Ranked: the 12 best Asian films of 2022, from RRR to Decision to Leave and Plan 75

Tom Cruise and James Cameron may be vying for global box office dominance this year, but there has been no shortage of films emerging from Asia to delight, inspire and provoke audiences around the world.

Not least, it has been a banner year for Hong Kong productions, with more genuinely engaging offerings premiering in 2022 than in recent memory.

Here are our picks for the 12 best Asian films of the past year.

12. Plan 75 (directed by Chie Hayakawa, Japan)

After the success of speculative Hong Kong anthology Ten Years, Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda came aboard to produce a similar project from his own country.

Chie Hayakawa’s segment about a voluntary government euthanasia programme, introduced to help curb the ageing population, has now been expanded into a stand-alone feature film.

Ranking every 2022 Hong Kong film, from worst to best – it was a banner year

His movie focuses not only on the elderly enticed to sign up but the young staff responsible for guiding them through the transition. Read our review

11. Project Wolf Hunting (dir. Kim Hong-sun, South Korea)

This absurdly violent thriller from the director of The Con Artists begins as a South Korean riff on Con Air, with a shipping tanker transporting the country’s most notorious convicts from the Philippines to a new facility.

Needless to say, the inmates use this opportunity to mount a daring and bloody escape attempt, led by Seo In-guk’s gleefully sadistic, heavily tattooed ringleader.

Too gory to attract much of an audience back home, the film has been a midnight favourite on the festival circuit.

10. The Sparring Partner (dir. Ho Cheuk-tin, Hong Kong)

Based on a real case that shook Hong Kong a decade ago, and produced by Port of Call’s Philip Yung Tsz-kwong, the film stars Yeung Wai-lun as a man accused of murdering both his mother and father in his rundown flat.

However, he claims that his slow-witted flatmate (Mak Pui-tung) was a willing accomplice, setting in motion a gripping courtroom thriller that broaches everything from police misconduct to self-serving barristers and a clash of egos within the jury. Read our review

9. Satan’s Slaves: Communion (dir. Joko Anwar, Indonesia)

After the chilling events of the first film, Joko Anwar continues to chronicle the terrifying encounters of Rini (Tara Basro) and her family in this sequel.

Now residents of a dilapidated block of flats, they are once again thrown into a supernatural maelstrom after a tragic lift accident tears down the veneer between the spirit world and our own.

Steeped in folklore and urban malaise, Joko keeps the jump scares coming thick and fast. Read our interview with Joko Anwar

8. The Round-up (dir. Lee Sang-yong, South Korea)

Gentle giant Ma Dong-seok reprises his role as “Beast Cop” Ma from 2017’s The Outlaws, this time heading off to the sweltering climes of Vietnam for what should be a simple extradition. He is soon set on a collision course with Son Suk-ku’s brilliantly merciless killer.

Bigger, bloodier and much funnier than its predecessor, it has Ma continuing to poke fun at his hulking personification of prime beef machismo, and regularly exposing a softer, sillier side to his character, even as he hurls opponents through walls and windscreens. Read our review

7. Return to Seoul (dir. Davy Chou, Cambodia)

Cambodia’s official entry for this year’s best international feature at the Academy Awards, Davy Chou’s stripped down travelogue almost defies categorisation.

First-time performer Park Ji-min makes a compelling heroine, as a Korean adoptee who has grown up in France. When she finds herself in Seoul almost by accident, on a whim she attempts to reconnect with her birth parents, a decision that will irrevocably change many lives. Read our review

6. Warriors of Future (dir. Ng Yuen-fai, Hong Kong)

After close to a decade in various stages of production, Louis Koo Tin-lok’s dream project finally sees the light of day and proves remarkably well worth the wait.

First-time director Ng Yuen-fai unleashes a science fiction action spectacular on a scale Hong Kong cinema has never achieved before.

The script is flimsy and character development all but non-existent, but it can proudly stand toe-to-toe alongside anything Hollywood can offer when it comes to mindless popcorn entertainment. Read our review

5. Joyland (dir. Saim Sadiq, Pakistan)

As his family rallies around his pregnant wife (Rasti Farooq), desperate for a new son, Haider (Ali Junejo) secretly joins a dance troupe, supporting a bewitching trans performer (Alina Kahn).

Un Certain Regard Jury Prize winner at the Cannes Film Festival, Sadiq’s film pries deep into Pakistan’s constrictive patriarchy, as navigated by a new generation of men and women who dare to push back and find a new path to happiness, or at least an escape.

4. The Narrow Road (dir. Lam Sum, Hong Kong)

At the height of Hong Kong’s pandemic lockdown, business is booming – or so it should be – for Chak (Louis Cheung Kai-chung) and his cleaning company.

He hires struggling single mother Candy (Angela Yuen Lai-lam), a decision he almost instantly regrets when she begins stealing from customers and cutting corners in other ways. Despite her mistakes, however, the pair find a kinship during the citywide isolation.

Of all the social dramas to emerge from Hong Kong this year, Lam Sum’s resonates as the most authentic. Read our review

3. No Bears (dir. Jafar Panahi, Iran)

A new film from Jafar Panahi is always a reason to celebrate, if only because the director is not allowed to make them in his home country of Iran.

His latest wilfully blurs the line between fact and fiction, as he directs his new opus, shooting in Turkey, remotely from a small village near the border.

Before long, however, he has become embroiled in a local scandal even more fascinating than the story his crew is trying to tell.

2. Decision to Leave (dir. Park Chan-wook, South Korea)

Park deservedly took home the best director prize at Cannes for his visually ravishing murder mystery, one of the year’s most rewarding cinematic pleasures.

Park Hae-il’s unassuming homicide detective becomes increasingly bewitched by Tang Wei’s prime suspect.

Achingly romantic and devilishly funny, Decision to Leave sees the filmmaker at the height of his technical powers, showboating for the audience with hypnotic editing and one of the most tragic sucker-punch endings in recent memory. Read our review | Read our interview with Park Chan-wook

1. RRR (dir. S.S. Rajamouli, India)

At long last, the rest of the world has woken up to the unparalleled talents of director S.S. Rajamouli.

A visually audacious, epically staged historical action adventure that pits Telugu cinema icons Jnr NTR and Ram Charan as undercover agents tasked with taking each other out, only to inevitably become best friends and turn their incomparable fighting prowess against the real enemy: the British Raj.

Boasting more explosions, romance, show-stopping musical numbers and projectile tigers than every other movie released this year combined, RRR is 100 per cent Total Cinema. Read our feature

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