AFFD 2007 Film Synopses

	5 CENTIMETERS PER SECOND Director: Makoto Shinkai Country: Japan Length: 63 min. Format: 35mm	Thursday, August 30th 5:30pm Ticket Price: $5.00
Tono Takaki and Shinohara Akari are close friends who, upon graduation from elementary school, are parted because of family movement. Their deep feelings for each other keep them in contact, but they worry they may not meet again. This is a movie in three parts that follows the thoughts and relationship of 2 young people as they meet and part, both from their point of view and from people around them. ____________________________________________________________________________________
	A BATTLE OF WITS Director: Chi Leung Cheung Country: Hong Kong/ Japan/ South Korea Length: 133 min. Format: 35mm	Monday, August 27th 9:30pm Ticket Price: $8.00
In 370 B.C, China was separated as seven nations and several other small tribes, one of these being the city state of Liang. The nation of Zhao is led by the terrifying prime commander Xiang Yangzhong who orders his troops to launch an attack on Liang in a bid to conquer the small city. Leaping to the defense of the cowed people of Liang is a warrior who goes by the name of 'Ge Li' from the Mo-Tsu tribe, renowned for its defensive skills. He is their last hope as the terrors of Yangzhong's troops are unleashed. ____________________________________________________________________________________
	AND THEREAFTER II Director: Hosup Lee Country: South Korea Length: 56 min. Format: 35mm	(Weekend Double Feature with AND THEREAFRER I) Sunday, August 26th 12:30pm And Thereafter I & And Thereafter II* *Double Feature Ticket Price: $8.00 (Weekday screening preceded by I, TOO AM, AMERICA) Monday, August 27th 5:00pm Ticket Price: $8.00
Filmmaker Lee Hosup explores the reasons why Korean women continue to marry American GIs despite the fact that it turns the brides into outcasts in their own country in his eye-opening entry into the 2007 Rotterdam Film Festival. Fascinated by this trend and curious to find out exactly what happens after the wedding bells cease chiming, Hosup focused his lens on Ajuma - a former Korean prostitute who married an American soldier and moved with him to New Jersey. ____________________________________________________________________________________
	BLACKOUT Director: Ato Bautista Country: the Philippines Length: 85 min. Format: 35mm	Friday, August 24th 6:00pm Ticket Price: $8.00
Gil Blanco (Robin Padilla), a landlord of an apartment block, suffers frequent blackouts brought about by his excessive drinking. His alcoholism has driven his wife from their home, leaving him to take care of his only child, a son, Nino (John Michael Reyes). In his despair, Gil promises to quit drinking and commit to reunifying his family. But one night, Gil suffers another blackout. This time, he is left with a mysterious bloody bumper and smashed taillight of his aging and battered auto. In the calamitous aftermath his life spirals uncontrollably as he struggles to uncover the real story hidden by his fragmented viewpoint, one where the lines between reality and illusion are blurred. ____________________________________________________________________________________
	BOLINAO 52 Director: Duc Nguyen Country: USA Length: 60 min. Format: DVD	Friday, August 24th 4:30pm Ticket Price: $5.00 Tuesday, August 28th 3:00pm Ticket Price: $5.00
Following the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, millions of refugees took the perilous escape across South China Sea to find freedom. Many died from drowning, starvation and thirst. Others were lost at sea for days, while some were pillaged, robbed and raped by pirates. However, more than 30 years after, no major film or television program tells their stories. Bolinao 52 is a long-silenced voice, an unspoken legacy of the Vietnam War - the story of the Vietnamese Boat People. ____________________________________________________________________________________
	CATS OF MIRIKITANI Country: USA Length: 74 min. Format: DVD	Tuesday, August 28th 5:00pm Ticket Price: $8.00 Wednesday, August 29th 6:00pm Ticket Price: $8.00
"Make art not war" is Jimmy Mirikitani's motto. This 85-year-old Japanese American artist was born in Sacramento and raised in Hiroshima, but by 2001 he is living on the streets of New York with the twin towers of the World Trade Center still ominously anchoring the horizon behind him. What begins as a simple verite portrait of one homeless man will become a rare document of daily life in New York in the months leading up to 9/11. How deeply these two stories will be intertwined cannot yet be imagined. This is the story of losing "home" on many levels. ____________________________________________________________________________________
	DORM Director: Songyos Sugmakanan Country: Thailand Length: 110 min. Format: 35mm	Friday, August 24th 11:59pm Ticket Price: $8.00
