The Institute for Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) offers special publication packages for only USD$50 on topics like Ageing, Environment and Gender. For more information or to place your order, please fax to 65 67756259 or pubsunit@iseas.edu.sg. Each book in these themed publication packages ranges from $30 to $40 individually so this special offer provides an excellent bargain on key titles in Southeast Asian scholarship today.

Ageing includes:
- Older Persons in Southeast Asia: An Emerging Asset
- Ageing and Long-term Care: National and Policies in the Asia-Pacific
- Ageing in Southeast and East Asia: Family, Social Protection and Policy Challenges

Environment includes:
- Working with Nature Against Poverty
- Governance, Politics and the Environment: A Singapore Study
- Managing Natural Wealth: Environment and Development in Malaysia
- Clean, Green and Blue: Singapore’s Journey Towards Environmental and Water Sustainability

Gender includes:
- Gender Trends in Southeast Asia: Women Now, Women in the Future
- Muslim/Non-Muslim Marriage: Political and Cultural Contestations in Southeast Asia
- Gender and Natural Resource Management: Livelihoods, Mobility and Interventions

Wednesday, 31 March
6:30 p.m. – Korean Studies Auditorium

Cambodia, 1998 (108 min)
Khmer with English subtitles
Dir: Rithy Panh
Cast: Chea Lyda Chan (Srey Poeuv), Ratha Keo (Maly), Sra N’Gath Kheav (Le Meut)
Peng Phan (Srey Poeuv’s Mother), Narith Roeun (Savannah), Mol Sovannak (Phal)

When we lose in love, the isolation can reveal our true character. Are we tempted by our lower tendencies, give up in despair, or just somehow find the fortitude to carry on? One Evening After the War is a love story by Cambodia’s greatest film director, Rithy Panh. Shot in visually beautiful neo-realist style, it offers rare insights into Cambodian culture. It is invaluable for scholars of the complex period of history to which it pertains. And without ramming it down our throats, it is a commentary on the political plights of Cambodia and one of its biggest problems – young women forced into prostitution. One Evening After the War was screened in the Certain Regard section at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. -Edited from a review by Chris Docker (eyeforfilm)

IMDB Website | All Movie Review | Wikipedia Website | Download Poster

Wednesday, 17 March
6:30 p.m. Korean Studies Auditorium

Viet Nam, 1976 (156min)
Vietnamese with English subtitles
Dir: Bach Diep
Cast: Tra Giang, Nhu Quynh, Tran Phuong

Adapted from the novel Storm at the Seaside by Chu Van, this anti-Catholic melodrama set in North Viet Nam in the 1950′s presents a sweeping view of the early days of the post-French era. Woven into the story is the relationship between two sisters, Nhan and Ai, both of whom have been abandoned by their husbands. Nhan (Tra  Giang) lives in fear of breaking her bonds with the Church, while Ai (Nhu Quynh) struggles with the Church’s moral code and develops a relationship with another man. But Holy Day drives deeper than mere melodrama. Screenwriter and director Bach Diep takes us inside the massive social and political changes sweeping the north. We are witnesses to the infighting, even among families, as the Communist party begins to organize at the village level. Issues related to food production, distribution, and land management cause turmoil inflamed by local gossip and backstabbing that is barely tempered by the steady village cooperative chairman, Tiep (Tran Phuong). Throughout, political reactionaries working for the Church attempt to undermine Catholic support for the government in North Viet Nam, further dividing the population. Interspersed between these back stories are examples of epic film making (considering the period in which the film was made). You’ll marvel at the scene in which the entire village works to fill in reclaimed land before the sea tide washes away their labor.

This black & white classic has been translated by the Center for Southeast Asian Studies and is being screened here for the first time with English subtitles.

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Wednesday, 10 March
6:30 p.m. – Korean Studies Auditorium

Thailand, 2003 (112 min)
Thai, Japanese, English with English subtitles
Dir: Pen-Ek Ratanaruang
Cast: Tadanobu Asano, Sinitta Boonyasak, Laila Boonyasak

Kenji (Asano Tadanobu), a young Japanese living in Bangkok, is no ordinary man. He’s a neat freak, whose obsessive compulsive traits are revealed in his book-filled apartment, from the colour-coordinated stacks of socks in his closet to the neat row of clean plates drying by the spotless kitchen sink.

