Of the many things to appreciate about this year's Hawai'i International Film Festival Spring Showcase — a solid mix of Asian, Pacific and Western films, a long-awaited screening of this year's Oscar winner for Best Foreign Picture, and convenient ticketing — there is this: manageability.

Compared to the main festival in October, with its 200-plus films, high-wattage international stars and venues around the Islands, the Spring Showcase is a pleasingly stripped-down affair for local film buffs.

This year's event, which runs Friday through April 6, offers 26 films from 14 countries — all at the Dole Cannery Stadium 18 theaters.

Worthy international films that aren't available for HIFF's fall fest are highlighted at the spring event, said executive director Chuck Boller. The no-frills presentation allows his staff to continue their year-round work on the main event without an unmanageable interruption.

Last year's Spring Showcase included the Hawai'i premieres of "Kung Fu Hustle," "Millions" and "Oldboy."

This year, the lineup includes the international premiere of the Australian blockbuster "Look Both Ways," and the U.S. premieres of "Minsan Pa" (Philippines) and "Always Sunset on Third Street" (Japan).

"Minsan Pa," daringly told in the minority Cebuano dialect of the Visayas province, explores the socioeconomic impact of tourism through the story of a Filipino tour guide and the Japanese tourist with whom he falls in love.

"Always Sunset on Third Street" leads a particularly strong collection of Japanese films at the festival. A 1950s period piece based on a 1973 Saigan Ryohei manga, the film earned an unprecedented 14 nominations from the Japan Academy Awards, winning in all but one category.

Other Japanese films include "Spring Snow," director Isao Yukisada's adaptation of the Yukio Mishima novel about doomed love during Japan's Meiji Restoration; "Spy Sorge," based on an infamous Japanese spying case; and "Linda, Linda, Linda," Nobuhiro Yamashita's quirky, documentary-style film about a high school girl band.

The four South Korean films selected are a refreshing change of pace for those nearing their fill of Korean pop melodramas.

Festival programmer Anderson Le calls "Rules of Dating" a "twist on the romantic comedy," featuring a clash of wills between an obnoxious ladies' man and his not-so-innocent would-be prey.

Director Chan-wook Park completes his acclaimed "revenge cycle" trilogy (which includes "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance" and "Oldboy") with "Lady Vengeance." The protagonist is a woman wrongly imprisoned for the murder of a young boy. There is predictable hell to pay for the real killer, but the film also forces its audience to question the moral consequences of vengeance.

"Love is a Crazy Thing" takes a thoughtful look into the world of Korean hostess bars. The film is set in Pusan, a thriving center of film production but a rarely represented location.

Ki-duk Kim, South Korea's enfant terrible director, returns with "The Bow." With very little dialogue, the film is a subtle but impactful look at love, sexuality and violence as they play out in a most unusual love triangle.

Other notable films include "Tsotsi," the Oscar-winning film about a South African thug, or tsotsi, whose life is disrupted when he carjacks a car with a baby in it; "20 Centimeters," a Spanish film about a narcoleptic transvestite who longs for a sex-change operation; and "Iron Island," an Iranian film about a community of homeless people who find a strange new refuge aboard an abandoned, sinking oil tanker.

For fans of hard-hitting action films sans CGI (think "Ong Bok"), there is French director Luc Besson's "District 13." The story involves futuristic gangsters, a neutron bomb and an odd couple of French martial-arts experts who try to save the day, but that's all secondary. The point is the visual spectacle of martial arts and acrobatics that defy belief.

HIFF has also renewed its partnership with the USS Missouri to present "Lessons of War," a presentation of films that reflect on war and the human spirit. This year's films include "Spy Sorge," "Letter from an Unknown Woman" (China), and an old HIFF audience fave, "The Soong Sisters" (Hong Kong, Japan, China).

The showcase will once again close in grand Bollywood fashion with a screening of Pradeep Sarkar's "Parineeta," one of the top films in India last year. The tale of romantic intrigue and class differences stars Vidya Balan, Saif Ali Khan and Sanjay Dutt. Closing night will also include the U.S. film "Friends with Money," starring Jennifer Aniston, Joan Cusack, Catherine Keener and Frances McDormand.

Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.