Cinema Drifters

A bittersweet, hilarious, enlightening and inspirational road trip through Japanese arthouse cinemas with a heartily independent filmmaker, who also struggles to release his own movies in real life.

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.

Director Jay mysteriously disappears in 2019 and leaves behind a hard disc with the film “No Where, Now Here”. Actress Eva follows his steps to find him after she met Jay at the film shoot in 2018 film.

Lim Kah Wai, director of Your Lovely Smile, embarks on a similar journey as the protagonist in his film, visiting dozens of mini theatres from Okinawa to Hokkaido. Lim is not pitching his new film, but meeting the staff and owners of the theatres to make a documentary about how they struggle in the shrinking market. In empty cinema houses, the people speak of the common and personal challenges they encounter. Although they might have made different decisions – whether to hang on or move on, they share a pure love for and a genuine belief in cinema that they wish to pass on to the next generation.

Adela has travelled from Macao to Croatia to visit the Museum of Broken Relationships where she left her boyfriend’s iPhone. A few random meetings later and Adela heads for Belgrade to meet someone named Alex who she met on Instagram. While waiting for his arrival, Adela continues to meet a diverse range of people and with each encounter she explores an unfamiliar land, its people, history and culture, all of which are so different from the country in which she was born. This is a quiet adventure where, in discovering new people, a person discovers herself.