In Thailand, the young Ton Chatree is sent to a boarding school by his father. Once in the school, Ton feels like an outcast and misses his family and friends. His classmates tell him about a boy that died in the swimming pool and a young pregnant woman that committed suicide. He becomes scared of their ghosts. Although he still cannot get along with other students, he befriends with one boy named Vichien. ____________________________________________________________________________________
	FINISHING THE GAME – Opening Film Director: Justin Lin Country: USA Length: 88 min. Format: 35mm	Thursday, August 23rd 7:00pm Ticket Price: $15.00 Ticket price includes admission to the After Party at OBar - 21 yrs and up (if under 21, please email mailbag@affd.org)
The unexpected death of Bruce Lee came at the zenith of his popularity, becoming a world-wide phenomenon and established movie star. Having already shot scenes for his upcoming movie GAME OF DEATH, studio heads decided to complete the film by launching a search for his replacement attracting hopefuls from all around the world. FINISHING THE GAME is an uproarious, poignant, unpredictable and action-packed re-imagining of that casting process for Lee's replacement and examines the leaps and bounds Asians have taken in media representation - or have they? ____________________________________________________________________________________
	GHOST TRAIN Director: Takeshi Furusawa Country: Japan Length: 92 min. Format: Digibeta	Saturday, August 25th 11:59pm Ticket Price: $8.00
Nana thought her life was scary enough. Her graduation is looming, her mother is in the hospital, and her sister Noriko is in a constant need of attention. But, the train ride between all her responsiblities will prove to be the most horrifying part of her day. Somewhere, deep underground in the tunnel near Mizunashi Station, a dark spirit yearns for revenge. One by one, people begin to mysteriously disappear. Eventually, Nana's own sister falls prey to the wicked tracks. Together with her friend Kanae, she must now take one more trip into the darkness and confront the sinister force haunting below the depths. ____________________________________________________________________________________
	THE GREAT HAPPINESS SPACE: TALE OF AN OSAKA LOVE THIEF Director: Jake Clenell Country: USA Length: 76 min. Format: Digibeta	Saturday, August 25th 9:40pm Ticket Price: $8.00
The film introduces an extraordinary hidden world of Japanese nightlife in Osaka's Cafe Rakkyo. The denizens of this glamorous demi-monde, dedicated to partying till they drop, are captured by first time documentary producer/director, Jake Clennell with candid and poignant insight. Presided over by the charismatic, enigmatic Issei, the number one "host boy" in town, the club offers a new twist on the ancient geisha tradition. ____________________________________________________________________________________
	HANA Director: Hirokazu Koreeda Country: Japan Length: 106 min. Format: Digibeta	Saturday, August 25th 7:15pm Ticket Price: $8.00
Set in 1702, the film looks back a full three centuries to a time when samurai clans offered monetary rewards for the samurai who has succeeded in taking on a revenge act. A young samurai, Sozaemon Aoki, who has come from rural Matsumoto to Edo (now Tokyo) seeking to avenge his late father. He searches through Edo for his father’s enemy, but apart from the fact that he is hopeless with swordplay, he is reluctant to pursue his mission. Living in an Edo tenement, poverty-stricken but rich in human relationships, Sozaemon starts to cherish life, and starts to question the meaning of taking revenge. ____________________________________________________________________________________
	HEAVENLY KINGS Director: Daniel Wu Country: Hong Kong Length: 83 min. Format: 35mm	Friday, August 24th 7:50pm Ticket Price: $8.00
Hong Kong heartthrob Daniel Wu and three friends get together to form Alive, the boy band that can’t sing and can’t dance. Wu, Andrew Lin, Terence Yin, and Conroy Chan use an Internet scam to generate publicity and go on to survive history’s most humiliating costume fitting before facing the hardships of their first concert tour. Shot on digital video and directed by Wu, HEAVENLY KINGS takes a poke at the Hong Kong media machine through the use of documentary, hoax, animation, musical performance (sort of), and straight-faced interviews with Cantopop celebrities like Jacky Cheung, Nicholas Tse, and Miriam Yeung. ____________________________________________________________________________________
	HULA GIRLS – Centerpiece Film Director: Sang-il Lee Country: Japan Length: 108 min. Format: 35mm	Sunday, August 26th 7:30pm Ticket Price: $8.00 Centerpiece reception in the Magnolia Lobby at 7:00pm
