Twelve year old Zaffan lives in a small rural community in Malaysia. In full puberty, she realizes that her body is changing at an alarming rate. Her friends turn away from her when a mass hysteria hits the school. Fear spreads and a doctor intervenes to chase away the demon that haunts the girls. Like a tiger harassed and dislodged from its habitat, Zaffan decides to reveal its true nature, its fury, its rage and its beauty.
Shy and sweet-natured Zijie spends his time learning the art of fencing and listening to his widowed mother, Ai Ling, sing at a local nightclub. When Zijie’s older brother Zihan – a three-time national fencing champion – is released from juvenile prison, Zijie remains intent upon seeing him, despite his mother’s wishes. As Zihan starts mentoring his younger brother, their bond strengthens. But as Zijie develops newfound skills as a fencer and a romance with his teammate blossoms, Zihan’s innocence becomes more questionable.
In 1987, as martial law ends in Taiwan, Jia-han and Birdy fall in love amid family pressure, homophobia and social stigma.
Fei works illegally as a hustler in order to support his family, yet when he realizes they are willing to accept his money but not his way of life, there is a major breakdown in their relations. Through his relationship to the headstrong Long, Fei seems able to find a new lease on life, but then he encounters Xiaolai, the love of his youth, who confronts him with the guilt of his repressed past.
Three high school students experience the perks and pitfalls of love in director Leste Chen’s sensitive tale of friendship and yearning.
An elderly farmer and his family return home to their village after trying to make money in the city, only to find it destitute and ruled by exploitative employers and a hungry tiger. Both the greedy employers and the tiger are protected by the government, but only the death at the hands of one will provide compensation.
A Dutch photographer (played by David Verbeek himself – also a talented photographer in real life) takes a picture of a girl in a parking lot in nighttime Taipei as she plays with her kite. The photo transports us into her life. She is eight years old and is about to lose her best friend, a boy from a wealthy family who is moving to America. Back in the Netherlands, the photographer is confronted with his own constant loneliness. The photo of the girl evokes memories of his own childhood, when he still felt at home somewhere.
Two illegal Burmese migrants fleeing their country’s civil war find love with each other while struggling to survive in the bustling cities of Thailand.
After his pregnant wife Yi-ting unexpectedly committed suicide, Ming decides to take care of his father-in-law, only to find out the unbearable truth of Yi-ting’s family that leads to her death.
Hao is part of a team of young engineers called in to investigate a series of craters that have opened up on the edge of the city. Meanwhile, a younger boy, also named Hao, spends long afternoons playing with friends and making mischief until one-by-one, his playmates start to disappear. As these parallel stories unfold, the connections between them proliferate and grow stranger.
