San Diego Asian Film Festival 2012 Program Booklet

moving pictures, moving minds
THE THIRTEENTH ANNUAL
SAN DIEGO ASIAN

november 1-9, 2012
FILM FESTIVAL
ABOUT PACIFIC ARTS MOVEMENT
Moving Pictures, Moving Minds
Pacific arts movement, formerly known as the san diego asian film foundation, is one of the largest media arts organizations in north america that showcases asian and asian american cinema. We believe every story matters and that film is the medium of a diverse world. as a catalyst for social change, Pac-arts mission is to create transformative experiences through the Pan asian media arts. We value leadership, innovation, creating community, and having fun!
FREE FILMS ON DEMAND a select number of short films from our festival will be available to local Cox subscribers. go to Cox Channel 1 Free Zone. also, between november 10 and January 31, 2013, you can watch 10 featurelength films streamed free online via DIGIFEST, thanks to our online partner, dramafever.com. go to page 140 for more information.
the 13th annual san diego asian film festival
coMMunitY & outdoor screenings
YoutH educAtion (reeL voices)
sAn diego AsiAn FiLM FestivAL
OUR PROGRAMS
Pacific arts movement is a 501 (c)(3). tax id # 33-1001523 2508 historic decatur rd. suite 140 san diego, Ca 92106 619.400.5911 www.Pac-arts.org info@Pac-arts.org
MontHLY FiLM ForuMs

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sPring sHoWcAse
Sharp Health Plan is a proud sponsor of the San Diego Asian Film Festival
As the only locally-based commercial health plan, we not only serve the people of San Diego County we are the people of San Diego County.
Advocate
We believe our members deserve a trusted health care partner and advocate.
Family
We believe our members are important, and health care should be personal.
Neighbor
We believe its important to live, work and play in the same community as our members.
We believe in the art of ca r ing .
SHP68A 2011 SHC
(619) 228-2300 or 1-800-359-2002 | www.SharpHealthPlan.com
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Welcome to our 13th film festival season full of fun, discoveries, and change. first the fun, embodied in our opening and closing night films. dust off your acid washed jeans as we launch our fest november 1 with ramona diazs electrifying dont stoP believin: everYmans JourneY, the rags-toriches story of Journeys new front man, arnel Pineda, discovered off the streets of manila. then on closing night november 9, we premiere the infectious Japanese romantic comedy love striKes! neXt, our disCoveries of more than 140 films from 20 countries shoe-horned into nine days of cinematic bliss. showcasing returning filmmakers richard Wong (with the sexy Yes Were oPen), h.P mendoza (i am . a ghost), david boyle (daYlight savings), ron morales (graCeland), s. leo Chiang (mr. Cao goes to Washington), and first-time features from tad nakamura (JaKe shimabuKuro: life on four strings), daniel hsia (shanghai Calling starring heartthrob daniel henney), and our own former artistic director mye hoang (with her very personal viette). finallY, the Change, and its a big one. after months of soul searching, we decided it was time to officially change the name of our organization to PaCifiC arts movement, which better reflects our growth, our spirit, and commitment to creating transformative experiences through storytelling. as film and the media arts evolve, we must too.
LETTER FROM EXECUTIVE dIRECTOR
What has not changed (and never will) is that the san diego asian film festival is about community a community of film lovers, film makers, and everyone in between who embraces our mission. so, heres to You our festival guests: we thank you for being part of this new era for Pacific arts movement and its endless possibilities.
LEE ANN KIM Founder & Executive Director

8 the 13th annual san diego asian film festival
TABLE OF CONTENTS
letter from artistic director ...................................................... 11 ticketing................................................................................. 12 venues ................................................................................... 13 free films .............................................................................. 14 special events ......................................................................... 15 schedule ................................................................................ 18 board of directors ................................................................... 22 Chairmans letter .................................................................... 23 sponsors ................................................................................ 27 membership ........................................................................... 35 george C. lin emerging filmmaker ............................................. 40 festival Jury............................................................................ 41 film Programs special Presentations ............................................................ 43 asian american Panorama ..................................................... 57 asia Pop! ............................................................................. 87 masters ............................................................................ 101 discoveries ........................................................................ 113 extreme ............................................................................ 133 staff .................................................................................... 171 special thanks ...................................................................... 173 film index/Print source list .................................................... 175
s P e c i A L P r e s e n tAt i o n s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 3 A s i A n A M e r i c A n PA n o r A M A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 7 AsiA PoP! ................................................................. 87 MAsters .............................................................................. 101 discoveries ......................................................................................... 113 eXtreMe............................................................................................................ 133
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Welcome to the great cinema party! the entertainment has arrived, the talents in the green room, and the drinks are on ice. some call it a film festival, but this year im calling it, to borrow the title of raya martins new feature, a cinema party. its not just a celebration, though there is plenty to celebrate. its an upheaval, somewhere between a circus and a revolution. and is there no better way of thinking about cinema than that? Weve got the west coast premiere of sion sonos the land of hoPe, which sends traditional family melodrama a shock to the heart. Were showing the riveting documentary the World before her, which collides beauty queens and aspiring terrorists. Weve got an interactive culinary experience with tvs beverly Kim. and were opening with a musical juggernaut which proves that no matter where we come from or what we look like, anything is possible. We want to do more than celebrate that fact; we want to bask in it and invite everyone to join us under the glow. and we mean everyone. more than ever, theres something for everyone at our 13th edition, from blockbusters with bite to homemade tales with heart. and this year, were bringing it out. the ultrastar mission valley is still home base, but we also want to party in north county at Cinepolis, at the park at moPa, on campus at uCsd, in the kitchens of usd, and uptown in north Park. so break out the party dress and follow the music, because youre
LETTER FROM ARTISTIC dIRECTOR
invited. Cheers!
BRIAN HU Artistic Director
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TICKETING
tickets for shows at ultrastar go on sale at the mission valley box office starting oct 29. Walk-up tickets for programs at non-ultrastar locations are available at that venues box office one hour before showtime. tickets can also be purchased online at www.sdaff.org
GENERAL opening night Closing night film general admission student/senior/military Cinepolis Past/Present summit Kitchen Confessions festival 6-pack SDAFF MEMBER PRICES opening Closing night general admission Cinepolis Past/Present summit Kitchen Confessions
$20 (with after-party) or $11.50 (film only) $15 $11.50 $9 (at the door only) $20 $5 $5 $60 (can be exchanged for almost any program)
6-PACKS & COMP TICKETS You must redeem individual comp tickets and 6-Pack tickets for the show of your choice at the box office. You can trade in multiple tickets to the same show. Comp and 6-Pack tickets are redeemable for opening night, but not redeemable for the nov. 8th screening of danCing Queen at Cinepolis or the nov. 9th 7Pm screening of love striKes! any unused tickets cannot be carried over to the next festival. REFUND POLICY no refunds for unused tickets, 6-packs, all festival passes. exchanges are only available when a program is oversold. SOLD-OUT SCREENINGS | RUSH LINES When a program is listed as sold-out, there is a very good chance seats will be available through a rush line at the theater. rush lines take place outside the theater as early as 30 minutes before the show. We will offer all open seats 15 minutes before showtime on a first come basis to those waiting in the rush line.
$15 (with after-party) or $8 (film only) $11.50 $8 $16.50 free (must get ticket from ultrastar box office) free (show membership card at door)
GROUP TICKETS (minimum 10) $9 (opening night and general), $12.50 (closing night film)
DOwnlOAD the OfficiAl 13th SAn DieGO ASiAn filM feStivAl iPhOne APPlicAtiOn Create your own festival guide Complete program details exclusive events Current news search SDAFF MOBILE on the iPhone aPP store
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SCREENING VENUES
the majority of the festival will take place at the ultrastar mission valley, where the main box office is also located.
NORTH PARK BIRCH THEATER
ULTRASTAR MISSION VALLEY
CINEPOLIS DEL MAR
NORTH PARK BIRCH THEATER oPening night onlY (nov. 1 ) 2891 university avenue san diego, Ca 92104 (619) 239-8836 ULTRASTAR MISSION VALLEY main festival venue (nov. 2-9) 7510 hazard Center drive san diego, Ca 92108 (619) 574-8684 MUSEUM OF PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTS (nov. 3) 1649 el Prado san diego, Ca 92101 (619) 238-7559
UC SAN DIEGO taiWan film shoWCase (nov. 2-4) atkinson hall - Calit2 9500 gilman drive la Jolla, Ca 92093 UNIVERSITY OF SAN DIEGO KitChen Confessions (nov. 5) hahn Center forum C 5995 alcal Park san diego, Ca 92093 (619) 260-4600
CINEPOLIS DEL MAR danCing Queen (nov. 8) 12905 el Camino real san diego Ca 92130 (858) 794-4045
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FREE FILMS
there are numerous ways to save on sdaff tickets: buy a 6-pack, get an all-festival badge, become a sdaff member. but as far as discounts go, you cant beat free! all films at uCsd atkinson hall auditorium are free, thanks to the uCsd taiwan studies lecture series and the taipei economic & Cultural office in la. no ticket necessary just walk on in! uCsd parking is free on the weekend too.
With the generous support of the Hom Family Foundation, sdaff is presenting free(dom) films at four: narrative films and documentaries about democracy, civic engagement, and freedom of expression. all weekday 4pm films at the ultrastar are free. Youll still need a ticket, which you can pick up at the ultrastar box office any time starting oct. 29.
FRI, NOV. 2
8:00Pm Cha Cha for tWins (preceded by free reception at 7:30pm) (pg. 92)
FRI, NOV. 2
4:00Pm mr. Cao goes to Washington (pg. 69 )
SAT, NOV. 3
11:30am golden horse short films: 5f-2 (pg. 61) & thief (pg. 76) 2Pm in our time (pg. 108) 4:30Pm 10+10 (pg. 102)
MON, NOV. 5
4:00Pm Children of sriKandi (pg. 116 )
TUES, NOV. 6
4:00Pm Julian (pg. 65 )
SUN, NOV. 4
11:30am moneY & honeY (pg. 121) 1:45Pm starrY starrY night (pg. 109) 4Pm the raW & the CooKed (pg. 127) as always, our popular annual programs ni hao, Kai-lan & friends and reel voiCes are free with ticket from the ultrastar box office.
WED, NOV. 7
4:00Pm nuClear nation (pg. 123)
THURS, NOV. 8
4:00Pm danCing Queen (pg. 93)
FRI, NOV. 9
4:00Pm the sheiK & i (pg. 80)
SAT, NOV. 3
10:00am ni hao, Kai-lan & friends (pg. 70)
SUN, NOV. 4
12Pm reel voiCes (pg. 74)
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SPECIAL EVENTS
its not a festival without parties, is it? the fun lasts long after the film credits end.
THU, NOV. 1 | OPENING NIGHT PARTY | 9:30PMCLOSE

Wangs, north Park 3029 university ave. free for passholders or $10 sponsored by
SUN, NOV. 4 | SUNDAY NIGHT SOIREE | 8:00PMMIDNIGHT

red Pearl Kitchen, gaslamp 440 J street free for Passholders only
MON, NOV. 5 | KITCHEN CONFESSIONS | 5:307:00PM FRI, NOV. 2 | FRIDAY NIGHT SLUMBER PARTY | 10:00PMCLOSE
tba university of san diego, hahn Center 5995 alcala Park free for usd students/faculty/staff or $5
SAT, NOV. 3 | GALA AWARDS DINNER | 5:309:00PM

town & Country hotel, mission valley 500 hotel Circle north $225/seat rsvP at gala@sdaff.org Presented by
FRI, NOV. 9 | CLOSING NIGHT AFTER-PARTY | 9:00PMCLOSE

stingaree, gaslamp 454 6th avenue free with wristband from festival Will-Call on nov 9
SAT, NOV. 10 | AMP MUSIC FESTIVAL | 11:00AM8:00PM

marketcreek Plaza amphitheater 310 euclid ave. free for all passholders or $15
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You are an artist.

You see the true beauty in creative expression. You strive to elevate our culture. You believe the arts make our community and the world a richer place. For your dedication and your passion, we salute you.
Union Bank is proud to sponsor the 13th Annual San Diego Asian Film Festival.
Retail Banking Group 530 B Street, Suite 1200, San Diego, CA 92101 Lawrence Henry, SVP Regional Executive, 619-230-3085
unionbank.com
2012 Union Bank, N.A.
2012 Southwest Airlines Co.
A destination thats close to our hearts.

Southwest Airlines is devoted to serving the community
Southwest Airlines is with you in the air and in your community, sharing our spirit of LUV at every destination along the way. From celebrating cultural events to partnering with local community organizations, we are proud to be part of the community. Its a pleasure to serve you, because your community is our LUVing destination.
Proud to Support SDAFF!
SChEdULE OF PROGRAMS
ALL FILM PROGRAMS (except noted below with *) TAKE PLACE AT THE MISSION VALLEY ULTRASTAR CINEMAS AT HAZARD CENTER. times and films are subject to change, and additional screenings may be added. for the latest schedule, visit www.sdaff.org or text sdaff to 53137 for cell phone updates.
THURSDAY, NOV. 1
nORth PARK BiRch theAtRe* 7:00Pm DONT STOP BELIEVIN: EVERYMANS JOURNEY 113 mins wAnGS nORth PARK 9:00Pm OPENING NIGHT PARTY
FRIDAY, NOV. 2
ShARP theAteR 1 4:00Pm MR. CAO GOES TO WASHINGTON 71 mins 6:00Pm JAPAn AiRlineS theAteR 2 6:30Pm FIVE FINGERS OF DEATH 97 mins 9:15Pm PROven theAteR 6 5:15Pm FOR A GOOD TIME CALL... 81 mins 7:30Pm BAROnA theAteR 7 6:45Pm CHIPS 68 mins
MEKONG HOTEL 57 mins GRACELAND 84 mins
I AM A GHOST 75 mins
THE IRAN JOB 93 mins
8:35Pm
YES, WERE OPEN 80 mins
7:50Pm
10:00Pm TEBANA SANKICHI: SNOT ROCKETS 74 mins
10:10Pm YOUNG GUN IN THE TIME 95 mins UcSD AtKinSOn hAll* 8:00Pm CHA CHA FOR TWINS 101 mins tBD 10:00Pm FRIDAY NIGHT SLUMBER PARTY
SATURDAY, NOV. 3
ShARP theAteR 1 1:30Pm SLEEPLESS NIGHT 65 mins 3:15Pm JAPAn AiRlineS theAteR 2 10:00am NI HAO, KAI-LAN & FRIENDS 67 mins 1:00Pm PROven theAteR 6 11:00am SUMMIT 120 mins BAROnA theAteR 7 11:40am APPARITION 87 mins
JAKE SHIMABUKURO: A LIFE ON FOUR STRINGS 52 mins
SON OF ANIMAL STYLE 85 mins
2:00Pm
MONSTROUS WOMEN 99 mins
2:15Pm
SHANGHAI CALLING 100 mins (more)
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SATURDAY, NOV. 3 (cont.)

ShARP theAteR 1 5:15Pm MEMORIES LOOK AT ME 91 mins 7:25Pm JAPAn AiRlineS theAteR 2 3:30Pm KAHAANI 128 mins PROven theAteR 6 4:30Pm THE IRAN JOB 93 mins BAROnA theAteR 7 5:00Pm 11 FLOWERS 110 mins 7:40Pm
DOOMSDAY BOOK 115 mins
6:30Pm
THE LAND OF HOPE 133 mins
7:00Pm
QUEER 2.0 92 mins
PAINTED SKIN: THE RESURRECTION 131 mins
10:00Pm DEAD SUSHI 91 mins
9:15Pm
ARCHITECTURE 101 118 mins
9:35Pm
BOUNDARY 110 mins
UcSD AtKinSOn hAll* 11:30am GOLDEN HORSE SHORT FILMS: 5F2 & THIEF 54 mins 2:00Pm 4:30Pm
IN OUR TIME 106 mins 10+10 115 mins
SUNDAY, NOV. 4
ShARP theAteR 1 1:25Pm SEEKING ASIAN FEMALE 85 mins 3:50Pm JAPAn AiRlineS theAteR 2 12:00Pm REEL VOICES 90 mins 2:30Pm PROven theAteR 6 1:55Pm OH THE PLACES YOULL GO 94 mins 4:25Pm BAROnA theAteR 7 1:40Pm ALL ABOUT MY WIFE 121 mins 4:15Pm
DAYLIGHT SAVINGS 73 mins THE KING OF PIGS 97 mins YOUNG GUN IN THE TIME 95 mins
ANIMATION: THE ILLUSION OF LIFE 88 mins LAND BEFORE TIME 97 mins A MAN WITH STYLE 110 mins
MOURNING 85 mins
ROMANCING IN THIN AIR 114 mins EDEN 98 mins
6:05Pm
5:00Pm
6:25Pm
NIGHTFALL 108 mins
7:00Pm
8:20Pm
7:45Pm
8:50Pm
ACE ATTORNEY 135 mins
10:00Pm HENGE 54 mins (more)
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SChEdULE OF PROGRAMS (CONT.)

SUNDAY, NOV. 4 (cont.)
UcSD AtKinSOn hAll* 11:30am MONEY & HONEY 96 mins MOPA* 4:15Pm
IN ANOTHER COUNTRY 89 mins SHUN LI & THE POET 100 mins
ReD PeARl Kitchen, GASlAMP 8:00Pm SUNDAY NIGHT SOIREE
1:45Pm
STARRY STARRY NIGHT 99 mins THE RAW & THE COOKED 83 mins
7:00Pm
4:00Pm
MONDAY, NOV. 5
ShARP theAteR 1 4:00Pm CHILDREN OF SRIKANDI 74 mins 6:35Pm JAPAn AiRlineS theAteR 2 6:20Pm LATE SUMMER 57 mins PROven theAteR 6 6:05Pm A MAN WITH STYLE 110 mins 8:35Pm BAROnA theAteR 7 4:35Pm 11 FLOWERS 110 mins
THE WORLD BEFORE HER 90 mins THE SHEIK & I 109 mins
8:25Pm
ACE ATTORNEY 135 mins
10+10 118 mins
7:00Pm
VIETTE 90 mins
8:50Pm
9:30Pm
MEKONG HOTEL 57 mins
UniveRSitY Of SAn DieGO* 5:30Pm KITCHEN CONFESSIONS 90 mins
TUESDAY, NOV. 6
ShARP theAteR 1 5:55Pm DOOMSDAY BOOK 115 mins 8:25Pm JAPAn AiRlineS theAteR 2 6:10Pm THE RAW & THE COOKED 83 mins 8:00Pm PROven theAteR 6 4:00Pm JULIAN 40 mins BAROnA theAteR 7 5:45Pm CHIPS 68 mins
GRACELAND 84 mins
I AM A GHOST 76 mins
6:25Pm
UPLOADED: THE ASIAN 7:30Pm AMERICAN MOVEMENT 80 mins SD BLOCK PARTY 80 mins
FLYING SWORDS OF DRAGON GATE 122 mins

(more)
8:45Pm
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 7
ShARP theAteR 1 6:00Pm MR. CAO GOES TO WASHINGTON 71 mins 8:10Pm JAPAn AiRlineS theAteR 2 5:30Pm ANIMATION: THE ILLUSION OF LIFE 88 mins 7:55Pm PROven theAteR 6 4:00Pm NUCLEAR NATION 96 mins BAROnA theAteR 7 5:45Pm ALL ABOUT MY WIFE 121 mins 8:20Pm
VIETTE 90 mins
THE ORATOR 110 mins
6:30Pm
GF*BF 105 mins
PAINTED SKIN: THE RESURRECTION 131 mins
8:55Pm cinePOliS* 8:00Pm DANCING QUEEN 124 mins
THE GREAT CINEMA PARTY 70 mins
THURSDAY, NOV. 8
ShARP theAteR 1 6:00Pm SLEEPLESS NIGHT 54 mins JAPAn AiRlineS theAteR 2 4:00Pm DANCING QUEEN 124 mins PROven theAteR 6 6:30Pm OLD DOG 88 mins BAROnA theAteR 7 6:10Pm JAKE SHIMABUKURO: LIFE ON FOUR STRINGS 52 mins 7:35Pm
7:25Pm
WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS 147 mins
7:00Pm
THE LAND OF HOPE 133 mins
8:35Pm
NIGHTFALL 108 mins
CHA CHA FOR TWINS 101 mins THE KING OF PIGS 97 mins
10:00Pm DEAD BITE 94 mins
9:50Pm
FRIDAY, NOV. 9
ShARP theAteR 1 5:35Pm GOLDEN SLUMBERS 96 mins 8:05Pm JAPAn AiRlineS theAteR 2 6:45Pm TBA PROven theAteR 6 5:45Pm REVENGE SERVED HOT 95 mins 8:15Pm BAROnA theAteR 7 4:00Pm THE SHEIK & I 109 mins
TBA
9:30Pm
TBA
REMINGTON & THE CURSE OF THE ZOMBADINGS 96 mins
7:00Pm
LOVE STRIKES! 118 mins
10:20Pm MONDOMANILA 75 mins StinGARee 9:00Pm CLOSING NIGHT PARTY
9:45Pm
TBA
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Pacific arts movement is overseen by a passionate group of business and community leaders who volunteer their time and expertise to help grow a dynamic organization. board members are in charge of governance, ensure adequate resources and help guide Pacific arts movements strategic direction.
STEPHEN CHIN, SDAFF Chair sharp health Plan HARLEN BAYHA, Vice Chair Wells fargo AMETHYST GRIFFITH, Secretary bermel, inc. STEVEN HONG, Treasurer automated telemedicine, inc. DAN HOM, Chairman Emeritus focuscom, inc PAUL BERGMAN mcgregor & associates ANDY HOANG salk institute SHEILA KANOYA Port of san diego JEFF KREBS, M.D. Kaiser Permanente BENJAMIN LEE - metlife home loans STEPHEN LEW - s. lew & associates INGRAM LOSNER Proven, inc. MITCHELL REFF retired, discovery oncology ART RIVERA - fusion marketing LOUIS SONG Proven, inc. GARY WONG retired, union bank
BOARd OF dIRECTORS
board members serve a minimum two-year term. if you are interested in joining the board, please contact us at info@Pac-arts.org
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its that special time of the year again when our family comes together to celebrate film and culture through the san diego asian film festival! our vision for a more compassionate world demands that we evolve to provide the most meaningful experiences for our community. Were thrilled to continue as one of the largest media arts organizations focused on asian american and asian international cinema. however, were also excited to explore the many new ways in which we can deliver on our promise to connect and transform audiences with the human experience through the Pan asian media arts. While the fall film festival will always remain a mainstay, we also sponsor programs throughout the year! i am honored to continue as the board Chair for the Pacific arts movement. for me, there can be no greater privilege than to support our community gatherings, which showcase a broader understanding of our world.as my father often reminds me, if youre not helping to make the world a better place, then what are you doing? Congratulations to lee ann Kim, her staff, as well as the hundreds of volunteers who contribute to our efforts! it is lee anns vision and drive that have established the Pacific arts movement as a positive force for change i cant think of a more passionate or talented community leader in san diego. in addition, thank you to our dynamic board of directors, who have rallied to ensure that our organization will develop in new and exciting ways.
LETTER FROM ThE ChAIRMAN
but most importantly, our gratitude is to you, the members of the Pacific arts movement. film is a collective experience, and we honor your support and passion! Welcome to the 13th annual san diego asian film festival.
STEPHEN R. CHIN BOARD CHAIRMAN PACIFIC ARTS MOVEMENT

the 13th annual san diego asian film festival 23
SPONSORS
MAJOR GRANTS
LARGER THEATER SPONSOR
SMALL THEATER SPONSORS
AUDIENCE AWARD
Consulting | Staffing | Solutions
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GALA PRESENTER
OPENING NIGHT PARTY
SPOTLIGHT
EDUCATION PARTNERS
FREE(DOM) FILMS AT FOUR
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SCREENING SPONSORS
Jhigs & friends
OFFICIAL AIRLINES
OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER SPONSOR
OFFICIAL TELEVISION SPONSOR
Pantone 137
Pantone 446
McGregor & Associates, Inc. Logomark 2-color: Orange PMS 137 and Grey PMS 446 Contact: Chris Josh 619-398-2828
OFFICIAL RADIO SPONSOR
MAJOR MEDIA SPONSORS
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EVENT SPONSORS
YOUTH DAY
COMMUNITY SPONSORS
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MEDIA PARTNERS
The original and first Asian Journal in America

