What to watch at the Busan International Film Festival?

Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien has released this martial arts film. Hou, who didn’t direct a single movie for eight years, won the Best Director prize at Cannes this year with The Assassin. The film is set during China’s Tang Dynasty and is a story about Nie Yinninang, who was raised to become an assassin and eliminate ruthless government officials.

In the movie, Jenjira works as a nurse who is taking care of a young, handsome soldier who is suffering from an unidentified sleeping sickness. This movie has a similar message as earlier works by director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, such as Tropical Malady (2004) and Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010), but this one is even better.

The Iranian government regards director Jafar Panahi to be anti-establishment and in 2010, sentenced him to a 20-year ban on producing and directing movies and from leaving the country. Taxi shows the director going around Tehran as a taxi driver, talking to his customers. The movie is utilitarian in its humor and won the Golden Bear at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival this year.