East Asian movies are very well known all over the world. Different names in different times of cinema history were fundamental for the cinematic language and they are reference points for all directors. In the mid 50s, Japan had big name directors like Kurosawa, who made movies about old samurai stories; at the same time, Ozu and his Japanese”slice of life” realism, represented another side of Japanese cinema.  

During this time, Hong Kong created two studios to build upon the action genre boom happening all over the world, with technicians migrating from Shanghai due to the war. This was the moment for kung fu movies, a new version of action movies.

Decades passed and Taiwanese directors, exhausted by the over abundance of action films pumped out of Japan and Hong Kong strived to create a new unique point of view.

This was the moment for Edward Yang, Hou Hsiao-Hsien and other names of the Taiwanese New Wave movement to express themselves. Loneliness was a new subject to discuss at that time. And while they were doing it in Taiwan, Wong Kar-wai emerged with his unique point of view on loneliness and love in Hong Kong.

Suddenly the new millennium arrived and Park Chan-wook in Korea directed Sympathy for Mr Vengeance in 2002, and Old Boy (2003), both huge successes all over the world. 

These are some big East Asian names, all known throughout the film industry. Of course, there are other big directors not reported here. Peter Chan, Lee Chang-dong, Kenji Mizoguchi, Hayao Miyazaki… but how many East Asian women directors do you know?

That is the point. Women directors were in film movement history, they made their movies side by side with men, however, their names are only in specific books or lists of movies made by women.

Despite the film industry is big, the way for women directors is hard, not only in Asia. However, we understand that the film industry is not as interested in promoting these names to the rest of the world as they do with the names of male directors. And if there is no support from Western industries to bring up these names, this needs to be addressed either by the directors themselves or by those interested in the matter.

One of the most difficult things related to this topic is access to the movies. Usually not available on streaming platforms, you need to find different ways to watch them. So this list is a list of directors who broke out and their movies can be found relatively easily. This essay was written in the Western world, and access is different in comparison to other world areas.

1. ORGAN (オルガン)
   Kei Fujiwara (1996)

   (Horror, Drama)
   

Starting with the Japanese director Kei Fujiwara. Kei is an actress and also director, who worked with Shinya Tsukamoto in his film Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989).

Kei was the cinematographer and costume designer in the movie, and seven years later she debuted as a director with Organ in 1996. A horror-slasher film, Kei was credited as screenwriter, director, cinematographer, producer and designer. A lot of the visuals of the movie are too explicit to share but the story of the movie focuses on two detectives who infiltrate a group of black market human organ dealers and yakuza gangsters.

2. ID
Kei Fujiwara (2005)

(Thriller/Crime Thriller)

The same director made another slasher film called ID in 2005, her second and up until now last film.

Kei was credited as screenwriter, director, cinematographer and also editor. A movie with a lot of blood and more explicit than Organ, ID has a more experimental story and is not linear. Divided up into chapters connecting religion with humanity, and humanity with animals.

Same as Organ, ID is an underground, indie-horror film.

3. Women’s Private Parts
Wong Chun Chun (2000)

(Documentary)

In 2000, the actress and director Wong Chun Chun (Barbara) decided to make a documentary about women in Hong Kong.

What do women talk about when they are alone? That is the subject of Women’s Private Parts.

All the crew were made up of women, and we follow Barbara, interviewing actresses, old women, teenagers, lesbians, prostitutes, and even the director Ann Hui.

This movie is very interesting giving an insight into what women were thinking about during the beginning of the new century. 

4. A Simple Life
Ann Hui (2011)

(Drama)

Talking about Ann Hui, the big name of the Hong Kong New Wave, her name is related to different film genres, low budgets and big productions.

Ann Hui has notable works in romance, dramas, comedies and also war films.

With a very important autobiographical film called ‘Song of the Exile’ (1990), one of her most acclaimed movies, Ann talks about the background of the Second World War and 70s Hong Kong. Although, one of her most recent works, a low budget film called A Simple Life (2011), with Deanie Ip and Andy Lau, talks about the (literally) simple life of a woman who is a film producer family's lifelong servant. Their close connection like family highlights an interesting point about family and relationships.

This film won a lot of awards all over the world, including the Hong Kong Film Awards, Venice International Film Festival, Golden Horse Awards and others.

5. Visible Sectret
Ann Hui (2001)

(Horror/Comedy Horror)

Hong Kong director, Ann Hui, transports us to a world full of mystery, surrealism and terror. The story focuses on an unemployed hairdresser and a nurse who meet one night at a disco and share a night together. The next day she disappears, and many bizarre and sinister things start happening to the eccentric hairdresser, mixing and not knowing how to differentiate the real world from the world of ghosts.

Ann Hui is a film director, producer, screenwriter and actress from China. She moved to Hong Kong when she was young, where she studied at university, to then study for two years at the London Film School. In 1979 she directed her first feature film, "The Secret".

His work is known for films that deal with social issues and for his thrillers.

6. Hide and Seek
Kayoko Asakura (2013)

(Fantasy, Drama)

"Hide and Seek" is a short film by Japanese director Kayoko Asakura. 
The plot centres around a student who visits a Koto lesson (Japan's national instrument) at a private teacher’s house. Upon arrival, everything is apparently normal until the student realizes that the teacher and her son are playing the Hide and Seek game. After that, she begins to notice a strange atmosphere and strange behaviours of the house's inhabitants.