Philippine Radio AM 1450 M-F 7-8 PM
San Diegos first and only Asian Filipino weekly publication and a multi-award winning newspaper! Online+Digital+Print Editions to best serve you!
550 E. 8th St., Ste. 6, National City, San Diego County CA USA 91950 | Ph: 619.474.0588 | Fx: 619.474.0373 | Email: asianjournal@aol.com | www.asianjournalusa.com
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serving our community
IN-KIND DONORS
blaCKlava | bob hoffman video | bmW san diego | CoKe bottling Co. | Phuong trang restaurant | rendevous | sansai | saffron
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Proud Sponsor of the 13th Annual San Diego Asian Film Festival
StellaArtois.com Always Enjoy Responsibly.
2012 Anheuser-Busch InBev S.A., Stella Artois Beer, Imported by Import Brands Alliance, St. Louis, MO
MEMBERShIP: jOIN ThE PAC-ARTS MOVEMENT

We believe every story matters, and that film is the medium of a diverse world. if you love film and believe in our mission, then we want you to make the move. become a member of Pacific arts movement. as a Pac-arts member, you join a vibrant community of arts lovers who influence the culture of san diego and beyond. members help ensure the quality of our programs while receiving discounts and complimentary admissions throughout the year. Come see us at the membership booth or sign up online at www.Pac-arts.org Make the move and help us to reach our goal of 200 members by the end of the Festival. For those who join or renew during the Festival at the $100 level and above, we have a special gift for you.
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MEMBERShIP ROSTER
$5,000 san diego interfaith housing foundation spirit graphics & Printing, inc. $1,000 uti technology, inc. LIFETIME Paul bergman & sandra Chong bergman allan Camaisa Johnny Chou matt Jumper Jeff Krebs & fritz friedman ed & shirley lee steve & Cheryl Peace Pat Pepper mitchell & miyo reff PRODUCER theresa battle & michael frazier michael Cheung l. Pete & todd futa tom & loretta hom Chong lee stephen lew virginia mar Jip diana mar Jip-Chuh anthony & grace olaes robert sanchez & Janis takahashi louis song & lee ann Kim dominic tong & Katherine bowdish PATRON mike avila Jenny benson Perla & Zachary brownlie stephen Chin bruce & devin Chin-lee thomas dring lois fong-sakai frederick gerlach amethyst & robert griffith dan hom sheila abrenica Kanoya stephen lew marichu magana melissa medve michael moon Carlo & Carlo Jr muzquiz george ng & Janet Cha Joseph ongsiapco & fawn Yang maria abuan & Kristian thompson Cuong trang Charles tu linda tu SUPPORTER emil ayoubkhan & michelle tubon harlen bayha Karen beeson Ken & helena benavente Jeanne burch Corey buuhoan Cornelio buu-hoan Keith Calistro michelle Cheung leeva Chung grace duvall Wendy gillespie amy & nancy hobbs edna ito marilyn Jones Yosh & marleen Kawahara terry Kovarik & andrew manisouk dae lee & lina Park rich lee Calvin lew nancy liu Kuowen lo & Yi-hsuan fang ildiko lutar lani lutar Johnny mah Jerrilyn malana lynne & Paul matthews bridget mcdonald Katya newmark Katya newmark elizabeth nolan John ohanian dennis & elaine otsuji Chris Paffendorf Joy Pakingan Jeremy Pizzola & gayle ta elise Prosser binhma rajsombath luis ramos steve sato Patrick van schoote Kenneth Wade ryan Wong diane Wong gary & Kathy Wong DONOR malou amparo eric & Kay andalis Jason arcand & tomomi arcand alan assad ferris bautista brian blake mike bryant Jeanne burch grant Cameron Yunhui Chae-banks Christopher Chan Kristine Chang allan Chin han Chiu Kathy & eric Chou Kathleen Clavero helen Cruz & allan regala maria elena delgado & John Weaver elizabeth devin tammy & bill dodds melissa & bill eisenhamer toshiye estes James faupel michelle floresca & traci hong Jonathan fohrman richard forsyth & Kate leonard mary fujimoto virginia gallanosa Joshua gardner linda & gordon gidlund russell ginns & beverly digregorio Kikue & Ken graeber Kaori hashimoto erika hiramatsu & michael Cheswick andy hoang takeo hoshi Carole huston lindsey & benjamin inouye Jeff iwami david & Carol Kawamoto david Kim sunny J Kim ed & grace lallana elaine & eric lallana benson & aileen lam toan lam Yvonne law & Chad seitz linda le melanie le forestier Jimmy lee Kent lee & Phuong huynh Patrick & daranee lee Karen lim & nathan ginoza Cindy lin edna low may mclean Patricia & fred miyahara tracie murakami laurel nishida erica-anne okamura & Jegan Chen Jeanette ollivier Jodie olson shirley omori & efton Woodford lynn owens anthony noceda raymond Park sue ann Park mariette & John Pascasio vincent Pham ty Phimmasone michael Piano alan & elaine Pizzola guy Poirier ed Pruitt Craig & sylvia reid francisco rey art rivera Chris rule eunice sanchez-mata & Joel mata shirley sanz rose sekulovich angela shiao Jill shun serena tam nancy taylor Joyce & bill teague greg toya duane trammell & robyn schatz duke tran Peijean tsai Wendy urushima-Conn & bart Conn Jim Wade rainer Wagester mike & music Watson susie Willemsz-geeroms Cassandra Wong & alexandra appel michael Wong Wendy Wong leon Wu & sambath tiep FRIEND tony arenes elly aguilar amee & madhu alagiri eldridge alcantara elias almazan Kimberly ancheta rommel andaya Yolanda anglin tim & evelyn ascough marlon & brandi austria marlene baker maria ballesteros noemi barrios Janice bart Patricia bayha meagan beale erin best valmik & rashmi bhargava deep bhullar & brian lam eloise bienvenu alisa boyko anahid brakke Kathryn brinton Jeffrey brosbe ellen brown greg brown Wayne brown Jose bucud shu-fun burns mary byrne-halaszi maria lourdes Cabuang & Chris Cate mela Capol arthur Carbonell david Chan tim Chan arounny Chann & ham Phonephaly Pearl & Jesse Charfauros
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FRIEND (CONT.) Perry Chen sam Chen silvia Chen Yinuo Chen george Chiang & helen sohn Chong-ren Chien renee Chin Jd lynn Chiong dr. don & Janine Chu Judy Chung-lee & benjamin lee Joseph Clary betti Coe Kristina Coleman Pamela Couvignou darin Craw margaret Curtin John dacapias andre dacio rachel darvin audie & thelma de Castro emmanuel de guzman Kaye de lancey Jeanne & douglas decker todd delong david detwiler elizabeth devin tian du John duca & malee tobias veronica eastling Christopher ekren ray ellis scott eriksson sylvie estrella & ashley fifield amy fan bruce farmer shirley & salvador flor Carlton floyd Camille forbes Joel gabriel marie gabriel matthew goldman Jim gottlieb bennet greenwald Wendy grice lori guild & louie tejada victor gutierrez
Cynthia & seth hacker steven & vicky hadley Kathryn hammelman & victor flores Julie haza Kathie heiser Penny hempstead todd henry Patricia heras & Yuri hofmann sylvie hinh & Jerry lu mye hoang & dave boyle nancy hom valerie & gerry hong frank howley amy hsiao lillian hsu brian hu Patricia hughes david hulett John hunter Kim huynh Pamela huynh nanson hwa varsha israni robert Paul ito edna & robert ito margaret iwanaga-Penrose mark Wayne Javier Clare Kanoya Judy Kesaris angela Killoren eunjae Kim Jane Kim mina Kim sam Kim scott & Jean Kim Yong Kim bob Kirby Julie & rakesh Kumar James Kwei hana Kwon barbara Kyrillos eric lallana megan lam Chris lavin trinh le tamara leach
donna lee gene lee helie lee murray & gladys lee Jeffrey lehmann vicky leon-guerrero grant lewis Polly & fah liew alanna light ruth lim aaron ling mitzi & rafael lizarraga ardy lo Jennifer lo alexis lorenzo Phillip lorenzo ingram losner robin low laurance lowenschuss mei Chun lu Pamela luster Joel machitar micaela marJip romie martin Kim martinez daniel matthews Joe mazares michelle mentz anne mihalkanin blake miller seva miriam Keith momon Joff morales farah moriah stephanie & Katie moy lynne murphy dub myers dale nelson george ng & Janet Cha ngocthao nguyen Peter nguyen stefan nguyen thanh nguyen Ken & marilyn nolen daniel norman david oda amy okamura
susan okuno bill & tracey olson Kiyoko omori glen ong donal osullivan Jacqueline Pablo arlene Paraiso sun Park ryan Parker Judy Patacsil Paloma Patterson Will Pedranti rodney Peffer roger Perez Charles Phillip mark Pidgeon vinh Quach hoa Quach rick raimondi antoinette raymond Kwofi reed bill reeve Jocelyn remigio nika reyes marcus robas ron roberts stuart & linda robinson daniel roose anne louise ross anne rosser bruce rowe Joseph allen ruanto ramirez brian & lori rueger ruth marie san filippo robert sanchez matthew sauceda Kiyomi & timothy sankary bill & arleen schlafer dan schreiber george seikaly mary sekulovich gavin sermona Jose serrano miriam seva hongfang sha
rhealyn sico anne shillam david shina massoud shirazi Charlie smith Jing song ryun song thomas stannard mark & Phyllis strauss Pavee suvagondha shui-Chi J. szitta rol& tactay Karen tani nancy taylor hao teng annamarie till don tolentino maria torres long tran viet tran thomas truong Wayne & betsy tsukamoto Yen tu felix tuyay erica ueland george uy nancy vaccaro george vasquez Josh vergara Chris voight Joni Washek & Karol Ziolkowski edwina Welch meka Wells michael Wells & sung ae Yoon Jon Wesick sheldon Wilson Judy Wong richard Wong sabina Wong Wilda Wong lisa ann Yadao tracie Yang K. Wayne Yang & Christina ree Cynthia Yee Xiaonan Zhang
STUDENT brian bacsal rachel banci alicia Cherry Kevin fontaine Cola Kayla Colburn hayg-taniel dabag Kristen dennis Chantel dePaepe anthony diggs tufan gokirmak brittany holcombe alex honore Jessica hsieh sylvia hwa andrew Keating francesca Kemp heathra King mindy lee nick leon-guerrero Janny li tania li Kate litvinchuk harpreet malla megumi marsh mark martinez John mcallister Christine mendoza ann noceda anthony Pang mehmet Parlak Kristin Pearey travis Perreira april Phomthavong Kent Pun ferchil ramos K.r. ridge e-fann saung ashley Jiwon shin lani smith april tou nguyen vu betty Wong ding Wong Peter Zhang
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Cox is proud to support the San Diego Asian Film Festival.

Cox Advanced TV
Cox On DEMAND Digital Video Recorder (DVR) Cox TV ConnectSM Cox Interactive Guide
Catch more Asian-American entertainment on Channel 405.
2012 Cox Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
2012 GEORGE C. LIN EMERGING FILMMAKER

each year since his passing, the san diego asian film festival has proudly presented an emerging filmmaker award in honor of former Program director george lin. a scientist by trade, george co-founded the dC asian Pacific american film festival in 2000, then joined sdaff in 2003. Quirky, loving, and passionate, he championed all things independent film, music, art. george passed away in san diego on october 14, 2008, after a long battle with cancer. this year, the festival is proud to announce the 2012 emerging filmmaker award to ernie Park for his feature film, late summer (pg. 67), a film that expands the horizons for asian american filmmaking and embodies the independent spirit that george represented. ticket sales from late summer will be donated to the george C. lin memorial fund.
GEORGE LIN
Please join us in congratulating ernie Park!
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FESTIVAL jURORS 2012

festival jurors judge the best films entered into competition and choose the top film in each category along with a grand Jury award winner.
PRASHANT BHARGAVA is the director of Patang (the Kite),

which premiered at the berlin international film festival and has gone on to play in over 30 international film festivals. the film was hailed for its hypnotically beautiful visuals, naturalistic storytelling, and colorfully vivid poetic style, and garnered four stars from roger ebert and was selected as a new York times Critics Pick. his short film,sangam, premiered at the sundance film festival, and was distributed by film movement and broadcast by arte/Zdf, the sundance Channel, mubi, and Pbs. sangam was awarded best narrative short at sdaff in 2004.
JEN WANG is the cofounder and author ofdisgrasian.com,

or, in the words of right-wing pundit michelle malkin, a professional race hustler. shes been featured on nightline, nPr, the associated Press, bbC news, the daily beast, huffPost live, Patt morrison, metro nYs best of the blogs, hyphen magazine, and Koream Journal, among others. in 2008, she created a web series for adult swim. Jen is also a regular contributor to the huffington Post and xoJane.
MARTIN WONG co-founded giant robot in 1994 and edited all

68 issues of the seminal, influential, and funny print magazine about asian and asian american culture. today, the uCla graduate continues to contribute to the giant robot website while working for intertrend, a long beach-based, asianfocused advertising and communications company.
EMILY ROxWORTHY is an associate professor in the

department of theatre and dance at the university of California, san diego (uCsd), where sheteaches asian american theatre and film. dr. roxworthy is the author of the bookthe spectacle of Japanese American trauma: racial Performativity and World War ii.she was alsothe project director of a national endowment for the humanities-funded video game prototype called drama in the delta, whichallows players to reenact life in a Japanese american internment camp.
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s P e c i A L P r e s e n tAt i o n s
OPeninG niGht filM

dONT STOP BELIEVIN: EVERyMANS jOURNEy
nOv. 1 (thURSDAY), 7:00PM, nORth PARK BiRch theAtRe
usa | english & tagalog WITH english subtitles | 113 mins | video | 2012 DIRECTOR ramona s. diaz
Audience Award, 2012 traverse Film Festival closing night Film, 2012 san Francisco international Film Festival official selection, 2012 tribeca Film Festival co-presented by Blt t-Shirts, USD communication Studies, San Diego Alliance for Asian Pacific islander Americans, SanDiegofilipino.com, filipino American national historical Society San Diego chapter, filAmfest, filipino American lawyers of San Diego director scheduled to attend in 2007, legendary american rock band Journey needed a new singer. While in the midst of a fruitless online search, Journey guitarist neal schon stumbled upon video clips of filipino singer arnel Pineda on Youtube. schon was blown away by Pinedas powerful voice and charisma, not to mention his astonishing ability to emulate the vocal style of former Journey lead singer steve Perry. Convinced that Pineda was the perfect choice to front the band, schon brought the filipino unknown to California to win over the rest of his bandmates. the result was the unlikeliest of all rags-to-riches underdog success stories, one that still sounds completely impossible, even during our current era of globalization and instant internet celebrity: a modest former street urchin from manila had become the lead singer of the multi-platinum american rock band responsible for the most downloaded song in history. award-winning documentary filmmaker ramona diaz (imelda, the learning) beautifully captures this modern-day fairy tale in the wonderfully entertaining and wryly humorous dont stoP believin. the film chronicles Pinedas whirlwind rise from the streets of manila to performing in front of sold-out arenas throughout the world, and provides an inside look at life on the road as a member of an iconic rock band. filled with both quiet moments providing intimate details on how Pineda learned to handle his newfound fame, and exhilarating footage of Pinedas dynamic performances in concert, this film will have you singing out loud and leave you filled with hope. gene Huh
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centeRPiece
nOv. 4 (SUnDAY), 7:00PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY
usa | english | 98 mins | video | 2012 DIRECTOR megan griffiths CAST Jamie Chung, beau bridges, matt oleary
Audience Award, 2012 sXsW Film Festival Best Actress, 2012 seattle international Film Festival co-presented by womens international center, cSUSM Gender equity center, Af3iRM, national Association of human trafficking victim Advocates director, cast & crew scheduled to attend
EdEN
Korean american teenager hyun Jae (Jamie Chung) is not much different from your typical teen, desiring her freedom and satisfying her rebellious spirit by smoking cigarettes behind her parents shop. one night, she sneaks into a bar with a fake id and catches a ride home with a handsome stranger. but she never makes it home that night. hyun Jae is abducted and taken to an underground brothel in the middle of the new mexico desert, where she is given a new name: eden. Without time even to gasp for air, shes thrown into the complex industry of human trafficking, in which young women are treated like inventory that is ordered, replaced, maintained, and accounted for at all times. though no one person has a clear picture of the entire operation, there are multiple players involved in trafficking the underage girls. a respected law enforcement officer, bob gault (beau bridges),
oversees the business from a distance, while temperamental point-man vaughan (matt oleary) is in charge of the day-to-day operations. over time, eden learns to navigate the system and wins vaughans trust in order to improve her situation. based on the stunning real-life experiences of Chong Kim, eden is a powerful narrative that reveals one womans unyielding strength and the resilience of the human spirit. director megan griffiths (First Aid for choking, the off Hours) presents a harrowing glimpse of the human trafficking that happens within our own borders. in a breakthrough performance, Jamie Chung is able to maneuver strenuous situations while preserving the characters dignity. eden pushes the limits of how much a person will endure in order to survive, and compels the audience to evaluate moral dilemmas that arent so cut and dry. Malou Amparo
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clOSinG niGht filM

nOv. 9 (fRiDAY), 7:00PM, UltRAStAR MiSSOn vAlleY
JaPan | JaPanese With english subtitles | 118 mins | video | 2011 DIRECTOR hitoshi one CAST mirai moriyama, masami nagasawa, Kumiko aso, lily franky
west coast Premiere
LOVE STRIKES
is this a fantasy, or a fling? it happens sometimes. or so the movies tell us. that even the most inept, socially dysfunctional of us will hit our moteki: that inexplicable period when no matter how badly we trip up or babble, were still irresistible to even the most inhumanly beautiful, alltoo-perfect creatures on earth. so begins the moteki of Yukiyo (mirai moriyama), a 31-year-old virgin (or rather, second virgin as he neurotically reminds us) who used to tweet uncontrollably while holed-up alone in an apartment that looks like it barfed up the bargain bin at tower records, but now faces two (and maybe three and maybe four) gorgeous women who, for whatever reason, dig his quirks and crave his skinny, shivering body. My brain isnt equipped to process something like this!
designed to brainwash you into confessing your love. and so Yukiyo goes down the rabbit hole of sex and love, at least as filtered through his music critic, twitter-addict, self-deprecating mind. not since High Fidelity and Almost Famous has a film so joyously captured the way infatuation is a spontaneous musical number in the streets, a lyric interpreted way out of context, a pop cultural conceit taken much too far. With its nervy edgar Wright dazzle, love striKes! is a romantic comedy for the neurotics, the romantics, and the new media junkies. its for the men who want to see the most insecure versions of themselves score, and for the women who think its cute when nerdy guys squirm. its a romantic comedy about the bad, anxious habits we think weve outgrown but not really. love striKes! is an auto-tune fantasy that reunites the lovers from crying out Loud in the center of the World (sdaff 05), and makes us want to believe this version of the universe is not only possible, but waiting for us. take a bow, Yukiyo: you and your nervous voice-over and slinky dancing body make us who karaoke alone never feel solo. thank you Perfume, thank you dancers! im ready to
sponsored by USD center for inclusion & Diversity
co-presented by Japan Society of San Diego, tijuana
theres miyuki (masami nagasawa), who shares Yukiyos love for indie bands and social media, and just happens to have a girl-next-door face and supermodel body. and hostess ai, a plucky pro who seems down for anything. and soulful motoko, who may not know Yukiyos favorite indie-rock bands, but knows that the road to any mans heart is karaoke. songs are like drugs when youre down. theyre
face my moteki!!! Brian Hu
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KITChEN CONFESSIONS
nOv. 5 (MOnDAY), 5:30PM, UniveRSitY Of SAn DieGO, hAhn UniveRSitY centeR
90 mins
sponsored by University of San Diego
behind every good meal, there is a story, and celebrity chef beverly Kim (top chef finalist) has plenty of them from her 16+ years in the kitchen. Join Chef beverly for an intimate discussion of her culinary journey, cultural influences, and how asian food has become the new american cuisine.
attendees will get a taste of Chef beverlys twist on movie popcorn, plus for the hardcore foodies, we are offering four seats at the Chefs table to enjoy a few dishes created live as part of the event.
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gary Chou (union square ventures, surrogate valentine, daylight savings) and Karin Chien (dgenerate films,circumstance,Jack & diane) will host a series of innovative multimedia conversations with asian american artists and filmmakers about surviving and innovating in todays media industries. Changing economic models and digital technology continue to render traditional paths of success less relevant and less accessible. so what happens when the gatekeepers no longer hold the key? Well talk with asian american creators at the forefront of a true independent movement, where filmmaking is practiced freely, and often, and the act of storytelling doesnt wait for a greenlight.
this event builds on the provocative dialogue launched at the Present/future summit in march 2012 at the san francisco international asian american film festival. here, well take the conversation from a macro overview to a micro focus. Well ask individual artists and filmmakers how they use emergent forms to tell stories and find audience. and well look at how the act of reaching audiences in turn drives innovation and creates sustainability. You wont want to miss this special conversation on the present/ future of film and media. Confirmed speakers: lynn Chen (daylight
PRESENT/FUTURE SUMMIT
120 mins
nOv. 3 (SAtURDAY), 11:00AM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY
Conversations on the Present/future.
savings,Yes, Were open), Patrick epino & stephen dypiangco (national film society).
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TAIWAN FILM ShOWCASE