HULA GIRLS takes place in a small northern Japanese coal mining town in financial trouble as the demand for coal dwindles and the local mines face closure. To save the town, one of the local businessmen comes up with an inspired though crazy idea - open a Hawaiian Center, complete with palm trees and hula girls, and turn the town into a profitable tourist destination. Despite the town’s opposition, want ads for hula dancers go out and are answered by several of the local girls, hoping for a chance to escape the coal dust. ____________________________________________________________________________________
	ISABELLA Director: Ho-Cheung Pang Country: Hong Kong Length: 91 min. Format: 35mm	Wednesday, August 29th 9:30pm Ticket Price: $8.00
Shing is a Macau cop who may or may not be involved in illegal dealings during the final months of the outgoing Portugese regime. Yan may or may not be an underage prostitute who may or may not be his daughter. Who then, one might ask, is the titular ISABELLA? Once the story levels off and clarifies some of these points, a tender relationship grows between the little lost girl and her begrudging father figure. ____________________________________________________________________________________
	JUMP BOYS Director: Yu-Hsien Lin Country: Taiwan Length: 84 min. Format: DVD	Sunday, August 26th 3:00pm Ticket Price: $8.00
Documentary about young gymnasts in Taiwan. Each comes from a different background with a different temperament, the only common thing between them is -- they never quit. As one puts it, "I must endure the pain! I must persevere no matter how hard it is, no matter how many times I fall or how much it hurts." An often humorous study of the relationship between the coach and his charges, JUMP BOYS also offers insight into the broader world of sports in Taiwan. ____________________________________________________________________________________
	LOVE AND HONOR Director: Yoji Yamada Country: Japan Length: 121 min. Format: Digibeta	Sunday, August 26th 9:45pm Ticket Price: $8.00
Shinnojo, a low level samurai, lives with his loyal wife Kayo. He has come to find his position in a castle as a food-taster for a feudal lord to be boring and pointless, and talks about opening a kendo school open to boys of all castes where he can teach the use of the sword. Before he can act on his dream he becomes ill with a fever after tasting some sashimi made from shell fish. After three days he awakes but finds that the toxin from the food has blinded him. ____________________________________________________________________________________
	LOVE FOR SHARE Director: Nia Di Nata Country: Indonesia Length: 120 min. Format: 35mm	Saturday, August 25th 12:00pm Ticket Price: $8.00 Monday, August 27th 2:30pm Ticket Price: $8.00
In three interlinked stories, Indonesian writer/director Nia Dinata (ARISAN, 2003) reveals the private lives of several diverse women who are involved – willingly or not – in polygamous marriages. After being surprised by her husband’s new wife, a doctor struggles to make sense of her family life. Meanwhile, a young woman from the countryside is introduced into a household already occupied by two lively women with many children, and an ambitious waitress develops some new ideas about love and property after her experience as a second wife. ____________________________________________________________________________________
	MY NAME IS FAME Director: Lawrence Lau Country: Hong Kong Length: 94 min. Format: 35mm preceded by ONE WEEK RENTAL	Tuesday, August 28th 6:30pm Ticket Price: $8.00 Wednesday, August 29th 4:00pm Ticket Price: $8.00
It's a comedy, a romance, and a big, sloppy kiss to the Hong Kong film industry. Even the casting is an in-joke: MY NAME IS FAME stars the incomparable Lau Ching-Wan, HK's most underappreciated TV and film performer, playing a craft-obsessed character actor whose career is sliding into decline. Putting a sweet spin on the mentor-protégé romance, MY NAME IS FAME teams the washout with the starry-eyed ingénue and fan. It may feel like A STAR IS BORN, but superstar cameos and coy glimpses into the HK movie machine makes it a must-see for Asian cinephiles. ____________________________________________________________________________________
	NEVER PERFECT (preceded by AH X – 5min. on DVD) Director: Regina Park Country: USA Length: 63 min. (followed by 30 min. panel discussion) Format: DVD	Wednesday, August 29th 7:30pm Ticket Price: $8.00
From Lotus Blossom to Dragon Lady, war bride to war-time prostitute. Model Minority to porn star on Asian fetish internet websites, Asian-American women have historically and socially been exoticized, sexualized and scrutinized through the lens of the Asian Mystique. What is the impact? Asian eyelid surgery, a cosmetic surgical procedure, artificially creates a fold in the upper eyelid. This procedure, consequently, has sparked a heated debate whether this is a manifestation of racial self-hatred. ____________________________________________________________________________________
ONE WEEK RENTAL Director: Jeff Turner and Jun Kangk Country: USA Length: 22 min.
