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Film critic and filmmaker Dodo Dayao noted in an interview that Lav Diaz is surprisingly prolific for someone who is doing films with runtimes longer than the conventional. “Phantosmia”’s release, after not stopping at any point before, during, and after the pandemic, proved just that. This latest work continues Diaz’s exploration of historical trauma and moral reckoning, using his distinctive narrative style to examine the inner lives of those shaped—and haunted—by violence.

Phantosmia is screening at San Diego Asian Film Festival

In the film we follow two strands of narratives that collide midway. First, the story of retired Master Sergeant Hilarion Zabala (Ronnie Lazaro) who, in his old age, is looking for a cure for the phantom rotten scent that has been plaguing him for decades. According to his psychiatrist, this is a manifestation of post-traumatic stress and suggested that a certain radical form of therapy...

Thai sales agent Diversion has boarded Filipino drama Phantosmia by Golden Lion-winning director Lav Diaz ahead of its world premiere out of competition at the Venice Film Festival.

The four-hour, black-and-white drama explores the harrowing psychological journey of a retired military officer, who suffers from a recurring olfactory disorder, which affects sense of smell, possibly linked to past traumas. As he revisits the darkest episodes of his life in a remote penal colony, the film delves into themes of violence, memory, and the dark side of human condition.

Shot in Sampaloc, in the Quezon province of the Philippines, the film...

Lav Diaz’s “Phantosmia,” which has its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in the out of competition section, has debuted its trailer.

The film centers on Hilarion Zabala, whose mysterious olfactory problem has recurred. A counselor/psychiatrist suspects it to be a lingering case of phantosmia, a phantom smell, and possibly caused by trauma, a deep psychological fracture. One recommended radical process to cure the ailment was that Hilarion must go back and deal with the darkest currents of his past life in the military service. Reassigned in the very remote Pulo Penal Colony, he must also confront the horrific realities of his present situation.

In a statement, the director asks: “Do human beings have the right to kill other human beings? A big part of the story of ‘Phantosmia’ is about this discourse, and other questions about man’s existence.”

He adds: “One of the main protagonists...

After going fully virtual in 2020, the New York Asian Film Festival (Nyaff) returns with a hybrid lineup of screenings Aug. 6-22.

The festival will open Aug. 6 with Ryoo Seung-wan’s South Korean action-drama “Escape From Mogadishu,” which depicts the perilous escape attempt by Korean embassy workers stranded during the onset of the civil war in Somalia.

Samuel Jamier, executive director of Nyaff, calls it one of the biggest Korean releases of the year and says the film will open in theaters simultaneously with its in-person international premiere at Film at Lincoln Center.

“‘Escape From Mogadishu’ shows the expansion of Korea and where it’s aiming to be,” Jamier says. “It would have been hard to conceive 10 years ago another war film set in Somalia, a territory that has only been explored in ‘Black Hawk Down’ in some fashion.”

One of the few American film festivals devoted to pics from the Asian continent,...

The New York Asian Film Foundation and Film at Lincoln Center have announced two final titles, completing the lineup for the upcoming 20th edition of the New York Asian Film Festival (Nyaff). The festival will be screening over 70 films, both virtually and in person, to audiences in New York and across the country from August 6 – 22, 2021. Tickets are already on sale.

Nyaff is thrilled to present as its festival Centerpiece the international premiere of Nyaff favorite director Benny Chan’s final work, Raging Fire. Completed shortly before his untimely death in August 2020, the Hong Kong-Chinese action film stars the inimitable Donnie Yen as Shan, a by-the-book cop whose past returns to haunt him. After a sting operation goes disastrously awry, Shan finds himself pitted against Ngo (Nicholas Tse), a former protégé who has turned criminal mastermind and is out for revenge. Nothing, it seems, can stop him, including his former mentor.

This year’s festival will highlight in-person programming at Film at Lincoln Center and Sva Theatre, featuring over 60 world, international, and North American premieres, with many selections also available virtually to fans of Asian cinema across the country.

