New York Asian Film Festival 2023: BEAR MAN, KITTY THE KILLER & I LOVE YOU, BEKSMAN

With the wide range of genres on offer at the New York Asian Film Festival — including critically acclaimed dramas, high-octane action films, and swoon-worthy romances — it’s always worthwhile to check out some comedies. Read on for my thoughts on some zany, high-energy films from South Korea, Thailand, and the Philippines that are screening at this year’s festival.

Bear Man (Park Sung-kwang)

The debut feature from director and comedian Park Sung-kwang, Bear Man (Woongnami in Korean) takes its inspiration from the myth that bears become humans after eating garlic and mugwort. After two Asiatic bear brothers do this, they are instantly transformed; one is adopted by the research scientist who was monitoring the bears, the other by a powerful criminal who raises the bear-boy to be a lethal killer. Both bear men are played by Park Sung-woong (New World, The Swindlers), and it’s his keen ability to play broad comedy as well as bombastic action that is the highlight of this eccentric genre-mashup.

The majority of Bear Man takes place 25 years after the bear boys are found as babies. Yet while Na Woong-nam might only be in his mid-twenties, he appears much older due to his bear-like metabolism, which also leads him to involuntarily pass out-slash-hibernate after a big meal. He also has incredible strength and is more comfortable diving into a river to catch fish bare-handed than engaging in human hobbies. His best friend, a wannabe Internet star and convenience store worker named Mal-bong (Lee Yi-kyung, who earns most of the film’s laughs), enjoys documenting these unusual exploits on his phone for views. Woong-nam’s other close friend is Na-ra (Baek Ji-hye), with whom he used to work when he was a traffic cop with the local police department; the real reasons why Woong-nam lost his job remain vague until midway through the film.

However, Woong-nam is given the chance to get his old job back when it is discovered that he is the doppelganger of Lee Jung-haek, a key henchman of a powerful crime boss. Woong-nam undergoes in-depth training so that he can masquerade as Jung-haek and infiltrate the criminal enterprise, with the promise of reinstatement into the police department if he succeeds. However, despite the two men being bear brothers, their human selves could not be less alike; where Woong-nam is cheerful and goofy, Jung-haek is dour and deadly. If Woong-nam fails in his mission, he’ll not only lose any chance of regaining his job (and his self-respect), he’ll also put everyone he cares about in great danger.

As you might expect from a film about men who are actually bears, the comedy of Bear Man is broad to the point of being almost infantile, including one particularly cringeworthy scene in which Woong-nam admonishes the local herd of (very CGI) wild boar for eating crops. What you might not expect is how intense the action scenes are, with our super-strong protagonist(s) taking on gangs of opponents at a time and dispatching them, if not with ease, then with remarkable skill. The relationships between Woong-nam and his family and friends, who accept him despite his obvious strangeness (which they have no problem believing is due to his true bear nature), add some sweetness to help you swallow all of the ridiculousness. Still, it’s Park Sung-woong’s impressive dual performances that are the main reason for watching Bear Man; he’s game for anything, an attitude that has a pleasant effect on the audience.

Kitty the Killer (Lee Thongkam)

A blood-soaked send-up of Asian action thrillers with a substantial dose of outrageous Thai humor, Kitty the Killer chronicles the misadventures of an office drone named Charlie (Denkhun Ngamnet), who is the unlikely choice to become the new mentor of a lethal all-female assassin squad. After undergoing a rigorous training process at the hands of his new charges — one who is so young that she wouldn’t be allowed into a movie theater to watch simulated versions of the brutal violence she helps dole out — Charlie must help the Kitties get revenge on the double-crossers who engineered the death of his predecessor… but will he be up for the challenge?

Charlie’s predecessor, known by the code name Grey Fox (Somchai Kemglad), was employed by a shady espionage group called The Agency, which picks out young orphan girls and educates them in the art of assassination. When they’re deemed ready, the girls — known as Kitties — are assigned to handlers like Grey Fox, who manage their assignments so the Kitties can focus on, well, killing. But Grey Fox meets his doom after getting involved in a side quest of a personal nature involving a mysterious stone that may or may not have magnificent healing powers. Why was Grey Fox trying to track down this stone? Does it have something to do with Dina (Ploypailin Thangprapaporn), the Kitty that he loves like a daughter?

