Cine-East: East Asian Cinema
a Fall 2008 film series at Duke University
"Seven evenings of great films from and about Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea,
and Taiwan. Everything from classic 1950s-60s Korean dramas to contemporary
family-friendly anime -
featuring Hong Kong Triad hitmen, Taiwanese high-
schoolers
in love, a hypnotist who
might
be a serial killer (or is it the other way
around?),
and a
girl who can leap through time!
Films will be screened in the Griffith Film Theater
in the Bryan Center on Duke's West Campus,
or the Richard White Auditorium on East Campus,
and are free and open to the general public.
Sponsored by
the Asian/Pacific Studies Institute
and the Arts of the Moving Image Program
with support from
the Dept. of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies
and the Duke Anime Club
Fall 2008 Screening Schedule:
M Sept 22 Griffith (8pm) |
Exiled
(Johnnie To, 2006, 113 min, Hong Kong, Cantonese with English subtitles, Color, 35mm)
The time is 1998. The setting is Macau. Every living soul jumps at every chance to make quick money before the Portuguese colony ushers in a new era under Chinese rule. Against this background of fin-de-siècle malaise come two hit men from Hong Kong sent to take out a renegade member trying to turn over a new leaf with his wife and newborn baby. They soon find themselves in the throes of a dilemma when two of their former associates also show up, intent on thwarting them at every cost.
For the first time since The Mission in 1999, Anthony Wong (Infernal Affairs) and Francis Ng (Infernal Affairs 2) once again team up with Johnnie To and his regulars Roy Cheung (Infernal Affairs 2), Lam Suet (PTU), and Simon Yam (Election) in another action-packed ensemble piece Exiled. Joining this virile cast are Richie Jen and Nick Cheung, both of whom worked previously with Johnnie To in Breaking News, as well as new collaborator Josie Ho (Butterfly).
"Johnnie To may not be the last man standing, but he is the lone Hong Kong action director who's done his best work in the aftermath of the crown colony's reversion to China. In a sense, the feverishly active To is out of step with history—and, as its title suggests, his latest gangster opus, Exiled, revels in that sense of anachronism. ... Exiled begins with a tribute to Sergio Leone and ends by acknowledging Sam Peckinpah." -- J. Hoberman, The Village Voice
M Oct 6 Griffith (8pm) |
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
(Mamoru Hosuda, 2006, 98 min, Japan, in Japanese with English subtitles, 98 min, Color, 35mm)
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is a wonderfully touching, funny and captivating movie. When a typical young high school girl discovers that she has the unique ability to traverse space and time, her efforts to use the power as a means of preserving the relationship she shares with her closest friends reveals the perpetually shifting nature of personal relationships, in Mamoru Hosoda’s warmhearted fantasy.
Background: “Toki O Kakeru Shojo” (or Tokikake) is probably the most adapted modern short story in Japanese Literature. As of date, there have been six different versions of the Tsutsui Yasutaka story in both TV and movies—the NHK drama Time Traveler (’72) with Shimada Junko; the ‘83 movie with Harada Tomoyo; the Fuji TV Drama special (’84) with Minamino Yoko; the Fuji TV Drama special (’94) with Uchida Yuki; the ‘97 movie with Nakamoto Nana; the TBS TV special (’02) with Abe Natsumi and now Hosoda Mamoru’s anime movie. Yet director Hosoda (Digimon TV series, One Piece) and screenwriter Okudera Satoko (Concent, Kakko No Kaidan 2) took the unique approach of crafting not just another tired adaptation of the novel but rather developed a sequel to the events of the novel which covered a lot of the same themes but with inventive and interesting twists. What is unique about this movie (and what sets it apart from the previous adaptations) is the exploration of the ramifications of Makoto’s “time leaping” powers. Whereas before in the novel and movies, heroine Yoshiyama Kazuko/Yoshikawa Tomoko was able to time travel with no real consequence or impact on those around her, the heroine here sees the impact that her powers have on others. -- James Maruyama, Twitch
Co-sponsored by the Program in Women's Studies.
M Oct 20 Griffith (8pm) |
Cure
(Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2001, 111 min, Japan, in Japanese with English subtitles, Color, 35mm)
Oddball Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa directed this haunting police thriller about murder, mind control, and the power of charisma.
