New York Asian Film Festival 2022, Part One: LESSON IN MURDER, LEGENDARY IN ACTION! & THE FUNERAL

This summer marks the 20th anniversary of the New York Asian Film Festival, presented by the New York Asian Film Foundation and Film at Lincoln Center. The 2022 festival lineup includes six world premieres, eight international premieres, 19 North American premieres, four U.S. premieres, and 17 East Coast/New York premieres; the films being showcased cover a broad swath of genres and hail from Hong Kong, Japan, China, South Korea, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, Mongolia, Singapore, and the United States.

Needless to say, the NYAFF is always a great chance to check out some extraordinary films that might not otherwise screen widely in this country. Read on for my thoughts on the first three films I saw as part of this year’s lineup: a dark Japanese thriller, an energetic tribute to wuxia movies from Hong Kong, and a Taiwanese horror flick that unfortunately disappointed me in a big way.

Lesson In Murder (Kazuya Shiraishi)

A chilling film that chronicles the twisted relationship between a serial killer on death row and the young law student who ends up entangled in his crimes, Lesson in Murder harkens back to one of the all-time greatest films ever made about murder, The Silence of the Lambs. And while director Kazuya Shiraishi’s latest doesn’t reach the heights of Jonathan Demme’s classic, the frighteningly charismatic performance of Sadowo Abe as the local baker with a taste for torture has shades of Hannibal Lecter and should make this film a must-see for fans of the genre.

Masaya (Kenshi Okada) is studying law at a second-rate university. His father is cruel and abusive, while his mother is so passive that she can barely contemplate a decision without asking Masaya to do it for her. In his spare time, he plays squash by himself and avoids the attention of his classmates; when he does agree to meet some of them at a bar, they show up late and make fun of him until he leaves. It’s an altogether mundane existence — until he receives a letter out of the blue from Yamato Haimura (Abe).

Haimura is currently behind bars for torturing and killing numerous high school students; when Masaya was young, he used to frequent Haimura’s bakery and was touched by the proprietor’s kindness. Haimura is bluntly unapologetic about his crimes and has admitted to almost all of them — but he claims that of the nine murders for which he was convicted, only eight were actually committed by him. The ninth didn’t fit his modus operandi; the victim was older than high school age, and her body was found strangled in the woods near Haimura’s cabin. Why would he merely strangle someone, Haimura scoffs, when he could draw out their pain with vises and pliers, as he did his other victims, and then burn their bodies to ashes? 

Masaya begins working in an unofficial capacity with Haimura’s defense lawyers to see if he can solve the mystery of the ninth murder. The resulting investigation captures his entire imagination, especially when he discovers that Haimura has unexpected ties to Masaya’s family. But being behind bars has lessened none of Haimura’s substantial powers; he is diabolical and devious and capable of manipulating nearly everyone around him — including Masaya. 

Disturbingly gory yet somehow still remarkably restrained, Lesson in Murder will draw you into its web as completely as Haimura draws Masaya into his. Abe’s performance is one for the ages; quiet, calm, and measured — and always with a gentle smile on his face — he is the killer you’d never suspect, which makes his actions all the more grotesque. Up-and-coming actor Okada suffers a bit in Abe’s substantial shadow, yet his best scenes are the ones the two share, as they attempt to unravel what each other is thinking and doing with only a pane of glass between them. (He is a bit too good-looking to be believable as the awkward and unexceptional Masaya, but I’ll let that slide.)

Shiraishi uses visual tricks, such as having footage of Haimura’s crimes projected on the wall in the background while Masaya and Haimura talk about them, to ensure that the dialogue-heavy film always maintains one’s interest. Some of the twists and turns towards the end of the film feel a bit too predictable, especially once Masaya’s family ties get involved; naturally, Masaya starts wondering if he too contains hidden darkness and behaving accordingly, squeezing every last bit of life out of those already worn-out tropes. Yet even with these weaknesses, Lesson in Murder’s tale of violence — physical, mental, and emotional — is guaranteed to haunt you long after the screen has gone dark.

Legendary in Action! (Justin Cheung and Li Ho)

Show me a person who doesn’t love wuxia — stories chronicling the adventures of martial artists in ancient China — and I’ll show you someone who doesn’t love movies. Indeed, it’s hard for me to think of a genre that so fully embraces the magic and mystery of moviemaking as wuxia, from the fantastical stunts to the honorable heroes to their incredible quests. Justin Cheung and Li Ho clearly agree: their new film, Legendary in Action!, is both an ode to classic wuxia cinema and a rallying cry to the Hong Kong film industry. And while the story itself is uneven at best, it’s impossible to not feel a surge of joy while watching it unfold. 

