AAVCLUB @ AFS Cinema

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Applicable for additional showtimes of the films listed below as well. Check AFS Cinema schedule for most updated showtimes.

THE MOST TERRIBLE TIME IN MY LIFE

The Maiku Hama Trilogy

Directed by Kaizo Hayashi | Japan
1993, 1h 32min, DCP, In Japanese with English subtitles.

May 10, 13 | Launching the trilogy with a mix of black-and-white noir and pop‑art swagger, THE MOST TERRIBLE TIME IN MY LIFE channels the wild energy of Seijun Suzuki and the gumshoe grit of Mickey Spillane. When Maiku Hama saves a Taiwanese immigrant, he’s dragged into a spiraling pan-Asian, brother‑against‑brother gang feud, turning Yokohama’s backstreets into a battleground of divided loyalties — in deadpan style. Featuring special appearances by Shinya Tsukamoto (dir. TETSUO, THE IRON MAN) and Joe Shishido (star of BRANDED TO KILL).

CHUNGKING EXPRESS

Directed by Wong Kar Wai | Hong Kong
1994, 1h 42min, DCP, In Cantonese and Mandarin with English subtitles.

“CHUNGKING EXPRESS is one of Wong’s purest evocations of love’s excitement and heartbreak.”
—Slant

May 15, 16, 18 | Love is sweet, but for one pineapple-loving officer, it’s turned as sour as the expired fruit he’s vowed to eat for a month — or at least until his ex-girlfriend returns, whichever comes first. Thus begins the dual tale of two jilted Hong Kong cops (Takeshi Kaneshiro and Tony Leung Chiu-wai) who cross paths with two very different women (Brigitte Lin and Faye Wong). A total charmer from master stylist Wong Kar-wai.

THE STAIRWAY TO THE DISTANT PAST

The Maiku Hama Trilogy

Directed by Kaizo Hayashi | Japan
1995, 1h 41min, DCP, In Japanese with English subtitles.

May 17, 20 | The trilogy’s second entry finds Maiku Hama now in full color, without a car, cash‑strapped but undeterred and taking on small‑time cases, including searching for missing dogs, only to land squarely in the middle of a turf war on the Yokohama waterfront. When a famed exotic dancer tied to his past resurfaces, the city’s criminal undercurrents threaten to pull him back into danger. Featuring Shirô Sano (TO SLEEP SO AS TO DREAM) and Eiji Okada (WOMAN IN THE DUNES, HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR).

Silent friend

Directed by Ildikó Enyedi | Germany/France/Hungary
2025, 2h 27min, DCP, In German, Cantonese, and English with English subtitles.

“Mesmerizing … Unforgettable … the kind of film that will make you start talking to your plants.”
—Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine

“With an outlook disarmingly poised between the dreamy and the matter-of-fact, it presents a different way of seeing, and indeed feeling, the world around us, and merely invites its audience to follow along.”
—Guy Lodge, Variety

May 22, 23, 24 | The highly acclaimed new feature from Hungarian master Ildikó Enyedi stars Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Léa Seydoux, Luna Wedler and a very special tree — yes, you read that right — in a film unlike any you’ve seen before.

On the grounds of a medieval German university town looms an imposing Ginkgo biloba, a tree whose longevity stands in marked contrast to three intimate, human-scaled stories. In 1908, the university’s first female student gains admission into the prestigious botany department, confronting the sexism of both professors and peers.

In 1972, amidst counterculture movements, a reserved student finds his attention captured by a fellow housemate and the geranium plant she studies. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, a neuroscientist from Hong Kong secures the help of a renowned botanist for an experiment on the old ginkgo tree.

THE TRAP

The Maiku Hama Trilogy

Directed by Kaizo Hayashi | Japan
1996, 1h 46min, DCP, In Japanese with English subtitles.

May 24, 27 | In this trilogy’s final chapter, Masatoshi Nagase (MYSTERY TRAIN, P.P. RIDER) pulls double-duty as a wave of murders leaves Yokohama on edge and Maiku Hama the prime suspect. Forced into hiding, he races to unmask the real killer while evading the city’s increasingly hostile police force. A tense, stylish finish to Hayashi’s delightfully offbeat trilogy. Featuring a special appearance by Joe Shishido (star of BRANDED TO KILL and YOUTH OF THE BEAST) and Tetta Sugimoto (PORNOSTAR).

THE HEIGHT OF THE COCONUT TREES

Directed by Du Jie | Japan
2024, 1h 40min, DCP, In Japanese with English subtitles.

