InCinemas recommends 5 films you have to watch.
Tokyo Story
An aging couple takes the long journey from their small seaside village to visit their adult children in bustling post-war Tokyo. Their elder son and daughter are too busy to pay them much attention, and so it falls to Noriko, the widow of their younger son who was killed in the war, to keep her in-laws company.
Tokyo Story is widely regarded as Yasujiro Ozu’s masterpiece and is often voted as one of the greatest films ever made.
Showing on 24 August, Friday - 8:00 PM
Made in Hong Kong
Bad things start happening to Moon, a high-school dropout and small-time hoodlum, when he comes into possession of two bloodstained letters left behind by a schoolgirl suicide: he starts having pesky wet dreams, his parents abandon him, his mentally handicapped best friend gets into trouble – and he falls for a girl who turns out to be seriously ill.
Revered as the quintessential Hong Kong indie film and one of the greatest cult classics in Hong Kong film history, renowned director Fruit Chan’s first parter of his “1997 Trilogy” is also an allegory of a city on the cusp of historic change.
Showing on 25 August, Saturday - 4:00 PM
Batch '81
University student Sid Lucero dreams of joining the Alpha Kappa Omega fraternity – known for its brutal initiation rites. After being accepted, he bears witness to escalating acts of violence, obscenity and degradation perpetrated by the fraternity’s seniors. Their brotherhood is put to the ultimate test when conflicts arise with a rival fraternity.
Hailed as one of the greatest Filipino films of all time,
Batch ’81 is an unflinching study of the sadomasochistic tradition of a college fraternity and a metaphor for the Philippines under Ferdinand Marcos.
Showing on 30 August, Thursday - 8:00 PM
Aimless Bullet
The sole breadwinner of his family, office worker Cheol-ho is plagued by a toothache but dare not visit a dentist because of his meagre income. He wanders around despondently as his closed ones – his pregnant wife, his unemployed brother, his deranged mother and his prostitute sister – struggle to survive in the devastated city of post-war Seoul.
Banned when it was first released in 1961 for alleged sympathies with the enemy in the North, this uncompromising portrait of the post war realities of South Korea is now widely regarded as the finest in Korean cinema’s history.
Showing on 1 September, Saturday - 4:00 PM
Tampopo
An eccentric band of culinary ronin guide the widow of a noodle-shop owner on her quest for the perfect recipe, while the offbeat vignettes of food culture and the erotic exploits of a gastronome gangster intersperse through the story to explore the desires of the human appetite.
Initially marketed as the first “ramen western”,
Tampopo is now regarded as one of the most profound and delectable examples of food on film ever made.
Showing on 1 September, Saturday - 8:00 PM
For more info on the other films, visit the Asian Film Archive's website here:
https://arc.asianfilmarchive.org/2018/