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The ever-busy Japanese character actor Tadanobu Asano — currently having a moment as one of the stars of Disney’s hit samurai series Shōgun — has joined the cast of Thai director Pen-ek Ratanaruang’s upcoming culinary thriller Morte Cucina. The actor and director last collaborated two decades ago on the romantic crime film Last Life in the Universe (2003), which was Thailand’s official submission to the Oscars that year and won Asano the best actor award at the Venice Film Festival.

Set in contemporary Bangkok, Morte Cucina follows a talented young female chef named Sao who has a chance encounter with a man who sexually abused her when she was a teen. “Using her talents in the kitchen, Sao sets her plan of revenge in motion — achieving a rather unexpected result,” the film’s logline reads.

The project’s producers are keeping the nature of Asano’s role under wraps for now,...

In the modern age, one of the more impactful and topical issues found in the consciousness of pop culture is self-identity and what a person's identity means to them. Being lost in a malaise of social media, online ads, and a culture concerned with providing a marketable identity for easy branding, it's possible for this factor to be a crippling issue for youths fighting to keep themselves afloat while they attempt to navigate the world around them. Thai directors Rasiguet Sookkarn and Kongdej Jaturanrasmee have decided to explore this concept in their new film “Faces of Anne,” having its North American premiere at the New York Asian Film Festival.

Faces of Anne is screening at New York Asian Film Festival Check also this interview Interview with Kongdej Jaturanrasamee, Jennis Oprasert and Soros Sukhum: The Question Is, “Can We Own Our Life Completely?”

Overall, “Faces of Anne” is a solid enough genre effort.

Reliably one of the most euphoric and rewarding events on the circuit, the New York Asian Film Festival emerged at a time when hardcore cinephiles were forced to import prohibitively expensive foreign-region DVDs if they wanted to watch the latest hits from the other side of the world, and the first editions of the fest — then hosted at the Anthology Film Archives — got a major boost by screening hard-to-find cult objects and/or future classics at a time when Chinese, Japanese, and South Korean cinema were all on the rise to one degree or another.

No disrespect to the prestigious New York Film Festival, but Nyaff beat them to the punch when it comes to major auteurs like Park Chan-wook, whose “Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance” screened at the 2002 event alongside millennial breakouts like Corey Yuen’s “So Close,” unheralded pop masterpieces like Fumihiko Sori’s “Ping Pong,” and what the fuck did I just witness?...

Japanese filmmaker Junji Sakamoto to receive the Screen International Star Asia Lifetime Achievement Award.

The New York Asian Film Festival (Nyaff) has revealed the features that will compete for its Uncaged Award and announced that Japanese filmmaker Junji Sakamoto will receive the Screen International Star Asia Lifetime Achievement Award.

The nine-strong competition for best feature film at the festival, running July 14-30, will include the world premieres of Hong Kong horror Back Home and Chinese films Flaming Cloud and Redemption With Life.

Back Home is a suspense horror that marks the feature directorial debut of Nate Ki and stars Anson...

Acclaimed Thai auteur Pen-ek Ratanaruang is reteaming with veteran, Asia-based cinematographer Christopher Doyle for a subversive psychological thriller set in the colorful world of Thai cuisine.

Bangkok-set film Morte Cucina follows a talented young female chef named Sao who has a chance encounter with a man who sexually abused her when she was a teen. “Using her talents in the kitchen, Sao sets her plan of revenge in motion — achieving a rather unexpected result,” the film’s logline reads.

Morte Cucina is co-written by Pen-ek and Kongdej Jaturanrasamee (Hunger, Faces of Anne). It will be Pen-ek’s first feature since his noir crime thriller Samui Song, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2017. The project reunites the Thai auteur and Doyle for the first time since their 2003 project together, Last Life in the Universe, which was Thailand’s official submission to the Oscars that year, and also won its Japanese star,...