BEFORE WE VANISH

Kiyoshi Kurosawa / Masters / Japan / 2017 / Romance, Science Fiction / 129 mins

An unfaithful husband returns home to his dispassionate wife, but he’s no longer the same person. In fact, others in town too seem disconcertingly possessed by aliens intent on creating havoc and controlling minds. Meditative, unsettling, and deeply romantic, Kurosawa’s latest takes to body snatching to redeem humanity of its emotional and spiritual stasis.

CLAIRE’S CAMERA

Hong Sang-soo / Masters / France, South Korea / 2017 / Comedy, Experimental / 69 mins

A self-parodic comedy of film festival attendees turns, with utter effortlessness by Hong Sang-soo, into a gentle rumination on chance encounters, alternative possibilities, and a spiritual escape best basked under the rays of the French Riviera sun. Kim Min-hee and Isabelle Huppert sing, drink, and shine.

THE DAY AFTER

Hong Sang-soo / Masters / South Korea / 2017 / Comedy, Drama, Romance / 92 mins

On her first day working at a publishing house, Areum discovers that the person she is replacing was the former mistress of the boss. Mistaken identity and drunken dallying ensue, but what sets THE DAY AFTER apart from Hong Sang-soo’s recent films is a darker melancholy cast over the humor and cinematic charms.

MRS. FANG

Wang Bing / Masters / China, France, Germany / 2017 / Documentary / 86 mins

Family and neighbors circle, chat, and leave, while the elderly Mrs. Fang lies quietly bedridden in her final days. This is documentary at its most uncompromising and fundamental: what is the experience of watching a human pass away? What spirits link, between our eyes and Mrs. Fang’s, as the merciless fact of death takes its place in the room?

OUR TIME WILL COME

Ann Hui / Masters / China, Hong Kong / 2017 / Drama, Historical / 130 mins

During WWII, Japan has invaded Hong Kong, and a schoolteacher gets involved in efforts to smuggle activists and writers to safety across the border. Alternatingly spectacular and ordinary, Ann Hui’s historical drama captures the daily grind and the start-stop rhythms of ordinary folks – especially women – enlisted into the fight for national survival.

SAMUI SONG

Pen-ek Ratanaruang / Masters / Germany, Norway, Thailand / 2017 / Drama, Noir / 108 mins

A soap opera star has had enough of her husband, a disciple of an off-putting, lurid cult. A chance meeting with a slick-haired problem solver gives her a possible way out, though things may not be as they seem. Pen-ek Ratanaruang is back with another eerie slow-burn noir as stylish as it is strange.

YOUTH

Feng Xiaogang / Masters / China / 2017 / Drama, Historical, Romance / 146 mins

The ardor of youth and the aromas of romanticism, tucked safely in the haven of a Cultural Revolution dance troupe, get blown into the wind in Feng Xiaogang’s poignant epic of lithe bodies, fleeting fancies, and the callous weight of China’s turbulent political history. The craft and the critique are as sweeping as they are impeccable.