Two lonely strangers meet one night in a video store and discover a common bond from their high ascetic film taste. As a result Tom begins a daily film club with Alice that slowly reveals each others inner desires and reservations, with cinema as the safety net. ____________________________________________________________________________________
	OWL AND THE SPARROW (In attendance: Director Stephane Gauger) Director: Stephane Gauger Country: Vietnam Length: 97 min. Format: 35mm	Sunday, August 26th 5:00pm Ticket Price: $8.00 Monday, August 27th 7:00pm Ticket Price: $8.00
A girl who refuses to surrender her optimism despite difficult circumstances brings two unlikely strangers together in this comedy-drama from Vietnam. Thuy an orphan who, after the death of her parents, has been sent to live with her uncle Tran Le Minh and now works at his bamboo factory. Convinced life has better things to offer, Thuy runs away to Saigon, and she soon makes friends with a handful of plucky fellow orphans who survive on the street and look out for one another. ____________________________________________________________________________________
	THE TASTE OF TEA Director: Katsuhiro Ishii Country: Japan Length: 143 min. Format: 35mm	Tuesday, August 28th 8:30pm Ticket Price: $8.00
Meet the Harunos, a rather conventional, but happy and loving family nonetheless. They live in a small town in the mountains just outside of Tokyo where life is good and quiet….but that doesn’t mean they don’t have their own problems. Written, directed and edited by Katsuhiro Ishii, The Taste of Tea is a unique and gentle family portrait tracking the universal themes of time, people and their lives. ____________________________________________________________________________________
	TAZZA Director: Dong-hun Choi Country: South Korea Length: 139 min. Format: 35mm	Thursday, August 30th 7:00pm Ticket Price: $15.00 Ticket price includes admission to the After Party at Sushi Zushi
A guy with a talent for cards makes his way into the dangerous world of underground gambling in this crime thriller from South Korea. Go-ni is a small-town guy with a big appetite for gambling. Convinced he’s on a hot streak one evening during a card game, Go-ni bets his life savings on a hand of hwatu, only to lose to a crooked cardsharp. Determined to get revenge, Go-ni sets out to find the guy who cheated him and win back his money. ____________________________________________________________________________________
	TIE A YELLOW RIBBON (In attendance: Director Joy Dietrich) Director: Joy Dietrich Country: USA Length: 87 min. Format: Digibeta	Saturday, August 25th 2:15pm Ticket Price: $8.00
Jenny Mason, a Korean adoptee and aspiring photographer, walks the streets of New York in a state of resigned indifference. Her days are spent with white friends and colleagues, her nights with white men. She has no contact with her Midwestern family due to a childhood indiscretion with her white brother, Joe. She rejects any attachment, dumping men as fast as she can pick them up. Making her feature debut, writer-director Joy Dietrich, also a Korean adoptee, introduces audiences to the world of Asian American young women and delicately addresses the abnormally high rates of depression and suicide among Asian American girls, creating a work great compassion and poetic beauty. ____________________________________________________________________________________
	VANAJA Director: Rajnesh domalpalli Country: India Length: 111 min. Format: 35mm	Saturday, August 25th 4:45pm Ticket Price: $8.00
Set in rural South India, a place where social barriers are built stronger than fort walls, VANAJA explores the chasm that divides classes as a young girl struggles to come of age. Vanaja is the 14 year-old daughter of a poor, low caste fisherman, struggling with dwindling catches and mounting debt. When a sooth-sayer predicts that she will be a great dancer one day, she goes to work in the house of the local landlady, Rama Devi in hopes of learning Kuchipudi dance while earning a keep. ____________________________________________________________________________________
	THE VICTIM Director: Monthon Arayangkoon Country: Thailand Length: 108 min. Format: 35mm	Friday, August 24th 9:45pm Ticket Price: $8.00
