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The only film festival in Finland focused on East and Sout-East Asian films, makes a comeback to the silver screen. We present together with Cinema Orion a series of Asian films on the big screen in July. The series includes three films which were shown at Helsinki Cine Aasia 2021 – ONLINE last Apri,l and three previously unseen films. The series starts on Tuesday July 6th, and continues until Sunday July 25th. The films will be shown at Cinema Orion, Eerikinkatu 15.

Favorites from Helsinki Cine Aasia 2021 – ONLINE
Japanese female director Ohku Akiko’s HOLD ME BACK from 2020 was the most popular film at our virtual festival, and it is a natural selection to start our series on Tuesday July 6th. RED POST ON ESCHER STREET from 2020, the new film by Sono Sion begs to be seen at cinemas, and it will be shown at Cinema Orion on Saturday July 10th. Maung Sung’s MONEY HAS FOUR LEGS from 2020 will be shown on Saturday July 17th. This Burmese film dominated the press in June by the news of it’s producer/co-screenwriter Ma Aeint’s arrest by the military regime. No one has seen or heard of her since.

Sharp newcomers
The series will be completed by 3 films that have not been seen yet in Finland. Chinese director Li Dongmei’s MAMA from 2020 follows a family who live in the countryside in the early 90’s. The storytelling feels almost like a documentary and the events of the film actually come from the director’s own life.

Harumoto Yujiro’s Japanese film A BALANCE from 2020 takes a bite of a controversial subject. A teacher has taken his life after being accused of sexually molesting a student. Yuko has been hired to make a news story for television about the events, but this eventually leads to more problems, and the subject hits too close to her home.

South Korean DAYS OF GREEN (2021) has been directed by Shin Dong-il, who visited Helsinki Cine Aasia back in 2017. Yusu and Cheongsan run from their problems for three days together. During their journey they meet interesting people and landscapes, while they form a deep connection to each other.

Schedule:
Tuesday July 6th. at 19:30 Hold Me Back
Thursday July 8th at 19:00 Mama
Saturday July 10th. at 14:00 Red Post on Escher Street
Monday July 12th at 20:00 Mama
Wednesday July 14th at 19:30 A Balance
Saturday July 17th at 14:00. Money Has Four Legs
Sunday July 18th at 16:00 Days of Green
Monday July 19th at 19:30 A Balance
Friday July 23th at 17:00 TOIVEUUSINTA
Sunday July 25th at 15:30 Days of Green

Ticket sale starts on June 29th 2021 at 10:00.
https://cinemaorion.fi/

Helsinki Cine Aasia 2021 – ONLINE has now ended but the celebration of Asian cinema goes on.

External gratitude to everyone who took part on our online festival in the past weekend. There would not be a festival without you! We were glad to see that people from all over Finland participated the festival.

Sode Yukiko’s Japanese drama ARISTOCRATS (2021) took the first place as most atched film. Japanese films HOLD ME BACK (2020) and AINU MOSIR (2020) came in second and third.

Our free additional program is still availanbe at our official YouTube channel.
Including exclusive conversations with the filmmakers of our 2021 online program and discussions about the censorship, political climate and women’s position in East and Southeast Asia.

Helsinki Cine Aasia together with Cinema Orion presents a series of Asian films on silver screen when restrictions allow it. The series includes films from the program of our online festival and some new additions. We hope to see you there in the upcoming summer. Let’s celebrate Asian culture together.
Follow our website and social media accounts for updates.

The festival will return in 2022 celebrating it’s 10th Anniversary!
Hopefully we can return to the cinemas.

Long live Asian cinema!

Helsinki Cine Aasia 2021 – ONLINE third and last day is here!

Marja-Leena Heikkilä-Horn wrote a book about the fistory of Southeast Asia which was released by Gaudeamus. Eija Niskanen, the Artistic Director of Helsinki Cine Aasia interviews Heikkilä-Horn in new exclusive conversation which is part of our 2021 program.

Check out our other free addittional program (in English) on our official YouTube channel.

Festival pass and individual tickets can be bought here!

