The 12 best Asian films of 2024 ranked, from The Last Dance to All We Imagine As Light

From a Thai tear-jerker to a Korean cross-dressing romcom and a hand-drawn Japanese anime, our pick of the best Asian films of the past year

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Kani Kusruti (left) and Divya Prabha in a still from All We Imagine as Light, the Indian film which won the Grand Prix at the 2024 Cannes film festival.

Published: 7:15am, 19 Dec 2024

In a year when Hong Kong cinema made history in its own backyard, and prominent filmmakers were chased out of their home countries for daring to speak truth to power, 2024 has seen a bounty of incredible films that wield the capacity to educate and illuminate, as well as simply entertain.

Below are our picks of the 12 best films released this year across Asia.

12. How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies

A box office smash hit across Southeast Asia, this tear-jerking Thai blockbuster stars Billkin as a college dropout who moves in with his elderly grandmother in the hope of becoming her primary beneficiary.

While director Pat Boonnitipat takes delight in portraying the family as a money-grubbing pack of no-good predators, septuagenarian first-time actress Usha Seamkhum steals the show as the sharp-as-a-tack matriarch determined not to go down without a fight. Read our full review

11. Pilot

The very idea of a Korean cross-dressing workplace romcom sets alarm bells ringing. Thankfully Kim Han-gyul’s sharp, self-aware comedy identifies precisely where its premise might cause a stir and deftly brings it in for a safe landing.

Jo Jung-suk is having a ball as a disgraced pilot who is forced to masquerade as a woman to get his job back, but it’s the film’s female cast, not least the scene-stealing Han Sun-hwa, who truly shine. Read our full review

10. All Shall Be Well

Writer-director Ray Yeung follows up the critically and commercially lauded Suk Suk with another scathing attack on the lack of legal protection for the Hong Kong LGBTQ community.