Ting is an unknown bit player in a film crew who dreams of becoming a famous superstar someday. When she is assigned the role of the victim in a police reenactment of a serious crime, Ting seizes the moment and impersonates the real character like a professional actress. Ting's impressive performance lands her the role of "Meen", a former Miss Thailand who was tragically murdered. But when reenacting the crime scene, Ting experiences bizarre feelings she is unable to control. ____________________________________________________________________________________
SHORTS 1                    shorts Director: Various Country: Various Length: 94 min. Format: DVD – all on 1 DVD		Friday, August 24th 12:30pm Ticket Price: $5.00 Wednesday, August 29th 2:00pm Ticket Price: $5.00
GUA ZI - A WATERMELON SEED Country: China/USA | Year: 2006 | Run time: 11 min. | Language: Mandarin Chinese with English subtitles | Director: MiQi Huang Jun is a teenage girl who is going through a secret abortion. Jun's eight-year old sister, Mei, observes and explores Jun's pain in her own way and through her own world. BYSTANDING: THE BEGINNING OF AN AMERICAN LIFETIME Country: USA | Year: 2007 | Run time: 5 min. | Language: English | Director: Karen Lin A convergence of the music video style of in-camera performance and the spoken word poetry of acclaimed artist Kelly Tsai, "Bystanding" captures the powerful words of this anti-war poem against a backdrop of charged New York City images. PILGRIMAGE Country: USA | Year: 2006 | Run Time: 22 min | Language: English | Director: Tadashi Nakamura With a hip music track and never-before-seen archival footage, PILGRIMAGE tells the inspiring story of how a small group of Japanese Americans in the late 1960s transformed an abandoned WWII concentration camp for Japanese Americans into a symbol of retrospection and solidarity for people of all ages, races and nationalities in our post 9/11 world. THE CELERY STALKER Country: USA | Year: 2006 | Run time: 6 min | Language: English | Director: Zooey Park A game of truths and lies - three young women, a bookstore, and the benefits of eating your veggies. PRISONER'S DILEMMA Country: Japan | Year: 2007 | Run time: 11 min | Language: - | Director: Masanori Yoshida Johnny, master thief of the century, is locked up in a prison where escape is impossible. One day, he sees his enemy and after a deadly battle with him, he succeeds in escaping and enjoys his new found freedom on an island with his new friend. THE CHINESE CONNECTION Country: Canada/USA | Year: 2006 | Run time: 6 min | Language: English | Director: Aram Siu Wai Collier The only Chinese American girl in town wants to meet a nice Chinese American boy. Welcome to the world of online dating! MY OWN PRIVATE BELLY DANCER Country: USA | Year: 2006 | Run time: 9 min | Language: English | Director: Mark Stein Jeremy, a fungus scientist, leads a rather dull and colorless life. He's in love with co-worker Angie, though he'd never dare tell her. One day, a magical belly dancer appears in his life that no one else can see. This invisible new friend encourages him to live life to the fullest. CHOICES Country: USA | Year: 2007 | Run time: 5 min | Language: - | Director: Namit Kumar A young mother-to-be in India is torn between the need to nurture the baby girl that she is carrying in her womb and the fear of not meeting societal expectations. It brings out the personal horror of such women in a country that shows callous disregard for female fetuses that are regularly aborted. WATADA, RESISTER Country: USA | Year: 2007 | Run time: 19 min | Language: English | Director: Curtis Choy A video recording of the historical meeting between U.S. Army 1st Lt. Ehren Watada, who refused to be deployed to Iraq in 2006, and WWII resisters, Frank Emi and Yosh Kuromiya, who did time in a federal prison for contesting wartime conscription while their families languished in U.S. concentration camps. ____________________________________________________________________________________
SHORTS 2                    shorts Director: Various Country: Various Length: 88 min. Format: DVD – all on 1 DVD		Friday, August 24th 2:30pm Ticket Price: $5.00 Thursday, August 30th 1:00pm Ticket Price: $5.00
