expression.
    Centerpiece Film: AKA SEOUL

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Sunday, November 6, 2016 5:30 pm

  2. Watch Trailer Watch Trailer

    EAT A BOWL OF TEA

    Wayne Wang / Special Presentations / USA / 1989 / Comedy, History, Romance / 86 mins
    Wayne Wang’s adaptation of Louis Chu’s classic novel is a charming, spirited comedy about a Chinese American man (Russell Wong), whose father finds him a wife from China, leading to a crisis in the young husband’s manhood. Shown in a new director’s cut.
    EAT A BOWL OF TEA

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Saturday, November 5, 2016 1:25 pm Buy Tickets

  3. Watch Trailer Watch Trailer

    MIFUNE: THE LAST SAMURAI

    Steven Okazaki / Special Presentations / Japan, USA / 2016 / Documentary / 80 mins
    Actor, legend, and longtime Akira Kurosawa collaborator Toshiro Mifune is perhaps Japanese cinema’s best-known international star. Oscar-winning director Steven Okazaki pays tribute to Mifune’s craft and legacy in this documentary, as much a portrait of an artist as it is a history of one of Japan’s major contributions to world cinema: the samurai film.
    Closing Night: MIFUNE: THE LAST SAMURAI

    Museum of Contemporary Art, Sherwood Auditorium
    Friday, November 11, 2016 7:00 pm

  4. RANDALL PARK IN SHORTS

    Special Presentations / 105 mins
    Before he was Louis Huang on Fresh off the Boat or Kim Jong-un in The Interview, Randall Park was the undisputed king of comedy for Asian American cinema. Join Randall on a walk down a memory lane lined with conjoined twins, crime-fighting babies, and stir-fried cocaine.
    RANDALL PARK IN SHORTS

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Sunday, November 6, 2016 3:00 pm

  5. Watch Trailer Watch Trailer

    TASTE OF CHERRY

    Abbas Kiarostami / Special Presentations / Iran / 1997 / Drama, Experimental / 99 mins
    The late poet, photographer, and filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami achieved immortality with TASTE OF CHERRY, one of the most humane expressions of empathy ever captured on film, from the plight of a cab driver seeking a stranger to assist in his suicide, to the film’s transcendent finale. Shown in 35mm.
    TASTE OF CHERRY

    Museum of Photographic Arts
    Wednesday, November 9, 2016 7:00 pm

  6. Watch Trailer Watch Trailer

    THE TIGER HUNTER

    Lena Khan / Special Presentations / USA / 2016 / Comedy, Romance / 94 mins
    It’s 1979 and Sami arrives in the U.S. with a leisure suit, a new job, and a suitcase full of expectations. He loses two of those three within hours of touching down, so it’ll take grit, ingenuity, and some hilarious friends to get back on his feet and, if the stars align, impress his sweetheart back in India.

    Preceded by: MS. BULA BANERJEE

    Opening Night: THE TIGER HUNTER

    Museum of Contemporary Art, Sherwood Auditorium
    Thursday, November 3, 2016 7:00 pm