There’s not a consistent theme so much as there is a wistful feel to this year’s Asian Film Festival at the 4 Star. The eighth annual installment could be the last at the theater, which is scheduled to close when its lease runs out in May.

Perhaps that’s why owner Frank Lee, who is fighting to stay open through an online petition drive and help from the San Francisco Neighborhood Theater Foundation, has booked the first film his father, Frank Lee Sr., showed when he opened the Bella Union in 1964: "Lady General Hua Mulan," one of Ivy Ling Po’s signature roles. Lee says the movie, inspired by the same legend that led to Disney’s animated "Mulan," was a childhood favorite; he claims to have seen the female warrior movie about 100 times. "I’m dedicating this festival to him," said Lee of his father, who died in October 2002. "It was his first film, and it brings back a lot of memories."

While there is a small Shaw Bros. retrospective, in addition to the digitally restored "Mulan," there’s the 1967 classic "One-Armed Swordsman" and a 20-minute 1960s documentary about Shaw Bros.’ house directors, "Shaw Marches On," most of the festival, which opens Thursday and runs through Aug. 24, features new cinema from eight different countries. There is a strong representation of Japanese action and horror films, recent Hong Kong films and a retrospective of Filipino director Gil Portes’ socially conscious work.

The Portes series is a co-sponsorship of the Filipino American Arts Exposition and this weekend’s 11th annual Pistahan Parade and Festival at Yerba Buena Gardens. Portes, who scored a minor international hit with "Small Voices" (2002), will present three films, including the SARS drama "Homecoming," which is not so much about SARS as it is the uneasy economic, political and educational problems in the Philippines that have led to a global exodus of workers whose primary mission is to send money home. These overseas workers are called "the country’s new heroes."

The festival is bookended by the San Francisco premier of a Japanese horror franchise that has become a major phenomenon in Asia, and a cult here. "Ju-On: The Grudge" (2003) is about a family of ghosts that terrorizes those who enter their apartment. "Spider-Man" director Sam Raimi, who called it "the most frightening film I’ve ever seen," bought the rights and has produced an American version directed by the original film’s maker, Takashi Shimizu.

Both "Ju-On: The Grudge" and its American remake, called simply "The Grudge" and starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, will be out in theaters later this year.

The closing night film is the Japanese sequel, "Ju-On 2" (2003).

Other highlights :

"Lost in Time" (Hong Kong, 2003): Cecilia Cheung won the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actress in Derek Yee’s moving account of a mother who tries to take over her dead fiance’s job as a minibus driver, and the co-worker who helps her, the always dependable Lau Ching-Wan.

"2009: Lost Memories" (South Korea, 2002): Blockbuster sci-fi action flick wonders what would have happened had Japan won World War II and continued to colonize Korea. Apparently, a lot of explosions, gunplay and slow-motion choreography.

"Szechuan Concubine" (Taiwan, 1994): San Jose resident Fan Ho, an actor for the Shaw Bros. in the 1960s and a noted director of erotic films, will present his last completed work (he is in preproduction on his next project), an adaptation of the same source material as Zhang Yimou’s "Raise the Red Lantern."

Ho is also an award-winning photographer, and an exhibit of his work will be displayed at the 4 Star throughout the festival.

"Azumi" (Japan, 2003): Ryuhei Kitamura, the director of "Versus" (Japan, 2000), has become a cult figure, especially among the video-game set, and is back with a 142-minute swordplay epic about a band of teens, raised in the wilderness and trained by an old samurai, who venture into the modern world. The best at adapting: a girl, played by Japanese pop idol Aya Ueto.

"The Macabre Case of Prom Pi Nam" (Thailand, 2003): Based on a well-publicized murder of a young woman in 1977, the detective caper won Best Picture and Best Actress at the Thai film awards.