Police Detective Takabe (Koji Yakusho) is tracking a series of bizarre murders, all committed in exactly the same manner: a giant X is slashed in the flesh of the victims. But that's where the similarities end. In each case, seemingly well-adjusted people suddenly kill without understanding why. Baffled, Takabe consults his psychologist friend Sakuma (Tsuyoshi Ujiki), who finds no relationships among the perpetrators and rules out any connection with the media. The investigation eventually leads to a young drifter named Mamiya (Masato Hagiwara), who asks everyone he meets the same simple question: "Who are you?" Usually people respond with such stock answers as "doctor" or "police detective," to which the drifter responds with the same question. Part of Mamiya's reason for this bizarre behavior is that he has been turned inside-out; his interior world is completely empty. He has no memory, no identity, and he does not recognize his own self-image. Yet he does have an insidious, hypnotic ability to get inside the minds of others and unleash their repressed desires to murder. His victims' inability to answer Mamiya's maddeningly simple question shows their own tenuous grasp of their identity. Only Takabe seems to understand the other meaning behind Mamiya's query. His wife Fumie (Anna Nakagawa)'s own personality is slowly being destroyed by mental illness, making her act in increasingly inexplicable ways. Frustrated by Mamiya's sphinx-like ability to fend off the most rigorous interrogation, and yet drawn to his charms, Takabe undergoes a journey into the dark recesses of his own self, while slowly uncovering the secrets of the drifter's power.
This film, which first brought international attention to Kurosawa, transcends the boundaries of its genre to become a riveting exploration of the collapse of identity in a postmodern age.
W Oct 22 White (8pm) |
Stray Bullet (Obaltan)
(Yoo Hyun-Mok, 1961, 110 min, S. Korea. Korean with English subtitles, B/W, DVD)
-- introduced by Prof. Nayoung Aimee Kwon, Dept. of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies!
Yoo Hyun-Mok's gritty drama, banned on its initial release in 1961, is frequently listed as one of the greatest Korean films of all time - and was voted the best Korean film of all time by local critics in 1999!
One of the undisputed classics of Korean cinema, Stray Bullet (Obaltan) combines stylistic elements from the Italian Neorealist movement with commentary on Korean society after the Korean War. It follows one family's struggles with money and the social upheavals of a rapidly changing society. The film depicts the life of a public accountant, who struggles with money and the social upheavals of a changing society. Burdened with the responsibility of supporting a mentally troubled mother, malnourished pregnant wife, troublesome younger brother, and a sister who is prostituting herself to American soldiers, he cannot even afford to visit the dentist and find a cure for his constant toothache.
Related Event:
Monday October 27 at 8pm
in
the
Richard White Auditorium --
'Why Democracy?' series documentary double feature:
Campaign! The Kawasaki Candidate
+ Please Vote for Me
Why Democracy? is a documentary project using film
to start a global conversation about democracy.
6 films will be shown at Duke in Fall 2008, in 3 'double feature' programs.
The series will continue in a similar format in Spring 2009.
ABOUT TONIGHT'S FILMS:
Campaign! The Kawasaki Candidate
(Kazuhiro Soda, 2007, 53 min, Japan, in Japanese with English subtitles, Color, DVD)
Can a candidate with no political experience and no charisma win an election? Perhaps – if he is backed by the political giant, Prime Minister Koizumi and his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). In the fall of 2005, 40-year-old, self-employed Kazuhiko “Yama-san” Yamauchi’s peaceful, humdrum life was turned upside-down when Koizumi’s LDP party chose him at the last moment as its official candidate to run for a vacant seat on the Kawasaki City Council. With zero experience in politics, no charisma, no supporters, and no constituency, Yama-San has one week to prepare for an election critical to the future of the LDP. Adhering to the campaign tactic of “bowing to everybody, even to telephone poles,” Yama-san visits local festivals, senior gatherings, commuter train stations, and even bus stops to offer his hand to everyone he sees. Can he win this heated race? Campaign! The Kawasaki Candidate offers up a microcosm of Japanese democracy.
Please Vote for Me
(Weijun Chen, 2007, 53 min, China, in Mandarin with English subtitles, Color, DVD)
Wuhan is a city in central China about the size of London, and it is here that director Weijun Chen has conducted an experiment in democracy. A grade 3 class at Evergreen Primary School has their first encounter with democracy by holding an election to select a Class Monitor. Eight-year olds compete against each other for the coveted position, abetted and egged on by teachers and doting parents. Elections in China take place only within the Communist Party, but recently millions of Chinese voted in their version of Pop Idol. The purpose of Weijun Chen’s experiment is to determine how, if democracy came to China, it would be received. Is democracy a universal value that fits human nature? Do elections inevitably lead to manipulation? Please Vote for Me is a portrait of a society and a town through a school, its children and its families.