Down-on-his-luck director Tiger (Cheung) was once considered a rising talent in Hong Kong cinema; after a few flops, he is now directing goofy shorts full of cleavage shots to make ends meet. However, he holds onto the dream that inspired him to become a filmmaker in the first place: to remake the terrible final installment of his favorite wuxia serial from childhood. When his producer is able to secure him a budget – albeit from shifty sources—Tiger proceeds to finally make his dream a reality. But of course, nothing goes according to plan.

By chance, Tiger meets Dragon Tin (Chen Kuan-tai, a legendary wuxia star himself), the aging star of the original serial, and enlists him to play the lead in his movie. However, Dragon is suffering from dementia and doesn’t always know where he is or what he is supposed to be doing; he shows up on set and savagely attacks the stunt people with swords like a real wuxia warrior. Dragon also seems to be convinced that the film’s lead actress, a barmaid named Greta (Harriet Yeung), is actually his old co-star from the serial, who is now deceased. Throw in an overly enthusiastic pop idol making his acting debut as the film’s villain and a variety of budgetary concerns — not to mention, Tiger’s pregnant wife, who is annoyed about being constantly neglected for the sake of a film — and you have what looks like a recipe for disaster. But Tiger, exhibiting admirable tenacity, refuses to give up his dream.

The best moments in Legendary in Action! take place on set, as Tiger and company attempt to control the chaos that is their set and cobble together enough scenes to make their movie. The film is not just a love letter to wuxia, but to filmmaking in general, not to mention all of the clashing personalities that must come together to create something greater than themselves: a cinematic story that audiences will watch and enjoy, and perhaps even be inspired by. The art of filmmaking, especially on a shoestring budget, is never as easy or as glamorous as one might think, and Legendary in Action! exposes that reality for what it is. The result is an entertaining and often incredibly hilarious behind-the-scenes look at what goes into making a movie.

Where Legendary in Action! flounders is in its various subplots, designed to flesh out the characters and add some seriousness to the stories. However, these sequences pale in comparison to what happens on set and stretch some of the actors to their very limits of believability. There is one lengthy scene, in which Tiger’s wife berates him for essentially always putting film before her, which particularly grated on my nerves; the acting is over-the-top to the point of no longer eliciting empathy, and the dialogue is rife with cliche. (Not to mention, I was so invested in Tiger finishing his movie that the idea of his wife telling him to quit made me want to throw things at her, pregnancy be damned!)

The most touching of these various subplots is the burgeoning friendship between Dragon and Greta; both of them need someone to care about them, and against all odds, find that in each other. If the story had focused entirely on those two characters—the aging actor who takes his craft far too seriously, and the amateur who must learn how to be serious about something for the first time in her life — Legendary in Action! would have been a far stronger and more emotionally impactful film. As it is, it’s still a hell of a lot of fun, and a reminder of all the reasons we make (and love) movies.

The Funeral (Dan-Guei Shen)

Alas, where do I begin with The Funeral? The opening sequence of the film set me up with high expectations for the scares to follow, as our protagonist works the night shift in an empty convenience store and gets the sense that someone — or something—is there with her. The scene builds tension beautifully and includes a few great jump scares. But while I am a sucker for a good jump scare, that’s unfortunately pretty much all there is to the rest of the movie. 

Single mom Chun Hua (Selina Jen) works two jobs and yet still can barely make ends meet, let alone afford the kidney transplant surgery that her young daughter (Wu Yi Han) desperately needs. When her grandfather dies, she and her daughter leave Taipei and travel to the funeral at the country estate where she grew up; she hasn’t spoken to her family, particularly her father (Chen Yi Wen), since she left under unpleasant circumstances about a decade prior. Needless to say, she is not welcomed with open arms; only her cheerful cousin (Nadow Lin) seems happy to see her. But soon, being treated with disdain by her own family is the least of her worries.

While visiting for the funeral, Chun Hua and her daughter are both plagued with nightmarish visions, first while they sleep and then while they are awake. There are whispered rumors in town that the family is haunted, but by what, no one can really say. Needless to say, by the time the origin of the horrors is revealed, one finds it hard to care, having been exhausted by so many scenes of Chun Hua shrieking and crying. Those aforementioned jump scares grow so prevalent that one reaches a point of indifference; one doesn’t jump so much as shrug when a demonic creature lunges out of the photo Chun Hua is looking at or the blanket her daughter attempts to toss on the grandfather’s coffin rests in mid-air on an invisible being. (The special effects aren’t great, either, which doesn’t help matters.) 

The Funeral’s mix of folk horror and family drama was something I was looking forward to watching; needless to say, with the exception of a few properly creepy scenes, the end result did not live up to my expectations. With so many other intriguing-sounding films playing at this year’s NYAFF, I’d give this one a pass.

Stay tuned for more dispatches from the 2022 edition of the New York Asian Film Festival, including films from South Korea, Mongolia, and the Philippines!

What do you think? Which films in this year’s NYAFF lineup are you most looking forward to seeing? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

The 2022 New York Asian Film Festival runs July 15-31, 2022. You can find a complete schedule of screenings here.