the taiwan Film showcase runs Fri. nov. 2 to sun. nov. 4 at Atkinson Hall Auditorium at the university of california, san diego. All films are free. A free reception at 7:30pm precedes the screening of cHA cHA For tWins on Friday night. fRiDAY, nOv. 2 8:00Pm ChA ChA FOR TWINS 101 mins SAtURDAY, nOv. 3 11:30am GOLdEN hORSE ShORT FILMS: 5F2 & ThIEF 54 mins 2:00Pm IN OUR TIME 106 mins 4:30Pm 10+10 115 mins SUnDAY, nOv. 4 11:30am MONEy & hONEy 96 mins 1:45Pm STARRy STARRy NIGhT 99 mins 4:00Pm ThE RAW & ThE COOKEd 83 mins
every few decades, the taiwan film industry takes stock of its current moment with a high-profile omnibus film. When li han-hsiangs renegade grand Pictures took a stand against the dominant shaw bros. studio in the 1960s, li joined forces with fellow auteurs King hu, lee hsing, and Pai Ching-jui for Four Moods (1969) to show what could be done by independent directors in taiwan. When the Central motion Picture Corporation wanted to breed new talent to fight off hong Kong and hollywood, they produced in our time (1982) (page 108) with a number of young directors, including edward Yang. in 2011, on the 100th anniversary of the republic of China, 11 years after crouching tiger Hidden dragon and three years after cape no. 7, with taiwanese cinema again turning in new directions as competition from overseas mounted new challenges, the golden horse film festival commissioned short films from 10 veterans and 10 newcomers on the subject of the uniqueness of taiwan. the result was 10+10 (page 102).
Perhaps not coincidentally, spotlights on taiwanese cinema have been sprouting up all over the united states around the same time. this year alone, special showcases and essays were featured at both the los angeles asian Pacific film festival and the new York asian film festival. is something happening in taiwanese cinema that warrants this special attention? as anderson le puts it in his program notes for 10+10 at laPff, the cinema of taiwan is going through a renaissance, or as the nYaff guide describes it, taiwanese films are back. however, these proclamations are somewhat misleading because its not that taiwanese cinema was ever gone. after all, total domestic market share is not the only measure for the presence of taiwanese film. how could a 1990s and 2000s that produced masterpieces like edward Yangs A Brighter summer day and Yi Yi, hou hsiao-hsiens the Puppetmaster and Flowers of shanghai, tsai ming-liangs the river and What time is it there?, Cheng Wen-tangs somewhere over the dreamland, ang lees eat drink
Man Woman, and Ko i-chens Blue Moon ever be confused with not being present? rather, its that taiwanese cinema has always been very creative about adapting to changing production and demographic contexts (sometimes too creative, according to some), and its just that recently, that creativity has translated into domestic success for certain kinds of films. but its important to note that whats special about taiwanese cinema now isnt simply that its making money again; its that it continues to further represent taiwan in all of its diversity of styles and subjects regardless of their box office prospects. and theres nothing too new about that. in fact, many of the new films in our inaugural taiwan film showcase, a partnership between sdaff, the uCsd taiwan studies lecture series, and the taipei economic and Cultural office, resonate with the short films that make up in our time, which we are proud to present in a new 30th anniversary digital print. the moody childhood woes and dinosaur
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fantasies of tao te-chens 1982 short find echoes in tom lins starrY starrY night (page 100). the hormonal angst of edward Yangs entry can be read into the high school blues of Cha Cha for tWins (page 92), the opening night film of the showcase. and the newlywed comedy that is Chang Yis chapter is surprisingly similar to arvin Chens short about a couple moving together in 10+10. Whats different are some of the production contexts. today, were seeing an explosion of digital diY productions around asia, and taiwan is no exception. Jasmine lees personal documentary moneY & honeY (page 121) is a charming and moving examination of filipina domestic laborers in taiwan, a subject that is well known, but little explored in taiwan. there are also many more opportunities for co-production today, producing films as diverse as the raW & the CooKed (page 127), which thrives on the touristic gaze that relies on an outsider like monika treut, and starrY starrY night, a rare co-operation between all three
Chinas: taiwan, hong Kong, and the mainland. taiwanese filmmakers, and agencies like the taipei film Commission, have learned to partner with longstanding bodies partners like like the huayi government brothers on information office, and new potential the mainland, and in doing so have figured out how to continue to make innovative, thoughtful, and resonant films. a snapshot of taiwanese cinema circa 2012 may look and feel different from taiwanese films of previous decades, but it continues to assert the islands passion for bringing its stories to the silver screen. Were proud to join with uCsd and teCo for a weekend of free shorts, documentaries, and narrative features to stoke those passions and make them better known throughout san diego. Brian Hu
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TRIBUTE TO dIRECTOR ChUNG ChANG-WhA
it was the perfect storm. in 1972, hong Kong powerhouse studio shaw bros. wanted to international their product so they looked for talent elsewhere. meanwhile, hollywood major Warner bros. sought a film to capitalize on americas excitement for tvs green Hornet and Kung Fu. enter Chung Chang-wha, a 19-year veteran in the Korean industry turning out spectacular melodramas, swordsplay films, and costume pictures. the result was (cue Quincy Jones ironside siren!) five fingers of death which, under Warners watch, became an international sensation that remained on the north american box office charts for nearly three months. for a foreign production in a xenophobic market, the film was an unprecedented and still seemingly unthinkable success that precipitated a two-year kung fu craze. asian cinema is still only catching up.
a master of endlessly creative and exhilarating fights, director Chung brought a jolt of energy to hong Kong (and beyond) with his craft and his cosmopolitan smarts. today, beyond the box office success and the shaw bros. revolution, five fingers of death (aka King Boxer) is still making its mark on films like Kill Bill and the Man with the iron Fists. for his art, for his passion, and for his imprint on world cinema, the san diego asian film festival is proud to award Chung Chang-wha its lifetime achievement award. in celebration of director Chungs award and the films 40th anniversary, five fingers of death (pg. 104) plays 6:30pm on friday, nov. 2 at mission valley ultrastar.
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cOMMUnitY leGAcY AwARD

Pacific Arts Movement is shining a spotlight on friend and long-time supporter, ed Lee of eLt insurance, recipient of our inaugural community Legacy Award. this honor is presented to an outstanding individual who exemplifies service and leadership, and whose contributions have made a substantial impact to the legacy of our organization and the arts in san diego. congratulations, ed Lee!
2012 ReSOlUSeAn PhOtOGRAPhY

Your Health Care Reform Experts

ELT Insurance Services is a proud sponsor of the 13th Annual San Diego Asian Film Festival.
We can help you navigate the maze of health care reform so that you can get the best plans at the lowest cost. Lowest Cost Solutions Commitment to highest quality service
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16835 W. Bernardo Drive, Ste. 212 San Diego, CA 92127 858.304.3000 x22 www.eltinsurance.com
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A s i A n A M e r i c A n PA n o r A M A
ANIMATION ShORTS: ThE ILLUSION OF LIFE
BRIdGE
usa | 3 mins | 2010 | Cg
ThE TENdER MARCh

JaPan | 5 mins | 2011 | 2d digital
BUTTERFLy dREAM
usa | 9 mins | 2011 | 2d digital
DIRECTOR ting Chian tey

four animals need to cross the same bridge. Who will win?
DIRECTOR Woonha Jang

a kid takes a cyberbully into his own hands, but will he succeed?
nOv. 4 (SUnDAY), 2:30PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY nOv. 7 (weDneSDAY), 5:30PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY
88 mins
DIRECTOR Wataru uekusa

visual roller-coaster ride right out of a Japanese, pop culture-infused graphic novel.
MR.ChAN: MISUNdERSTOOd MAN

SEASONS
usa | 2 mins | 2011 | 2d digital + Cg
DIRECTOR dan lee

mr. Chan is racially profiled at a star trek convention.
IN yOUR ARMS
usa | 3 mins | 2011 | live aCtion + stoPmotion
how do you coax life out of thin air? find out in this program dedicated entirely to the magical art of animation.
some mature content cast & crew scheduled to attend co-presented by Art institute
DIRECTOR haowei hu
surreal motion graphics journey through the changing of seasons.
DIRECTOR greg Jardin
Why dO WE PUT UP WITh ThEM?

What do you get when you mix Kina grannis with 288,000 jelly beans?
ThE RETURN OF dIVINE PROVIdENCE

usa | 3 mins | 2010 | Cg
DIRECTOR david Chai

an animated poem about a little stinker i love.
BONNIE
JaPan | 2 mins | 2011 | live aCtion + stoPmotion
DIRECTOR rui Xu
a visual feast through ancient China and dunhuang buddhistic culture.
SUMO LAKE
australia | 3 mins | 2011 | 2d traditional
DIRECTOR masanori okamoto

a paper cutout named bonnie rides like the wind.
MEMORIES OF ThE SONG

Korea | 4 mins | 2010 | 2d digital + Cg
DIRECTOR greg holfeld

a rapid re-telling of the swan lake ballet as an animated wrestlinggiant-lizard movie.
STEPS
JaPan | 2 mins | 2010 | live aCtion + stoPmotion
DIRECTOR Choi Jin-sung

a boy dreams about a girl, love, and piping hot bowls of ramen.
DIRECTOR tochka
battle to the death between light and man.
ONE SIdEd LOVE

DIRECTOR Jin a Yoon

despite a daughters bad behavior toward her mother, love is not easily withheld.
ThE ShOPGIRL
38-39C
usa | 8 mins | 2011 | stoPmotion + miXed media
DIRECTOR diana ling

mundane afternoon at a comic book store turns into a brawl between two boys over a girl.
DIRECTOR Kangmin Kim

a bathhouse, a birthmark, and a whole lot of heat.
My NAME IS MITCh
Canada | 3 mins | 2011 | 2d digital
WILL
DIRECTOR eusong lee

as a father leaves for work one fateful september morning, a child dreams.
DIRECTOR michelle Yoon

a birdman contemplates his place and identity in an inhumane world.
ON ThE WATER ChILdREN

JaPan | 4 mins | 2011 | Cg netherlands | 8 mins | 2012 | 2d digital
DIRECTOR takuya okada

We dont need no education. We dont need no thought control.
DIRECTOR Yi Zhao
life is a non-stop struggle to propel oneself forward.
CLIMBER
JaPan | 6 mins | 2010 | 2d traditional
DIRECTOR akifumi nonaka

its lonely at the top.
OPUESTO
taiWan | 4 mins | 2011 | Cg
DIRECTOR tree liu

Persecution and crucifixion alien-style, till the last gecko stands.
dAyLIGhT SAVINGS
usa | english | 73 mins | video | 2012 DIRECTOR dave boyle CAST goh nakamura, Yea-ming Chen, michael aki, lynn Chen
director & cast scheduled to attend
last years grand Jury award winner surrogate valentine ended in bittersweet limbo. this year, we rejoin everyones favorite indie musician goh nakamura (played by goh nakamura) who has seemingly gotten over his longtime crush and is now in a loving, committed relationship that is, until his girlfriend breaks things off unceremoniously, sending goh into a spiraling funk of confusion and depression. in an attempt to lift his spirits, goh heads to a house party where he meets Yea-ming Chen (played by Yeaming Chen), the lead singer of acclaimed indie band dreamdate. the two instantly click and spend the rest of the evening talking about music, including Yeamings upcoming show in las vegas. ever a dreamdater, Yea-ming decides she wants to leave their next meeting up to fate, and goh is left in a love-struck daze. egged on by an easily-excitable cousin, goh decides they must road trip to vegas and put both old and new relationships to the test.
With daYlight savings, dave boyle expands the universe of his proposed trilogy, while goh and Yea-ming are freed from the initial novelty of playing themselves to deliver lovable, effortless performances. more fantastic appearances from the hilarious michael aki and the charming lynn Chen means the next installment cant come soon enough. James Paguyo
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FORTUNE COOKIE MAGIC TRICKS

DIRECTOR alex Chu
usa | 10 mins | 2011 a Chinese father trying to cure his gay son triggers martial arts zombie musical madness.
A SUPER dUPER EXOTIC EROTIC FETISh SEXy MUST SEE STORy... A TRAGEdy OF ORIENTAL PROPORTIONS!
DIRECTOR Jeff liu
usa | 13 mins | 2012 Cherry blossom, hung Wei low, and fred are your hosts-with-the-mosts in this outrageous suburban sex club skit with tamlyn tomita, garrett Wang and
FOR A GOOd TIME CALL...

81 mins
nOv. 2 (fRiDAY), 5:15PM, UltRAStAR MiSSOn vAlleY
GOT A jOB!
DIRECTOR Chicky otani
usa | 2 mins | 2012 two ladies lunch, taking cracks at their so-called fortune outside their factory job.
roger fan!
AT yOUR CONVENIENCE
DIRECTOR raymond C. lai
usa | 22 mins | 2012 a convenience store in the hood becomes a trip down the rabbit hole for two buddies in this liveaction/animation sitcom with randall Park and dwayne Perkins.
asian american stars like youve never seen them before, in shorts that will make your jaw drop and your Pocari sweat from laughter!
NICE GIRLS CREW Episode 2

DIRECTOR tanuj Chopra
usa | 9 mins | 2012 a book club of best frenemies degenerates from Count of monte Cristo to revenge cocktails, with lynn Chen, sheetal sheth and michelle Krusiec.
5F-2
DIRECTOR Chung lee
sultry down.
61
taiwan | 25 mins | 2011 run amok when a
criminal
scenarios
screenwriter asks his sex-addict neighbors to quiet
nOv. 2 (fRiDAY), 7:50PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY nOv. 6 (tUeSDAY), 8:25PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY
PhiliPPines, usa | tagalog With english subtitles | 84 mins | video | 2012 DIRECTOR ron morales CAST arnold reyes, menggie Cobarrubias, dido de la Paz, leon miguel official selection, 2012 tribeca Film Festival
director scheduled to attend nov. 2 screening
GRACELANd
Corrupt
politician
manuel
Chango
(menggie
new York director ron morales (santa Mesa, sdaff best narrative feature 08) makes a triumphant return with another drama set in the streets of manila this time a gut-wrenching thriller wound as tightly as any hollywood entertainment (and with less narrative fat), but with a sensitivity to the emotional toll of desperation across class lines. eric Lallana
Cobarrubias) is used to getting things his way, and his driver marlon (arnold reyes) is usually the one to clean up the mess. but a routine afternoon school pickup involving marlons daughter and her best friend (who happens to be manuels daughter), leads to an unforeseeable cat-and-mouse game of mistaken identities reminiscent of akira Kurosawas High & Low. in a city where intensely stratified classes are only crossable by underground crime, the pressure cooker of everyday survival leads manuel and marlon into seemingly insurmountable stickiness that stinks of junkyards and illegal brothels of underaged girls. in this stark vision of manila, fate hinges on decisions made in the most suspect of situations.
62
not since Jon moritsugu parked a motorcycle in the middle of asian american cinema and set it ablaze has there been a major asian american film as unbeholden to tradition, as unencumbered by any cause, and as joyously liberated as h.P mendozas i . am a ghost. its also terribly fun and uncommonly scary, and destined to be a cult classic. i am a ghost is a haunted house story told from the other side: the perspective of the haunter. in this case, shes an unknowing, accidental one a ghost (played by anna ishida) in discovery of her identity, going through daily routines of cooking and mopping in a cycle of surprise, denial, and fear. a medium is hired by the haunted family to speak to her, in hopes that she can take her spectral footprints elsewhere. but acceptance is less acceptable when it means confronting a brutal past. its an ingeniously simple conceit, and like all adventurous films, teaches us to watch the film
as we go along. We follow disassociated images, not necessarily to piece together a puzzle, but to track a most uncanny experience as it becomes remembered, perceived, and forgotten in fractures. as hes shown with his scores for colma: the Musical (sdaff 06) and Fruit Fly (sdaff 09), h.P . mendoza has an ear for sonic textures, and here applies them, in a collage of ambience, distortion, radio noise, dialogue, and silence, to dramatic and truly frightening effect. as in those previous films, as well as mendozas script for Yes, Were open, i am a ghost is playfully self-aware, digging into our love for haunted house films and 1970s tales of paranoia like roman Polanskis repulsion. and within the rules of the genre, i am a ghost exorcises a most shocking and unusual specter: asian americans of an older san francisco, haunting the present with repressed traumas that beg to be remembered. Brian Hu
I AM A GhOST
nOv. 2 (fRiDAY), 9:15PM, UltRAStAR MiSSOn vAlleY nOv. 6 (tUeSDAY), 8:00PM, UltRAStAR MiSSOn vAlleY
usa | english | 76 mins | video | 2012 DIRECTOR h.P mendoza . CAST anna ishida, Jeannie barroga, rick burkhardt co-presented by University of San Diego living learning community
director scheduled to attend nov. 6 screening
63
jAKE ShIMABUKURO: LIFE ON FOUR STRINGS
tadashi nakamuras trilogy of Japanese american history (Yellow Brotherhood, Pilgrimage, A song For ourselves,) intertwined social justice and identity to debunk the model minority myth. his latest documentary may be his self-proclaimed least-political film, but as with his previous sdaff-winning work, music intertwines with film and life in vibrant ways. Young phenom Jake shimabukuro amassed millions of hits from a single ukelele video (a jaw-dropping cover of the beatles While my guitar gently Weeps) on Youtube in 2006, propelling him into the international limelight. life on four strings takes us from the 1990s and early 2000s, when Jake was an up-and-comer on the hawaii circuit, to his recent endeavors, entertaining thousands in opera houses worldwide and inspiring residents in tsunami-devastated sendai.
nakamura with his visuals and shimabukuro with his music collectively tell a story that complements each other elegantly, resulting in nakamuras best film to date. and while life on four strings doesnt wear identity or politics on its sleeve, the films glimpse into Jake shimabukuros personal journey of artistic legitimacy for both himself and the ukulele as an instrument is an underdog story that resonates as a story for all asian americans. erwin Mendoza
nOv. 3 (SAtURDAY), 3:15PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY nOv. 8 (thURSDAY), 6:10PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY
usa | english | 52 mins | video | 2012 DIRECTOR tadashi nakamura PRODUCER donald Young sponsored by
co-presented by iloveMusubi.com, Asian Business Association, vista Buddhist temple, hauoli Strummers director scheduled to attend nov. 3 screening
64
When lance Corporal Julian brennan was killed by a roadside bomb, he became the first combat death in afghanistan during barak obamas presidency. but brennan left behind more than just a chapter break in american military history; he left behind countless first-person videos of himself narrating his difficult decision to enter the military, especially given his familys complicated history with war. bao nguyens short feature Julian collects
Julian enacts the complexity that is free choice and its mystery. Julians final decision and fate, told to us in the films opening titles, becomes refracted, and complicated through talk about Julians love for performance and through the constant image of Julians face, especially during a mesmerizing and impossible-to-pin-down scene of haircutting. the result is a moving exploration of the unknowable: just what goes on in the mind of somebody who decides to put his life on the line. Brian Hu Preceded by: WILL usa | 5 mins | 2012
jULIAN
nOv. 6 (tUeSDAY), 4:00PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY (fRee)

usa | english | 40 mins | video | 2012 DIRECTOR bao nguyen Best student documentary short, 2012 Palm springs shortFest sponsored by hom family foundation
brennans vlogs and intercuts them with video footage of brennan from his youth, and interview footage with his family today. Cutting between three temporalities and three documentary modes (chronological first-person diaries, retrospective talking-heads, non-chronological archival footage),
DIRECTOR eusong lee

as a father leaves for work one fateful september morning, a child dreams.
65
LANd BEFORE TIME

97 mins
fantastic futurisms, ghostly longings, poetic undertows six of our very best shorts delve into land, personhood and surprising intimacies.
MONdAy MONdAy
DIRECTOR eric K. Yue
usa | 18 mins | 2012 elderly Chinese woman is determined to leave her mark on the world before departing.
dOL (FIRST BIRThdAy)

DIRECTOR andrew ahn
usa | 12 mins | 2012 uncle nick attends his nephews special day and yearns for a life out of reach.
LAST REMARKS
DIRECTOR umar riaz
usa, Pakistan | 17 mins | 2012 a revealing confession from a troubled servant in the final minutes of his life.
OBAKE
DIRECTOR Christopher makoto Yogi
usa | 13 mins | 2011 Japanese man in his final days is haunted by joyful times from his past.
ThE ChINESE GARdENS

DIRECTOR valerie soe
usa | 17 mins | 2012 specters from Chinese immigrants in the Pacific northwest at the turn of the 20th century.
ThAT WhICh ONCE WAS

DIRECTOR Kimi takesue
usa | 20 mins | 2011 a young boy discovers his identity with the help of a lonely ice sculptor.
66
if Yasujiro ozu could set a film in the black south, it might look a lot like late summer, ernie Parks glowing adaptation of films like ozus Late Autumn. Park not only riffs on ozus tales of family love and social belonging, he crafts a kindred poetic language, one born little by little, over time... in nashville. Parks tennessee is unlike any on screen before. Without a cowboy hat or gospel singer in sight, late summer moves make that strolls through a black community filled with riches: friends in bookstores, poetry readings, academic debates, old charmers, respectful crushes the sort of extraordinary gift of living where the corner store clerk is lookin out, where running into people is filled with pleasure. against this idyllic moment, nadia struggles with a choice between leaving for university or opening a teashop with her mother, recently recovered from a serious illness. everyone has an opinion: choose college. but nadia is quiet, and daily life with her
mother sonya (tamiko robinson) is so close, tender, and gracious that college as an obvious good is no longer so obvious. ernie Park expands asian american filmmaking with this masterful and heartfelt film, relaxing us into the bittersweet feeling of a fading day. late summers visuals shimmer, the performances breathe, and the emotion comes not from conflict but from grace from knowing peace and deciding whether to leave one kind of joy for the unknown. christina ree Preceded by: AN EARLy SUMMER usa | 17 mins | 2012
LATE SUMMER
nOv. 5 (MOnDAY), 6:20PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY

usa | english | 57 mins | video | 2012 DIRECTOR ernie Park CAST michelle lynn hardin, tamiko robinson, Jessica townsend
west coast Premiere 2012 george c. Lin emerging Filmmaker Award recipient
DIRECTOR lu lu
for Chinese migrants in los angeles, a season of love ushers in hard choices.
director scheduled to attend
67
MONSTROUS WOMEN
99 mins
EVERy dEATh hAS A STORy

DIRECTOR Joseph mangat
usa | 15 mins | 2012 Woman rolls on gloves, watches infomercial, wipes blood off toaster, walls, cabinets, floor.
PRETTy PICTURES
DIRECTOR Christina sun Kim
usa | 15 mins | 2012 desire twists in this gothic tale of a girl, her sexy imaginary friend, and a perverse family web.
nOv. 3 (SAtURDAY), 2:00PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY
in these shorts, excessive women trouble, arouse, twist, and trespass the limits of the familiar. co-presented by UcSD womens center
BLEAChEd
DIRECTOR Jessica dela merced
usa | 14 mins | 2011 beware the filipino ex-beauty queen armed with whitening cream, especially if shes your mother.
MOThERLANd
DIRECTOR shariq siddiqui
usa | 16 mins | 2012 When mother becomes smother, amed schemes escape in this sketch comedy.
TWO SECONdS AFTER LAUGhTER

