The Barcelona Asia Film Festival kicked off last Friday, and so far, despite not being as famous as some other Asia-themed film festivals, I am quite enjoying it.

BAFF runs from April 30 to May 9, and is held at a few locations in central Barcelona. This year there are special sections on Korean cinema, New Talent, Anime and more, some 70 films in all.

The festival opened with the Indian film LUCK BY CHANCE, and while that is not the newest movie, it was pretty good (and surprisingly cynical for a mainstream, modern Indian film).

Also fun is that I happened to know several of the guests and jurors. Always nice to see old friends who usually live far away.

One other good thing about the festival — the weather suddenly got terrible here. Cold and rainy. Most of the guests are pretty sad about it, but if you are going to spend the day sitting inside in the dark, this is the ideal weather. No temptation to run off to Costa Brava or anywhere fun like that.

One odd thing, though, are the subtitles here. Because we are in Catalan country, all the films have both Spanish and Catalan subtitles. Instead of projecting them onto the screen, they are subtitled with red LED lights below the film. It is a little different, but I guess it is the best solution to a rather awkward problem.

Anyhow, I will try to post a few comments on the festival throughout the week. It seems like a good festival and I hope more people get to know it in the future.