Watch the conversation on the video below (in Finnish):

Director Maung Sun talks about the filming of Money Has Four Legs, about film censorship in Burma, and about the current political situation in his country with Eija Niskanen, the Artistic Director of Helsinki Cine Aasia.

The interview is part of the free addittional program of our ONLINE festival in 2021. More conversations like this can be found on our official YouTube channel.

Tickets to the film can be bought here!

Check out the interview on the video below:

Malaysian director Edmund Yeo’s new film MALU (2020) can be seen at this year’s festival and we had the pleasure to interview mister Yeo about his film and how his own family history affected the story of the film.

The discussion between Edmund Yeo and Eija Niskanen, the Artistic Director of Helsinki Cine Aasia is a part of our free addittional program which can be seen on our official YouTube channel.

Tickets can be bought here!

Edmund Yeo’s interview below:

Helsinki Cine Aasia 2021 – ONLINE is here!

Our online festival (April 16th – April 18th) has started. The full program can be now streamed and tickets can be bought at Festhome.

And don’t forget our free addittional program which can be found on our official YouTube channel.

The director of Company Retreat (2020) Funahashi Atsushi’s exclusive discussion with Eija Niskanen, the Artistic Director of Helsinki Cine Aasia opens up the facts behind the film. #metoo, women’s status in working life and internet bullying are strong themes on Funahashi’s new film and you can hear more about it by following the link below.

Eija Niskanen, the Artistic Director of Helsinki Cine Aasia interviewed the director of Coealesce (2020) Jessé Miceli together with the French Institute in Finland about his film which can be seen at the ONLINE festival starting tomorrow. The interview is a part of our additional program in 2021 and it is available on YouTube for everyone to see – for free. Jessé Miceli opens up about his experiences shooting a film in Cambodia and the changing landscape and society in Southeast Asia.

Tickets and info of Coalesce (2020) can be found here!

The ONLINE festival will be held from Friday April 16th until Sunday April 18th at Festhome.

Check out the interview below:

Exclusive discussions with some of the directors who made the films which are on our program this year, with our Artistic Director Eija Niskanen. And a interview with Jessé Miceli the director of Coalesce (2020) which is presented to you together with the Institut Francais.

Funasashi Atsushi the director of Company Retreat (2020) tells us about the making of the film and about the status of women in Japan. Not forgetting the #metoo movement.
Edmund Yeo who made the Japanese-Malaysian co-production Malu (2020) opens up about his family and how it affected the film.

Marja-Leena Heikkilä Horn has been teaching history and religions at the University in Thailand over 20 years and last year she released a book about the history of Southeast Asia. Join us for a conversation about the book and the situation in Burma.
We also take a deep dive into the collaboration between Finland and Burma in terms of filmmaking in a separate conversation.

Direct links to the interviews will be updated on our website and social media accounts later this week.

And don’t forget our official Spotify playlists! No better way to tune yourself to the right mood while waiting for the festival.
Helsinki Cine Aasia – Hong Kong And Beyond
Helsinki Cine Aasia – Japan City Vibes

Helsinki Cine Aasia 2021 – ONLINE will be held from Friday April 16th until SUnday April 18th 2021.

Festival vouchers and tickets are on sale now at Festhome!

Helsinki Cine Aasia 2021 – ONLINE tickets are on sale now!

The voucher which allows you to watch the full 12 film program (45€) and single tickets (7€) are now in sale on Festome platform until teh end of the festival! The online festival will be held at Festhome from Friday April 16th until Sunday April 18th 2021.

All new Festhome users are required to register (free) to the site to be able to use it. The site operates in English.

All films are available to watch throughout the whole festival from Friday April 16th until Sunday April 18th at Festhome. The films Aristocrats and Striding into the Wind both have restricted capacity so make sure to be quick with the tickets.

All films are subtitled in English. Films are only available in Finland.

Buy tickets HERE!

Check out the full program here!

It is time to reveal the full program of this year’s festival which will be held online due to the ongoing pandemic and restrictions.This time Helsinki Cine Aasia offers 12 new and intriguing films from Japan, South Korea, China, Philippines, Malaysia, Burma and Cambodia.

