The Asian Summer Film Festival announces all the movies in its program, which can be seen from July 18 to 23. There are a total of 46 titles among which we find 36 feature films and 10 short films from a dozen Asian countries, from Mongolia to India, including Taiwan and Hong Kong.
17 of these films will have their first international screening at the Asian Summer Film Fest and two will have their world premiere, such as In Broad Daylight. These last two titles, together with those previously announced, close an Official Competition Section of sixteen films from which this year's jury, formed by filmmakers Raquel Barrera, Paul Urkijo and Jaume Balagueró, will have to decide the winner. Tickets for the general public can be purchased starting next Monday, July 3.

Little Blue, debut film by Taiwanese director Yifang Lee, explores the first sexual and affective experiences of a girl, and does so by appealing to a luminous, sensual, sensitive and vindictive gaze. Hong Kong's In Broad Daylight, by Lawrence Kan, is a journalistic thriller, based on real events, about a case of mistreatment in homes for people with disabilities.

The most irreverent Japanese cinema returns every afternoon at L'Atlàntida. Comedy, action, fantasy and tokusatsu come together under the title #Akihabara! —the Tokyo shopping district of technology and pop culture— in a selection of five films in international and world premiere. They are Kaiju Sentai Jyükaizar. The Movie, the most expensive and ambitious film in the history of the cult production company Giga, about warriors who have to face a subway enemy that has reappeared due to climate change; UFO Intruder, about an old man who hunts UFOs with a giant spoon; Anime Supremacy! which delves into the dark side of the Japanese animation industry through two anime artists and their long-suffering creative process; Super Battle Junretsuger 2, the sequel to Junretsuger, seen at the Asian Sumer Film Fest 2022; and Good Morning Sleeping Lion, a tribute to stuntmen and actors in classic Japanese action films through the relationship established between a Japanese idol who aspires to be an actress and an undercover mercenary who pretends to be an agent.

During the festival days, the mornings at L'Atlàntida are dedicated to children and family audiences with several Chinese, Korean and Japanese animation and live-action films that demonstrate a great richness and diversity of techniques and stories. From stop-motion to traditional animation, from current films like Goodbye, Monster, which combines ancient Chinese mythology with contemporary realities, to classics restored in 4K like Hayao Miyazaki's first film, Castle of Cagliostro, which began one of the most brilliant trajectories in the history of animated film; in total, five films that will be accompanied by subsequent workshops for children.

Among the special sessions of this Asian Summer Film Fest there will be several screenings of martial arts cinema classics, such as Hong Kong's Fist of Legend, starring Jet Li and Yasuaki Kurata, or Challenge of the Tiger, an underground gem of Bruceplotation —B action cinema that overexploited the Bruce Lee phenomenon—, a co-production between Hong Kong and Spain directed and starring Bruce Le (with just one e). On Sunday, July 23, in the morning, L'Atlàntida will host the Morning Marathon, with the Chinese sci-fi and action film trio Restart the Earth, inspired by the videogame The Last of Us, in which plants threaten to extinguish humanity; Mutant Ghost Wargirl, in which a company creates mutant fighters to compete as gladiators; and The Great Arms Robbery, about the war between arms dealers and police, which draws from the classics of the Hong Kong genre. And, to close the festival, one of the best highlights. If last year was commissioned what has already become a cult work RRR, this year is another Indian film full of action and pyrotechnics that promises to rise as one of the titles of 2023: Vikram. A film directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj and starring Kamal Haasan about a terrorism case involving three men: a cop, the leader of a criminal gang and a third mysterious character. The result is a fast-paced puzzle film full of impossible twists and turns.