If you’re not already a fan of Thai comedies, or at least familiar with their frenetic nature, you’ll probably find Kitty the Killer hard to handle; everyone involved is giving the absolute most, especially Ngamnet as doofus Charlie, and it can often be a bit overwhelming. The film is divided up into chapters and includes colorful animated sequences that make it feel like a comic book come to life, though some chapters lead the film off into such wild subplots that one may be a bit confused until it all somehow comes together at the end. I say somehow because, when it comes down to it, Kitty the Killer really doesn’t make much sense.

Still, the fight scenes involving the Kitties are pretty fun, and all of the actresses playing the various assassins are quite good, including Keetapat Pongruea as the littlest Kitty (really, more of a kitten, though one capable of electroshocking Charlie into submission). There’s an epilogue that implies the potential of future installments, though by the time the film was over I was too exhausted from it all to contemplate even more Kitty the Killer. Still, now that I’ve had time to recover, I’d be curious to see where the story goes from here…and if the narrative will be easier to follow in any sequels.

I Love You, Beksman (Percival M. Intalan)

One of my favorite films from last year’s NYAFF was the pitch-black Filipino satire Big Night!, which follows a gay beautician’s quest to survive after his name is mistakenly added to a list of local drug addicts — something that can get you killed during the Philippines’ intense war on drugs. Big Night! combines comedy with shrewd political commentary to tell an immensely entertaining story, anchored by a delightful performance from acclaimed actor Christian Bables in the leading role. So, when I saw that this year’s NYAFF boasted yet another Filipino comedy starring Bables, I immediately marked it as one of my most anticipated in this year’s lineup.

Fortunately, the film in question delivers in a big, bold, and beautiful way. Directed by Percival M. Intalan and written by Fatrick Tabada, I Love You, Beksman is a vibrant rom-com in which Bables plays Dali, a talented dress designer and makeup artist raised by his gay father, Jaime (Keempee de Leon), his mother, Gemma (Katya Santos), and the cavalcade of talented queers who work in the family’s boutique and salon. The assumption is that Dali, with his flamboyant style and feminine mannerisms, is gay as well — after all, how could he not be? But Dali has always known he is straight, and when he meets gorgeous Angel (Iana Bernardez) backstage at a beauty pageant where he is styling a rival contestant, he falls in love at first sight.

The problem? Literally, everyone, including Angel, thinks Dali is gay and refuses to believe otherwise, no matter how many times he says so. So, in order to convince Angel and her macho family — including her garage owner father and three gym-rat brothers — that he’s straight, Dali attempts a transformation, ditching his colorful button-downs for staid polo shirts and spending more time in the gym than in the salon. But this isn’t who Dali really is, and it shows. I Love You, Beksman sends up such stereotypes by showing us there is no one way to be straight or gay — and hey, why wouldn’t you want a boyfriend who knew how to make you as beautiful as Dali does, anyways?

I Love You, Beksman is essentially a reverse coming-out tale as Dali struggles to deal with, among many other things, his gay father’s refusal to accept his heterosexuality; the dialogues between them are reminiscent of every scene in which a queer kid must come out to their straight-laced parents, and equal parts heartbreaking and hilarious. These scenes pointedly satirize society’s refusal to accept people for who they are, showing us how ridiculous such attitudes are by reflecting them from another, unexpected angle. Bables and de Leon, who are the standouts in an altogether great cast, excel in these moments, ensuring that you’ll feel tears as well as laughs welling up inside you each time. In one of the film’s best scenes, Dali invites Angel and her family to dinner, asking Jaime to pretend to be straight for just one night. Naturally, things don’t go according to plan, and despite the comedy of it all, there is also an element of sadness; as Jaime says to Dali afterward, it’s not exactly easy for him to put himself back in the closet, even for the sake of his son.

Shot in bold, bright colors that reflect the outré personalities of the characters that populate this world, with a soundtrack chock full of cheery pop tunes, I Love You, Beksman is an absolute delight. My one quibble with the film is that I never really believed that Angel liked Dali as more than a friend, even after she learned he was straight; she never appears as drawn to him as he is to her, seemingly more interested in him as a stylist than as a significant other. As the film progressed, I found myself wanting Dali to explore his burgeoning heterosexuality with a different girl, one who would be as invested in their relationship as he was. Still, even with this weakness in the film’s central romance, I couldn’t help but adore I Love You, Beksman. It’s an incredibly moving story about the struggle to overcome societal expectations and be true to one’s self.

The 2023 New York Asian Film Festival runs from July 14-30 at Film at Lincoln Center in New York, with a special weekend of screenings July 21-23 at the Barrymore Film Center in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Learn more about this year’s lineup and purchase tickets here.