RECENT Asian horror films

[Paff]

Guys (or girls), I'm looking for some help.

I am now the "Associate International Programmer" of the San Diego Asian Film Festival. This means I will be seeking out films from all parts of Asia for inclusion in the 2004 festival.

While we schedule all types of film, we've been lacking in the horror genre, and I hope to change that. I would appreciate if I can get some recommendations of RECENT films to check out. I've capitalized "recent", as these films must be made no longer than September of 2003. Newer would be better, and even more preferable is for these films to not be available on DVD or VHS yet. We're looking for theatrical stuff, mainly.

It would also be good if these are movies NOT from the usual Asian sources (Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, etc). Are there horror films from India? Singapore? Iran? Vietnam? Cambodia? The Phillipines?

Suggestions here are welcome. Don't worry if they're not out on video yet, that's part of my job.

[Deaddevilman]

Just out of curiosity, how long before the festival and who will be responsible for subtitling?

[chi]

There are definitely horror movies from India and Thailand.
I wouldn't necessarily recommend either.
Indian horror is easily the better of the two, but is mostly of the "hollywood ripoff" variety.

[Paff]

Just out of curiosity, how long before the festival and who will be responsible for subtitling?

Festival is not until October, but we're already starting the planning. We need to screen the films first and make decisions. The filmmakers are responsible for getting us an English subtitled copy.

[Deaddevilman]

I would suggest contacting the respective country's trade consulate at their US based embassy. They should be able to help you and they may provide funding to the film maker for the cost of subtitling.

Here's the email address to the culture department of India vvrao@indiagov.org

You can contact Thailands LA Trade Center at
(323) 466-9645 or ttcla@earthlink.net

Is this strictly a horror festival or everthing? If you could get Takeshi Kitano's new film Zatoichi, it has done well at other world wide festivals and my create good buzz for your festival. Takeshi's office number is 011-813-3588-8121. Good luck.

[chi]

Some Thai horror. More recent at the bottom. None from this year, though, I don't think. http://www.thaiworldview.com/tv/tv4.htm

http://imdb.com/title/tt0369516/ I didn't care for this one.
Lots of scenes of a woman getting raped by a ghost.

Haven't seen these:

The Unborn (Thailand) http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0369039/
Samay (India) http://imdb.com/title/tt0384491/
Sanib (Philippines) http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0369893/
Kuon puos keng kang (Cambodia) http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0308478/ oops. 2001, nevermind
Pontianak harum sundal malam (Malaysia 2004) http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0371890/
Mistik (Malaysia) http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0360799/
Tusuk jelangkung (Indonesia) http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0360118/

[Paff]

Is this strictly a horror festival or everthing? If you could get Takeshi Kitano's new film Zatoichi, it has done well at other world wide festivals and my create good buzz for your festival. Takeshi's office number is 011-813-3588-8121. Good luck.

No, it's not a horror festival at all, and I'm gonna have to jump through some hoops to get ONE horror film on the slate, but I intend on doing it. The Executive Director of the fest is not a horror fan, and we've had complaints about some violent films we've shown in the past (Shiri, Musa). I think the problem there is that we did not promote them as violent films, and some people were caught unaware. We did show Double Vision, and mentioned some of the violence, and I don't think anyone complained (pretty weird film, worth checking out)

I admit I haven't addressed the subtitle issue yet, I only know that a requirement for entry into the festival is that the films are in English, or have English subtitles.

We're just beginning the planning, but I want to hit the ground running, as I have zero experience in programming a film festival.

And thanks a lot Chi, that is exactly what I'm looking for.

The website for the festival is http://www.sdaff.org