FORTUNE HUNTERS Country: USA | Year: 2007 | Run time: 20 min | Language: Mandarin Chinese with English subtitles | Director: Thom Harp Arthur Yu's girlfriend, Megan, plans to study abroad in China for a year, leaving him to waste another college vacation working at his dad's fortune cookie factory. Instead of telling Megan that he'll wait for her, Arthur makes the biggest mistake of his life and dumps the girl of his dreams. Arthur decides that the only way to get Megan back is to write her a love letter before she heads overseas. But when his e-mail is accidentally sent to the fortune printing press, suddenly every cookie at every restaurant reveals a piece of Arthur's broken heart. RUSSIAN HILL ROULETTE Country: USA | Year: 2006 | Run time: 5 min | Language: - | Director: Frank Yeean Chan A cyclist tries to pedal up the six steepest streets of San Francisco, but the city's steepest street in Russian Hill gets the best of him. OFFICER TSUKAMOTO Country: USA | Year: 2006 | Run time: 27 min | Language: English | Director: Ling Liu A crime that ended a life also captured the complexity of one of the most turbulent periods in modern American history. In the summer of 1970, Ron Tsukamoto, one of the first Asian American police officers in the country, was shot and killed during a routine traffic stop. Thirty years later, his murder takes viewers to the night of the killing, through the investigation that still continues, and into the short life of the fallen officer to give viewers a glimpse of the chaos that defined the era. EQUAL OPPORTUNITY Country: USA | Year: 2006 | Run time: 7 min | Language: English | Director: Camille Mann Everyday life for an employee is rough. Everyday life for a bigot is even harder. When a group of diverse co-workers retreat to the break room for a routine mid-day snack, a quarrel about who gets the last pineapple-flavored water turns to a heated passive-aggressive battle among man, woman, white, black, yellow, brown, purple, and little. THE ALMIGHTY BEER Country: USA | Year: 2006 | Run time: 2 min | Language: English | Director: Yohei Kawamata A priest tells his psychiatrist about his private life. The priest is depressed, wine no longer works for him. Now the psychiatrist gives him something holy to drink. KAGE Country: Japan | Year: 2007 | Run time: 27 min | Language: Japanese | Directory: Takeshi Maya A long time ago, there was a secret sect of spy soldiers who fought civil wars to support their powerful samurai masters in Japan. This is a story about those warriors who would sacrifice their lives for those they love even if it meant death, brave warriors with an undying fighting spirit for a noble cause. ____________________________________________________________________________________
Rare Gems                    rare Director: Various Country: Various Length: 93 min. Format: DVD – all on 1 DVD		Thursday, August 30th 3:00pm Ticket Price: $5.00
THE GOLDEN VOICE Country: USA | Year: 2006 | Run time: 25 min | Language: Khmer | Director: Greg Cahill Ros Sereysothea was Cambodia's most beloved rock singer until Pol Pot's nightmarish regime took over the country in 1975. Her voice, once used to entertain, became her only chance of survival. SITA, A GIRL FROM JAMBU Country: Nepal | Year: 2007 | Run time: 47 min | Language: Nepalese | Directory: Kathleen Man Sita, who is trying to get ahead in a world filled with poverty and strife, finds herself tricked into being a sex slave in a brothel in Mumbai. The inspiration for the film came from a group of young women who put on a street performance of this story to educate and inform the Nepalese public about the issues that face innocent girls in their community. Overall Sita, a Girl from Jambu is both a beautiful story and a call for social justice. It is a film about community, human rights, and women's place in the world. MONSOON Country: India/USA | Year: 2006 | Run time: 21 min | Language: English | Director: Shyam Balse Govinda, a California doctor, is forced to return to his motherland in India when his estranged father falls ill. When Govinda tries to administer treatment, his father has other plans that send both of them on a journey into their pasts to try and reconcile their broken relationship before time runs out. ____________________________________________________________________________________