Wednesday, 30 April
6:30 p.m. – Korean Studies Auditorium

Directed by Laurice Guillen
Philippines, 2005, 108 minutes
Tagalog with English Subtitles

This more melodramatic Filipino coming-of-ager concerns the budding sexuality of a young girl in a devoutly Catholic culture. We follow young Manila hottie Malen (Angelica Panganiban), who after consorting with the equally hot neighborhood rogue Mike (Jericho Rosales) and worrying her prayer-woman mother literally to death glumly takes over the family business as a “fake saint.” The practice of paying for prayers is nicely contrasted with Mike’s gigolo job, and if periodic daydreams of white light and angel choirs are schmaltzy, other touches transcend, like shots of the city’s thronging Black Nazarene procession, and the ominous reveal of Mike’s full-back cobra tattoo as he slithers onto Malen.

Wednesday, 23 April
6:30 p.m. – Korean Studies Auditorium

Directed by Stephane Gauger
Vietnam/USA, 2007, 98 minutes
Vietnamese with English Subtitles

A beautiful flight attendant looking for love. A lonely zookeeper hiding within his animal kingdom from a changing society. A little orphan girl selling roses on the streets who relies on the kindness of strangers to survive. It’s modern-day Saigon, where eight million people are just trying to keep up with the pace. In four days, the young runaway will play matchmaker to these lonely hearts in hopes of forming a surrogate family. The only things that might stop her are city authorities and an overbearing uncle tracking her down in the big city. Nominated for the John Cassavetes Award at the Independent Spirit Awards

| official website | interview with the director |

Wednesday, 16 April
6:30 p.m. – Korean Studies Auditorium

Directed by Patrick Tam
Hong Kong/Malaysia, 2006, 120 minutes
Cantonese with English Subtitles

One of the leading filmmakers of the Hong Kong new wave of the early ’80s, Patrick Tam returns after a 15-year absence with his characteristic compassion and inventiveness intact. Set in 1990s Malaysia, Tam’s family drama dissects the troubled relationship between a loser father (Hong Kong superstar Aaron Kwok), who cooks in a cheap restaurant, and his son, who has the instincts of survival that his father has lost. Deserted by their wife and mother, the men drift across the thin line that divides survival from collapse. Fleeing from loan sharks, they move to a small town where the father encourages his son to rob houses, a scheme with predictably disastrous results. In contrast, the mother is now remarried and living a comfortable middle-class life. Some years later, the grown-up son returns to the place where he lost his innocence and where his future was intertwined, for better or worse, with his father’s fate. Like many filmmakers of his generation, Tam is shadowed by patriarchal complexities both on a personal level and in connotations of Hong Kong’s pre-’97 relationship with China. Tam masterly navigates the points of view of father and son to deliver a profound reflection on the split between the wisdom of maturity and the ambitions of youth.

Wednesday, 9 April
6:30 p.m. – Korean Studies Auditorium

Directed by Deddy Mizwar
Indonesia, 2007, 90 minutes
Indonesian with English Subtitles

Nagabonar, a rapscallion pickpocket from Batak and a (self-proclaimed) general during Indonesia’s War of Independence, raised his son, Bonaga, alone, after his wife died in childbirth. But when Bonaga visits his dad on the family palm oil plantation in Medan with a big new business scheme, everything changes: the son wants to turn the plantation (where his mom is buried) into a resort and sell it to Japanese investors! A hilarious and surprisingly touching comedy directed by Deddy Mizwar, who also stars in the title role.

April 9, 12:00 p.m.
Presented by Professor Aya Kimura, University of Hawaii

Wednesday, 2 April
6:30 p.m. – Korean Studies Auditorium

Directed by Ming Jin Woo
Malaysia, 2005, 87 minutes
Malay with English Subtitles
This screening is rescheduled from March 19!

The scene is an unnamed Southeast Asian country, one week after a deadly night club bombing. On Monday morning, the local police chief forces the terrorists he’s captured to “reenact” the events leading up to the attack for his anxious bosses and eager journalists…but the truth is not easy to discern. The film is an indictment not only of the terrorists but also the corruption of the authorities who pursue them. A crisply lensed picture, shot in vertie style by noted cameraman James Lee, is aptly naturalistic, provocative and free from overt editorializing.