DIRECTOR david rousseve
indonesia, usa | 16 mins | 2011 a docu-dance odyssey based on the explosive indonesian dancer sri susilowati.
AdVANTAGEOUS
DIRECTOR Jennifer Phang
usa | 23 mins | 2012 sci-fi technology and desperate times set up an aging spokeswoman to make a chilling decision.
68
dubbed the accidental Congressman from new orleans, the political career of ang Joseph Quang Cao is certainly an unlikely one. a survivor of the fall of saigon, Cao sought to become a priest but fate had a different course for him: Capitol hill. as the first vietnamese american in Congress, Caos surprise election in the heavily african american district in louisiana was historic, marking the first time in more than 100 years that voters would send a republican to represent them. With political stakes high, Cao naively placed his bets on bipartisanship.
intimately familiar with the complicated political climate of post-Katrina new orleans, mr. Cao goes to Washington, by filmmaker s. leo Chiang (A village called versailles, sdaff 10), provides a timely and captivating portrait of a political rookie whose idealism comes face-to-face with the reality of racial and partisan politics. Lee Ann Kim
MR. CAO GOES TO WAShINGTON
nOv. 2 (fRiDAY), 4:00PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY (fRee) nOv. 7 (weDneSDAY), 6:00PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY
usa | english | 71 mins | video | 2012 DIRECTOR s. leo Chiang inspiration Award, 2012 Full Frame documentary Film Festival sponsored by hom family foundation co-presented by harvard club of San Diego, cSUSM APifSA, Asian Pacific islander American Public Affairs Association, Asia Pacific American coalition director scheduled to attend nov. 7 screening
69
nOv. 3 (SAtURDAY), 10:00AM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY (fRee)

62 mins
our popular free program for youngsters returns with another fun-filled morning headlined by Kai-lan, the adorable adventure-seeking character from nick Jrs ni hao, Kai-lan television series. its followed by some kid-friendly live action and animation short films. sponsored by co-presented by Barnard Mandarin Magnet elementary
NI hAO KAI-LAN & FRIENdS
ThE hULA dUCK dANCE PARTy

usa | 24 mins | 2012 | 2d
give out on halloween, so hes forced to get creative.
BRIdGE
usa | 3 mins | 2010 | Cg
STUDIO nickelodeon
Kai-lan invites us to a dance party at the hula ducks island beach house!
DIRECTOR ting Chian tey
A hAPPy WISh
taiWan | 12 mins | 2011 | Cg
four animals need to cross the same bridge. Who will win?
DIRECTOR Jack shih

a little girl named tin-tin escapes
ThE STORyTELLER
uK | 10 mins | 2011 | live aCtion + 2d
FLIGhT OF ThE FANTASy

usa | 6 mins | 2012 | live aCtion
the
daily
grind
of
school
by
stretching her imagination and disappearing into her fantastical adventures.
DIRECTOR nandita Jain

7-year-old nirmala attempts to grapple with the demons of her granddads dementia when he starts to forget the details of her favorite story.
DIRECTOR anthony Pang

from flight crew to broadcast announcer to a boys backyard, an airplane fantasy springs to life.
WhEN I GROW UP
TRICK-OR-TREAT
usa | 4 mins | 2011 | live aCtion
DIRECTOR Jasmin lai

a girl doesnt know what she wants to be when she grows up.
DIRECTOR Joshua hoh

an old man runs out of candy to
70
WONdER BOy
DIRECTOR Corrie Chen
australia | 15 mins | 2011 Young Chinese boy finds the going get rough while adapting to his new surroundings.
ShE
DIRECTOR moon seong-hyeok
south Korea | 17 mins | 2012 a housekeepers Cinderella-like fantasy turns into a very different kind of fairy tale.
Oh ThE PLACES yOULL GO

94 mins
nOv. 4 (SUnDAY), 1:55PM, UltRAStAR MiSSOn vAlleY
UNRAVEL
DIRECTOR meghna gupta
united Kingdom | 14 mins | 2012 tons of discarded clothing arrives in india to meet a different kind of fate.
jOhNNy LOVES dOLORES

DIRECTOR Clarissa de los reyes
usa | 27 mins | 2012 two filipino immigrants connect unconventionally in new York City.
from the simplest crush to political upheaval, these shorts from around the world break down barriers of justice, love, and myth itself. co-presented by San Diego Arthouse Movies
ALL ThE LINES FLOW OUT

DIRECTOR Charles lim Yi Yong
singaPore | 21 mins | 2011 mysterious waterways outline the old and new in singapore.
71

92 mins
from online angst to fantasy females, the latest version of queer life is more complex than ever.
QUEER 2.0
GOOGLE ChROME: yOURS TRULy

DIRECTOR hieu tran
usa | 2 mins | 2012 uCsd grad directs this viral response to a commercial about a loving apology.
KIMChI FRIEd dUMPLINGS

DIRECTOR Jason Karman
Canada | 14 mins | 2012 gay-on-gay family drama unfolds at a Christmas gathering.
ThE QUEEN OF My dREAMS

DIRECTOR fawzia mirza
& ryan logan usa | 3 mins | 2012 a bollywood love story with a queer twist.
RITES OF PASSAGE OUT

DIRECTOR blaine ludy
usa | 10 mins | 2011 a felon gets a surprise when trying to connect with his estranged son.
DIRECTOR Jeff roy

usa, thailand | 19 mins | 2012 a transsexual female takes an emotional trip to thailand for reassignment surgery.
dOL (FIRST BIRThdAy)

DIRECTOR andrew ahn
usa | 12 mins | 2012 uncle nick attends his nephews special day and yearns for a life out of reach.
co-presented by we All test, north county lGBtQ Resource center, Greater San Diego Business Association, Guys like Us, San Diego PflAG, San Diego POZabilities, San Diego Gay Mens chorus, UcSD lGBt Resource center
PRETTy PICTURES
DIRECTOR Christina sun Kim
usa | 15 mins | 2012 desire twists in this gothic tale of a girl, her sexy imaginary friend, and a perverse family web.
RAyMONd
DIRECTOR mark reyes
PhiliPPines | 17 mins | 2011 a dying gay man seeks forgiveness from the lover he abandoned.
72
connected
to the arts
We applaud the San Diego Asian Film Foundation for their ongoing work that does so much to enrich our hearts and minds. As a sponsor of the arts, were strong believers in the power of both self expression and the human experience through lm. And we proudly support those organizations that share our vision. Connect at sdge.com
2012 San Diego Gas & Electric Company. All copyright and trademark rights reserved. 0812
nOv. 4 (SUnDAY), nOOn, UltRAStAR MiSSOn vAlleY (fRee)

90 mins since 2005, reel voices has empowered local high school students by teaching them the art of documentary filmmaking. this intense, 12-week summer internship helps students become sociallyconscious storytellers, learn final Cut Pro editing, and experience all stages of production and post-production. this year, reel voices presents the work of nine students whose works touch on issues ranging from cultural heritage, to work, to just having fun. free post-screening reception sponsored by Chipotle and Popeyes.
REEL VOICES
NARUWAN TAIKO
DIRECTOR emily Johnson
6 mins this film provides an insiders perspective of naruwan taiko, a Japanese drumming group from san diego, California. naruWan taiKo highlights the teamwork, creativity, and physical strength necessary to perform with this highly skilled group.
an amazing physical and emotional transformation while showing that sometimes the only person who can help you is you.
democratic republic of Congo. told from three unique perspectives, this film highlights the struggles of those forced to flee their war-torn homeland.
A NEW MARINE
DIRECTOR Juan gonzalez
7 mins this film follows the last few days of a young marine recruit before he leaves for boot camp. a neW marine highlights the motivation and commitment of a new teenage marine and features moving interviews with the family members he will be leaving behind.
LIFE UNdER ThE hOOd

DIRECTOR Joseph Wilson
7 mins under the hood provides an intimate look into the life of a foster kid learning the craft of automotive maintenance. this film highlights the amazing journey of a young man living and working toward a life where he can ultimately help others.
TEENAGE TIME
DIRECTOR ashley shin
7 mins how exactly do teenagers spend their time? teenage time takes a unique approach to answering this question.
My LIFE IN 5 MINUTES AS ASIAN TEENS, WE hOLd A hERITAGE

DIRECTOR sunny Kim
5 mins a group of teenagers at a high school in san diego show how it is their role to maintain the asian heritage as people who fit into americas jigsaw puzzle called diversity.
BEGINNINGS
DIRECTOR Kathleen silverstein
6 mins this film provides an intimate look into the life of an adoptee. this highly personal film explores the filmmakers history, including a trip back to her orphanage in suzhou China. beginnings shows us that there is nothing more important than the bond and love that you share with your family.
DIRECTOR tram ho
5 mins this film offers a unique view into the life of a vietnamese teen as she reflects on her journey to the united states and the pursuit of the american dream.
UNFORGETTABLE NIGhT LIFE 100 POUNdS LIGhTER

DIRECTOR adrian altez
5 mins We all have our insecurities. life 100 Pounds lighter highlights
DIRECTOR Clementine mukarukundo

5 mins unforgettable teen refugees night after provides the a detailed look at the lives of fleeing
75
REVENGE SERVEd hOT

95 mins
ThE 5
DIRECTOR ravi Kapoor
usa | 17 mins | 2012 five brothers have trouble figuring out how to avenge their mothers death.
TERRA COTTA
DIRECTOR Yasmine gomez
usa | 6 mins | 2011 a young woman discovers her new roommates have strange views about idol worship.
nOv. 9 (fRiDAY), 5:45PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY
righteous, shmiteous. these whipsmart shorts consider revenge in all its grimy, moral and delicious disarray.
REUNION
DIRECTOR Jason Z. Wong
usa | 19 mins | 2012 longtime friends discover resolution involves two different paths.
ThIEF
DIRECTOR Jay Chern
taiWan | 29 mins | 2011 a stolen phone results in an unusual emotional connection between perpetrator and victim.
TO WANdER IN PANdEMONIUM
DIRECTOR eddie Kim
usa | 24 mins | 2009 single dad resorts to anything just to improve his no-win situation.
76
MIRROR MOTEL
direCtor adam lee usa | 11 mins | 2012 a man with a guilt-ridden past hopes to move forward emotionally.
REEL VOICES jOURNEy

direCtor Kathy sangha and the reel voices Journey students usa | 12 mins | 2012 refugee students at Crawford high school document their stories of migration.
EVERy dEATh hAS A STORy

direCtor Joseph mangat usa | 15 mins | 2012 Woman rolls on gloves, watches infomercial, wipes blood off toaster, walls, cabinets, floor.
Sd BLOCK PARTy
76 mins
nOv. 6 (tUeSDAY), 8:40PM, UltRAStAR MiSSOn vAlleY
a celebration of local talent, featuring
GhOSTS OF ThE CALIFORNIA SUN

direCtor Jason low usa | 12 mins | 2012 reflections on the past and present while traveling up the California coast.
dOGGIE STyLE GENIE BOOT CAMP

direCtor george Ye usa | 7 mins | 2012 a teenagers wish is granted: to learn a skill not offered at your typical trade school. direCtor rommel andaya usa | 5 mins | 2012 a dog proves you can teach a young man old tricks.
killer moms, flirtatious dogs, and a man named mr. toilet. directors, cast, & crew scheduled to attend
RULE 43
direCtor mark gadia usa | 4 mins | 2012 two men. one fight. Just dont break rule 43.
MEET MR. TOILET

direCtor Jessica Yu usa | 3 mins | 2012 one mans crusade to provide basic sanitation for millions.
ThIS IS NOT A FILM dE FEMME

direCtor sean dejecacion usa | 7 mins | 2012 trolley-ride observations trigger fantasies between a man and a woman.
77
SEEKING ASIAN FEMALE

usa | english & mandarin With english subtitles | 84 mins | video | 2012 DIRECTOR debbie lum official selection, 2012 south By southwest Film Festival co-presented by Bionic Sisters Productions director scheduled to attend
steven is a white man with a dream. now in his 60s, he scours numerous catalogs and websites in search of a young Chinese wife. after fruitlessly corresponding with numerous women online, and even making some in-person visits, he finally convinces sandy, a young woman from anhui, to become his bride. however, when sandy finally arrives in san francisco, steven gets much more than he bargained for. directed and narrated with considerable wit by Chinese american filmmaker debbie lum, who herself gets drawn unexpectedly into the story as the couples interpreter and marriage counselor, seeKing asian female examines the effect that the internet, stereotypes, and racially-based dating
preferences can have on love and marriage in the 21st century. furthermore, lums linguistic connection with sandy reveals on camera the subjectivity of a woman who decides to move across the world for a man she can barely talk to. steven, who doesnt understand a lick of mandarin, hasnt a clue. that which originally appears to be an analysis of the yellow fever phenomenon, develops into an even richer examination of modern relationships and a fascinating look at one of the most unusual of all love stories. gene Huh
78
the immigration story is as old as america itself. the 21st century, however, sees the rise of the reverse: the story of the expat, in particular the one who moves to a major metropolis in China, where commerce is king and english is as much the lingua franca as mandarin. in these uncharted waters of mobility and migration are fresh laughs and new possibilities of what it means to be asian american. in the case of shanghai Calling, we meet sam (daniel henney), a hot-shot lawyer in new York moving up the corporate ladder with another successful closing. Just when he thinks hes about to make partner, hes told to pack his bags for shanghai to coddle a client. unluckily for sam,
despite his looks and last name, he doesnt speak a lick of Chinese. luckily for him, awaiting his arrival in shanghai is bilingual relocation specialist amanda (eliza Coupe) who knows her way around expat central (america town), run by longtime resident donald (bill Paxton). after a legal mess erupts, sam must put out the fire with the help of shanghais colorful cast of wayfarers. in only his first full-length feature, writer-director daniel hsia showcases impressive chops for delivering as breezy, charming, and entertaining a romantic comedy as any on either side of the Pacific. eric Lallana
ShANGhAI CALLING
usa, China | english & mandarin With english subtitles | 100 mins | video | 2012 DIRECTOR daniel hsia CAST daniel henney, bill Paxton, eliza Coupe, Zhu Zhu Best new Actor, 2012 shanghai international Film Festival Best new director, 2012 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival sponsored by
co-presented by Giving Back Magazine director scheduled to attend

nOv. 5 (MOnDAY), 8:50PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY nOv. 9 (fRiDAY), 4:00PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY (fRee)
usa, united arab emirates | 107 mins | video | 2012 DIRECTOR Caveh Zahedi official selection, 2012 south By southwest Film Festival co-presented by KPBS, nomads theatre company
ThE ShEIK & I
filmmaker Caveh Zehedi is not one to shy from the camera or from controversy. Known for his inventive, funny, and contentious first-person essay films that provoke both audiences and his cinematic subjects films like i dont Hate Las vegas Anymore, in which he persuades his family to take ecstasy with him in order to prove the existence of god, andi Am a sex Addict, in which he chronicles his ten-year struggle to overcome an addiction to prostitutes Zahedi is back to his antics with the sheiK & i, and this time hes commissioned to do it. invited by a middle eastern biennial to direct a film on the theme of art as a subversive act, Zehedi decides to make a film about making art as a subversive act, all while attempting to poke
fun at the sheik of sharjah, the emirates ruler and financier of the biennial. not amused by Zahedis subversion, the biennial bans the film for blasphemy and Zahedi is threatened with arrest and a fatwa. amazingly, this is where Zahedi thrives as a filmmaker. Where most would count a shut-down as a loss, he revels in theobstacles and makes the friction itself full of humor, irony, and performance the content of the film itself. in lampooning its source of funding, the sheiK & i becomes more than just a film about the making of a film, but rather the unmaking of it and the unmaking of our assumptions about creation and correctness. Joseph Mangat
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ThE WORKING MAN

DIRECTOR samrod shenassa,
randal Kirk ii, Wing Ko usa | 9 mins | 2011 in this noir-inspired short, a young rogue, armed with a new suit and new gear, has been recruited as a double agent for madam l.
previously-unseen
footage,
this
skater
and
drummer
mario
documentary traces the fates of three first-wave skaters from the second City.
rubalcaba.
SON OF ANIMAL STyLE

nOv. 3 (SAtURDAY), 1:00PM, UltRAStAR MiSSOn vAlleY
85 mins
WILLy SANTOS VS. jO KOy

DIRECTOR angela Calero
usa | 5 mins | 2012 og skater for birdhouse Willy santos and proudly Pinoy stand-up comedian Jo Koy go mano a mano in a san diego skatepark.
TRAVELING SOUNdS
DIRECTOR ben Clark,
langdon taguiped usa | 17 mins | 2011 Pro skater and musician ray barbee travels to ventura to meet thump drums fresco. maker andrew Jenkins
When i edited giant robot from 1994-2010, most readers probably didnt understand why an asian pop culture magazine would feature so much skateboarding. the reason was that skating has informed and influenced pretty much everything in my world: the music i listen to, the art i like, the clothes i wear, and the places i go. Cinema, too. son of animal stYle features new, excellent work by independent american filmmakers (who happen to be my friends) who brilliantly convey not only the rush of rolling on four wheels but also how the energy and creativity spill over into so many other facets of life. Martin Wong
PERFECT TIME
DIRECTOR Wing Ko
usa | 3 mins | 2012 four grown men skate on candycolored plastic boards through various downtown l.a. obstacles, landmarks, and locales in search of pizza.
SAMPLER
DIRECTOR darin lee, Conor
mcgivern usa | 11 mins | 2012 a fat and totally biased slice of hawaiis skateboarding scene, from makiki skatepark to diamond heads vacant Cannon Club.
Jones and Xoco moraza from rey
WIdE ANGLE SOUNdS: MARIO RUBALCABA

DIRECTOR ben Clark,
langdon taguiped usa | 5 mins | 2011 a video portrait of ex-professional
ThE BROThERhOOd: ChICAGO

DIRECTOR Wing Ko
usa | 35 mins | 2012 featuring more than 20 years of
UPLOAdEd: ThE ASIAN AMERICAN MOVEMENT

usa | english | 80 mins | video | 2012 DIRECTOR Kane diep PRODUCERS Kane diep, farah moriah, Julie Zhan EDITORS rommel andaya, mark gadia
long relegated to exaggerated stereotypes that lampoon, oppress, or make irrelevant completely, asians americans were able to sidestep the embarrassing film and tv caricatures and find creative outlets with self-representations in independent films like the landmark Better Luck tomorrow in 2002. Yet, that brief window of possibility did not translate into an explosion of opportunity in the mainstream. these cycles of pessimism make the massive popularity of asian americans on digital moving image channels like Youtube all the more
have been extraordinarily successful in the process. first-time feature filmmaker Kane dieps uPloaded: the asian ameriCan movement examines the movement of asian american actors, filmmakers, dancers, and musicians to the digital sphere, and the movement it has created in audiences and in popular culture more generally. through insightful interviews with asian american performers of both old and new media, the documentary imagines social media as a democratic platform to revolutionize the asian american creative arts. eric Lallana
nOv. 6 (tUeSDAY), 6:25PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY
director & crew scheduled to attend
impressive and empowering. Young videomakers and performers like ryan higa, Christine gambino, and Kevin Wu have in many ways redefined asian american mainstream and niche identities and
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viette begins like many an asian american film. viette, a young vietnamese american woman, carries the stress of getting into college while hiding a white boyfriend from stifling immigrant parents who cant resist scapegoating the americans and those who love them. but then it goes somewhere that resembles no asian american film before, stretching a decade tearfully, holding nothing back be it sexual or violent, and calling for a womans voice to make sense of lifes ironies. by the films elegiac close, viette is like no asian american film because mye hoang is like no other asian american filmmaker. its a textbook auteurist work hoang is the director, writer, producer, and lead actor with an eye only on what seems to be painful truths: dark sides of fairy tales more compromised than enchanting.
every frame in viette screams its need to exist. its hard to talk about viette as just a film, but a personal film, one which in many ways defies analysis the way a diary shrugs off critique by the force of its sheer existence. but to not speak of the films construction is to miss the careful ways in which viettes courageous resolve despite being a suffocated teen or conflicted adult comes out through sparkling cranes and Christmas lights, and especially through a haunting pop score that somehow freezes time like a prom slow dance and points waywardly toward freedom. Brian Hu
VIETTE
nOv. 5 (MOnDAY), 7:00PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY nOv. 7 (weDneSDAY), 8:10PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY
usa | english & vietnamese With english subtitles | 90 mins | video | 2012 DIRECTOR mye hoang CAST mye hoang, sean mcbride, Chi Pham director scheduled to attend
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nOv. 5 (MOnDAY), 6:35PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY

Canada | english, hindi, marathi, guJarati With english subtitles | 90 mins | video | 2012 DIRECTOR nisha Pahuja
Best documentary Feature, 2012 tribeca Film Festival Best canadian Feature, 2012 Hot docs canadian international Film Festival Best Foreign Film, 2012 traverse city Film Festival sponsored by theresa nguyen-Muth, State farm Agent
ThE WORLd BEFORE hER
at the annual miss india pageant, young women are thrown into the limelight to stand for the nation, their gender, and themselves. at the durgha vahini camp, young women learn to fight, fire, and defend according to extremist tenants of hindu nationalism. What might seem like two documentaries sewn together is one of the most riveting, purposeful, and intelligent takes on women facing the future in recent memory. as in errol morriss Fast, cheap & out of control, theres a certain poetry to the way seemingly irreconcilable worlds are interwoven. the cross-cuts are remarkable, and through them we see how these two extremes of femininity are shockingly similar: the training of the body, the sacrifice of desire, the negotiation of tradition. but far from critiquing these extremes, which society, through lenses
of feminism, pacificism, and tradition are wont to do, the World before her never scapegoats, focusing on the bold ways in which these young women confidently make sense of the lives they have chosen. their gaze forward is full of contradiction, but never do we doubt the clarity of their vision as they step into the world. Canadian documentarian nisha Pahuja gets
extraordinary access into both the militant training camps and the beauty boot camps, and unflinchingly captures in both worlds the sweat, spirit, and excitement of never looking back. Brian Hu Preceded by: ThE QUEEN OF My dREAMS usa | 3 mins | 2012
DIRECTOR fawzia mirza & ryan logan

a bollywood love story with a queer twist.
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somewhere between the sheets is happiness in this sharp contemporary comedy from the writerdirector team of colma: the Musical (sdaff 06). sylvia (lynn Chen) and luke (Parry shen) are a typical young couple in the bay, neurotically poring over the details of relationships in a modern age. enter elena (sheetal sheth) and ronald (Kerry mcCrohan), a couple with a flexible approach to monogamy. against the backdrop of a progressive city and its progressive lovers, sylvia and luke test their modern-day values against their carnal pleasures and the identities they thought theyd already figured out. this is a sex-romp with heart, intelligence, and bite for bay area living.
an all-star cast joins the dynamic duo of writercomposer h.P mendoza (Fruit Fly, sdaff 09; i Am a . ghost, sdaff 12) and director richard Wong, who once again enliven beautiful san francisco with wit, humor, and self-reflexive playfulness. Phillip Lorenzo Preceded by: GOOd hEAd usa | 4 mins | 2012 DIRECTOR richard Wong the private and public lives of a woman who never looks back.
yES WERE OPEN

usa | english | 80 mins | video | 2012 DIRECTOR richard Wong CAST lynn Chen, Parry shen, sheetal sheth, Kerry mcCrohan, dave boyle Best screenplay, 2012 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival director, cast, & crew scheduled to attend
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MARK YOUR CALENDARS! ITS COMING!
THE LOS ANGELES ASIAN PACIFIC FILM FESTIVAL