Kayoko Asakura is a Japanese screenwriter, director, editor and producer based in Tokyo. Kayoko is a brilliant storyteller and has received rave reviews for all of her work. Her most ambitious work was her first feature film, "It's a Beautiful Day", with American production.

7. Bends
Flora Lau (2013)

(Drama)

Another Hong Kong film is Bends directed by Flora Lau in 2013.

She is a young director with three short movies and only one feature film.

This film has big actors like Carina Lau and Chen Kun and the cinematographer is Christopher Doyle, who directed the photography of many of Wong Kar-wai’s movies.

The film's story draws a parallel between a rich woman who has lost her husband and has no more fortune, and her chauffeur who needs to raise money to take care of his wife who is about to give birth to her second child.

8. Tempting Heart
Sylvia Chang (1999)

(Romance/Drama)

Sylvia Chang is a Taiwanese director who started her career as an actress.

She collaborated with several big names like Edward Yang, Derek Yee, Ang Lee among others.

Her work as a director became well known with Passion in 1986, her debut film, which gave her a nomination for Best Directing at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards.

Chang works in Taiwan and Hong Kong, countries known for their dramatic films. Her movie Tempting Heart (1999) mixes memory, reality and fantasy to discuss a love triangle with a man and a woman who loves the same woman. With three different timelines, she manages to cross all points and explain them in the end, and the film has actors like Takeshi Kaneshiro and Chang herself.

9. Eko Eko Azarak: Wizard of Darkness
Shimako Sato (1995)

(Horror/World Cinema)

Eko Eko Azarak: Wizard of Darkness is a Japanese movie based on the manga by Shinichi Koga.

This manga has been brought to real life 6 times, and the one we are talking about here is the one directed by the writer and director Shimako Sato in 1995.

The story revolves around a girl named Misa Kuroi; she arrives new to high school just when a curse falls on it. Secretly she has supernatural powers and comes to protect her classmates and school from the devil spirits, but at the same time, everyone suspects that she is the culprit of such a misfortune.

Shimako Satō was born in 1964 in Iwate, Japan. She studied filmmaking at the International Film School in London and is known for Tale of a Vampire (1992) and Eko Eko Azarak II: Birth of the Wizard (1996).

10. Little Forest
Yim Soon-rye (2018)

(Drama/Comedy)

Moving to Korea, Yim Soon-rye is an important name for the Korean New Wave, belonging to the first generation of Korean female filmmakers.

She helped to build the Centre for Gender Equality in Korean Film and she also holds an important position within the film industry in relation to the importance of women’s representation within it.

Her debut film Three Friends (1996) talked about Korean masculinity.

Yim is an animal rights activist and in 2018 she directed Little Forest, an adaptation of a Japanese novel, that talked about food, peaceful life and the connection between humans and nature. Soon-rye decided to make this movie with a low budget “to offer this soothing and healing tool to the young generation in Korea” (her own words in an interview for Asian Movie Pulse). 

11. Microhabitat
Jeon Go-Woon (2017)

(Drama/Romance)

Jeon Go-Woon is a young Korean director.

At 36 years, Go-Woon won first prize in the Asian Short Film & Video Competition at the Seoul International Women’s Film Festival with her short film titled Too Bitter to Love in 2008.

Motivated to help young filmmakers in the Korean film industry, she created KwangHwaMoon cinema, an independent collective, well known on the festival circuits.

Her only feature film, Microhabitat (2018), talks about a young girl who had a rock band and now has only two loves, whiskey and cigarettes. The film creates a parallel between past and present, discussing friendship, future and economic issues. Microhabitat was nominated in several festivals in Korea, winning Blue Dragon Awards, Buil Film Awards, Grand Bell Awards, etc.

12. Butterfly Sleep
Jeong Jae-eun (2017)

(Drama/Melodrama)

A collaboration between Japan and South Korea, Butterfly Sleep (2017) is a film that marks the return of Korean director Jeong Jae-eun.

Jae-eun made some shorts in her career, and her first feature film, Take Care of My Cat (2001), was nominated for several awards, like the Grand Prix, winning festivals like the KNF Award in Rotterdam. Butterfly Sleep is an interesting film, which takes place in Japan, focusing on a female writer who falls in love with a young aspiring writer. However, she has alzheimers and their relationship suffers because of it.

The film delicately touches the subject of the disease, making everything very real. The presentation of the situation is very naturalistic and the viewer follows the progress of the disease in real time.

13. True Mothers
Naomi Kawase (2020)

(Drama)

To end this list, Naomi Kawase and her last film, True Mothers (2020).

Kawase’s works have an interesting point of view on life as the characters' lives are seen close up.

She has made some documentaries in the past, but even her fictional films still have a connection with a documentary style, discussing real themes in fictional stories and her principal topics involve family and friends.

True Mothers is about a family that decides to adopt a child. At the same time, the film also follows the life of the child's biological mother. In this film Kawase discusses different economic lives, and how it impacts a person. It is an important point of view about society and social class.

WORDS BY SHAY ESTERIAN