The 9th, only Asian film festival in Finland will be held online from Friday April 16th until April 18th 2021. Ticket sale starts Wed April 7th on Festhome platform, and will continue until the end of the festival. All films of the program will be available to watch throughout the festival. A voucher which includes the whole program will cost 45 euros and single ticket for one film is 7 euros.
Link to the ticket store: https://tv.festhome.com/festivaltv/helsinki-cine-aasia
Natives and harassment
The native Ainu people are a rare subject for a film, but in Fukunaga Takashi’s Ainu Mosir (2020) a teenage boy named Kanto who lives in a small village in Hokkaido, struggles between his Ainu heritage and an urge to live among the mainstream world. Finding his identity is a strong topic, and well known for Ainu people who live amongst the modern Japan.
In the past few years the #metoo movement has grown, and has shed a light to a subject that has been around for ages. In Asia the movement is still relatively quiet. Company Retreat (2020) from Funahashi Atsushi combines the styles of a documentary film and fiction by recreating a true event on film. A group of hotel chain employees have gathered together in a small holiday apartment to enjoy a company retreat. Saki has experienced sexual workplace harassment and internet bullying, and the perpetrator might be amongst the workers.
Three day festival offers 12 films from East and Southeast Asia produced in the last two years. The films are from Japan, China, South Korea, Philliphines, Burma, Malaysia and Cambodia. Three films, Ohku Akiko’s Hold Me Back (2020), Sode Yukiko’s Aristocrat (2021) and Yoon Ga-eun’s The House of Us (2019) are all directed by female filmmakers.
All films are subtitled in English.
Full program: https://helsinkicineaasia.fi/en/ohjelmisto/
