As we have mentioned many times before, the documentary is currently experiencing one of its golden periods, with the fact that reality goes beyond any script becoming quite obvious throughout the plethora of entries we have been seeing during that last few years. Furthermore, as a number of courageous filmmakers shed light to issues that are dangerous to depict (to say the least) or even hard to watch, the quality of the category continues to improve. Add to that the biographical ones, the ones that present real but relatively unknown sides of each country’s society and you have the majority of reasons for what we mentioned in the beginning.
Without further ado, here are the 15 Best Asian Documentaries of 2024, in reverse order. Some may have premiered in 2023, but since they mostly circulated in 2024, we decided to include them.
15. Parama: A Journey With Aparna Sen (Suman Ghosh, India)
“When actors become mainstream stars, it’s inevitable that the audience will develop an expectation from them” comments one of the prominent Indian filmmakers Goutam Ghose when asked to compare Sen’s acting and directing. But, as Aparna Sen’s father, respectable film critic/ filmmaker Chidananda Dasgupta famously said: “There is no way you will not act in mainstream cinema if you want to make a career out of it”. To understand where this dilemma comes from, we need to rewind the time back to the 1960s, when Sen came to fame as the lead in “Samapti” (The Postman”), a segment in Satyajit Ray’s Oscar winner “Three Daughters” (1961), based on stories by the Bengali writer Rabindranath Tagore. A number of roles in popular productions followed, such as “Up In The Clouds” (1965) directed by Mrinal Sen, James Ivory’s “The Guru” (1969) alongside Michael York, and “Bombay Talkie” (1970), another Satyajit Ray’s hit “Days And Nights In The Forest” (1970), or the musical “Basanta Bilap” (1973) directed by Dinen Gupta, to name just the few. (Marina Richter)
14. The Last of the Sea Women (Sue Kim, Korea)
Apart from its context, “The Last of the Sea Women” is also impressive in audiovisual terms. Iris Ng and Cho Eun-soo’s cinematography offers a number of astonishing images of Jeju, the ocean, both in its depth and its surface. Furthermore, their camera follows these women quite closely, highlighting the trust Sue Kim and her crew garnered from the haenyo, in an approach that definitely adds to the quality of the doc. Erin Casper, Kim Yeong-a and Stacy Kim’s editing results in a relatively fast pace, which both presents the main theme thoroughly and offers entertainment, particularly in the combination of images and the sound of haenyo songs, which are definitely a pleasure to both eyes and ears. (Panos Kotzathanasis)
13. Until I Fly (Kanishka Sonthalia and Siddesh Shetty, India)
At the same time though, and if one looks at the story in a wider prism, the issues with emigration and the racism that results from it are highlighted quite eloquently, along with a comment that problems like that become even more significant in small societies, where one can definitely not ‘hide in the crowd’. As such, the movie is induced with a more universal essence, which definitely helps raise the quality of its context. (Panos Kotzathanasis)
12. Johatsu-Into Thin Air (Andreas Hartmann and Arata Mori, Japan)
Through this achievement and overall thoroughness, the directors also succeed on highlighting the reasons behind such a rather extreme decision, which frequently entails people leaving their spouses, their kids, and their parents behind. As we listen to people talk about domestic violence, gambling or other debts, stalkers, violent employers, intense family or relationship situations, the pressure they felt before reaching such a decision does become palpable, in a “solution” that is not actually so far from what happens in the West in same situations. Also quite eye-opening is how some of them want to return but feel they cannot, while other are clearly happy with their decision, never wishing to turn back. (Panos Kotzathanasis)
11. Shades of Indigo (Shigeru Yoshida, Japan)
Filmmaker Shigeru Yoshida, in his debut feature-length documentary “Shades of Indigo”, embarks on a journey to discover the people and their passion that keep this disappearing craft alive. In doing so, he unveils the heritage and the deep connection with Japanese culture that makes indigo far more than just a color. The film starts in Morioka, Iwate Prefecture, where Ryuta Sasaki, indigo dyer and artist, follows a strict routine to create the dyeing concoction. We learn that the old traditional method uses only three ingredients: sukumo (fermented indigo plant), fresh tree ash, and clear spring water, and that a good result is enabled by a fermentation process called “building the indigo.” Indigo is alive, can change and mutate, and this is its intrinsic beauty. Bacteria do their job, while Ryuta feeds them, keeps them warm, and sometimes talks to them. (Adriana Rosati)
