AANHPI Month -- May 2025

BAD AXE captures a real-time portrait of a closely-knit Asian American family, living in rural Michigan during the 2020 pandemic, as they fight to keep their local restaurant and American dream alive. With rising racial tensions, the family uses their voice and must unite as they reckon with backlash from a divided community, white supremacists, and intergenerational trauma from Cambodia's "killing fields."

A young Bangladeshi woman, Nazneen, arrives in 1980s London, leaving behind her beloved sister and home for an arranged marriage and a new life. Trapped within the four walls of her flat in East London, and in a loveless marriage with the middle-aged Chanu, she fears her soul is quietly dying. Her sister Hasina, meanwhile, continues to live a carefree life back in Bangladesh, stumbling from one adventure to the next. Nazneen struggles to accept her new lifestyle, and keeps her head down in spite of her predicament, but she's soon forced to confront her dreams when the hotheaded young Karim comes knocking at her door.

Bulbul a teenage school going girl, growing up in a rural setting in Assam, falls in love. While she is in the verge of discovering her teen life, a tragedy strikes with her best friend. Bulbul free spirited, rebellious and stubborn begins to question on herself and her love life. Teenage, love, secrecy, mixed with passion and mindless societal dogma and yet speaks about survival and freedom.

Named "Best Picture of the Year" by over 100 critics nationwide! Two master warriors (Chow Yun Fat and Michelle Yeoh) are faced with their greatest challenge when the treasured Green Destiny sword is stolen. A young aristocrat (Zhang Ziyi) prepares for an arranged marriage, but soon reveals her superior fighting talents and her deeply romantic past. As each warrior battles for justice, they come face to face with their worst enemy - and the inescapable, enduring power of love. Set against 19th-century China's breathtaking landscape, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is the action-packed, box office smash from acclaimed director Ang Lee (Sense and Sensibility, The Ice Storm) featuring stunning martial arts choreography by Yuen Wo Ping (The Matrix).

The Kowloon Walled City was a mysterious place that once existed in Hong Kong, rumored to be an “ungoverned” place. This documentary attempts to uncover the true stories of this legendary “lawless” enclave. Through the accounts of researchers and the stories from residents, it presents multiple facets of the Kowloon Walled City, as well as the reconstruction of the city’s historical scene on the screen. This involves the mutual support among the residents, the dark period of “vice” (pornography, gambling, and drugs) proliferation, the ongoing tug-of-war between China and Britain over the Kowloon Walled City, the social impact of its eventual demolition, as well as how the cyberpunk culture has drawn inspiration and references from the concept of the Walled City. This programme depicts the unique allure and grandeur that Hong Kong once possessed, as well as the personality and disposition of the Hong Kong people at that time.

The central Pacific nation of Kiribati is expected to be one of the first countries to disappear as a result of climate change. Sea level rise and increasing salinity are threatening the homes and lives of 105,000 residents spread over 33 atolls. One of the least developed countries in the world, Kiribati has contributed little to worldwide carbon emissions, yet has the most to lose from global warming. THE HUNGRY TIDE shows clearly the tragic impact of climate change on Kiribati, and exposes the stark global inequalities driving the global warming phenomenon.

In the tradition of Central Station comes KIKUJIRO, the highly acclaimed new film from Takeshi "Beat" Kitano, the award-winning director of (Fireworks, Hana-Bi and Sonatine). Lonely nine-year-old Masao leaves Tokyo in search of his mother, a woman he's never met. He's accompanied on his journey across the Japanese countryside by surly, middle-aged petty crook KIKUJIRO (Kitano), who is none too happy being the chaperone. When KIKUJIRO gambles away all of Masao's travel money, the two must rely on their wits and the kindness of colorful strangers. Along the way, as the two share a series of wild and unpredictable adventures, they end up at a destination that neither of them could have imagined.

For 28-year old New Yorker Wilhemina "Wil" Pang (Michelle Kruisec), life is a juggling act between a promising career a surgeon and her responsibilities as a dutiful daughter. Like the #7 train she takes to visit her Chinese family on a weekly basis, Will is perpetually in transit between two worlds. The expectations of the Flushing, Queens society she is from and the desires that aleinate her from it have made Wil content to live below the surface - even if it means playing an inadvertent game of charades with her widowed mother (Joan Chen) and the old world Ma represents.