BAD GENIUS

Nattawut Poonpiriya / Asia Pop! / Thailand / 2017 / Comedy, Thriller / 130 mins

No exam is safe from a math prodigy gone bad and the rich kids who have assembled the ultimate ring of cheaters around her. With the playful insanity of a heist film and the raucous energy of a teen comedy, BAD GENIUS is a primer on how to tell a whip-smart story of youth – and how to creatively beat the system.

A BEAUTIFUL STAR

Daihachi Yoshida / Asia Pop! / Japan / 2017 / Comedy, Science Fiction / 127 mins

Dad is a weatherman, but one day an interplanetary bright light reveals to him that he is also a Martian. Before long, his entire family is searching for their extraterrestrial roots while he uses his newscast to warn the world of Earth’s demise. A black comedy with a white-hot core, A BEAUTIFUL STAR kicks complacency and good sense in the pants.

CLOSE-KNIT

Naoko Ogigami / Asia Pop! / Japan / 2017 / Drama, Family, LGBT / 127 mins

With her mother gone, 11-year-old Tomo lives with uncle Mako and his partner Rinko. In this big-hearted and empathetic family dramedy, Tomo and Rinko develop a bond which they hope will lead to the warmth and maternal love for which both have been longing.

COCOLORS

Toshihisa Yokoshima / Asia Pop! / Japan / 2017 / Animation, Science Fiction / 46 mins

In a post-apocalyptic world of toxic ash, humans have retreated underground. Young Aki and friends, including the mute Fuyu, dream of the outside world through courageous conviction and Fuyu’s increasingly colorful paintings. At once dark and emotionally uplifting, COCOLORS blends traditional printmaking and 3D aesthetics to capture youth in search of light and color.

Preceded by: EVOLUTION

A DAY

Cho Sun-ho / Asia Pop! / South Korea / 2017 / Thriller / 90 mins

A world-famous doctor finds himself trapped in a revolving nightmare: every morning he wakes up to the same tragic day. A flight, a press conference, a fatal car accident. As he frantically tries every morning to rewrite fate, he discovers that he’s not the only one stuck re-living the same day.

THE GIRL FROM YESTERDAY

Phan Gia Nhat Linh / Asia Pop! / Vietnam / 2017 / Comedy, Romance / 124 mins

The class troublemaker falls in love with a transfer student, revealing his squishy soft side and unlocking memories of his first crush. Director Phan Gia Nhat Linh (Sweet 20) brings bright smiles and pop music savvy to this adaptation of a story by famed YA novelist Nguyen Nhat Anh.

KITA KITA (I SEE YOU)

Sigrid Andrea Bernardo / Asia Pop! / Philippines / 2017 / Romance / 95 mins

Two Filipinos cross paths in Japan. She, a tourguide who recently discovered her boyfriend’s infidelity. He, a quirky neighbor who knows that the road to an OFW’s heart is the smell of adobo. Told in three parts that turn the meet-cute on its head, the deeply affecting KITA KITA is unlike any Filipino rom-com in recent memory.

THE LAST VERSE

Tseng Ying-Ting / Asia Pop! / Taiwan / 2017 / Drama, Historical / 101 mins

Ren-jie and Xiao-ping were young and in love in the year 2000, when Taiwan was abuzz with political idealism and cultural reawakening. But the decade that followed saw society, family, and bum luck shatter their romantic dreams, leaving only memories of innocence and the poem that first united them.

LOVE AND GOODBYE AND HAWAII

Shingo Matsumura / Asia Pop! / Japan / 2017 / Comedy, Romance / 94 mins

Rinko and Isamu support each other, live together, and have developed a genuine and nurturing bond. Thing is, they’ve been broken up for six months. Their transition into independence has been slow, and unfortunately for Rinko, hers has been slower than Isamu’s. Their comedic romance is lovely to pieces and all-too-real in its delicate portrayal of reluctant goodbye.

MYSTERY KUNG FU THEATER

Asia Pop!

We could tell you what it is, but then we'd have to make sure they are the last words you ever hear again.

NEWTON

Amit V Masurkar / Asia Pop! / India / 2017 / Comedy, Drama, Thriller / 104 mins

A newbie elections official will stop at nothing to make sure every villager gets a chance to vote. That is, until his idealism is challenged by the guerilla forces that rule the jungle town he’s assigned to oversee. Absurd in its humor and grim in its view on local politics, NEWTON is a charming and defiant social comedy.

ONE DAY

Lee Yoon-ki / Asia Pop! / South Korea / 2017 / Drama, Fantasy / 114 mins

After the death of his wife, an insurance agent is assigned the case of a blind woman in a coma. But upon visiting her at the hospital, he encounters someone who appears to be her spirit. As the two spend days wandering the hospital grounds, sensitive states of recovery and transcendence emerge, as if waking from a dream.

PARADOX

Wilson Yip / Asia Pop! / Hong Kong / 2017 / Martial Arts, Thriller / 101 mins

After his daughter goes missing, a Hong Kong cop finds himself in Thailand, where he shows down with local police, some low-life heavies, and none other than Tony Jaa. High kicks and high drama ensue. Bone crunching brought to you with pleasure by action choreographer Sammo Hung.

SHINJUKU SWAN II

Sion Sono / Asia Pop! / Japan / 2017 / Thriller / 133 mins

Pimpery slays when rival escort recruitment agencies escalate their turf war into a battle of businessmen with scruples only imaginable by the incorrigible Sion Sono. Impossible to take seriously, impossible to look away, this is Japanese pop cinema infused with brash energy and the tawdriest manga mise-en-scene.

SHORTS FOR SHORTIES!

Asia Pop! / 45 mins

Kid-friendly short films about family, friendship, acceptance, and resilience.

In This Program: THE ADVENTURE OF THE AFTERNOON, IRON HANDS, EAT, PRAY, BIRD, RICEBALLS, MOSQUITO: THE BITE OF PASSAGE, TO & KYO

SHUBH MANGAL SAAVDHAN

R.S. Prasanna / Asia Pop! / India / 2017 / Comedy, Romance / 119 mins

Mudit and Sugandha meet cute and soon engage cute, to the delight of their respective parents. But one premarital rendezvous reveals his gentlemanly dysfunction, and soon everyone in the wedding party knows. The parents, to say the least, are not delighted. As the film spins into a sex comedy with a light, wholesome touch, the delight is all ours.

THE SILENT TEACHER

Maso Chen / Asia Pop! / Taiwan / 2017 / Documentary, Drama / 73 mins

Because of cultural mores pertaining to the afterlife, medical schools in Taiwan don’t receive many cadaver donations. So when wife, mother, and now “silent teacher” Hsu Yu-e leaves her body to science, her death sets off two years of waiting, grief, but above all gratitude between her family and a medical school.

Preceded by: 100TH BIRTHDAY WISH

A TAXI DRIVER

Jang Hoon / Asia Pop! / South Korea / 2017 / Comedy, Drama, Thriller / 137 mins

With casualties mounting during the 1980 Gwangju Uprising, a decidedly apolitical taxi driver unknowingly smuggles a foreign journalist onto the front lines between student demonstrators and the police state. Alternating between laughs and flying bullets, this touching true story captures an unlikely friendship and a turn of events that would forever alter Korean history.

THE VILLAINESS

Jung Byung-gil / Asia Pop! / South Korea / 2017 / Martial Arts, Thriller / 124 mins

A vengeful assassin explodes through armies of gangland thugs, but before long, she’s also busted through every safe convention of the action genre, laying waste to good taste and leaving the audience with nested dolls of narrative twists. Blood will shed, jaws will drop, and the history of Korean action will be rewritten.