BAMSEOM PIRATES, SEOUL INFERNO

Jung Yoon-suk / Discoveries / South Korea / 2017 / Documentary, Music / 119 mins

All. Hail. Kim Jong-Il! / Poke fun, go to jail / Thug cops, infidels / Black metal will prevail / Bass, drums, electric drill / Punk doc, raising hell / Modern art with shotgun shells / All. Hail. Kim Jong-Il!

BIRDS WITHOUT NAMES

Kazuya Shiraishi / Discoveries / Japan / 2017 / Drama, Romance / 123 mins

Yu Aoi plays Towako, a young woman who lives with an older man who provides her everything, while she secretly yearns for an ex-boyfriend with whom she had a violent past. With psychological intensity and an unforgiving take on genre, BIRD WITHOUT NAMES teeters from aching romance to thriller with creepy abandon.

CANIBA

Véréna Paravel, Lucien Castaing-Taylor / Discoveries / France / 2017 / Documentary, Experimental / 90 mins

While studying in France in 1981, Issei Sagawa raped, killed, and ate a classmate. Declared insane and shipped back to Japan, Issei has exploited his notoriety, writing, drawing manga, and even becoming a food critic. Deeply disturbing and physically taxing, the latest by the directors of Leviathan brings us up-close but never quite personal with Issei today.

DRAGONFLY EYES

Xu Bing / Discoveries / China, USA / 2017 / Experimental, Thriller / 81 mins

Thousands of hours of actual surveillance footage are edited into a sensational mystery about a woman in a convent who finds work and fame after she leaves the temple. Finding the eerie in the mundane and the uncanny in anonymity, acclaimed visual artist Xu Bing composites a portrait of real and virtual worlds that is nothing short of breathtaking.

THE FIRST LAP

Kim Dae-hwan / Discoveries / South Korea / 2017 / Drama, Romance / 101 mins

Despite dating for seven years, Su-hyeon and Ji-young are no closer to getting married than the day they met, a fact that is not lost on their frustrated parents. Full of comedy, absurdity, and genuine tenderness, THE FIRST LAP never loses faith in its characters, giving them space to calm down and begin what comes next.

A FISH OUT OF WATER

Lai Kuo-an / Discoveries / Taiwan / 2017 / Drama / 90 mins

The teachers at Yian’s kindergarten are concerned that he keeps mentioning “past parents,” a mysterious invocation that doesn’t bode well for his actual parents, who are undergoing their own marital problems. Yian is a quiet observer of family unrest, at the same time that he conjures a ghostly alternative: past lives to shake up future possibilities.

THE FOOLISH BIRD

Huang Ji, Ryuji Otsuka / Discoveries / China / 2017 / Drama / 118 mins

With an unsolved murder-rape case lurking in the background, 16-year-old Lynn gets involved in a stolen cell phone racket, culminating in a mysterious disappearance and the proposition of events more sinister and damaging than petty theft. A stark, challenging, and disquieting portrait of budding adolescent sexuality amongst China’s “left behind” generation.

THE GREAT BUDDHA+

Huang Hsin-Yao / Discoveries / Taiwan / 2017 / Comedy, Drama, Thriller / 104 mins

A security guard and a recyclables collector pass the evening hours watching a rich man’s salacious dashcam videos, only to stumble upon some footage that was definitely not meant to be seen. Satirical, unruly, and infectiously fun, THE GREAT BUDDHA+ laughs and lashes at corruption as only a work from the social underbelly can.

HAVE A NICE DAY

Liu Jian / Discoveries / China / 2017 / Animation, Drama, Noir / 77 mins

A girlfriend who wants plastic surgery, a gangster with a cell phone, and a hitman with a hammer encircle a bag of a million RMB. Not everyone’s making it out of this stormy night, and the question is: who will make it out with the money? Coldly nonchalant, this crosscutting noir finds in internet cafes and desolate hotels a cruel undercurrent of greed.