A V I S U A L C O M M U N I C A T I O N S P R O D U C T I O N
MAY 2-12, 2013 | SUBMIT YOUR FILM TODAY
W W W. V C O N L I N E . O R G / F E S T I VA L
ASIANFILMFESTLA @ASIANFILMFESTLA
AsiA PoP!
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nOv. 3 (SAtURDAY), 5:00PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY nOv. 5 (MOnDAY), 4:35PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY
China, franCe | mandarin With english subtitles |110 mins | video | 2011 DIRECTOR Wang Xiaoshuai CAST liu Wenquing, Wang Jingchun, Yan ni
official selection, 2011 toronto international Film Festival official selection, 2011 Busan international Film Festival official selection, 2012 international Film Festival rotterdam co-presented by chinese School of San Diego, families with children from china, UcSD Asian & Pacific islander Student Alliance
11 FLOWERS
Without much ado, Wang Xiaoshuai has emerged in the last 10 years as one of Chinas most decorated and respected filmmakers, picking up hardware at seemingly all the major european festivals. hes done it largely through no-nonsense, effective, and street smart films about modern China. in other words, hes a lot like the adorable 11-year-old at the center of 11 floWers: a headstrong, genial kid who makes do during the Cultural revolution without much fuss, but with true conviction. no surprise then that the kid, Wang han, is based on Wang Xiaoshuai and his memories growing up in those waning years of social turmoil. as with Jiang Wens seminal in the Heat of the sun, 11 floWers looks at the Cultural revolution as a memory, not a history lesson or an ideological tract.
there are games between schoolmates, scoldings from parents, and worlds to discover. theres a tale about wanting a new shirt, only to have it stolen. and theres a dickensian adventure about meeting a runaway criminal. the Cultural revolution in the contemporary Chinese imagination is fractured through these sorts of wistful memories through nostalgia, coming-ofage, and individual experience. the memory that is 11 floWers is a beautiful, vivid, and at times funny one that never takes its eye off the social violence just beyond the frame. Brian Hu
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as junior partner of mia fey, rookie defense lawyer Phoenix Wright kicks off his career by successfully defending longtime friend larry butz. from there, strange occurrences lead to a mysterious murder which implicates Wright at the scene of the crime. this dominoes into a string of connected cases of increasing intrigue. With only one court victory under his belt, Phoenix Wright must trust his talents (and others paranormal abilities) in order to prove his friends innocence. takashi miike kicks 2012 into high gear with aCe attorneY, a film that feels less like his violent international breakthrough Audition, and more like his bubbly recent adaptions Yatterman and ninja Kids!!!
(sdaff 11). adapted from Capcoms ever-popular video game series, aCe attorneY retells the story with miikes stylish flair and faithfully gives the familiar characters and situations a cinematic spin. miikes outrageousness matches the tone and mood of aCe attorneY perfectly, and most impressively, imbues the game elements with the appropriate imagination on the level of story. gamers, sit back and relax. miike doesnt sell you short on how Phoenix Wright and friends should be imagined on the big screen. take that! erwin Mendoza
ACE ATTORNEy
nOv. 4 (SUnDAY), 8:50PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY nOv. 5 (MOnDAY), 8:25PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY
JaPan | JaPanese With english subtitles | 135 mins | video | 2012 DIRECTOR takashi miike CAST hiroki narimiya, takumi saito, mirei Kiritani, akiyoshi nakao official selection, 2012 international Film Festival rotterdam Audience Award, 2012 new York Asian Film Festival
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ALL ABOUT My WIFE
it all came like a dream. Jung-in and doo-hyun meetcute under a table during an earthquake in Japan. turns out theyre both Koreans living in nagoya: she a beauty looking to practice her Japanese, he a seismologist with Japanese to spare. they marry in a k-pop heartbeat. seven years later, doo-hyun feels more than an itch. its more like a rash. his dream bride turns out to be a quick-tempered, flame-throwing warden on watch 24 hours a day. doo-hyun has to get out of this earthquake of a marriage, but cant bring himself to utter the d-word. so instead of a divorce, he goes for the opposite: seduction. noticing that his neighbors doorway has become a runway of
seduce his wife and grant him his freedom. the price of freedom, of course, is more than doo-hyun can afford. a classic screwball story with a sassy-girl spin, all about mY Wife begins as an overdrive (un) romantic comedy but hits the home stretch with uncommon smarts about how men and women adjust to each other, in good times and in bad. the love-triangle sizzles thanks to the unshaven, sleepyeyed cynicism of the Casanova played by ryoo seungryong (the Front Line, spring showcase 12), the manic desperation of lee sun-Kyun as doo-hyun, and especially the blistering sadism of lim soo-Jung (im a cyborg but thats okay, sdaff 07). Brian Hu
nOv. 4 (SUnDAY), 1:40PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY nOv. 7 (weDneSDAY), 5:45PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY
south Korea | Korean With english subtitles | 121 mins | video | 2012 DIRECTOR min Kyu-dong CAST lim soo-Jung, lee sun-Kyun, ryoo seung-ryong
sponsored by
co-presented by USD communication Studies
international supermodels begging for love in every language, he wonders if the Casanova-next-door can
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first love is even more beautiful when its painful, no? When the heart cramps with confusion or longs in spite of ones self. Yes, were talkin han, the suffering magic ingredient X of all Korean dramas. a 2012 Korean box office hit unusual for its resonance with male audiences, arChiteCture 101 foregoes the melodrama and delivers instead a touching depiction of love that doesnt land, and the near-miss that haunts the heart forever. helmed by an all-star cast (including suzy from girl group miss a), arChiteCture 101 weaves between young and old seung-min, a shy architecture student falling in love for the first time, and the now-professional hired decades later by the same woman seo-yeon to rebuild her home. adult seungmin is resilient and coy, a believable evolution from hurt, except in his adult impulses we sense a young
boy wandering blindly toward unfinished feelings. thoughtfully reminiscing over 1990s seoul (and resurrecting sales of exhibition songs along the way), the film binds place indelibly with emotion, from a professors assignment to transform the city into a map of memories, to seo-yeons final home built from their awkward history together. rising star lee Je-hoon (the Front Line, sdaff spring showcase 12) captivates as the young seungmin. as misunderstandings accumulate, lees face becomes the films touchstone, registering a heart losing its bearings and the disorientation between a young mans modest hope and epic pain. its a mesmerizing tension to watch him holding his gentle heart at arms length, and a pleasure to watch love finally send him aflutter. christina ree
ARChITECTURE 101
south Korea | Korean With english subtitles | 118 mins | dCP | 2012 DIRECTOR lee Yong-Ju CAST lee Je-hoon, bae suzy, uhm tae-Woong, han ga-in closing night Film, 2012 shanghai international Film Festival Best new Actress, 2012 Paeksang Arts Awards
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nOv. 2 (fRiDAY), 8:00PM, UcSD AtKinSOn hAll AUDitORiUM (fRee) nOv. 8 (thURSDAY), 7:35PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY
taiWan | mandarin With english subtitles | 110 mins | dCP | 2012 DIRECTOR Jim Wang, Yang Yi-Chien CAST huang Peijia, Paul Chiang, lun ou Yang
north American Premiere
ChA ChA FOR TWINS
hollywood has gleefully churned out numerous identical twin comedies of switching places and parent-trapping, and they predictably show the ups and downs and lessons learned. What sets Cha Cha for tWins apart is the care it gives to identity: being a twin is not simply physical, but deeply personal too. of course, that doesnt mean it cant also be enchanting.
when younger twin mini gets romantic attention from schoolmate Yogurt (lun ou Yang). Ponis struggle to display her differences reaches a high point when Ping (Paul Chiang from Au revoir taipei) takes notice of Poni...or is it mini? the follies of mistaken identity ensue of course, but all toward a surprisingly thoughtful conclusion. Co-directors Jim Wang and Yang Yi-chien
17-year-old identical twin sisters Poni and mini Chang (both huang Peijia) play on the schools basketball team and excel in the classroom. but at their age, hormones have kicked in and new feelings start to surface, especially for Poni when it comes to boys, homework, and sports. Jealousy ensues
accomplish with great fun the difficult job of cinematically creating a world where two people look identical but are far from it, while newcomer huang Peijia shows nice subtlety playing both twins as they transition into young adulthood and find a place for themselves. eric Lallana
sponsored by tecO-lA
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behind every great man, is an even more fabulous dancing hot mama, wasting away in leg warmers until she lands that big break. and for all of us wannabe great men and dancing hot mamas, there is the lively K-pop charmer danCing Queen which, like a good hit of nescafe coffee mix, has all the ingredients for a perky sweet time, not least of which includes superstars hwang Jeong-min and real-life former Queen of Pop uhm Jung-hwa. Continuing the sunny (spring showcase 12) trend of Korean coming-of-age films for the middle-aged, danCing Queen begins with a bang, taking us from school-age crush to domestic doldrums in the rush of a few music-packed, sight-gag-filled minutes. hwang and uhm make the perfect bumbling couple, entertaining us with their stubborn affection. uhm plays a former 80s dance-floor-queen-turned-
aerobics-instructor who secretly auditions for an American idol-style show, braving the ridicule that ensues. her husband (hwang), a struggling country lawyer with a knack for being an accidental hero, gets tapped to run for mayor of seoul as a disingenuous ploy by the ruling political party. in their middle age, both get one last best chance to chase their dreams: he as populist champion, she for girl-group celebrity. but in a world of tonguewagging and age-policing, theres room for only one sequin-shimmering, live broadcast dream to shine. What results is a hilarious tale of screwball love, hidden identities, and a rousing ending that will have the tears flowing as fast as you can dust off your personal karaoke mic. danCing Queen delivers the K-pop package at 100%: full of laughs, tears, music, and socio-political heart. christina ree
dANCING QUEEN
nOv. 7 (weDneSDAY), 8:00PM, cinePOliS nOv. 8 (thURSDAY), 4:00PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY (fRee)
south Korea | Korean With english subtitles | 124 mins | dCP | 2012 DIRECTOR lee suk-hoon CAST uhm Jung-hwa, hwang Jung-min, lee han-wi, ra mi-ran sponsored by
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nOv. 3 (SAtURDAY), 7:25PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY nOv. 6 (tUeSDAY), 5:55PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY
south Korea | Korean With english subtitles | 115 mins | video | 2012 DIRECTOR Kim Jee-Woon, Yim Pil-sung CAST Kim Kang-Woo, Kim gyu-ri, ryoo seung-bum, Koh Joon-hee Best Film, 2012 Fantasia international Film Festival
west coast Premiere
dOOMSdAy BOOK
in three short films, two star directors joke and philosophize at the ways we approach our own vitality in dire circumstances. in brave new World, the zombie apocalypse weve all secretly feared comes with comedic tones and over-bearing moms. the second short, a heavenly Creature, prepares us for a world where subservient robots are the norm and one robot in a buddhist temple surprises and surpasses humanity by achieving enlightenment. finally, happy birthday serves up the end of the world via asteroid, and all we have are our weird, hysterical families.
originally a collaboration between three directors, doomsdaY booK survived production woes and other end-of-the-world debacles with two directors intact. With a heavenly Creature, Kim Jee-woon (i saw the devil, A Bittersweet Life, sdaff 06; A tale of two sisters, sdaff 04) departs from his recent genre stylings to deliver a film of remarkable emotion and beauty. With brave new World, Yim Pil-sung (Hansel & gretel, spring showcase 11) finds humor and love in the most hopeless places. together, they make happy birthday an auspicious, hilarious, and awkwardly delightful beginning to the end of the world as we know it. erwin Mendoza
sponsored by
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director Yang Ya-che follows up his acclaimed debut orz Boys with yet another look at growing up, the environments that shape young peoples fates, and the memories they end up taking with them. however, it seems orz Boys was just practice for the much more ambitious nostalgia trip gf*bf, which covers three decades in the lives of three pegs in a love triangle. beginning in high school, mabel (Kwai lun-mei), liam (Joseph Chang), and aaron (rhydian vaughn) see their adolescent antics turn into unrequitable love. their passions come to a head as taiwans
democracy movement does, and as martial law is explosively lifted. When you wake up, taiwan will no longer be the same, theyre told, but the awakening is not merely one from a political slumber or even a romantic one. its the rise of a whole new generation of taiwanese, reared on graffiti and 80s rock. harkening back to taiwanese cinemas more fervent 90s, gf*bf wears politics on its sleeves and tears on its cheeks. impassioned and romantic, Yangs starry-eyed sophomore feature stands out amongst the years best for taiwanese cinema.
GF*BF nOv. 7 (weDneSDAY), 6:30PM,

UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY
taiWan | mandarin With english subtitles | 105 mins | dCP | 2012 DIRECTOR Yang Ya-che CAST Kwai lun-mei, Joseph Chang, rhydian vaughn opening night Film, 2012 taipei Film Festival
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india | hindi With english subtitles | 128 mins | 35mm | 2012 DIRECTOR sujoy ghosh CAST vidya balan, Parambrata Chatterjee, nawazuddin siddiqui, indraneil sengupta
sponsored by theresa nguyen-Muth, State farm Agent
KAhAANI
one of the first things vidya bagchi learns when she arrives to town is that in Kolkata, everyone has two names. What starts off as a joke the locals cant pronounce her name comes to stand for a city of many faces and denizens of indeterminable identities. vidya has arrived to Kolkata from london, where she and her husband arnab are computer engineers. one day, arnab headed to india only to eventually disappear without a trace. and so an extremely pregnant vidya packs her bags and heads to Kolkata. on the surface, the town is bubbling with charming folks a boy at the guesthouse who brings running water, stumbling cops eager to help but soon vidya steps into a labyrinthine mess of overlapping worlds populated by shady characters like bob biswas, a Peter lorre-looking assassin with an unforgettable
comb-over, and the elusive milan damji, who vidya is told looks exactly like her husband. Kolkata is also the scene of a mysterious gas attack that may or may not have to do with vidya and her husband. following the cleverly-planted twists and guessing the outcome is half the fun. the other half is watching the soaring vidya balan, who follows up her award-winning performance in the dirty Picture with a show-stopping role as a desperate woman who holds her cards, and her emotions, close to the heart. its a physical performance, with baby in front and a bookbag on the back, as she runs about town. balan pairs that physicality with an immensely likeable courage to make her pursuit more than just a charade-like game, but rather a passionate quest to set things right. Brian Hu
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for a man whose wife inexplicably committed suicide, life events can be haunted by the possibility of the impossible. for a cop whose wife committed suicide in such mysterious conditions, it means no murder case can ever truly be resolved.
detainment, things appear opened and shut. What transpires though are more revelations to the contrary and lam pursues every possibility, taking him deep into the past of lovers and daughters. director roy Chow hing-Yeung (Murderer) goes well
NIGhTFALL
nOv. 4 (SUnDAY), 6:25PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY nOv. 8 (thURSDAY), 8:35PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY
hong Kong | Cantonese With english subtitles | 108 mins | video | 2012 DIRECTOR roy Chow hing-yeung CAST simon Yam, nick Cheung, Kay tse, michael Wong
on one such case, detective george lam (simon Yam) investigates the brutal death of a larger-thanlife classical music icon (played by michael Wong), and begins to investigate the intense, creepy mute Wong Yuen-yueng (nick Cheung), a recently paroled convicted murderer. after Wongs capture and
beyond his love-it-or-hate-it debut by employing every trick in the hong Kong action arsenal, but succeeds by delivering a well-paced, character-driven, and totally surprising story that will make audiences want to see it again. eric Lallana
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nOv. 3 (SAtURDAY), 7:40PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY nOv. 7 (weDneSDAY), 8:20PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY
China | mandarin With english subtitles | 131 mins | video | 2012 DIRECTOR Wuershan CAST Zhou Xun, vicky Zhao, Chen Kun, mini Yang
opening night Film, 2012 shanghai international Film Festival co-presented by San Diego chinese historical Museum
PAINTEd SKIN: ThE RESURRECTION
love can mend hearts and bring people together. love can also destroy kingdoms and cause war. love can bring about desperations and bargains with demons. in Painted sKin: the resurreCtion, love steamrolls through all on a beautiful cinematic canvas of lavish sets and ornate costumes. Princess Jing (vicky Zhao) journeys for the man who failed to protect her in her youth, huo Xin (Chen Kun), now a general. she does this not for revenge, but to reignite love. however, instead of finding the general, she encounters two sumptuous demons: Quer (mini Yang), a bird demon, and Xiaowei (Zhou Xun), a fox demon, both in search of a human heart. as the princess finally catches up with the general, she is rejected, and she blames her disfigured appearance, which has haunted her much of her
life. in desperation, Jing strikes a deal for the beauty of Xiaowei, who in turn gets that much closer to the beating heart she craves. What follows is a sensually-charged action/
adventure with the fate of hearts, spirits, and nations teetering to the whims of passion and jealousy. What sets Painted sKin: the resurreCtion apart from other mainland big-budget fantasies (including gordon Chans 2008 stab at the Painted skin saga), is its audacious sense of fun and its sinister exploration of beauty, gender, and the skin trade. already the highest-grossing film of all time in China, Painted sKin: the resurreCtion brings mongolian director Wuershan (the Butcher, the Wife, and the swordsman) to the top ranks of Chinese storytellers. Phillip Lorenzo
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imagine a place where falling in love can be a drag. Where masculinity and machismo appear out of place in a town run by women. Wherea menacing killer attacks gay citizens one by one and the undead rise up to exact their revenge. such is the world of remington and the Curse of the Zombadings, in which the titular remington, brilliantly played by maximo oliveros doppelgnger martin escudero, attempts to woo the new girl in town (lauren Young) with his pretty-boy looks and cocky smile.things go awry when remington experiences a curioustransformation that threatens his budding romance and puts him in danger of becoming the next victim. in an attempt to spare his life, remington joins forces with the queen (roderick Paulate) who cursed him as a child and accidentally summons an army of super bongga zombadings!
the Jade
third
feature (My
by Big
independent Love, My
filmmaker Kontrabida
Castro
girl),remingtonblends the supernatural elements of filipino horror with the teen romance to create a genre-bending film full of fabulous twists and sensational turns that will quicken the heart of even the undead. but, beneath the feel-good camp and remingtons beki charm is a classic coming-of-age story that reminds us of the importance of being true to yourself. Malou Amparo
REMINGTON & ThE CURSE OF ZOMBAdINGS

PhiliPPines | tagalog With english subtitles | 96 mins | video | 2011 DIRECTOR Jade Castro CAST martin esudero, lauren Young, roderick Paulate
Best Asian Film, 2012 neuchtel international Fantastic Film Festival
sponsored by Jhigs & friends co-presented by we All test, filmOut San Diego, Guys like Us, long Yang club of SD, San Diego Gay Mens chorus Producer/writer scheduled to attend
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STARRy STARRy NIGhT