Films about cinema
Filmmakers and filmmaking are a big part of this years festival. Just like Sono Sion’s Red Post on Escher Street (2002), Striding into the Wind (2020) by Wei Shujun, which was part of the Cannes selection, and Money Has Four Legs (2020) by Maung Sun uses filmmaking as a driving force of their stories. Striding into the Wind follows an aimless film student trying to find imaginary freedom on a film shooting trip to Inner Mongolia. Money Has Four Legs comes from Burma and follows a young director Wai Bhone making a revised version of a classic local film. The film draws a satirical picture of filmmaking and the state of the Burmese society in the year 2020, the 100th anniversary of Burmese cinema, unfortunately just shortly before the new military coup in February 2021.

Female directors’ perspectives
Ohku Akiko’s Hold Me Back (2020), Sode Yukiko’s Aristocrats (2020) and Yoon Ga-eun’s The House of Us (2020) are all directed by women. Hold Me Back is a romantic comedy about the relationship problems in the life of a female office worker. Aristocrats contrasts a woman from Japans upper skeletons with a countryside girls efforts to make it. South Korean film The House of Us show us a friendship of Hana and the two sisters Yoo-mi and Yoo-jin over the summer which offers comradery, warmth and adventure, but also challenges that the children can only do their best to solve.

Check out the full program HERE!

All film have English subtitles and they are only available in Finland.

The online festival will be held from Friday April 16th until Sunday April 18th at Festhhome.
Ticket sale starts on Wednesday April 7th.

It’s time for our third reveal from Helsinki Cine Aasia 2021 – ONLINE program which will be released on Monday March 29th.

Hold Me Back (Watashi wo kuitomete, 2020) which is directed by Ohku Akiko and based on Wataya Risa’s novel, is a romantic comedy about a 31 year old Kudora Mitsuko, who lives a happy single life. She has an alter ego called “A”, who gives her all the answers in her life. Everything is about to change, when she falls in love.
Tokyo International Film Festival awarded Hold Me Back with an audience award last November.

Japanese director Ohku Akiko’s film Tremble All You Want (Katte ni furuetero, 2017) won the same award at Tokyo International Film Festival back in 2017.

Helsinki Cine Aasia – ONLINE will be held from Friday April 16th until Sunday April 18th 2021.

Hold Me Back trailer below.

Return to the silver screens

It has always been important for Helsinki Cine Aasia to bring the latest and brightest works from East and Southeast Asia to the big screens in Finland, and we are planning to do just that in 2021 also.

The festival together with Cinema Orion will be arranging a series of theatrical screenings including films from our online festival lineup and other new releases. The screenings will be held at Cinema Orion in Helsinki when the restrictions allow, and it is yet again safe to convene.

Helsinki Cine Aasia and Cinema Orion will release the program and timing of the series on their website and social media accounts once it is confirmed.

Helsinki Cine Aasia and Cinema Orion will release the program and timing of the series on their website and social media accounts.

Cinema Orionin website, facebook & instagram.

Our second reveal from the Helsinki Cine Aasia 2021 program is Edmund Yeo’s latest film Malu (2020).

This co-production between Malaysia and Japan is a poetic and mysterious portrayal of two sisters who have been separated from each other. Their lives are seen in different times and places, but is it possible to truly find each other? Cinematographer Pahurac Kong’s impressive shooting style combines realism with artistry.

Edmundin Yeo won the Best Director Award in 2017 at Tokyo International Film Festival with his previous feature film Aqerat. His success story began years earlier at Venice Film Festival where his short film Kingyo premiered in 2009.

Malu, which premiered at Tokyo International Film Festival last fall has been favored by the critics, now it’s our time!

The Ninth Helsinki Cine Aasia will be held online from April 16th until April 18th.

Check out the trailer:

Experience Asia from the safety of your own home!
Helsinki Cine Aasia goes ONLINE!

The only film festival of contemporary Asian cinema in Finland will be arranged for the 9th time from 16th of April until 18th of April online.
The films will be available for everyone in Finland, and you can enjoy them safely and responsibly in the comfort of your own home.

Read more