MARLINA THE MURDERER IN FOUR ACTS

Mouly Surya / Discoveries / France, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand / 2017 / Thriller / 93 mins

A vile creep promises to rob and rape Marlina. And so she prepares a chicken soup to send him and his odious friends to hell. That’s just act one of this delicious revenge western that journeys across the Indonesian countryside to stake a machete in the ground for women not afraid of getting their hands bloody.

NO DATE, NO SIGNATURE

Vahid Jalilvand / Discoveries / Iran / 2017 / Drama / 104 mins

The day after his car collides with a motorcycle, a forensic pathologist notices that the boy he hit has died at the hospital in which he works. Plagued with guilt, the doctor goes on a nervous quest to find the forensic truth – and exonerate his conscience.

ONE THOUSAND ROPES

Tusi Tamasese / Discoveries / New Zealand / 2017 / Drama / 98 mins

Samoan former boxer Maea now uses his hands to deliver babies. Beneath his wrinkles are wounds of sadness and the memories of wounds he’s inflicted as a father. When his adult daughter arrives, beaten and pregnant, Maea is forced to confront the ghosts, both literal and symbolic, along his road to atonement.

SHORTS: INTERNATIONAL DISCOVERIES COMPETITION

Discoveries

Rooted in luminous landscapes or the trenchant imaginations of their artists, these offbeat and off-road short films are some of the most visionary from Asia this year. They compete for the inaugural SDAFF International Discoveries Award.

In This Program: AFTERNOON CLOUDS, IT’S EASIER TO RAISE CATTLE, LATE SUMMER, ONLINE SHOPPING, PLEASE COME AGAIN, ANIMAL

SMALL TALK

Huang Hui-chen / Discoveries / Taiwan / 2016 / Documentary, Family, LGBT / 88 mins

Director Huang Hui-chen sits down with her mother to talk about their family’s open secret, the assumption that everyone has made but which nobody dares discuss: that her mother is a lesbian. Gripping and emotional, this award-winning personal documentary forges a bond between women and across generations.

SOMEWHERE BEYOND THE MIST

Cheung King-wai / Discoveries / Hong Kong / 2017 / Drama, Thriller / 86 mins

A teenager confesses to killing her parents and dumping their bodies in a reservoir. The cold, clinical confession startles the policewoman investigating the case and presses her to look more closely. Violence hangs over Cheung King-wai’s Hong Kong like an unmovable fog, as the two women slither into each other’s lives, shaking off layers of guilt, sadness, and emotional fatigue.

Preceded by: DEATH OF THE SOUND MAN

TAXI STORIES

Doris Yeung / Discoveries / China, Hong Kong, Indonesia / 2017 / Drama, LGBT, Romance / 97 mins

Three parallel stories in and around taxis in Asia reveal characters seeking connections, a sense of belonging, and love. A kid in Jakarta gives a ride to a beautiful foreigner. A domestic worker in Hong Kong is linked unexpectedly with her wealthy boss. A taxi driver in Beijing picks up a gay couple outside a club.

THOSE LONG HAIRED NIGHTS

Gerardo Calagui / Discoveries / Philippines / 2017 / Drama, LGBT / 72 mins

Tuesday is looking for love, Amanda is searching for family, and Barbie...well, Barbie just can't stay away from trouble. Together, these trans women work their way through the hurdles of the world: the violence, the exploitation, the attitude. And under the direction of Gerardo Calagui, they do so within a refreshing space of romance, warmth, and endless charm.

WE THE WORKERS

Wen Hai / Discoveries / China, Hong Kong / 2017 / Documentary / 174 mins

This raw and extraordinary documentary captures in epic fashion the tenacity, personality, and gravity of labor activism in contemporary China, from the lawyers and allies, to the workers themselves. Eschewing the heroic triumphantalism of more idealistic films, WE THE WORKERS shows activism as work itself. Menial, tough, strategic, and essential.