Sponsored by the Film/Video/Digital Program and the Duke University Libraries' Lilly Library.
W Oct 29 White (8pm) |
Eternal Summer
(Leste Chen, 2006, 95 min, Taiwan, in Mandarin with English subtitles, Color, DVD)
Three high-school students experience the perks and pratfalls of modern love in director Leste Chen's sensitive tale of friendship and yearning. As a child living in a seaside town in southern Taiwan, studious Jonathan (Bryant Chang) was asked by his concerned teacher to look after rebellious classmate Shane (Joseph Chang). Ten years later, what was once a good-natured obligation has since blossomed into a warm friendship, with Jonathan still on the academic track and Shane finding his calling on the basketball court. When Taiwanese-born schoolgirl Carrie (Kate Yeung) transfers to their school from Hong Kong and convinces Jonathan to join her on a secret day trip to Taipei, her botched effort to seduce him in a sleazy love hotel, combined with her observations of his and Shane's friendship, soon leads her to believe that the object of her affections is a homosexual in love with his best friend. Despite her initial misgivings about the boorish Shane, Carrie soon begins to give in to the troublemaker's roguish charm when he convinces her to become his girlfriend if he is accepted into a university. Later, as Shane pulls his act together and Jonathan begins to experience a sexual-identity crisis, the former does his best to keep his feelings for Carrie secret in order to protect the feelings of his lifelong friend. Despite Jonathan's, Shane's, and Carrie's best efforts to keep their personal feelings secret, the truth eventually emerges, forcing all three to view their relationships in an entirely new light.
Co-sponsored by the Program in the Study of Sexualities.
W Nov 5 White (8pm) |
Island Etude
(Huai-en Chen, 2007, 108 min, Taiwan, in Mandarin, Taiwanese and Lithuanian with English subtitles, Color, DVD)
-- Introduced by Prof. Guo-Juin Hong, Dept. of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies!
A young man with a bike sets out on an once-in-a-lifetime trip in this road movie from Taiwanese filmmaker Chen Huai-en. Ming (Tung Ming-hsiang) is a college student who born with serious hearing loss, though despite his handicap he has taught himself to play guitar by feel. With a few weeks off from classes, Ming is in the mood for an adventure, so he hops on his bicycle and pedals around the coastal perimeter of Taiwan, starting at the port city of Kaohsiung.
As Ming literally travels around the country, he encounters a variety of fellow travelers and interesting characters along the way, including another bike rider (Yuen-lun) who has left his new home in Canada to visit his mother (Chen Hsiu-hui) as she struggles to deal with the collapse of her marriage; a bus driver (Wu Nien-chen) who is taking a coach full of elderly travelers on a tour; a lovely model from Eastern Europe (Ruta Palionyte) who is having trouble with train schedules; and a filmmaker (Teng An-ning) working on his latest project, an ambitious dreamlike fantasy.
-- Island Etude was Taiwan's official entry for the Academy Award for best foreign language film!
W Dec 3 White (8pm) |
Madame Freedom
-- introduced by Prof. Nayoung Aimee Kwon, Dept. of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies!
(Hyeong-mo Han, 1956, 125 min, South Korea, in Korean with English subtitles, B/W, DVD)
Produced in the style of Hollywood melodrama and based on a serialized novel by Jung Bee-suk, Madame Freedom became the most popular and the most controversial film of its time. It asks central questions for a transitioning society about the role of women, the reality of appearances, the tension between planning and instant gratification, the idea of exploitation and fairness in business, employment and relationships.
When Jung Bee-suk's novel was published, its portrayal of women's new-found sexual freedom aroused bitter criticism. One paper called it "an unforgivable sin to our country and people, and an enemy fo the state equal to 500,000 soldiers of the Chinese Communist army." Nonetheless, sales of newspapers skyrocketed during its serialization and plummeted when the series reached its conclusion. Jung's writing described Koreans' infatuation with the new music and dance, savings clubs, as well as with Western fashion and accessories. The story dealt frankly with the inroads Western culture and materialism were making in society, threatening to upset traditional Korean culture. Director Han Hyung-mo could not have been blind to the opportunities the notoriety of the story presented for a successful motion picture adaptation.
Co-sponsored by the Program in Women's Studies.
Have questions about our schedule? Contact Hank Okazaki at hokazak@duke.edu