His big kick though, is suicide, which is how you first meet him, hanging by his neck from a noose. It’s only a possible reality, as is most of what happens in this darkly surreal romantic comedy.

And as more is revealed, a small cast of progressively sleazier characters are paraded by for the audience’s enjoyment. There’s a Thai gangster ex-boyfriend who’s overwhelming, but a trio of yakuza (think Three Stooges) steals the show.

The action is brief and tragic — as is all the action in this film. There’s a little bit of gunplay — sudden and violent, yet so subtle, you wonder if you’re dreaming.

A chain of events brings Kenji together with Noi (Sinitta Boonyasak), and it’s here that Kenji discovers that Noi is everything that he isn’t. There are mounds of dirty dishes everywhere. Books and magazines are strewn all over. The goldfish is floating dead, upside down in the aquarium. She’s a slob, too, in contrast to Kenji’s button-down appearance. She’s also a pothead..

The mess is captured with moody realism by cinematographer Christopher Doyle, in much the same manner he brought a smouldering feel to Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love. Even the flotsam and jetsam washing up at the beach evokes some emotions.

Just as Kenji is out of the ordinary, so is the film. For a Thai film, there’s hardly any Thai spoken. Most of the dialogue is in Japanese, and Kenji and Koi converse in English.

Highlights include an appearance by Riki Takeuchi, as Kenji’s brother, as well as director Takeshi Miike, as the leader of a Three Stooges-like trio of gunmen. Takeshi’s and Asano’s collaboration, Ichii the Killer, is referenced in a poster hanging up at the Japan Culture Center. Wise Kwai calls it one of his top ten fave Thai films of the last decade!
-Wise Kwai @ thaifilmjournal.blogspot.com

IMDB Database | Rotten Tomatoes Review | Download Poster

Thursday, 18 March 2010 at 3:00pm
Crawford 105

Anthropology Spring 2010 Colloquium Series
Co-Sponsored by the Center for Southeast Asian Studies

Presented by Dr. Terry Rambo, Special
Professor at Khon Kaen University, THAILAND

More information can be found at the University of Hawai′i at Mānoa Dept. of Anthropology webpage.

Image taken from Lucas Jans under creative commons licensing.

Wednesday, 3 March
6:30 p.m. – Korean Studies Auditorium

Indonesia, 2008 (114 min)
Indonesian, Arabic with English subtitles
Dir: Nurman Hakim
Cast: Nicholas Saputra, Dian Sastrowardoyo, Yoga Bagus Satatagama, Yoga Pratama, Brohisman, Doubleh Zulkanean, Jajang C. Noer, Butet Kartaredjasa.

Living in a pesantren (Islamic boarding school) in central Java, inseparable friends Huda (Nicholas Saputra), Syahid (Yoga Bagus Satatagama) and Rian (Yoga Pratama) are receiving mixed messages from instructors. Moderate headmaster Kyai Wahib (Brohisman) believes Jews and Christians should not be viewed as enemies, while Ustadz (Doubleh Zulkanean) stops just short of actively recruiting soldiers for the holy war.

Huda and Rian are less concerned with religious matters. A sensitive boy who wants only to find his missing mother in Jakarta, Huda is attracted to Dona Satelit (Sastrowardoyo), the alluring vocalist in a touring dangdut combo. Offering to help Huda, the girl asks for expenses that first appear to be going into her own pocket.

For his part, Rian dreams of honoring his late father by following his footsteps into the film and video business. In heartwarming scenes, he finds a teacher and father figure in Toha (Butet Kartaredjasa), a traveling movie exhibitor camped at the same fairground as Dona Satelit.

With gentle humor and a strong feel for the excitement and trepidation that accompany entry into adulthood…threads are neatly wrapped up in the film’s bittersweet epilogue. -Richard Kuipers, Variety

Co-sponsored by Muslim Societies in Asia

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