taiWan, hong Kong, China | mandarin & frenCh With english subtitles | 99 mins | video | 2011 DIRECTOR tom shu-yu lin CAST Xu Jiao, rene liu, lin hui-min, Kenneth tsang
sponsored by tecO-lA co-presented by nomads theatre company
13-year-old mei is getting old enough to understand. that her parents home is full of beautiful french impressionist art, but is missing the warmth of family. that Jay, the scrawny kid bullied at school, may be an outcast, but is no more a loner than mei. that all things must come to end: her parents marriage, her grandfathers life, and indeed childhood itself. With the world closing in, mei looks to the expansive out-there mapped by the starry, starry night, leading to an unforgettable adventure into the woods with Jay in tow. tom shu-yu lin (Winds of september, sdaff 09) directs the best film adaptation to date of a Jimmy liao illustrated novel, capturing exquisitely the sublimity of liaos fantasy worlds, the feeling of smallness of people in their wondrous environments, and the boundless heart that keeps the characters
curiosities charging against the winds of loneliness. a cast of veterans leads the way singer-actors rene liu and harlem Yu as meis jaded parents, hong Kong legend Kenneth tsang as a gentle grandfather. but it is Xu Jiao (the boy from cJ7) who is the heart of the film as mei, a wide-eyed forager of remnants of a childhood slipping away: puzzle pieces, origami animals, imaginary friends. shes scared and hesitant, but has a budding boldness that helps her shape her own destiny between taiwan and the west, between reality and fantasy, between innocence and experimentation. tom lin captures the inner world of a 13-year-old with great sincerity and honesty, and colors that world with delicate, magical strokes weve never quite seen before. Brian Hu
nOv. 4 (SUnDAY), 1:45PM, UcSD AtKinSOn hAll AUDitORiUM (fRee)
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taiWan | taiWanese, mandarin, & ataYal With english subtitles | 118 mins | dCP | 2011 DIRECTOR hou hsiao-hsien, arvin Chen, Wang shau-di, Wang tung, Chu Yen-ping, ho Wi-ding, Wu nien-chen, shen Ko-shang, hou Chi-jan, sylvia Chang, Chang tso-chi, Chen Yu-hsun, Chen Kuo-fu, Yang Ya-che, Cheng Wen-tang, Cheng Yu-chieh, hsiao Ya-chuan, leon dai, Chung mong-hong, Wei te-sheng CAST shu Qi, Joseph Chang, leon dai, lin Ching-tai
official selection, 2012 Berlin Film Festival sponsored by tecO-lA co-presented by taiwanese American community center
10+10
in 1982-83, two omnibus films in taiwan faced off against each other. in our time (1982) (page 108) showcased four rookie directors, while the Wheel of Life (1983) contained shorts by three old-timers. between the two, in our time was the commercial and critical success and built momentum for new directors to challenge the status quo and launch the taiwan new Cinema movement in the 1980s. last year, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the republic of China, the golden horse film festival posed a similar face-off between old and new by inviting 10 veterans and 10 relative newcomers to make five minute short films about taiwans uniqueness. the result is, unlike in our time, the Wheel of Life, or the 1983 omnibus Four Moods (1969), a collection of shorts strikingly diverse in subject, tone, and style, ranging from the happy-golucky of Wang tung, to the documentary ecstasy of Cheng Wen-tang, to the youthful whimsy of arvin
Chen. some are deathly sincere, some jokey, some aggressive, some mystical. and for a film produced to commemorate a historical moment with master narrative undertones, 10+10 has a wonderfully diverse set of approaches to time itself histories breaking and intersecting, rhythms moving to the eccentric pace of each director. each short is five minutes, yet we feel 20 times over how differently duration (and history) can be experienced. and then theres hou hsiao-hsiens shimmering la belle epoque, a short seeped in history, memory, and continuity, yet it seems to exist outside of time itself. its a masterful close to 10+10, a breath of crisp autumns air that recalibrates any current historicization of taiwanese cinema, and reminds us that any evaluation of taiwans uniqueness must include the reminder that the nation has a great artist like hou hsiao-hsien. Brian Hu
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a band of amateur thieves, a bag of consomm potato chips, a baseball legend, a life-saving giraffe. a film with such a rag-tag collection of characters and surprises is perhaps too random to sustain plot twists or dramatic reveals. its possibly too oddball to deliver an emotional payoff. Yet, that ChiPs leaves even the most jaded festival programmers holding back tears by the end speaks to how deft a work of plotting and characterization it is, and how effortlessly that kookiness is handled, through unexpected laughs and the unlikeliest empathy, by director Yoshihiro nakamura (A Boy & His samurai, sdaff 11). its a masterpiece of the reveal, with delightful characters slowly accumulating atop each other and propelling the story along bizarre turns and sly flashbacks. a social misfit with savant tendencies (he
inadvertently discovers both newtonian gravity and the Pythagorean theorem) has a special obsession with a hometown baseball hero. his partner-in-crime is a small-time thief who cant look anybody in the eye. director nakamura himself appears as a failed ballplayer who now prefers to be called the Ceo. theres a girlfriend too, and a mother who does what she pleases and steals the show and the plot. avoiding the kind of zany obscurity that many Japanese comedies rely on, ChiPs concocts an enchantment that cant be explained so much as evoked in pitch-perfect non-sequiturs and metaphoric patterns of uncanny switching: pinch-hitting, trading, upgrading. and then rounding the bases home: finding roots, feeling ones self-worth, re-discovering a favorite flavor of potato chips. Brian Hu
ChIPS
nOv. 2 (fRiDAY), 6:45PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY nOv. 6 (tUeSDAY), 5:45PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY
JaPan | JaPanese With english subtitles | 68 mins | video | 2012 DIRECTOR Yoshihiro nakamura CAST gaku hamada, fumino Kimura, nao omori, eri ishida
west coast Premiere sponsored by
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hong Kong | mandarin With english subtitles | 97 mins | video | 1972 DIRECTOR Chung Chang-wha CAST lo lieh, Kim Kee-joo, Chan Chuen, Chan shen, tien fung, bolo Yeung
40th anniversary Lifetime Achievement Award screening sponsored by vivalachi Alternative health & wellness Services co-presented by three treasures cultural Arts Society director scheduled to attend
FIVE FINGERS OF dEATh
Chinese kung fu films had been produced as early as the 1905 ding Jun Mountain, but it wasnt until march 21, 1973 that mainstream america got a proper taste with Chung Chang-whas shaw brothers extravaganza five fingers of death (aka King Boxer). Chao Chi-hao (lo lieh) is trained in kung fu in order to defeat corrupt master mings students at a martial arts tournament. ming hires malicious Japanese samurai mercenaries and the horrific head-butter Chen (Kim Kee-joo) to do dastardly deeds, one being to break Chaos hands and spirit. broken and bloodied, Chao goes into hiding, heals, learns the secret iron Palm skill, and then enters the tournament. during the tournaments ado, nobody sees ming assassinate Chaos master. after Chao learns the truth, its time to battle ming and the Japanese using his five fingers of death. but who will really die?
try watching this film like it was 1973, when most of us were clueless as to what this fresh genre was all about, and were blown away to discover a film that was like an american Western where feet, fists, and swords replaced guns. its got glowing red hands, iron palm kung fu, death strikes, and audio shticks from the nbC-tv show ironside. it was far out to learn that iron palm was real and you could learn it too if you dared. now thats cool, man. craig reid
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trouble awaits again at the dragon gate inn. the mythical jianghu rest-stop, where martial heroes and corrupt officials cross paths (and swords) with bumbling innkeepers, is this time the setting of a collision course between eunuchs in search of defectors, nomads in search of treasure, and wouldbe lovers separated by miles of desert sand and three years of solitary devotion to the code of the warrior. this time they join forces with other wayfarers looking for adventure. and this time its in 3d.
special effects-showcase Zu Warriors of the Magic Mountain and the high school (opera) musical the Lovers, tsui gives a classic tale a contemporary spin, this time testing how far he can take the flying daggers, gravity-defying leaps, and breathtaking blocks and parries into the third dimension. the spectacular result is best captured in the films cyclone-set climax: one of the most jaw-dropping action scenes in martial arts cinema memory. somewhere along the way, Jet li manages to whip
FLyING SWORdS OF dRAGON GATE
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hong Kong, China | mandarin With english subtitles | 122 mins | 3d dCP | 2011 DIRECTOR tsui hark CAST Jet li, Zhou Xun, aloys Chen, mavis fan
Best Action choreography, 2011 Hong Kong Film Awards co-presented by Asian Story theater
director tsui hark is the undisputed master of the modern swashbuckler, and here shows that his previous detective dee was no one-off resurrection of his 1980s and 90s brawn. With flYing sWords of dragon gate, tsui brings back the visual zingers, off-the-wall theatrics, and androgenous heroes that have made him a legend. always an innovator, as in films as diverse as the
up unfriendly competition and Zhou Xun manages to scare up fear and envy. but its the mysterious aloys Chen who steals the show in two roles that embody the great fun that is flYing sWords: full of surprise and humor, teeming intrigue, and way over-the-top wuxia swagger. Brian Hu
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PhiliPPines, south Korea | english & tagalog With english subtitles | 70 mins | dCP | 2012 DIRECTOR raya martin
north American Premiere
ThE GREAT CINEMA PARTy
20 minutes into raya martins latest work the great Cinema PartY, fellow filipino superstar director lav diaz spectrally appears on screen and jokily welcomes us to a party where andrei tarkovsky and andre bazin will be attending. indeed, the legends of film are everywhere: on the dreamy ruin-scapes and in the determination to capture the passing of fleeting moments onto film what bazin called change mummified. but there are others at the party too. filipino soldiers who fought for freedom. old movie idols etched on walls. an editor of Cinema scope. You and me, perhaps, with our smart phones and our roving curiosity. and raya martin too, recently named one of the worlds 40 best directors under 40, and who, at a mere 28-years-old already has an oeuvre to be envied by filmmakers of any age.
the great Cinema PartY is another of martins reimaginings of silent cinema to the pulse of a new slacker joy. its a joy haunted by a past only known via 8mm memories, through which a youthful sense of discovery and camaraderie emerges out of colonial shadows that continue to linger on the surfaces of buildings and objects. for martin, there is something beautiful and conscionable about living with the past, being at peace, and drinking/dancing/swimming with it in the mysterious darkness. in three black-and-white sequences the first a silent, eisensteinian montage of war footage, the second a breezy walk through ruins, and the third the titular party thrown at a community arts festival martin, without pretension and seemingly without effort, longingly crafts an ode to the landscape of cinephilia, and rewrites the rules of how to grieve, remember, and celebrate. Brian Hu
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in another CountrY marks hong sang-soos eighth film featured at the Cannes film festival, where he won the Prix un Certain regard in 2010. Known for mostly-improvised, inventivelyconstructed narratives in a unique, comic style, hong sang-soo (the day He Arrives, sdaff 11) crafts in another CountrY along much the same trajectory. this time out though, hong strings along venerable french actor isabelle huppert for the soju-laced ride; in fact, the film was purportedly conceived so the two could work together. huppert plays three different roles in three different stories all as french tourists visiting a south Korean seaside village. all three characters are named anne, and all get involved in roundabout (and hysterical) conversations with a local lifeguard. to
make things even more playful and self-referential, the characters are conjured up by a bored student filmmaker who passes her time by working on a screenplay. the film is a masterfully-crafted jazz riff on language (the characters often speak broken english to communicate), monogamy (all stories involve infidelity in some form or another), and Koreas fetishization of western women (everyone thinks isabelle huppert is beautiful). the way characters come in and out of the dreams and also the way scenes and dialogue repeat in each story but in different contexts make the film quite whimsical. add to that the use of sparse cutting and jokily unmotivated zooms, and weve got hong sang-soo at his playful best. Joseph Mangat
IN ANOThER COUNTRy
nOv. 4 (SUnDAY), 4:15PM, MUSeUM Of PhOtOGRAPhic ARtS
south Korea | english & Korean With english subtitles | 89 mins | video | 2012 DIRECTOR hong sang-soo CAST isabelle huppert, Yu Jun-sang, Jung Yu-mi
official selection, 2012 cannes Film Festival
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taiWan | mandarin With english & Chinese subtitles | 106 mins | video | 1982 DIRECTOR tao te-chen, edward Yang, Ko i-chen, Chang Yi CAST sylvia Chang, lee li-chun, li Kuo-hsiu, shih an-ni
new 30th anniversary digital restoration co-presented by nomads theatre company
IN OUR TIME
With the sashaying, electric guitar loneliness that begins santo & Johnnys instrumental classic sleepwalk, world cinema history is forever changed. these are the nostalgic beginning notes of a movement that captured the international film communitys attention, and which defined many of the most exciting directions that cinema would take in the subsequent decades. it was 1982, the early years in a decade that would define taiwans emerging democracy its deshackling from martial law and cold war paranoia. in these years, writers like Pai hsienyung and huang Chun-ming were in very different ways breaking from the dominant narrative of the republic of China and telling stories that were selfreflexive and critical. some of their younger peers, led by cultural renegades like Wu nien-jen, Chu tien-wen, and edward Yang, became interested in cinema and started hanging out at Yangs house,
where they were joined by young blood already in the film industry, including a budding director named hou hsiao-hsien. in our time is considered the first film of the taiwan new Cinema movement. as the local film market was quickly losing ground to competition from hong Kong and hollywood, the governmentowned Central motion Picture Corporation decided to give the kids a shot. in our time is a collection of four shorts, each by a different rookie director, and each about a different decade in taiwans recent history. Collectively, they document a generation growing up with college woes, sexual discovery, and the hypnosis of american rock n roll. independently, they showcase the new voices of young taiwan, including one from director edward Yang (A Brighter summer day, Yi Yi), who would go on to become one of the greatest directors of all time. Brian Hu
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for decades, sion sono has invaded our sensibilities, exposed our lack of civility, and deconstructed our carnal repressions and moral compasses. as he did last year with Himizu, this master of cinema has found a new direction to point his signature sensibilities: fictional imaginings of the fukushima disaster and its after-effects. in the prefecture of nagashima (an amalgam of Japans nuclear traumas), the ono family is torn apart when an earthquake causes a nuclear meltdown. the government draws danger zones across the prefecture, going right down between the houses of two next-door neighbors: the onos and the suzukis. the elder ono Yasuhiko (isao natsuyagi) makes the decision to stay in the safe zone where their home lies, while the suzuki family evacuates. sono captures the oft-surreal ways the
government exhibits denial through their policy, discriminates across its citizenry, and causes mass nuclear fear, all while telling a touching story of two families and their struggles to stay united. sono (cold Fish, sdaff 11; Love exposure) builds the social horror through imagery flavored by hysteria, and then brings the audience closer to family through unexpected displays of loyalty and affection that only bubble to the surface at this moment of frenzy. sono surrounds his brilliant actors with beautiful and tragic imagery and feeds them with wonderfully-written moments of conflict, loss, and resolution. Phillip Lorenzo
ThE LANd OF hOPE
JaPan | JaPanese With english subtitles | 133 mins | dCP | 2012 DIRECTOR sion sono CAST isao natsuyagi, naoko otani, megumi Kagurazaka, Jun murakami, hikari Kajiwara
netPAc Award, 2012 toronto international Film Festival west coast Premiere co-presented by San Diego Yu Yu
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A MAN WITh STyLE

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never the cool one in school, Junichi miyata was the target of taunts and punches. on one tearful day, he promised himself (with best friend sanada as witness) to be a cool guy effortlessly stylish and devoid of all emotion. fast forward decades to miyata as an adult, now a widowed truck driver with two college-bound kids who are eager to make their big move to tokyo. his only friend is still sanada, whose easygoing personality is resilient enough to tolerate miyatas now jagged cynicism. Worried that he may be dying from the same ailment that took his wife, miyata prepares for the imminent end and attempts to connect with his children before departing though
who will leave first remains unknown to miyata. What ensues is a frantic but heartwarming journey to learn more about his children as he himself confronts the emotional barriers that distanced him from his loved ones in the first place. Wunderkind writer-director Yuya ishii manages to craft yet another quirky tale with just the right amounts of drama and adventure-seeking delight. as the titular dandy, Ken mitsuishi gives a charming performance as a stoic man with masked vulnerabilities and a heart of gold, leaving the audience pleasantly surprised at just how much style he really has. Maryanne Bilbao
JaPan | JaPanese With english subtitles | 110 mins | video | 2011 DIRECTOR Yuya ishii CAST Ken mitsuishi, tomorowo taguchi, ryu morioka, Jun Yoshinaga
Audience Award, 2011 LA eigaFest sponsored by
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apichatpong
Weerasethakul
has
won
nearly
her daughter. scenes contain the same calming and soothing spirit as the mekong river its shot on, even when intestines are being eaten. a film about filmmaking,apichatpongpresents the idea of longing and creation under the lustrous thai sunset shade. like sifting through an artists sketchbook, Mekong Hotel gives insight into the creative process of one of todays most innovative and possibly greatest filmmakers. Joseph Mangat Preceded by:
every award a director can win at Cannes, and has cinematically rendered his pet themes of reincarnation and ghosts in seemingly every imaginable direction: as mirrors (syndromes & a century), in light and dark (tropical Malady), and as wistful hauntings (uncle Boonmee Who can recall His Past Lives, sdaff 10). that, with each new film, he still continues to find surprising new angles on familiar subjects while exploding cinemas boundaries, demonstrates handily what a fountain of creativity and world treasure hes become. meKong hotelis an experimental featurette that shifts between fact and fiction, the secular and the fantastic. it melds pieces from an unrealized project (using previously-shot footage, including behind-the-scenes shots of apitchapong auditioning a musician and rehearsing actors), while exploring the relationship between a vampire-like mother and
MEKONG hOTEL
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thailand | thai With english subtitles | 57 mins | video | 2012 DIRECTOR apichatpong Weerasethakul CAST Jenjira Pongpas, maiyatan techaparn, sakda Kaewbuadee, Chai bhatana
official selection, 2012 cannes Film Festival west coast Premiere
SAKdA
thailand, sWitZerland | 6 mins | 2012
DIRECTOR apichatpong Weerasethakul

a body in search of a name. a voice echoing along the mekong river.
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ROMANCING IN ThIN AIR
Johnnie to is hands down one of the most interesting filmmakers in the world. a darling of both critics and audiences, only to can show you the same scene four times and make you cry while your brain synapses explode. funny, poignant, and almost macabre, romanCing in thin air, is also one of his most thematically ambitious and cinematically elegant, and easily belongs with his best.
in a drunken downward spiral after being left at the altar on national television. While the rest of hong Kong searches for michael, romance buds between him and sue. but a series of twists reveal uncanny connections between them and the ways movies and human stories can mess and unsettle each other. Johnnie to (dont go Breaking My Heart, sdaff
hong Kong | mandarin & Cantonese With english & Chinese subtitles | 114 mins | 35mm | 2012 DIRECTOR Johnnie to CAST sammi Cheng, louis Koo, li guangjie, gao Yuanyuan
the opening credits vault us into the middle of a hong Kong awards show and appropriately set the tone, as ceremony, acting, storyline, text, credits, beginning, and ending all mix to strange effect. the film then cuts to something simpler: sue (sammi Cheng), an innkeeper in a remote mountain retreat, waits for a husband lost in the woods for seven years. unbeknownst to her, she accidentally brings home michael, a hong Kong superstar (louis Koo)
11; Life Without Principle, spring showcase 12) weaves pop fandom, buddhist destiny, cinema, and breathtaking shots so seamlessly we barely notice how the film is also deconstructing what is happening before our very eyes, an incredible feat achieved without a trace of irony or self-celebration. christina ree
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discoveries
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PhiliPPines | tagalog With english subtitles | 87 mins | dCP | 2012 DIRECTOR vincent sandoval CAST mylene dizon, Jodi sta. maria, raquel villavicencio official selection, 2012 vancouver international Film Festival sponsored by
APPARITION
its the early 1970s, and President ferdinand marcos grip on the Philippines is tightening. student protests rage and dissidents vanish without clue. meanwhile, deep in the forest is a cloister convent isolated from the rumbling world outside. radios are banned and news is rare. however, as tensions mount within the convent gates, free will inside and outside begins to mirror each other. Were introduced to the convent through new arrival sister lourdes, who befriends sister remy, whose brother is amongst the disappeared activists outside. their curiosity about the outside world starts to get the best of them, leading to a brutal
assault and aftermath that cuts to the heart of the convents faith. soon, a mystery develops, with the mother superior leering about as a shadowy power figure, and questions brewing on the convent grounds about responsibility, guilt, and community. a stirring allegory about freedom and order, and set in an eerie pressure cooker that feels part church, part colonial prison, aPParition strikes political, religious, and moral nerves with a haunting quiet. director vincent sandoval sculpts light and shadow with great care, conjuring Catholic mysticism while never straying too far from the teledrama intrigue that makes the film such a biting critique. Brian Hu
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Pantone 446
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director benito bautista (the gift of Barong, sdaff 06) refashions true stories of manilas taxi cab drivers into an ominous, unpredictable ride from the dark streets of manila to the isolated hills of antipolo. its only a few days before Christmas in manila and struggling cab driver limuel needs to reach his boundary (quota of customers) by the end of the night. he picks up a wealthy-looking, generous business man trying to make his way to antipolo. but limuel has a plan for his nave and unsuspecting customer a plan that he is none too proud to carry out. things suddenly go beyond limuels control as he himself is thrown from the wheel to the helpless backseat of a plot bigger than he ever expected.
Power. deception. morality. desperation. the intrinsic human conflict of navigating the fine line between power and ethics can have unforeseen consequences when one starts to get too close to either side. bautista artfully finesses these concepts while commenting on the grim issues of class and political strife that filipinos are all too familiar with. in this claustrophobic taxi ride through the gritty streets of manila, it is hard not to feel the tension, fear, and uncertainty these characters experience, and suddenly were fellow captives strewn along the captivation plot. Maryanne Bilbao
BOUNdARy

PhiliPPines | tagalog With english subtitles | 110 mins | video | 2011 DIRECTOR benito bautista CAST ronnie lazaro, raymond bagatsing, edwin nombre
2011 cinemalaya independent Film Festival, netPAc Award
sponsored by
co-presented by filipino American chamber of commerce San Diego county, Philippine & Asian Report, ASiAnReader
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nOv. 5 (MOnDAY), 4:00PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY (fRee)

indonesia, germanY | indonesian & english With english subtitles | 74 mins | video | 2012 DIRECTOR the Children of srikandi Collective official selection, 2012 Berlin international Film Festival sponsored by co-presented by indonesian Arts & culture center
ChILdREN OF SRIKANdI
a film that revels in performance, Children of sriKandi is as much about being young, lesbian, and indonesian, as it is about serenading elders on the street, a mothers uncanny fairy tales, and rocking gucci suspenders. it delivers the modern energy and razor sharp edges of indonesian queer sisterhood bundled into a documentary that is smart, edgy, and evocative. in 2010 indonesia, two lgbt events, one a longstanding film festival, were attacked by conservative groups. against this backdrop and in a country with the worlds largest muslim population, eight womens personal stories are intercut with gorgeous shadow puppetry stunningly performed by transgender players about the story of srikandi, a warrior woman who identifies as a man in the mahabharata, a famous indian epic.
of sriKandi makes the oft-distracting anthology structure feel more like effortless discovery. no accident as the filmmakers decided to use different art practices to perform each others stories, multiplying identity and playing with the documentary format. the art is arresting and fresh, exploring areas such as butchness and the hijab, the cagey promise of solidarity, and the discovery of first love. there are stunning photos of seamless indonesian neighborhoods interrupted by queerness in all its glory, and amber-lit strolls through the streets punctuated by guitar ballads and theater. With tracks by indonesias only female hip hopper Yacko, Children of sriKandi is the first film by and about queer women in indonesia, proving the rewards of filmmaking in the hands of its subjects. the film gives us a slice of emerging queerness that is radical and specifically indonesian, in voices that feel like they come from the future. christina ree
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originally a workshop of eight films, Children
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a cinematic sance for cinema itself, golden slumbers begins with footage of a journey in slow motion. Were heading back in time but the spaces were exploring are of a haunted present. the 1960s and 70s were known as a golden age of Cambodian cinema, or at least thats how it was recollected to young Parisian davy Chou, who only recently discovered that his grandfather was producer van Chann, whose films embody the glory of a Cambodia before the Khmer rouge squashed the movie industry. With the murderous regime came the near eradication of the 400 films made in 15 years. Without archival footage to rely on, golden slumbers has to reinvent the history-of-film
documentary. Chou lingers on images of old spaces (theaters-emptied-out, movie palaces-turned-karaoke bars) and sounds of an era (radio transmissions of film trailers, pop songs engraved on vinyl and digitized for Youtube). the period is evoked through memories of those who made the films, those who idolized the stars, and those who remembered fleeing war through cinema. in the absence of footage from the films, Chou stages shadows of the golden age: film narratives are recalled through the fog of memory, special effects are evoked obliquely and jokingly, movie faces are remembered through newsprint and fading posters. Collectively, they form a fuzzy picture that we as 21st century filmgoers can fill in so that the Cambodian golden age can be resurrected and survive. Brian Hu
GOLdEN SLUMBERS
Cambodia, franCe | Khmer & frenCh With english subtitles | 96 mins | video | 2011 DIRECTOR davy Chou official selection, 2012 Berlin international Film Festival sponsored by
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iran, usa, germanY | english & farsi With english subtitles | 93 mins | video | 2012 DIRECTOR till schauder PRODUCER sara nodjoumi, till schauder sponsored by co-presented by nAAcP-SD, San Diego Arthouse Movies director & producer scheduled to attend
ThE IRAN jOB
for many in the united states, iran means illegal nukes or rogue state. but for the u.s virgin islands athlete Kevin sheppard, it means job opportunity. undeterred by the increasing hostiles between the u.s. and iran, sheppard accepts an offer to play pro basketball in the city of shiraz. as the hired-gun foreigner on a newly-established team, sheppard struggles against lofty expectations, while also trying to navigate irans cultures and traditions. ever the slick-tongued charmer, sheppard brings his on-court enthusiasm and charisma to his interactions with teammates and neighbors. despite wanting to distance
and the islamic government. before he knows it, his efforts on the basketball court start to run parallel with the mounting tensions of the 2009 presidential elections. director till schauder masterfully brings together a crowd-pleasing sports film with a surprising narrative of cultural and political struggle. not only does schauder elegantly chronicle the experiences of a fish out of water, he uncovers the hidden strength of iran by highlighting its peoples own agency for reform and progress. tracie Yang Preceded by: BASKETBALL, MERI jAAN usa | 5 mins | 2012
himself from the countrys politics and religion, sheppard, in the spirit of hospitality and good fun, inadvertently makes his home a safe haven for three progressive iranian women who expose him to debates regarding gender roles, religion,
DIRECTOR veena hampapur

