22nd San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival

Friday, March 5
7:00 pm: Invisible Light (S. Korea, 2003). Director Gina Kim in Person. A remarkable achievement of psychological cinema, this achingly beautiful film offers an unflinching gaze into two women's darkest hours.
9:00 pm: See You Off to the Edge of Town (U.S./Hong Kong). Director Ching C. Ip in Person. An enjoyable, witty road movie about a journey to the Grand Canyon and the bittersweet reunion and separation of a Chinese family.

Saturday, March 6
7:00 pm: A Good Lawyer's Wife (S. Korea, 2003). Director Im Sang-soo in Person. A husband's affair causes his wife to look for love in unusual places in this provocative Korean hit.
9:30 pm: 15 (Singapore, 2003). Directed by Royston Tan. An irreverent first feature set in an underworld of teen dropouts, druggies, and dead-enders experiencing high-velocity angst.

Sunday, March 7
3:20 pm: The Other Final (Netherlands, 2003). Directed by Johan Kramer. The world's worst soccer teams (lowest-ranking Bhutan and Montserrat) face off in an entertaining documentary.
5:00 pm: Travellers and Magicians (Bhutan, 2003). Director Khyentse Norbu in Person. Buddhist lama and filmmaker Norbu's modern-day Bhutanese fable mixes ordinary realities with the mysticism of fairy tales.
7:30 pm: Bright Future (Japan, 2003). Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa in Person (tentative). Enigmatic, creepy sci-fi thriller about a strange plan hatched by two bored, angry young men.

Tuesday, March 9
7:30 pm: On the Road: A Document (Japan, 1964). Directed by Noriaki Tsuchimoto. A lyrical film centered on a taxi driver and his family, this is ultimately an intimate portrait of the people, traffic, and sounds of Tokyo, by one of postwar Japan's great documentary filmmakers. Plus short film: An Engineer's Assistant.

Wednesday, March 10
7:00 pm: Being Normal (S. Korea, 2003). U.S. Premiere! This sensitive exploration of intersexuality and friendship in South Korea documents a hermaphrodite's coming out. Plus short film: Just a Woman.
9:00 pm: The Adventure of Iron Pussy (Thailand, 2003). Co-director and star Michael Shaowanasai in Person (tentative). Outrageous genre- and gender-bending musical Western from the director of Blissfully Yours follows the exploits of a glamorous transvestite secret agent.

Pacific Film Archive is very happy to be part of the 22nd San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, presented by NAATA, the National Asian American Telecommunications Association. On five evenings, from Friday, March 5 through Wednesday, March 10, ten features and two short films will be screened at the PFA Theater, which is located at 2575 Bancroft Way near Bowditch Street, on the
southern edge of the UC Berkeley campus. Six of the screenings will feature in-person appearances by film directors who will discuss their work with the audience. Tickets for the PFA screenings in the 22nd San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival are available evenings at the PFA Theater box office, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Museum admissions desk, or by telephoning (510) 642-5249. General admission is $9 per program, with $7 admission for BAM/PFA and NAATA members, and $8 tickets for seniors, students, and disabled persons. For information about Festival screenings in San Francisco and San Jose, or about ticket purchase through Tickets.com, please phone (415) 255-4299, or visit NAATA's website: www.naatanet.org/festival .

22nd SFIAFF festival presentations at Pacific Film Archive include a new film by acclaimed Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Bright Future is an eerie thriller about two alienated young factory workers who plan to light up Tokyo in a most unusual way. A tour of Tokyo's bustling streets is seen in On the Road: A Document, a lyrical portrait of the life of a taxi driver. This is a film by postwar Japan's finest documentarist, Noriaki Tsuchimoto; he is renowned for his powerful Minamata films.

The Adventures of Iron Pussy, by Apichatprong Weerasethakul and Michael Shaowanasai, is an audacious, over-the-top musical Western centering on a glamorous transvestite secret agent, played by San Francisco Art Institute alum Shaowanasai. A number of international film critics named Weerasethakul's film Blissfully Yours to their lists of the ten best films of 2002. In Being Normal, South Korean director Choi Hyun-jung presents her friendship with her roommate, a hermaphrodite who is surgically transitioning to being fully male. It will be shown with Just a Woman, about a transgendered woman in Iran.

Ching C. Ip's charming debut feature See You Off to the Edge of Town combines a sophisticated family drama with a road movie, as it depicts parents from Hong Kong who take a trip to the Grand Canyon with their U.S.-based daughters. Travellers and Magicians is an entrancing journey through spectacular Himalayan mountainscapes, combining fables, spirituality, and views of modern life in Bhutan. Director Khyentse Norbu (whose earlier film The Cup, about soccer mania among young monks, was a festival favorite) is not only a talented filmmaker but also is revered in Tibetan Buddhism as the reincarnation of a 19th-century saint and one of the faith's leading lamas. The Other Final shows Bhutanese fans cheering on their soccer team in a match against a team from the Caribbean nation of Montserrat; in the World Cup year of 2002, these teams held the two lowest rankings. The match evolves from a gimmick to a fascinating exploration of different cultures and the challenges both nations face.

In 15, debuting director Royston Tan offers a dazzling satire about teen punks, dropouts, and druggies rebelling against the frenetic and rigidly controlled society in Singapore. High-energy visual distractions-crazed karaoke, mock video games, morbid animation-try to tempt teens to become consumers in this irreverent view of an under-reported underworld. Award-winning actress Moon So-ri is A Good Lawyer's Wife looking for love in unusual places in director Im Sang-soo's drama about sexual constraints, infidelity, and changing gender roles in Korea. In Invisible Light, director Gina Kim exposes extreme emotions and the psychology of despair in her fictional portrait of two women facing the consequences of adulterous affairs.

For further program and ticket information about screenings at PFA, please phone (510) 642-1412, or visit the Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive website at www.bampfa.berkeley.edu.

Posted by admin on March 01, 2004