At the NY Asian Film Festival, There’ll Be Retro Japanese Softcore Porn and So Much More

Cinephiles, take note: the New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF) opens June 30, and this year’s roster has just been announced. With “just shy of 60 films,” including feature films and documentaries from seven countries, there’s a diverse lineup of films in every genre, from gangster flicks to romantic dramas to experimental stream-of-consciousness softcore porn. Truly, something for everyone.

China and Hong Kong are particularly well-represented, with a slate of popcorn-friendly thrillers, dramas, and crime flicks. Battle of Memories (2017, dir. Leste Chen) follows a novelist who wakes from an experimental medical procedure to discover he has acquired the memories of a serial killer. In Blood of Youth (2016), directed by “self-trained fireman-turned-filmmaker Yang Shupeng,” police and criminals alike race to hunt down a computer hacker.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqcTpufz6yw

Action blockbuster Extraordinary Mission (2017, Alan Mak, Anthony Pun) updates a classic hardboiled Hong Kong crime film about a cop who goes deep undercover to take down a drug cartel. In Election (2005, Johnnie To), a vacuum of leadership has rival gangsters jockeying for control of Hong Kong’s biggest triad.

Not all are action or crime flicks. In “tenement drama” Mad World (2016, Wong Chun), a former investment banker struggles to put his life back together after being released from rehab. In food-world comedy This Is Not What I Expected (2017, Derek Hui), a love-hate relationship ensnares a chef and a “foodie megalomaniac millionaire.” In screwball comedy Vampire Cleanup Department (2017, Yan Pak-wing, Chiu Sin-hang), a rookie government vampire hunter falls in love with one — and decides to teach her to pass as human.

There are 15 films on offering from Japan, including Aroused by Gymnopedies, Dawn of the Felines, and Wet Woman in the Wind — updates on the unique Japanese film genre of “romans porno” (porn novels), “wild stream of consciousness works of both the highest and lowest caliber.” Other (non-porn) offerings include Rage (2017, Lee Sang-il), about three men who each come under mounting suspicion for the same gruesome unsolved murder; Love and Other Cults (2017, Eiji Uchida), a “black comedy” about juvenile delinquents whose cast includes actual juvenile delinquents; and Traces of Sin (2016, Kei Ishikawa), a suspense-drama of “class warfare” about a journalist investigating the murders of a rich family. 

From South Korea are, among others, political thriller-slash-gender satire The Truth Beneath (2016, Lee Kyoung-mi); Ordinary Person (2017, Kim Bong-han), a police procedural set in politically turbulent 1987 Korea; and A Single Rider (2017, Lee Joo-young), about a man who flees a scandal in South Korea and heads to Australia to try to reconnect with his estranged wife and son.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg — there are too many enticing films to describe. See the list here. Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Malaysia are also all represented.

Showings are at Lincoln Center, June 30-July 16. Tickets are $9 for members, $11 for students, and $14 for the general public.