“THE HEIGHT OF THE COCONUT TREES is enigmatic and elliptical, but it’s delivered with utmost confidence and beauty by Du, who makes an impressive feature debut rife with truths that speak a universal language.”
—In Review

“The visuals from Chinese-born writer/director Du Jie are as graceful and inventive as you might expect from an established cinematographer with the likes of MOON MAN and THE WASTED TIMES on his CV.”
—Screendaily

May 25, 27 | A ring found inside the belly of a fish connects two couples separated by time in Chinese cinematographer Du Jie’s Japan‑set debut. Both ghostly and tender, it transforms sorrow into narrative and offers a deep reflection on the lasting imprint of those we’ve lost.

DAYS AND NIGHTS IN THE FOREST

Directed by Satyajit Ray | India
1970, 1h 57min, DCP, In Bengali with English subtitles.

“Satyajit Ray’s seriocomic delight DAYS AND NIGHTS IN THE FOREST sharply demonstrates that even when getting away from it all, you can never escape your own hopelessly wretched self.”
—4Columns

“DAYS AND NIGHTS IN THE FOREST… the very title rings with enchantment, and the old Ray magic is soon at work again … A poetic masterpiece.”
—Sight and Sound

Jun. 1, 3, 6 | One of writer-director-composer Satyajit Ray’s best and heretofore least accessible films is back in a new restoration. Four cosmopolitan sophisticates from Kolkata attempt to go “back to the garden” — a popular pursuit in the Age of Aquarius. The quartet finds many of their assumptions about rural/urban divisions (and, importantly, caste divisions) shattered in this breezy but multilayered comedy of manners and self-discovery. Free Member Monday — free admission for all AFS members on Monday, June 1.

TAKE CARE OF MY CAT

Directed by Jae-eun Jeong | South Korea
2001, 1h 52min, DCP, In Korean with English subtitles.

“Compassion, a keen eye for urban landscape, and a dollop of whimsy … an enrapturing turn on an old theme.”
—Newsday

“A WINNER.”
—Screen International

Jun. 3, 5, 10 | To be free … to find success … to never be apart … When you were twenty, what did you dream of? Five school friends cling to their bond as they face uncertain futures in the port city of Incheon, especially when one girl’s big city ambitions take her to Seoul. Determined not to drift apart, they communally adopt a cat and share caregiving responsibilities, passing it from girl to girl in an attempt to stay connected. But can the promises of youth survive the realities of adulthood? Starring Bae Doona (LINDA LINDA LINDA) and celebrating its 25th anniversary, this female‑written and directed debut sprang from a desire to portray modern women rarely seen on screen. Decades on, it still feels groundbreaking.

MISHIMA: A LIFE IN FOUR CHAPTERS

Directed by Paul Schrader | Japan
1985, 2h 1min, DCP, In Japanese and English with English subtitles.

Jun. 11, 15 | Paul Schrader’s homage to the great, doomed Japanese author Yukio Mishima is told in great, mad, colorful sequences that depict stories from Mishima’s oeuvre and which contrast with the realistic sequences that show the troubled Mishima’s conflicted life and death. A startling, ambitious project that has come to be appreciated as one of the best films of its era.

RUBBER’S LOVER

Directed by Shozin Fukui | Japan
1996, 1h 31min, DCP, In Japanese with English subtitles.

Jun. 12, 13 | Like a twisted cousin to the cyberpunk classic TETSUO: THE IRON MAN, Shozin Fukui’s RUBBER’S LOVER is a chaotic, grotesque, and unrelenting eruption from the mind behind 964 PINOCCHIO. When an underground research team abducts unwitting subjects in a bid to unlock their psychic powers, using chemical and sensory overload to push the limits of the body and mind, they usher in a new world where all boundaries are meant to be broken. A visceral piece of extreme cinema on par with SINGAPORE SLING and the works of Gaspar Noé. Not for the faint of heart. Now remastered in 4K.

PURANA MANDIR

Directed by Tulsi Ramsay and Shyam Ramsay | India
1984, 2h 55min, DCP, In Hindi with English subtitles.

Jun. 13, 17 | Even many enthusiasts of Bollywood cinema are unfamiliar with the Ramsay Brothers, who are kind of like the Hindi-language equivalent of Sam Raimi, Tobe Hooper, Wes Craven, and George Romero rolled into one. This is a wild one and one of their biggest hits. There is a family curse. There is a half-man, half-latex monster. There is a terrifying haunted temple. And, since this is a Bollywood film, of course there’s an outstanding music score with song and dance sequences.

Memories of Murder

Directed by Bong Joon-ho | South Korea
2003, 2h 11min, DCP, In Korean with English subtitles.

“It’s an altogether remarkable piece of work, deepening the genre while whipping its skin off, satirizing an entire nation’s nearsighted apathy as it wonders, almost aloud, about the nature of truth, evidence, and social belonging.”
—The Village Voice

Jun. 20, 21, 22 | A true modern masterpiece and one of the most visionary updates of the crime genre. Bong Joon Ho reimagines the policier with his darkly comic take on a true unsolved Korean murder mystery.