Festival looks through different lens for fresh approach

By John Wildman

The Asian Film Festival of Dallas (AFFD) announced the film lineup for this year’s 21st edition of the film festival. Taking place July 21-24, AFFD’s opening night selection is Wenxiong Xing’s Too Cool to Kill, the closing night selection is Roshan Sethi’s 7 Days, Spotlight screenings include Park Hoon-Jung’s The Witch 2: The Other One and Shô Miyake’s Small, Slow but Steady.

AFFD will screen 16 feature films (12 narrative, four documentary), and 11 short films as the popular film festival makes a big return to theaters and in-person events after a two-year hiatus. Screenings are at the Angelika Film Center Dallas (5321 E. Mockingbird Lane, #230), and the Texas Theatre (231 Jefferson Blvd.)

This year’s edition of the Asian Film Festival of Dallas also will mark the first with new leadership, including Executive Director Thomas Schubert and Lead Programmer Paul Theiss. New innovations with this edition of the film festival are led by the inclusion of Special Guest Programmers Justina Walford (programming director for the Oxford Film Festival and the Billy the Kid Film Festival) and Frank Yan (co-director of programming, CineCina), and include a tighter, more condensed festival schedule, a Saturday evening red carpet event for filmmakers and press, a Sunday day-long celebration of female filmmakers, and a reinvigorated outreach to their base audiences throughout the DFW area as the film festival looks to reconnect with physical screenings and events.

New AFFD Executive Director Thomas Schubert, said: “Our board and staff are excited about the prospects of returning to our regular July time slot and we are taking advantage of this edition of the film festival to look at what we do through a different lens and a fresh approach. AFFD has always been a signature event for Dallas film lovers, introducing exciting films and cinema to DFW, and this year we hope to shake up the event aspect of the film festival in our return, as well.”

New Lead Programmer Paul Theiss added: “We made no assumptions with our programming this year, prioritizing films and filmmakers that would inspire audiences to come back for that big screen experience. To that end, adding a handful of films from our guest programmers will also add surprises and new perspectives to the schedule.”

Opening Night at the Texas Theatre on Thursday, July 21 features Wenxiong Xing’s Chinese action comedy Too Cool to Kill. The Well Go USA release follows an aspiring comedian and actor who receives an invitation from a famous actress to play her leading man. However, the new gig soon lands him directly in the middle of a dangerous conspiracy.

As the film festival heads back to its traditional home location of the Angelika Film Center Dallas, Friday and Saturday’s Spotlight screenings again put forward the kind of films that AFFD has built its crowd-pleasing reputation on. Park Hoon-Jung’s The Witch 2: The Other One, another Well Go USA release, is the highly anticipated sequel to the popular Korean sci-fi action thriller The Witch: Subversion. This time, the story focuses on a mysterious girl who is the sole survivor of a bloody raid on the research facility behind the top-secret Witch Program. She and a pair of civilians try to stay one step ahead of assassins tasked with locating and silencing the girl. Saturday’s Spotlight selection is one of CineCina’s Frank Yan’s contributions to this year’s lineup. Shô Miyake’s Japanese drama Small, Slow but Steady is about a hearing-impaired woman whose dreams of becoming a professional boxer are threatened by the closure of her boxing club. The film has been described as a pandemic movie, a sports movie and a mediation on the power of community — all rolled into one. The film premiered at the Berlin Film Festival.

Sunday’s screenings will highlight and celebrate female filmmakers, culminating in a screening of Roshan Shethi’s Spirit Award nominee 7 Days. Produced by prolific Dallas filmmaker Liz Cardenas, the relationship comedy/drama looks at Ravi and Rita, who find their pre-arranged date, organized by their traditional Indian parents, turning into a never-ending experience together as they are forced to shelter in place due to the pandemic. 

The evening will conclude with Justina Walford’s contribution to AFFD’s programming: a late-night screening of Christine Chen’s mermaid revenge thriller, Erzulie. In the film, four besties reconnect at a backwater resort, but can’t shake their troubles until they summon a legendary mermaid goddess who is rumored to rule the local waters. After discovering the bloody aftermath from Erzulie “saving” them, not to mention the mermaid herself, the women race to cover their tracks and distance themselves from the creature they had summoned. 

Additional highlights include Tom Huang’s festival favorite dysfunctional family comedy Dealing With Dad, about an Alpha mom/corporate manager tasked with going home to deal with her overbearing dad, who is now despondent and won’t leave the house. 

What she and her siblings discover is that their dad is actually, much more pleasant in his depressed state, so they wrestle with the decision to “fix” him or not. Mye Hoang’s popular documentary Cat Daddies will also make an encore DFW screening at the film festival. The film features portraits of “cat dads” from all over the country, including some who struggle to navigate the unprecedented events of 2020 with their little furry friends. Both filmmakers are expected to come to Dallas to attend their screenings. 

Sakamoto Yugo’s Japanese action horror thriller Yellow Dragon’s Village focuses on some college students who find themselves stranded in a strange village on the way to a summer camp. After being persuaded to stay overnight, they soon must figure out a way not to fall victim to the brutal killings that start occurring the next morning. Qiu Jiongjiong’s fantasy A New Old Play focuses on a man who was a leading clown-role actor in 20th-century Sichuan opera, as he reluctantly is escorted to the Ghost City. Throughout his trip, earthly scenes from the past creep into the mists of the Netherworld. The film won a Special Jury Prize at Locarno.

To purchase badges, tickets and for more information go to asianfilmdallas.com.

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