for an indian immigrant twice displaced, home is where the hoops are.
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dont take the kids to see the King of Pigs. it opens with the grisly, seemingly senseless murder of a woman by her husband, Kyung-min, followed by a desperate phone call that opens a portal to an equally bloody past. 15 years prior, Kyung-min and Jongsuk were more than classmates; they were on the same side of a violent middle school free-for-all. more specifically, they were on the losing side: the pigs, as they were known, working-class sons forced to bear the punches and sexual abuse of the rich kids. dont take the kids to see the Kings of Pigs. they may get the wrong idea when they are introduced to Chul, the new kid on the block who decides that even though hes not wealthy, even though the violent middle school class hierarchies are condoned by faculty and in fact are institutionalized in society more generally, and even though it risks his family and friends, his clenched fists are not going to let his oppressors get their way.
dont take the kids to see the King of Pigs. they may get the wrong idea from the animation: a brilliant combination of a cold dehumanization, through which violence becomes desensitized through digital abstraction, and the brutal shock of seeing a childrens medium hijacked by molesters, suicide kings, and anxious killers. at the same time, its precisely the childrens medium that drives the point home: that the everyday trauma of bullying, one of the most hushed and willfully disregarded tumors of Korean masculinist society, must be viewed through the vernacular of the young to become clear. dont take the kids to see the King of Pigs. they know the story all too well already. this is for the adults with kids of their own, and for the adults haunted by their own memories of the playground. Brian Hu
ThE KING OF PIGS
nOv. 4 (SUnDAY), 6:05PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY nOv. 8 (thURSDAY), 9:50PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY
south Korea | Korean With english subtitles | 97 mins | video | 2011 DIRECTOR Yeun sang-ho CAST Yang ik-June, Kim Kkobbi, oh Jung-se, Kim hye-na
netPAc Award, 2011 Busan international Film Festival official selection, directors Fortnight, 2012 cannes Film Festival
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McGregor & Associates, Inc. Logomark 2-color: Orange PMS 137 and Grey PMS 446
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China | mandarin With english subtitles | 91 mins | video | 2012 DIRECTOR song fang CAST Ye Yu-zhu, song di-jin, song Yuan, song fang Best First Feature, 2012 Locarno Film Festival official selection, 2012 new York Film Festival
west coast Premiere
MEMORIES LOOK AT ME
song fang returns home to nanjing from beijing, and spends time with her parents at home. the family reunion is completed by the arrival of her brother and his wife and daughter. in their otherwise commonplace conversations, on everything from marriage to illness, collective memories shift into view and disjunctures between generations become gently remarkable. like the passing of the day, ordinary moments slip impressively from the lightly comic (as in an episode with a chicken) to the unexpectedly profound, building an anti-melodrama that is utterly moving. naturalistic to the core, but also carefully written and composed, memories looK at me shares much with the summery improvisations of recent
hou hsiao-hsien, in whose Flight of the red Balloon director-writer-actor song fang played a supporting role. but its with liu Jiayins trailblazing oxhide ii (sdaff 11) that songs debut feature is in spiritual dialogue. both films star the director and her parents, all possibly playing themselves, fabulously breaking down barriers between documentary and fiction. With memories looK at me, song fang further explores domesticity as a space where friends and family reflect on the changes around them. (Practically the entire film is set indoors in their homes.) between grandmother and granddaughter, song fang stands representing a generation in flux, moving from city to city, quietly watching everyone around grow older. Brian Hu
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beneath the great presence of taipeis skyline, the symbolic triumph of the nations wealth and modernization, is a quaint five-story nursing home full of immigrant workers whose aspiration for wealth has yet to be fulfilled. spanning 12 years, moneY & honeY follows the stories of filipina caretakers driven overseas for work, and their indomitable will to bring better opportunities to their families at home while working at a nursing home in taiwan. out of the political and economic contexts of the Philippines and taiwan, director Jasmine lee Ching-hui captures in assured, intimate terms deep insight into the lives of these various filipina workers and their physical and emotional sacrifice.
and yet, while it is easy to simply focus on the bleak circumstances these individual women might find themselves in, lee successfully encompasses the struggles as well as the joviality and creativity of the womens livelihoods. from the enduring relationships they form with their patients and co-workers (as well as the director, whose grandmother is the impetus for the documentary), to the struggles of living for years away from their families, moneY & honeY is both a troubled and hopeful film that captures the strength of women migrant workers enduring to live the modern dream of love and prosperity. tracie Yang
MONEy & hONEy
nOv. 4 (SUnDAY), 11:30AM, UcSD AtKinSOn hAll AUDitORiUM (fRee)

taiWan | mandarin, english, tagalog With english subtitles | 96 mins | video | 2011 DIRECTOR Jasmine lee Ching-hui
official selection, 2011 Busan international Film Festival Audience Award, 2011 Women Make Waves Film Festival US Premiere
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co-presented by UcSD cross cultural center
tecO-lA

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iran | farsi With english subtitles | 85 mins | video | 2011 DIRECTOR morteza farshbaf CAST sharareh Pasha, Kiomars giti, amir hossein maleki new currents Award & FiPresci Prize, 2011 Busan international Film Festival sponsored by
MOURNING
mourning opens in darkness while a married couple violently argues as they storm off into the night, leaving their young son with his aunt and uncle who are both deaf. the deaf couple (who have underlying issues of their own) decide to drive the boy back to his parents in tehran. along the way, they encounter a tragedy which they attempt to conceal from the boy. What the couple fails to realize, however, is that the boy is keenly self-aware of his surrounding landscapes (both environmental and social) and has things to conceal of his own. the film too is extraordinarily perceptive to
a meditation on communication, disability and grief, mourning is a surprisingly masterful film from such a young filmmaker (born in 1986). With a child protagonist, gorgeous shots of the iranian countryside, and a narrative that unfolds inside a car, the influence of abbas Kiarostami is unmistakable. it should surprise no one then that first-time feature director morteza farshbaf conceived mourning through one of the legendary directors workshops. and although some have called the film Kiarostami lite, imitation or not, farshbafs ability to create a gentle, poignant, and playful film of this stature is an amazing achievement by any standards. Joseph Mangat
landscapes, and the ways faces, hands, and even subtitles create worlds of emotional meaning.
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amongst the first images in nuClear nation is a sign leading to a disaster relocation center that reads, media personnel not permitted beyond this point. somehow though atsushi funahashis camera makes it in: not just into sites of extraordinary destruction, but into the everyday worlds of fukushima evacuees now inhabiting high schools partitioned into makeshift living quarters. What he finds isnt the expected sentimentality of loss or the furor against the government. sure, its moving to watch and the anger is real. but what sets nuClear nation ahead of the increasingly-crowded pack of fukushima documentaries is its commitment to capturing a new reality: watching tv, listening to music, and drinking sake, because theres nowhere to go. these everyday moments make the extraordinary ones all the more impressive. and when family members and homes are lost, its hard to avoid the extraordinary, even
though everyone just wants to get back to normalcy. for the mayor of futaba, normalcy becomes an existential crisis. he is amongst the many subjects of the film, followed for months after the disasters. he explains the bargain his city entered to become networked into a nuclear nation, and how the normalcy he misses was the result of a radioactive pact. We also meet men who worked in the nuclear reactors. We gain access to council meetings of mayors who run nuclear cities. funahashis access is impressive and targeted without ever being imposingly ideological. there are just so many images and sounds still to uncover the makeshift official signs written on paper and posted with masking tape, the sounds of a brass band playing an oldie for evacuees that to do anything but simply watch and listen to the aftermath is the worst denial. Brian Hu
NUCLEAR NATION
nOv. 7 (weDneSDAY), 4:00PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY (fRee)

JaPan | JaPanese With english subtitles | 96 mins | video | 2012 DIRECTOR atsushi funahashi
official selection, 2012 Berlin international Film Festival official selection, 2012 Hong Kong international Film Festival official selection, 2012 edinburgh international Film Festival north American Premiere sponsored by
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nOv. 8 (thURSDAY), 6:30PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY

China, tibet | tibetan With english subtitles | 88 mins | video | 2011 DIRECTOR Pema tseden CAST Yanbum gyal, drolma Kyab, lochey lochey, tamdrin tso Best narrative Feature, 2012 Brooklyn Film Festival grand Prize, 2011 tokyo FiLMex official selection, 2012 international Film Festival rotterdam
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OLd dOG
sell it before its stolen. this line winds its way like a vagrant snake charmer throughout old dog, Pema tsedens masterful docu-realist fable. an awardwinning novelist, tseden has emerged as a startling auteur in the quickly developing tibetan new Wave, and has become the first filmmaker to film entirely in the tibetan language. in old dog, bracing social allegory and narrative quietude underlie sweeping vistas, a tense mix which brings to mind ingmar bergman as much as it does Jia Zhang-ke for the way the landscape suddenly becomes a surface, uncanny and porous. old dog is a deceptively simple story, captivating in its spare narrative escalation. gonpo, a scraggly man on motorbike, putters through a barren tibetan mountain town with his dusty dog trotting alongside. gonpo haggles with a trader, a cop acts as arbiter,
and finally the dog changes hands. but not for the last time, as gonpos father and the dogs true owner, an elderly sheepherder named akhu, embarks on a series of retrievals and rescues from various dognappings as the going price skyrockets. as akhu fails at each turn to protect his dog, sell it before its stolen becomes a bankrupt, voracious logic, a mounting pressure infecting every nook and cranny. slowly, the violence invisible in the films tranquil surface reveals itself in a landscape that is mortgaged. Cinematographer sonthar gyals textured wide shots give us a tibet with crowded horizon lines, featureless skies, stark shadows, and long takes effortlessly capturing a sort of filmic equivalent of being in high altitude air too sharp, too thin to inhale without noticing pain. christina ree
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the first-ever feature film in the samoan language speaks loudly. from out of the yam leaves and across the fields where men exert their masculinity comes a voice demanding to be heard. a little person, saili, lives just outside of town with his ostracized wife vaaiga and their teenage daughter. looked down upon from by his village and hers, they live a quiet, solitary life until saili decides he must bury his loved ones in accordance to the rituals of his family. meanwhile, in a huge slight to saili, vaaigas family arrives to take her away. its time. saili must make himself heard.
the orator pulls no punches when it comes to showcasing the will of men attempting to overtake each other through performance nor when it comes to presenting the beautiful lushness of upolu island in samoa. the most impressive thing about the orator, aside from the fact that its a first time feature, is how it manages to represent samoan traditional culture in all of its complexity, without ever appearing didactically or reductively ethnographic, instead allowing the details of ritual energize the drama and its themes of honor, love, and mourning. the orator speaks volumes about new talent tusi tamasese and all of samoan cinema to come. Brian Hu
ThE ORATOR
nOv. 7 (weDneSDAY), 7:55PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY

neW Zealand | samoan With english subtitles | 110 mins | 35mm | 2011 DIRECTOR tusi tamasese CAST faafiaula sanote, tausili Pushparaj, salamasina mataia, ioata tanielu
special Jury Mention, orrizonti section, 2011 venice Film Festival official selection, 2012 sundance Film Festival sponsored by co-presented by Samoan community council of SD

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its no secret. taiwan loves its food and so does the rest of the world. but what makes culinary love so special? after 38 years of martial law, taiwan quickly made made its rise as a successful modern democratic nation. taiwan has also come to develop its own cultural and political identity, even under the looming shadow of its neighbor, China. interestingly enough, this new modern taiwanese identity has also translated into the populations conception of cuisine and food preparation. from the densely-populated cities to the small counties inhabited by native indigenous peoples, the eco-geography of taiwans present dictates the philosophy and preparation of
food. for the city-dwelling foodie, cuisine is an art form with the best organically-grown ingredients, while native indigenous tribes preserve traditional preparation techniques as a way to honor their ancestors and celebrate their cultural identity. in her fourth taiwan-set film, director monika truet successfully transports viewers through modern taiwan with all of its ecological and demographic diversity. not only does the film leave viewers with a taste of taiwanese cuisine it also gives viewers a taste of the countrys evolving cultural and political identity. Come with bellies full and minds open: this film offers food for thought! tracie Yang
ThE RAW & ThE COOKEd
nOv. 4 (SUnDAY), 4:00PM, UcSD AtKinSOn hAll AUDitORiUM (fRee) nOv. 6 (tUeSDAY), 6:10PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY
taiWan, germanY | mandarin, taiWanese, english, amis With english subtitles | 83 mins | video | 2012 DIRECTOR monika treut official selection, 2012 Berlin international Film Festival sponsored by co-presented by San Diego Alliance for Asian Pacific islander Americans, taiwanese American community center

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discoveries
ShUN LI & ThE POET (IO SONO LI)
many recent european films have chronicled the social and personal consequences of the recent wave of immigration to europe, but few with the delicacy and insight of andre segres lovely film. brought to italy by a broker who shes slowly paying off while saving money to bring across her son, shun li is sent from her factory job to a bar in Chioggia, a small town in the veneto lagoon. there she strikes up a friendship with bepi, a fisherman nicknamed the Poet, himself a representative of an earlier immigration to italy from eastern europe. the two come to share a special understanding, and their relationship transforms them both.
segre effectively draws us into this immigrant world, not simply to expose its unfairness but to reveal the ways in which immigrants create their own special support systems. an unusual and compelling first feature deservedly selected for the directors fortnight section of the venice film festival, shun li & the Poet has a terrific central performance by Zhao tao, Jia Zhang-kes muse in films like Platform and the World. the film takes the essence of an all-too-real situation (the recent influx of Chinese immigrants into the environs of venice) that is also simultaneously a new filmic look at aspects of venetian life, refreshingly naturalistic and free of picture postcard tourism. san diego italian Film Festival
nOv. 4 (SUnDAY), 7:00PM, MUSeUM Of PhOtOGRAPhic ARtS
italY | italian, mandarin With english subtitles | 100 mins | video | 2011 DIRECTOR andrea sengre CAST Zhao tao, rade serbedzija, marco Paolini official selection, 2011 venice Film Festival co-hosted with the San Diego italian film festival sponsored by
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film
this
precise,
natural,
and
filled
with
become the open musings of lovers who feel safe, free of marital role-playing or agenda. dreams and random chance, a missing bike and shooting stars, unsettle and add a whiff of charm. one of the films many achievements is delivering the modesty of uncertainty without losing any of its hauntingness. the enormity of love in this film accumulates in the small ways two people braid together bathing,
tenderness deserves a poem as a festival review, a bridge of language that reads like five very plain words walking slowly into your heart. no matter whether youre newlywed, single, or marooned as a rock, sleePless night will return a sense of how intimacy at its most basic can be ethical and profoundly romantic. sleePless night captures that mystery,
SLEEPLESS NIGhT
south Korea | Korean With english subtitles | 54 mins | video | 2012 DIRECTOR Jang Kun-jae CAST Kim soo-hyeon, Kim Ju-ryoeng grand Prize & Audience Award, 2012 Joenju international Film Festival student critics Award, 2012 edinburgh international Film Festival
US Premiere
making love, eating, talking. each encounter with familiarity transcends repetition. no less is their gaze upon each other: level, reasoned, warm a look that is as exact and measured as the camerawork. the films main achievement is the way it builds upon itself until by films end a life of hopeful love has been formed before our eyes. christina ree
immediacy and promise that sometimes happens during a nocturnal window in time, all while following the everyday routines of a young couple. husband and wife get by meagerly, wonder if children will rob their love for each other, and fear complacency and petty fights. highly naturalistic in cinematography and dialogue, the film presents conversations that
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China | mandarin With english subtitles | 147 mins | video | 2011 DIRECTOR Ji dan
official selection, 2012 international Film Festival rotterdam objectif dor for Best documentary, 2012 Millennium international documentary Film Festival west coast Premiere
WhEN ThE BOUGh BREAKS
in size and scope, its hard to top recent masterpieces of Chinese documentary like ghost town, and in piercing intimacy, its hard to lock in much closer than a Fortune teller or Last train Home. and yet Ji dans remarkable, miraculous When the bough breaKs manages to do both uncompromisingly and with absolute dedication to its subject: a family of five on the outskirts of a city. the father collects and sells scrap metal, while three children go to school with limited funds. but this is no mere ode to the tribulations of destitution, or to the monetary expense of getting ahead. before long, a portrait of a most turbulent family comes into view. the parents, especially a disgruntled drunkard dad, do all they can to maintain some semblance of control, while the pre-teen twin daughters hold the familys longterm financial vision, though they too exhibit their
fathers impatient proclivity for conflict. in notes of high drama of the classical sort, Ji dan explores upward mobilitys downward emotional turmoil on a family as days, months, years pass, often without the usual expositional sign-posts. long, impeccably-shot verbal arguments seem to stretch hours of a day, and are riveting not so much for the yelling, but for the minutiae, in particular the silence of the son, whose fate motivates much of the conflict. through it all is a sense of environmental doom: the weather, the military jets, the sounds of firecrackers in the distance. When the film comes to a close following a lunar new Year unlike any other, a visceral transcendence is achieved that numbs the skin and pounds the heart. Brian Hu
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filled with a lovable cast of quirky b-movie characters and eccentric manga underdog soul, Young gun in the time is a detective action movie that giddily swings on the monkey bars of low-budget magic. fresh off the sensational success of his awardwinning debut invasion of Alien Bikini, filmmaker oh Young-doo promptly turned down multiple job offers and reunited his original cast for his second feature, the inventive freewheeling gem Young gun in the time, made for a paltry $30K.
foe. except the lovely and obsessive researcher mysteriously dies and reappears, setting off a race for a powerful time machine, zany car chases and fight sequences with kooky villains lurking around every corner. the jokes are sly: Young guns r&d hack also runs a sex shop. his babe-a-licious secretary, a veritable Korean Jessica rabbit, turns out to be Young guns demanding creditor. even the name Young gun is a romanization of the actors name. Weird, adventurous, endearing, and reminiscent of
yOUNG GUN IN ThE TIME
nOv. 2 (fRiDAY), 10:10PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY nOv. 4 (SUnDAY), 8:20PM, UltRAStAR MiSSiOn vAlleY
south Korea, JaPan | Korean With english subtitles | 95 mins | video | 2012 DIRECTOR oh Young-doo CAST hong Young-geun, Choi song-hyeon, ha eun-Jung, bae Yong-geun
west coast Premiere
Combining seijun suzukis Japanese detective films with Back to the Future, Young gun follows our low-rent detective hero, Young gun, a frizzy-headed, scrawny knight in blazing hawaiian shirt. honorable to the core, Young gun is hired by a lovely and obsessive museum researcher to find and kill a dangerous
early stephen Chow, Young gun thrives on oh Youngdoos gymnastic irreverence in filmmaking. Combine that with unforgettable characters, especially hong Young-geun as the unlikely hero, and Young gun will ignite newfound glee in the creative hijinks that can come from low budget freedom. christina ree
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PROUD 2012 SPONSOR
eXtreMe
eXtreMe

thailand | thai With english subtitles | 94 mins | 35mm | 2011 DIRECTOR Joey boy CAST Joey boy, dJ spidamonkee, buddha bless, nang oum
official selection, 2012 new York Asian Film Festival official selection, 2012 Fantasia international Film Festival west coast Premiere
dEAd BITE
Joey boy plays himself: a popular hip-hop artist who leads the record label gancore Club. as in real life, Joey boy moves plenty of records and sells out many shows. sometimes, even the undead digs his music. after a concert, Joey boy and the gang nearly get eaten by these new fans, and they escape only to get another assignment: to be in a music video with dancing girls in bikinis. What starts out as the usual trip to an island with bikini babes, fried squid, and various tests of fraternal bonding, turns into a nightmarish trip filled with zombies, crazed villagers, and victimized mermaids in a hallucinogenic journey into the dark side of a good time. dead bite blurs the lines of comedy, hip-hop, and horror in the most unusual unmaking-of-a-band since this is spinal tap.
sdaff extreme presents the greatest drama/ comedy/horror about a hip-hop band fighting bikinid zombies that eat mermaids in thailand, ever. its the directorial debut of none other than Joey boy himself (aka apisit opasaimlikit, who starred in Headshot, sdaff spring showcase 12). for hiphop fun tinglish-style, with a little undead goodness, look no further than dead bite! Phillip Lorenzo
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eXtreMe
sushi is a staple of the Japanese diet. in the united states, it evolved from an exotic food into an item you can easily get at the supermarket, and it is normal to find a sushi bar just about anywhere in the world. in other words, sushi has been exploited the world over. that time has come to an end! dead sushi captures the struggle of sushi to find its identity. these dead fish are in need of support, but instead they get chopped up, dipped in soy sauce and wasabi, and then devoured by grubby humans. so now Keiko, a disregarded sushi apprentice (rina takeda) has been thrown into a battle that she did not see coming.
Keiko must now use the skills that she learned from a sushi master to fight the undead sushi that are hellbent on eating us! from noboru iguchi, the unstoppable talent who brought us Machine girl, robogeisha (sdaff 10), and Mutant girls squad, comes a not-so-complex story of revenge at its most insane, depravedand eXtreme. viewer discretion is strongly advised as this film contains sushi violence, sushi bloodletting, sushi acid spraying, explicit sushi sex, and... extreme sushi! Phillip Lorenzo
dEAd SUShI

