NY ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL July 15-28, 2022

[Chris Knipp]

I Am More 모어 (Lee Il-ha, South Korea, 2021)

A documentary about noted Korean drag queen/ballerina MO Jimin ("MOre"), celebrating the occasion of MOre's trip to New York to perform in multiple roles in 14 Fruitcakes, a celebration of gay history at Theater La MaMA in the East Village on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall riots.

[Chris Knipp]

Perhaps Love 장르만 로맨스 (Cho Euon-ji, South Korea, 2022)

An amusing romantic farce also involves a young gay writer who's hopelessly in love with a formerly successful straight older writer going through a long period of writer's block and complications with his publisher, his ex-wife, and their crazy kid. The screenplay is so good it can be complicated and I can still follow, and enjoy, the action despite my difficulty with Korean names.

[Chris Knipp]

Nothing Serious 연애 빠진 로맨스 (Jeong Ga-young , South Korea 2021)

A risqué, but sweet rom-com. Bruised, he and she, meeting via a dating app, want to keep it unromantic and uncommitted, but of course as in most FWB tales, that doesn't quite work. He's a writer for an online mag forced by his editor to start a sex column, so he mines this new affair - to his regret. Son Sukku, who is quite famous, and Jeon Jong-seo, who costarred in Lee Chang-dong's Burning, make a watchable couple.

[Chris Knipp]

Confession 자백 (YOON Jong-seok, South Korea 2022)

A smooth, good looking, twisty, convoluted, well acted crime and homicide thriller mystery, this is a remake of the very popular 2016 Spanish original by Oriol Paulo, The Invisible Guest/Contratiempo, of which there are three other remakes in other languages. It's tense, involving, and purest hokum.

[Chris Knipp]

Funeral, The 頭七 (Dan-Guei Shen, Taiwan, 2022)

Yes, there is a traditional funeral with an impressive, spooky and at the end violent mourning hall in rural Taiwan, where a mother and frail teen daughter go after a long period of estrangement from mom's wealthy, disapproving parents. There may be too much religious folklore and family psychodrama for pure horror genre fans, but the visuals are often good.

[Chris Knipp]

Life for Sale 售命 (Tom Teng, Taiwan 2021)

This black comedy about a suicidal young man fired from an insurance company (a feature directorial and writing debut) starts out admirably. It feels like early William Burroughs directed by David Cronenberg. We're in a kooky urban purely cinematic world. There's lively visual style and an amusing a manic nihilism. Noting else in this year's NYAFF seems quite so stylish and fun. However, as incidents and plot lines multiply the film drifts too much into genre violence. Better work in future may come from Mr. Teng who maybe was trying too hard this time.

[Chris Knipp]

Mama Boy 初戀慢半拍 (Arvin Chen, Taiwan 2022)

A young man who lives with his bossy mom and is still dominated by her at nearly age thirty breaks out of his strangeness when he falls for the madam at a "love hotel." Taiwan stars Kao Ko and Vivian Hsu become ordinary and dive into their roles in this charming and offbeat film. Arvin Chen was born in Boston and attended Berkeley and USC film school but now lives in his parent's native Taiwan. This is a fresh and delightful film.