On August 6, 2021, the New York Asian Film Foundation and Film at Lincoln Center will kick off the 20th edition of the New York Asian Film Festival (Nyaff), a hybrid event with Nyaff’s largest film lineup to date. The Festival will screen over 60 films, both virtually and in person, to audiences in New York and across the country from August 6 – 22, 2021.

Nyaff’s 2021 lineup will include two world premieres, six international premieres, 29 North American premieres, eight U.S. premieres, and nine New York premieres, showcasing the most exciting action, comedy, drama, thriller, romance, horror, and art-house films from East Asia.

Following an unprecedented year in which Covid-19 and increased violence against the Asian...

Releases of movies concerning pandemic experiences were just a matter of time. Though, apart from some experimental shorts keeping creative folk busy during the lockdown and up-to-date documentaries addressing various issues arising in these tough times, I didn’t expect them to arrive so soon. And “Here and There” (Dito at Don) is an interesting harbinger of dealing with the subject. As in Europe and many other places ,we are still far from back to normal, one can expect gloomy, claustrophobic pieces focused on dealing with isolation, loneliness, and fear. However, Jp Habac went for a… pandemic dramedy, definitely more sweet than bitter, shot in warm hues with soft touches of a rom-com. The Filipino director, who with an indie romance “I am drunk, I love you” or a web series “Gaya sa Pelikula” became a chronicler of love and everyday struggles of a young generation, comes back to the...

If your work and personal lives were slowly going down the drain through various avenues and you find something that could take care of some of your worries, albeit unethically, would you use it? That is the conundrum the lead character finds herself in in Rae Red’s solo directorial debut “The Girl and the Gun”.

“The Girl and the Gun” is screening at New York Asian Film Festival

The protagonist, an unnamed Girl, isn’t having the best of lives. Living in Quezon City, she works at a department store but rarely gets to spend her earnings on herself, with most of them going to a demanding mother in the province and on her rent. Even when she is reprimanded by her unnecessarily strict boss for wearing torn stockings or when her colleagues invite her out for drinks, she is unable to meet those demands financially. In spite of her best efforts,...

(above) Still from “They Say Nothing Stays The Same,”Joe Oagiri, 2019, Japan

The 19th edition of the Lincoln Center’s New York Asian Film Festival will be virtual this year, and will go from August 28 to September 12, 2020. This year’s focus is on women filmmakers, under the title “Women Transforming Film.” In this year’s line-up, Nyaff spotlights titles directed and led by women — including “Heavy Craving”, “Lucky Chan-sil”, “Kim Ji-young, Born 1982,”, “My Prince Edward”, and “Victim(s)”.

A generous share of the program is devoted to new filmmakers, including striking directorial debuts and sophomore efforts. This edition reflects today’s particularly kinetic innovations, much informed by social media and the hyper information highway. An impressive cross-section of work highlights new ideas in storytelling and tackles social mores and personal demons, including “John Denver Trending”, “Beauty Water”, “Detention”, and “IWeirDo”, to name a few. Work by first and second-time directors...

Powered by Chinese streaming technology, the New York Asian Film Festival will this year move from the real world to the virtual. With strong focuses on women filmmakers and Korean movies, the 19th Nyaff will run Aug. 28-Sept 12.

The opening film is the North American Premiere of “The Girl and the Gun” (aka “Babae at Baril”), directed by Rae Red, starring Janine Gutierrez, and produced by Iana Celest Bernardez and Bianca Balbuena. Other female-centric picks include “Heavy Craving” from Taiwan, “Lucky Chan-sil” and “Kim Ji-young, Born 1982,” both from South Korea, “My Prince Edward” from Hong Kong, and “Victim(s)” from Malaysia.

The virtual festival will play out on software supplied by Smart Cinema, a three year old Chinese operation, backed by former Wanda executive Jack Gao. Its U.S. arm is a joint venture with pioneering distributor of Asian films WellGo USA.

“I’m sure people will pick up on...