JaPan | JaPanese With english subtitles | 91 mins | video | 2012 DIRECTOR noboru iguchi CAST rina takeda, shigeru matsuzaki, Kentaro shimazu official selection, 2012 Fantasia international Film Festival
west coast Premiere
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JaPan | JaPanese With english subtitles | 54 mins | hd | 2012 DIRECTOR hajime ohata CAST Kazunari aizawa, aki morita, teruhiko nobukuni
official selection, 2012 Yubari international Fantastic Film Festival official selection, 2012 Fantasia international Film Festivall west coast Premiere
hENGE
like many young married couples, Yoshiaki and Keiko have problems managing their relationship and love. With this couple, however, marriage counseling may not be enough. Yoshiaki is going through some changes. not the type that is symptomatic of a midlife crisis or a loveless marriage. seizures, speaking in tongues, and the occasional protrusion of monstrous appendages have become a near-daily occurrence for Yoshiaki. Keiko deals with having to commit either to his imprisonment in the mental health system, or to become an unlikely accomplice in his need to kill and to aid in his transformation into something she is not fully aware of.
stand by your man takes on an entirely new meaning in this thoroughly entertaining journey into the human, err, inhuman condition. the ultra-low budget shocker from hajime ohata is a brisk, no nonsense, and shockingly awesome look into the limits of love. Phillip Lorenzo
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tony de guzman lives in a world many of us could never understand, mostly because we dont have the mind of Khavn de la Cruz. unsure whether he can ever survive another week, tony only extends his teenage life a day at a time through his ability to cheat a corrupt system that at every turn is prepared to do him in. Comfort only comes in the unlikely friendships hes formed with the colorful block-full of one-armed rappers, pimps, dwarves, and neighborhood gays. they all find different ways to cope with the inevitability that they will be cheated, abused, and perhaps killed. this chaotic paradise is all that tony knows. this dramatic, musically-charged, horrifically-
the Philippines in quite some time. from the opening epigraph by Claire danes (as well as the directors choice reaction), to the slum circus filled with dirty politicians, pedophiles, addicts, prostitutes, and other dwellers of the land called mondomanila, the audience has little choice but to heed the ringleader. sdaff extreme is pleased to present its second signature release (last years cold Fish was the first): mondomanila, or: hoW i fiXed mY hair after a rather long JourneY from underground king Khavn de la Cruz, known for his guerilla filmmaking and his strong beliefs about the state of the Philippines. a film nine years in the making, this rancid, gruesome, and shockingly human portrayal of a country in constant turmoil is deathly funny and a true original. Phillip Lorenzo
MONdOMANILA, OR:
OR: hOW I FIXEd My hAIR AFTER A RAThER LONG jOURNEy

PhiliPPines | tagalog With english subtitles | 75 mins | hd | 2012 DIRECTOR Khavn de la Cruz CAST tim mabalot, marife necesito, Palito, Whitney tyson official selection, 2012 international Film Festival rotterdam
experimental, exploitative cinematic experience is one that is not easy to digest. in fact, this may be the most socially- and politically-jarring film to come out of
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TEBANA SANKIChI: SNOT ROCKETS

JaPan | JaPanese With english subtitles | 74 mins | video | 2012 DIRECTOR Yudai Yamaguchi CAST tak sakaguchi, hidetoshi ezawa, nozomi maeda, itsuji itao
west coast Premiere
Who is tebana sankichi, and why does he fight crime? Where is the postman going? What makes tebana slap a girl in the face after he saves her? Whats with his friend who repeats everything twice repeats everything twice? none of these important questions will be
the only certainty is that in this very very strange reimagining of a 1995 short, tak sakaguchi (Yakuza Weapon, sdaff 11) returns as a bourgeois boy who loses everything so he becomes a face-slapping, expletive-yelling hero who fights for us all. bring your dollar bills and prepare for some interactive movie magic. Phillip Lorenzo
answered, so much as asked ad nauseam as if badly in need of ritalin. like tv channel-flipping on speed, snot roCKets is a hyper-kinetic experience that simply begs for audience participation in the form of random aisle running, dollar-store goodies, and mystery boxes. dont ask why. such questions will not be answered.
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dIGIFEST 2012
emPire of sun
4 Wedding Planners
house of suh
after a successful first edition, digifest is back! a partnership between Pac-arts and streaming video site dramafever, digifest is an innovative online festival curated for all of north america. best of all, its free. this year, digifest starts up right as the san diego asian film festival winds down. relive favorite sdaff moments from years past, and discover some weve never shown. the 2012 lineup features stars like aaron Kwok and sung Kang, and proudly showcases 10 titles from asian and asian america, from dance films to romantic comedies to provocative indies. many of these films are not available anywhere yet on dvd or otherwise. it all gets going november 10 (the day after this years san diego asian film festival) and runs until January 31. so log on, rate the films, share your thoughts with other dramafever users, and keep supporting asian and asian american cinema! highlights include: empire of silver, Cast me if You Can, great day, Colin hearts Kay, the harimaya bridge, 4 Wedding Planners, house of suh, saigon electric, and more.
WATCH FILMS FREE AT WWW.DRAMAFEVER.COM/DIGIFEST
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Io sono Li (Shun Li and the Poet) Co-presented with the SDAFF
Discover & Inhabit Italy through lm and events at feStivale 2012

Nothing can truly capture the exquisite pleasure of time spent in Italy, but theres a way to come close here in San Diego: Join us at the San Diego Italian Film Festival where we present seventeen fabulous lms. sandiegoitalianlmfestival.com
sdiff
hyphe
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zine.c
om
creativity starts here

Destin Cretton started something. Barely 30 years old, this newly-minted film graduate took top prize for short film at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and then won a $30,000 Nicholl Fellowship from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Alumni like Cretton graduate from SDSU with the skills and confidence to make their mark on the creative and performing arts. To learn more, visit sdsu.edu/leadershipstartshere.
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ELIZABeTH I LuMPING IN FaRGO IN ThE RED aND BROWN WaTER cutting-edge theatre various ucsd theatre district venues nov. 14-dec. 1 WeDS@7 experimental music conrad prebys music center nov. 7, 14 / 7 pm rEd fish blUe fiSh percussion ensemble conrad prebys music center nov. 15 / 8 pm
mu
sic
division of ARTS and humanities

dah.ucsd.edu
visu rts al a
ARTS iN ACTiON site-specific dance location TBD Nov. 30 + Dec. 1
DRoNES AT HoME multimedia exhibit calit2 gallery through dec. 7 NanoMacroMega work by ucsd artists gallery structural and materials engineering building through dec. 7
artmaking education research
STAFF LIST
eXeCutive direCtor lee ann Kim managing direCtor Phillip lorenzo artistiC direCtor brian hu graPhiC design team marKeting direCtor amy nguyen membershiP direCtor lina Park develoPment direCtor Janis takahashi eXeCutive manager elgin aguilar Programmers malou amparo maryanne bilbao michael Chen sam Chen gene huh volunteer Coordinators Kao vang Yayoi tsutakawa-Chinn ProduCtion Coordinator Chris Paffendorf oPerations assoCiates amy Kim Yen tan, lead designer marilyn Jones Cathy nguyen darlene Portades Julia terwyn CommunitY outreaCh James Paguyo Website & logo design buchanan design online Content ryan Wong sPeCial events elgin aguilar megan lam Pavee suvagondha PubliC relations assoCiates nikki Jimenez ProJeCtionists brook falkenstein staci gaines Jimmy lee Jon miller Chris Paffendorf sophia verbiscar eric lallana Joseph mangat erwin mendoza James Paguyo Christina rhee Carissa serie tracie Yang marKeting assoCiates melody Cheng ni huang mea lath france magtira Cathy nguyen andrew Perias darlene Portades t.Jay santa ana Yurie suzuki Julia terrwyn sean Wilburn Will Call elaine lallana Christina rhee gigi vo guest serviCes bryce Killlian monica emery lisa Yadao theater oPerations amy Kim street team Coordinator rizzhel Javier faCilities Julia richardson Kevin fontaine Cola
171
STAFF LIST (CONT.)

reel voiCes Jini shim, Coordinator Pat Clark, instructor Joseph mangat, assistant Youth daY Crissy Pascual Yurie suzuki board of direCtors stephen Chin, Chairman harlen bayha, vice Chair amethyst griffith, secretary steven hong, treasurer Paul bergman andy hoang dan hom sheila Kanoya dr. Jeff Krebs benjamin lee stephen lew mitch reff arturo rivera gary Wong advisorY board dr. leeva Chung Jonathan fohrman video ProduCtion team rommel andaya, Coordinator deejay viloria, Coordinator sharon aguinaldo austin Chen amy fan maya gonzales nick goto eric han Ken honjo Jenasi magpantay leticia ng Johnathan nguyen PhotograPhers Jose bucud michael domingo John Pascasio reggie regala allan regala edward sebastian, Jr. festival trailer mike Watson, editor david helpling, composer legal rePresentation mintz levin robert ito lani lutar Joseph mendoza ed nesfield louis song dominic tong aCCounting lee forrester anthony Pang victor shui ali tanaka sunny thipsidakhom lisa Yadao
172
ThANK yOU
beth accomando, film school Confidential thomas ackerman, spirit graphics & Printing mike avila, sdaff member tyler baptist theresa battle, Price Charities robert bennett brad bohensky, Yelp brian blake, sdsu hospitality & tourism management Program bob hoffman Productions heather bohn, Knsd nbC-universal steve borg, California bank & trust aaron bruce, sdsu adriana bruner, Point loma Crdit union bobby buchanan, buchanan design nino neens Camilo, ilovemusubi sean Capshaw, resolusean Photography dee dee Castro, viejas Cristina Chacon lynn Chen timo Chen, Composer extraordinaire dr. lilly Cheng, Confucius institute sheau-Ching Chiang-nicholas, Yu-Yu magazine david Chien Karin Chien, dgenerate films sidnee Chong, ecoPackstore dr. leeva Chung, usd Kerrya Corcoran, smart Water dan Cornthwaite, sdsu associated students Pascal Courtin greg Cox, County supervisor Kaye de lancey hentschke Crystal decker, Well go usa Kimbo diego, red Pearl Kitchen James dierker, stella artois Jill faucher, California bank & trust abe ferrer, visual Communications leanne ferrer, PiC anna fleming, Csusm Carlton floyd, usd Kara forrest fritz friedman, sony Pictures vivian fung, harvard alumni association sue george, moPa arianna georgi, enlightened hospitality group sal giametta, County of san diego Wendy gillespie Joshua green, emerging Pictures rey s. guerrero, uCsd Julie ha, Koream Johnathan hale, sdgln Kathryn hammelman, Qualcomm mye hoang tom & loretta hom tracie hong, sd u-t david hou, dramafever daniel hwang, Yogurtland Jeff iwami, Kyocera david iwashita, lafayette Jan Jackson, Csusm Parissa Jafari, ultrastar nikki Jimenez hua Jin, sdCaa Chris Jocson, hyphen magazine drexel Jones, Chipotle matt Jumper, sdihf angela Killoren, CJ entertainment Chol Kim, Coke bottling Co Chong Kim gene Kim Jay Kim, Paramount Pictures myung soon Kim dr. Yong J. Kim Jasmin King dr. don Kikkawa Cary Klemmer, family health Centers of sd toni Kraft, Cafe merlo victor laruccia, sdiff anderson le, hiff Chong lee, Qualcomm ed lee, elt insurance dae lee, Kashi Kent lee tK lee, teCo-la seth lerer, uCsd arts & humanities grant lewis, morgan stanley alex li
ThANK yOU (CONT.)

Ping-hui liao, uCsd irving ling, uCsd Karen lim, City College george lin (riP) frank lin Phillip lin tricia lin nancy liu Jennifer lo mymy lu, Cox Communications scott marks lidia martinez, southwest airlines dan matthews marnie mcgranahan, Chipotle ryan michaelsen, lafayette hotel timothy moon, Zion market theodore morales, go green marketing theresa nguyen-muth, state farm van anh nguyen, vntv Keesa ocampo, abs-Cbn shawn Park, sansai suk Park, drama fever Jennifer Parker, sdsu associated students Judy Patacsil, miramar College steve Peace rick Phillips, KCCla Cecil Pratt, ultrastar theaters summer Polacek, voice of san diego Joseph ramirez, uCsd CCC
rebecca rayburn, raytheon ebonie rayford, uCsd mitchell & miyo reff reggie regala dr. Craig & sylvia reid Joe richter, ultrastar theaters Jeff roberto, soar ron roberts, County supervisor frank robinson, union bank aubrey Kuan roderick, mira Costa College tatiana roven, bob hoffman video damon rubio, ultrastar Warren ruis, sdge Joey sadile, buchanan design ono sanfilippo, Kiehls dana sass, barona shirley sanz, at&t William saung, Wawanesa felicia shaw, san diego foundation Patricia sinay, holland america line massoud shirazi, super volunteer Pam slater-Price, County supervisor louis song, Proven inc. samuel song Weston song ryan suda, blacklava seema sueko, moolelo teCo-la Joyce teague, Jahssd
george takei mykey terrado, bloomingdales dr. Karin e thomas emily ting goran topalovic, subway Cinema greg toya, Csusm Charles tu, uCsd Patricia tran, uCsd duane trammel, 48hfP san diego Jimmy tsai ada tseng, asia Pacific arts felix tuyay, sWC danitza villanueva, giving back magazine Pedro villegas, sdge emily Webb, bam Communications James Wicks Chantell Williams lee Wills, Qualcomm adam Wolman, Wide lantern alan Wong Jennifer Wong, audrey magazine martin Wong simon Wong Wendy Wong, the Ken blanchard Companies nancy Worlie, KPbs ditas Yamane Chi-hui Yang Phil Yu, angryasianman
FILM INdEX/PRINT SOURCE LIST

10+10 (pg. 102) kate.shiu@huayimedia.com 11 FLOWERS (pg. 88) paul@firstrunfeatures.com 3839C (pg. 59) 30gibson@naver.com 5, THE (pg. 76) biggate@earthlink.net 5F-2 (pg. 61) Cl2319@gmail.com ACE ATTORNEY (pg. 89) huang-tzl.stf@ntv.co.jp ADVANTAGEOUS (pg. 68) moonmole@mac.com ALL ABOUT MY WIFE (pg. 90) dana@mline-distribution.com ALL THE LINES FLOW OUT (pg. 71) mataikan@gmail.com APPARITION (pg. 114) sandvince@gmail.com ARCHITECTURE 101 (pg. 91) r333@lotte.net AT YOUR CONVENIENCE (pg. 61) raylai328@gmail.com BASKETBALL, MERI JAAN (pg. 118) info@vconline.org BLEACHED (pg. 68) jessdela@gmail.com BONNIE (pg. 58) hiromitsumurakami@gmail.com BOUNDARY (pg. 115) wanderlustproject@yahoo.com BRIDGE (pg. 70) tingtey@gmail.com BUTTERFLY DREAM (pg. 58) unajang@gmail.com CHA CHA FOR TWINS (pg. 92) chris@pomifilm.com.tw CHILDREN (pg. 59) takuya4483@gmail.com CHILDREN OF SRIKANDI (pg. 116) vdomico@outcast-films.com CHINESE GARDENS, THE (pg. 66) vsoe@sfsu.edu CHIPS (pg. 103) shibata@showgate.jp CLIMBER (pg. 59) hiromitsumurakami@gmail.com DANCING QUEEN (pg. 93) debbiekim@cj.net DAYLIGHT SAVINGS (pg. 60) myehoang@gmail.com DEAD BITE (pg. 134) ipr@phranakornfilm.com DEAD SUSHI (pg. 135) marcwalkow@sushi-typhoon.com DOGGIE STYLE (pg. 77) rommel@sdaff.org DOL (FIRST BIRTHDAY) (pg. 66, 72) andrewahn@gmail.com DONT STOP BELIEVIN: EVERYMANS JOURNEY (pg. 44) josh@game7films.com DOOMSDAY BOOK (pg. 94) crystal@wellgousa.com EARLY SUMMER, AN (pg. 67) lyrelu@gmail.com EDEN (pg. 46) info@centripetalfilms.com EVERY DEATH HAS A STORY (pg. 68, 77) joemangat@gmail.com FIVE FINGERS OF DEATH (pg. 104) josephine.ng@celestialpictures.com FLIGHT OF THE FANTASY (pg. 70) jefe429@yahoo.com FLYING SWORDS OF DRAGON GATE (pg. 105) sunny.helali_co@indomina.com FORTUNE COOKIE MAGIC TRICKS (pg. 61) axchu1@gmail.com GENIE BOOT CAMP (pg. 77) 48hfp@atomictoast.com GF*BF (pg. 95) joshua@chinalionentertainment.com GHOSTS OF THE CALIFORNIA SUN (pg. 77) keola.low@gmail.com GOLDEN SLUMBERS (pg. 117) livia@icarusfilms.com GOOD HEAD (pg. 85) colmafilm@gmail.com GOT A JOB! (pg. 61) info@vconline.org GRACELAND (pg. 62) rebecca.lundgren@gmail.com
175
FILM INdEX/PRINT SOURCE LIST (CONT.)

GREAT CINEMA PARTY, THE (pg. 106) cinema@jiff.or.kr HAPPY WISH, A (pg. 70) jackyshi@hotmail.com HENGE (pg. 136) akiko-uchida@kingrecords.co.jp I AM A GHOST (pg. 63) hp@hpmendoza.com IN ANOTHER COUNTRY (pg. 107) mjacobs@kinolorber.com IN OUR TIME (pg. 108) enga_Chang@movie.com.tw IN YOUR ARMS (pg. 58) jardin@radicalmedia.com IRAN JOB, THE (pg. 118) movie@theiranjob.com JAKE SHIMABUKURO: LIFE ON FOUR STRINGS (pg. 64) dagatep@caamedia.org JOHNNY LOVES DOLORES (pg. 71) slp068@verizon.net JULIAN (pg. 65) bao.minh.nguyen@gmail.com KAHAANI (pg. 96) goldspirit2@aol.com KIMCHI FRIED DUMPLINGS (pg. 72) jason.karman@gmail.com KING OF PIGS, THE (pg. 119) info.fuzzycalifornia@gmail.com LAND OF HOPE, THE (pg. 109) yuko.shiomaki@picturesdept.com LAST REMARKS (pg. 66) uariaz@gmail.com LATE SUMMER (pg. 67) graziano@ujifilms.com LOVE STRIKES! (pg. 48) kenji_sato@tohousa.com MAN WITH STYLE, A (pg. 110) kage@bitters.co.jp MEET MR. TOILET (pg. 77) courtney.labarge@cinelan.com MEKONG HOTEL (pg. 111) brandon@strandreleasing.com MEMORIES LOOK AT ME (pg. 120) evalam267@163.com MEMORIES OF THE SONG (pg. 58) dakkk1@hotmail.com MIRROR MOTEL, THE (pg. 77) adam.lee@cox.net MONDAY MONDAY (pg. 66) ericyue718@gmail.com MONDOMANILA (pg. 137) office@rapideyemovies.de MONEY & HONEY (pg. 121) documentary921@hotmail.com MOTHERLAND (pg. 68) shariq113@gmail.com MOURNING (pg. 122) jeremy@globalfilm.org MR. CAO GOES TO WASHINGTON (pg. 69) britshep@walking-iris.com MR. CHAN: MISUNDERSTOOD MAN (pg. 58) dan@misunderstoodman.com MY NAME IS MITCH (pg. 59) michelle_n_yoon@hotmail.com NI HAO, KAI-LAN (pg. 70) melissa.rothman@nick.com NICE GIRLS CREW (pg. 61) christine@caamedia.org NIGHTFALL (pg. 97) crystal@wellgousa.com NUCLEAR NATION (pg. 123) paul@firstrunfeatures.com OBAKE (pg. 66) christopher.yogi@gmail.com OLD DOG (pg. 124) livia@icarusfilms.com ON THE WATER (pg. 59) heuvel@niaf.nl ONE SIDED LOVE (pg. 58) jinayoon89@gmail.com OPUESTO (pg. 59) tree.muta@gmail.com ORATOR, THE (pg. 125) beth@nzfilm.co.nz OUT (pg. 72) yuji@konakitchen.com PAINTED SKIN: THE RESURRECTION (pg. 98) crystal@wellgousa.com PRETTY PICTURES (pg. 68. 72) csunkim@gmail.com QUEEN OF MY DREAMS (pg. 72) thefawz@gmail.com
176
FILM INdEX/PRINT SOURCE LIST (CONT.)

RAW & THE COOKED, THE (pg. 127) paul@firstrunfeatures.com RAYMOND (pg. 72) markvreyes@yahoo.com REEL VOICES (pg. 74) info@Pac-arts.org REEL VOICES JOURNEY (pg. 77) info@pac-arts.org REMINGTON & THE CURSE OF THE ZOMBADINGS (pg. 99) raycuerdo@yahoo.com RETURN OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE, THE (pg. 58) xray80322@gmail.com REUNION (pg. 76) Wongjaso@gmail.com RITES OF PASSAGE (pg. 72) jeff.roy@live.com ROMANCING IN THIN AIR (pg. 112) frederick_tsui@mediaasia.com RULE 43 (pg. 77) markanthonygadia@gmail.com SAKDA (pg. 111) mathieu@ritaproductions.com SEASONS (pg. 58) erica.hu10@gmail.com SEEKING ASIAN FEMALE (pg. 78) coreytong@earthlink.net SHANGHAI CALLING (pg. 79) daniel.hsia@gmail.com SHE (pg. 71) myfsn@naver.com SHEIK & I, THE (pg. 80) zahedic@newschool.edu SHOPGIRL, THE (pg. 59) dling.art@gmail.com SHUN LI & THE POET (pg. 128) rachel@filmmovement.com SLEEPLESS NIGHT (pg. 129) cinema@jiff.or.kr SON OF ANIMAL STYLE (pg. 81) martin@giantrobot.com STARRY STARRY NIGHT (pg. 100) joshua@chinalionentertainment.com STEPS (pg. 58) news@c-a-r-t-e-blanche.com STORYTELLER, THE (pg. 70) nanduzki@gmail.com SUMO LAKE (pg. 58) g@panicproductions.com.au SUPER DUPER (pg. 61) hornbuck@gmail.com TEBANA SANKICHI: SNOT ROCKETS (pg. 138) marcwalkow@sushi-typhoon.com TENDER MARCH, THE (pg. 58) wataru336@gmail.com TERRA COTTA (pg. 76) ygomez@gmail.com THAT WHICH ONCE WAS (pg. 66) kimitakesue@gmail.com THIEF (pg. 76) jchern@gmail.com THIS IS NOT A FILM DE FEMME (pg. 77) 48hfp@atomictoast.com TO WANDER IN PANDEMONIUM (pg. 76) eddiekim81@gmail.com TRICK-OR-TREAT (pg. 70) macgyver@pacbell.net TWO SECONDS AFTER LAUGHTER (pg. 68) rousseved@earthlink.net UPLOADED: THE ASIAN AMERICAN MOVEMENT (pg. 82) kanediep@gmail.com VIETTE (pg. 83) myehoang@gmail.com WHEN I GROW UP (pg. 70) jasmin.lai@gmail.com WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS (pg. 130) livia@icarusfilms.com WHY DO WE PUT UP WITH THEM? (pg. 58) davechai@earthlink.net WILL (pg. 59) leeeusong@gmail.com WONDER BOY (pg. 71) corrie.chen@gmail.com WORLD BEFORE HER, THE (pg. 84) shasha@storylineentertainment.com YES, WERE OPEN (pg. 85) jimmytsai@msn.com YOUNG GUN IN THE TIME (pg. 131) akiko-uchida@kingrecords.co.jp YOURS TRULY (pg. 72) hieuydtran@gmail.com
UNRAVEL (pg. 71) meghna@soulrebelfilms.com
177
NOTES
178
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moving pictures, moving minds

THE THIRTEENTH ANNUAL

SAN DIEGO ASIAN

ABOUT PACIFIC ARTS MOVEMENT

Moving Pictures, Moving Minds

the 13th annual san diego asian film festival

coMMunitY & outdoor screenings

YoutH educAtion (reeL voices)