Gouzi

Tourists, foreigners and outcasts converge on the streets of Osaka in this sprawling ensemble drama by Japan-based, Malaysia-born filmmaker Lim Kah Wai. His eighth feature explores the lesser-known aspects of the Asian melting pot city through the eyes and experiences of a dozen characters who struggle to find their place in society: among them a Nepali refugee with dreams of opening a restaurant, a Burmese student struggling to make ends meet while working two jobs, and a Taiwanese sex tourist who travels to meet his favorite adult video actress.

Zhao-ping, a young Chinese artist, lives in an artists’ community near Bejing with his Japanese girlfriend Hana. One day he sees a black square floating in the sky. When the object lands, a bewildered naked man appears from it. He looks Japanese, but he doesn’t know who he is, or where he came from. Zhao-ping takes him under his wing. Is it an alien visitor? Then how is it possible that everyone the stranger meets thinks they know him from somewhere?

Ah Jie returns to his hometown after several years and soon realizes that no one remembers him. Even his family denies his relationship to them. Depressed, Ah Jie meets Lao Huang, who tells Ah Jie that he can help uncover the truth to why no one recognizes him.

Thomas is trekking in some remote but scenic Chinese backwater and, lost, is taken in by Mao. Neither speak the other’s language, and comic miscommunication rules as Thomas arrogantly demands service, and Mao does his best to oblige.

Mid-Afternoon Barks is a surrealist triptych of stories that take place in Beijing, all involving the installation of electrical poles.