The culinary film week entitled “Encore! Crosscut Asia” will be introduced by The Japan Foundation Asia Center and Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF).

The online film festival will run between January 21 and February 3, 2022. Those wishing to watch the motion pictures should email to jfac_film@jpf.go.jp (Tokyo International Film Festival Promotion Group) or delicious@tiff-jp.net for free registration.

The film “Aruna & Her Palate”. File photo of Palari Films

The “2022 Encore! Crosscut Asia” special edition features seven “delicious” films, including “Wanton Mee” by director Eric Khoo (Singapore); the romantic comedy “Namets!” (Yummy!) by Jay Abello (Philippines); “Aruna & Her Palate” on street food by Edwin (Indonesia), among others.

“Namets” (Yummy) follows the flirtation between Manuel (Christian Vasquez) and Lourdes (Angel Jacob), two Negrosanon whose lives revolve around food. Along the way, the audience is treated to the full panorama of Negrosanon cuisine and the idiosyncrasies of Negrosanon eating.

“Aruna & Her Palate” was an adaptation from the novel The Birdwoman's Palate by Laksmi Pamuntjak. The story focuses on friendships and romantic entanglement involving two men and two women all in their 30s with thematic references to local culinary wealth. Dian Sastrowardoyo stars as an epidemiologist tasked to investigate a suspected bird flu outbreak.

Meanwhile, the “Wanton Mee” film is telling the story of Chun Feng Koh, a middle-aged food critic whose career is starting to wear him out. He decides to explore his life and the development of Singapore through local food. Hidden within his life is the history of how their Singaporean dishes were created.

Originally launched as a section of TIFF in 2014, Crosscut Asia showcased diverse Asian cinema with a focus on specific Asian countries, directors, or themes for six years until 2019.

According to the organizers, “Encore! Crosscut Asia” will bring together a selection of carefully chosen films (with English subtitles) that attracted great acclaim when previously screened in the Crosscut Asia section at TIFF.