STORY

The story revolves around a mother and daughter on the road traveling east to the shore from Beijing. The high-strung mother, chatting on her mobile phone, then chatting to her daughter, then offering passionate prayers to a temple where they stop, is nothing but a nuisance to her daughter, who offers sullen disinterest to whatever her mother says and does. The conversation eventually touches on the recently deceased father and their relatives, resulting in an explosion of anger. So goes the journey, mother and daughter sitting side by side, never making eye contact, but constantly bickering. They soon reach the sea. As they sit in a small boat, their anger seems to have dissipated. What happens next?

STORY

Japanese businessman Suzuki watches the cityscape passing by as he rides the circular railway that runs languidly through the city of Yangon. With a friendly passenger in the same carriage, he talks about his job, which involves upgrading the railway system to increase speed. When the man asks him why speeding up is necessary, Suzuki answers quite self-assuredly that it will ease people’s everyday lives. After this chance meeting, however, he starts questioning his purpose in coming to Yangon. He buys traditional longyi as a souvenir from a seamstress named Su Su in the local market. Later, he runs into Su Su again, and meets her family. Learning about life in Yangon through his interactions with them, he again questions his job.

STORY

Set in Tokyo, the story revolves around a husband and wife, Edi and Sekar, who have arrived from Indonesia. They roll their suitcases along the streets enroute to a B&B that is owned by Kenji. One look at Kenji startles Sekar, as he is the spitting image of her former lover, Jati. Kenji tells them that he is presently conducting research on contemporary Asian couples and asks for their cooperation. Baffled at the request, Edi and Sekar are resistant at first, but are eventually pulled in, as they now sense that he knows all too well about the problems they’re facing as a couple. Kenji shows them three cards. On the third card we see "Variable No. 3." What does this mean?

Born in Inner Mongolia, Degena Yun graduated from the University of London and earned an MA in Film Directing from Beijing Film Academy. She made her feature debut with Latitude 52 (2012), which was in competition at the Montreal World Film Festival. With her second feature, A Simple Goodbye (2015), she won the Spirit of Asia Award by the Japan Foundation Asia Center at the 28th TIFF as well as screening Torino, Xining and Minneapolis.

Born in Tokyo, Daishi Matsunaga started his career as an actor and then directed music videos and commercials, as well as a TV series, Rescue Fire. His widely acclaimed documentary, Pyuupiru, was featured in numerous international film festivals including Rotterdam, Jeonju and Paris Cinema in 2011. His first narrative film, Pieta in the Toilet (2015), was a smash hit. Vibration: THE YELLOW MONKEY, a documentary about legendary Japanese rock band The Yellow Monkey, was released in November 2017 and screened at the 22nd Busan International Film Festival and the 30th TIFF. His latest film, Hanalei Bay, released in Japan in October 2018 is based on a Haruki Murakami short story.

Born in Surabaya, Indonesia, Edwin obtained a diploma in Graphic Design from Petra University and studied film at the Jakarta Institute of Arts, where he liberated his passion for filmmaking, utilizing spontaneous, flexible and fun approaches. His first feature, Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly (2008) received the FIPRESCI Prize at the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2009; and his short film Kara, The Daughter of A Tree (2005), was the first Indonesian film to be shown at the Director’s Fortnight in Cannes 2005. Postcards ｆrom ｔhe Zoo (2012) was nominated for a Golden Bear at the 2012 Berlinale. In 2017, Posesif made a smash hit in Indonesia and won the Best Director Award at the Indonesian Film Festival 2017 (Indonesia's equivalent of the Academy Awards).