Asian docs about Asia

In this autobiographical documentary, filmmaker Naomi Kawase seeks to reach her mother and father who abandoned her at birth.

Kawase tries to come to terms with her late father, whom she never knew when growing up, and contemplates getting a tattoo like his.

The elderly people living in the forest areas of the Yoshino Mountains and the village of Nishi-Yoshino are resilient loners. Kawase records them in their daily activities, revealing their humorous and frank philosophies about hard work, isolation, loneliness, and growing old. One woman dryly says, "Turn your camera off, being old is not entertaining." Another adds philosophically, "The wind will blow, the future will come. Without suffering there is no happiness."

In the canal-lined town of Yanagawa, residents devote themselves to preserving their waterways. Director Takahata documents this community's efforts over three years, shifting his original animated film idea to a live-action documentary.

A documentary about the life and art of wood-block artist Katsushika Hokusai.

The history and art of ikebana, a centuries old Japanese art of flower arrangement and a look inside the Sogetsu School of Ikebana, where the director's father Sofu Teshigahara worked as the grand master of the school.

Eight filmmakers collaborate with Teshigahara to bring a newsreel-style snapshot of Tokyo in 1957-58, when it had eight and a half million people and was the largest city in the world. The industry of the people is evident, with Katsushika Hokusai's woodcuts interspersed with shots of contemporary workers. We watch women give a makeup demonstration, we visit bridal stores, and we see a young woman win a rock and roll singing contest and follow her home with her prizes; we go to the Ginza on Christmas Eve, with bars and nightclubs full tilt, and we join the throng at the Meiji shrine on New Year's Day. Some surreal touches add comedy to underscore Tokyo's energy and life.

"Fatma of the Forest" documentary, screened in 1979, International Year of Children, reflects life, longings and a major "fear" in her subconscious of an 12-years old "woodcutter" girl living under very hard conditions in the forests of Toros Mountains at an altitude of approximately 2000 mt. The documentary, aiming to symbolize a little-known but common practice of child labor with Fatma, accomplishes a dramatic portrayal of laborers who work for Ministry of Forestry in works of lumbering and logging, totally deprived of social security. In the documentary, alongside with the daily lives of the woodcutters, Semah Dance, one of the most important elements of the folklore of woodcutters, is the final act. The Semah Dance symbolizes a "resistance" that was started about 400 year ago by the famous folk poet Pîr Sultan Abdal.

With ages ranging from 64 to 104, the film "When the Fog Dispelled" documents nine artisans who constructed many of these houses. Also revealing aspects of traditional Eastern Black Sea life.

Examing the daily life of an elderly woman in rural Japan allows Sokurov to evoke how folkways (Japanese and Russian) shape our worldview.

A portrait of the widow of writer Toshio Shimao, living on an isolated island with her disabled daughter, shunning comforts and other company.

Independent Chinese documentary by Wu Wenguan following and interviewing a group of young artists around the time of the events Tiananmen about their lives and careers.

Stanley Kwan examines queer themes in Chinese film for this insightful documentary, produced for the British Film Institute's "Century of Cinema" series. Using film clips, personal recollections, and interviews with film luminaries (including Ang Lee, Tsui Hark, Chen Kaige and Leslie Cheung), Kwan demonstrates how Chinese cinema has challenged gender norms for years, while asserting his own sexuality in a poignant conversation with his mother.

The film follows a group of drug addicts.

Armed with video cameras, twelve artists present a highly stylized portrait of SAN YUAN LI, a traditional village besieged by China's urban sprawl. China's rapid modernization literally traps the village of San Yuan Li within the surrounding skyscrapers of Guangzhou, a city of 12 million people. The villagers move to a different rhythm, thriving on subsistence farming and traditional crafts. They resourcefully reinvent their traditional lifestyle by tending rice paddies on empty city lots and raising chickens on makeshift rooftop coops. Directed by acclaimed visual artists Ou Ning and Cao Fei and commissioned by the Venice Biennale, SAN YUAN LI explores the modern paradox of China's economic growth and social marginalization.

Delamu ¨C Tibetan for "Peace Angel". Since ancient times, China's two primary land routes connecting it to the outside world have been the Silk Road in the north, and Tea Horse-Road in the south. The mountain village of Bingzhongluo-Tibetan for "Village of Tibetans" is located on the high plateau of western Yunnan Province, at the foot of Gaoligong Mountain. Traveling along the Nujiang River, one can reach the southern Tibetan border town of Chawalong-Tibetan for "Valley of Dry Heat." But with no roads connecting the two places, since ancient times the transport of all goods and supplies has relied entirely on horse caravans. The journey of more than 90 kilometers zigzags through high mountain slopes, dense forests, gorges and wastelands. Year-round caravans have plied the Tea-Horse Road, traversing the Hengduan Mountains, packing tea, salt, grains and other provisions. Traveling upstream along the Three Rivers, the route reaches Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, India and Western Asia, ultimately linking to Europe. Traveling downstream along the Three Rivers, the route reaches Southeast Asia and the South Pacific. Created more than two thousand years ago, the Tea-Horse Road is the highest and most perilous of the world's ancient routes, and to this day still show vibrant signs of life. This film is a record of the Tea-Horse Road, the caravans of the Nujiang River Valley, and the aboriginal peoples who live there -- Mm. Ding who has a family with 15 members speaking 6 languages, a pastor who was jailed for 15 years for his believing, a 104 years old lady who walks through 3 centuries, a village head whose wife run away, a caravan who shares one wife with his elder brother, a young lama in the Buddhist temple who feels lonely sometimes, a 82 years old caravan leader whose story is a legend of the Tibetan caravans¡­

About people around fashion and clothing industry in China.

In a small town near China's North Korea border, a state police station exerts itself as a solicitous caretaker of the locals. As it goes out to catch criminals and punish them too, professionalism fades into the background.

A couple embarks on a journey home for Chinese new year along with 130 million other migrant workers, to reunite with their children and struggle for a future. Their unseen story plays out as China soars towards being a world superpower.

It is a fantastic documentary about Chinese govt's systemic oppression and persecution toward ordinary folk who petition the government.

Focuses on the people, their stories and architecture spanning from the mid-1800s, when Shanghai was opened as a trading port, to the present day.

Documenting Taiwan from an aerial perspective offering a glimpse of Taiwan's natural beauty as well as the effect of human activities and urbanization on our environment.

'Yumen' combines ghost stories and the 'ruin tourism' to form a celluloid psychocollage of wandering souls, seeking connection to each other and a lost collective history among the frozen remnants of the abandoned oil town of Yumen in China's north-west Gansu province.