San Diego Asian Film Festival Opens With In Waves and Closes With a Father's Letters
The 27th San Diego Asian Film Festival runs from 5 to 14 November with 190 films, including Kore-eda's Look Back, and free weekday screenings at 4pm.
Festival runs 5 to 14 Nov
The San Diego Asian Film Festival opens on 5 November with In Waves, the animated adaptation of AJ Dungo's graphic novel, and Dungo will be there for the opening-night celebration. It closes on 14 November with the US premiere of Ba's Book, about a father who writes a memoir to his daughter in the form of letters. The director, Ashley Duong (the programme lists her as Ashley Da-Lê Duong), is one of the film's subjects alongside her father and is scheduled to attend.
This is the festival's 27th edition, and organisers Pacific Arts Movement say its 190 films from more than 30 countries make it their largest programme so far. It covers film from across Asia as well as the Asian diaspora.
Hirokazu Kore-eda's Look Back, a live-action version of Tatsuki Fujimoto's web manga about two girls who draw comics together, screens on 6 and 7 November. The Masters section also has Ryusuke Hamaguchi's All of a Sudden, set in France and Japan, plus Hong Sang-soo's The Day She Returns and Tsai Ming-liang's Dust.
Elsewhere in the programme there's Gohan, about a stray dog, from directors Atta Hemwadee, Baz Poonpiriya and Chayanop Boonprakob. Sabu's Arrested Memory has Lee, who has developed amnesia, assigned to the kidnapping of a Japanese businessman's son. The Classics Restored strand brings back Eric Byler's Charlotte Sometimes.
Screenings are at UltraStar Cinemas Mission Valley, AMC UTC 14 and the San Diego Natural History Museum. General admission tickets are $15 and opening night is $40. Every film at 4pm on festival weekdays is free, and high school-aged youth and younger get into all screenings free, with tickets at the door only.
This year's festival artwork is by animator Danski Tang, whose festival animation starts with a bunny breaking into a cinema screen.
