Wednesday, February 20
Center for Korean Studies Auditorium @6:30 PM
Philippines, 1995 (114 mins)
Tagalog w/English subtitles

Director: Chito S. Roño
Screenplay: Jose F. Lacaba, Roy Iglesias
Cast: Christopher De Leon, Richard Gomez, Dina Bonnevie, Joel Torre, Teresa Loyzaga

Eskapo (Escape) begins with video footage of the days just before Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law in 1972: eerie, washed-out images of marching demonstrators and riot police. It’s a terrifying beginning that sets an ominous tone for everything that follows.

What follows is a ’70s party in full swing. Director Chito Roño glides his camera into the middle of the action and rubs our noses into the decadence of the period, reminding us pitilessly of how embarrassing we looked. Those clashing colors! Those teased wigs! Those floor-sweeping pants!

The movie regains its bearings when the military arrests Sergio Osmeña III (Richard Gomez) and Eugenio “Geny” Lopez Jr. (Christopher de Leon), scions of Philippine society.

From here we see the step-by-step procedure as the story of the descent into the maws of Martial Law is clearly and harrowingly set out eventually leading to the two men’s escape from the Fort Bonifacio detention center in 1977.

Eskapo is so entertainingly well made that in terms of intelligence, visual style, and acting, it deserved the title as ‘Filipino Film of the Year” (1996).

-Noel Vera, Critic After Dark

Please support the distributor by purchasing their film!

Distributor: kabayancentral.com

Reminder…dress warmly, the auditorium is heavily air-conditioned.

On, Friday, 2/8/13 we gave a special screening of the Thai documentary, “Baby Arabia.”  ” (The film) examines how the band’s infectiously rhythmic blend of Malay and Arab music is reconciled with the Muslim faith. The band’s sprawling lineup includes accordion, guitars, keyboards, several singers and a battery of drums and percussion.” (Source – Wise Kwai’s Bangkok Cinema Scene)

Thailand (2010, 80 minutes)
Thai w/English subtitles

Directed by: Panu Aree, Kaweenipon “Salim” Ketprasit and Kong Rithdee
Cast: Jameelah Boonmalerd, Supachai Luanwong, Suriyah Madtorhead

Baby Arabia follows one of the oldest Thai-Muslim bands specializing in the subcultural genre of Arab-Malay music – the bouncy ethnic cross-pollination of Arabian melodies, Malay throbs,Thai Luke-thoong kicks, and a bit of Latin tempo. We meet Geh, founder of the band who taught himself to play the accordion 35 year ago. Geh is joined by Umar, a former Koran teacher and now a guitarist with a knack for Egyptian numbers. Fronting their band is Jamilah, a husky-voiced, humble diva who teaches the Koran during the day and sings Arabic songs at night while wondering if the world of melody can be both faith-bound and joyously secular. Baby Arabia plays cover version of classical as well as contemporary Arab and Malay music (though the band members do not speak those languages) and they’ve been touring mosque fairs, circumcision rites and weddings at Muslim communities around Bangkok and the Central Region for three decades. Though some Islamic scholars question their brand of worldly merry-making, claiming that it’s against the law of the religion, the humanizing power of music and irresistible exuberance of their songs provide a definitive counter-argument.

-Panu Aree, Co-director

Trailer:

Co-sponsored by Muslim Societies in Asia and the Pacific

Wednesday, February 6, 2013 @6:30 PM
Center for Korean Studies Building

Singapore (2011, 90 mins)
Hokkien, Shanghaiese, Teochow, Hakka, Mandarin, Cantonese w/English subtitles

Director: Kelvin Tong
Screenplay: Kelvin Tong, Ken Kwek, Marcus Chin
Music: Joe Ng, Alex Oh
Art Direction: Tommy Chan Kok Onn
Cast: Olivia Ong, Chew Chor Meng, Nancy Sit, Yvonne Lim, Ben Yeow, including a host of cameos from well known Singapore singers and actors and celebrities from Hong Kong and Taiwan

Singapore, the present day. As the owner (Nancy Sit) of Brilliant Pearl Photo Shop packs up and prepares to close down the family business, her granddaughter, Ah Min (Olivia Ong), a fashion photographer, is intrigued by some old pictures. Ah Min’s mother tells her how the history of Brilliant Pearl and the legendary Great World Amusement Park, which finally closed in 1978 after 40 years, were intertwined. Ah Min seeks out her mother’s old friend, Goh Ah Beng, who tells her the stories behind the photographs. As the film takes us on a stroll down memory lane, we meet a clown on a quest to have his photo taken with movie star Elizabeth Taylor; hear the tale of a carnival shooting gallery operator who experiences her first teenage love with a Malaysian medicinal oil seller’s son; meet a washed up diva of the Flamingo Nightclub who used to sing for her lost love; and reminisce with a lok-lok (hotpot) seller who narrates the story of his wedding dinner with his mute wife the night the Japanese invaded Singapore during World War II. Interwoven into the film are stories of a multitude of characters that lived, worked, played, sang, danced, and even fell in love at Great World. The result is a slick, enjoyable slice of retro entertainment that…has enough ingenuous charm to work with audiences familiar with the Southeast Asian lifestyle – especially with its unique pot-pourri of Chinese dialects! -Derek Elley, Film Business Asia

Please support the distributor by purchasing all of their films!
Distributor: InnoForm Media

Wednesday, January 30th, 2013 @ 6:30 PM
Center for Korean Studies Building, UHM
Thailand (2010, 130 mins)
Thai & Korean w/English subtitles

Director: Banjong Pisanthanakun
Producer: Jira Maligool
Cast: Chantavit Dhanasevi, Nuengthida Sophon

Two Thai tourists meet cute in Korea in Hello Stranger, an adorable rom-com that salutes, pokes fun at and deftly tinkers with the conventions of its own genre.

During Thailand’s Songkran Festival, a man (Chantavit Dhanasevi, who co-wrote the screenplay) joins a package tour to Korea but is stranded in Seoul when he is accidentally misses out on a mountain trip. Abroad for the first time and speaking little English, he latches on to a Thai girl (Nuengthida Sophon) he meets by chance to explore the city together. When she breaks up with her control freak boyfriend over the phone, they head to the countryside to attend her friend Min Ah’s wedding.

The film gets its spontaneous, happy-go-lucky vibe from emphasizing how the protagonists reveal more of themselves to strangers as one tends to lose one’s inhibitions abroad.

The screenplay deftly light-foots around scenarios that would have turned schmaltzy, the best example being a candle-lit dinner that becomes a gag that turns on May’s idolizing of Korean heartthrob Bae Yong-jun.

Hello Stranger makes wry observations on the Thais’ infatuation with Korean TV drama, all the while giving them what they want by shooting in all the touristy locations with K-drama references – even Min Ah’s house looks like the set of a Joseon Dynasty costume epic.

The film was Thailand’s box office top earner in 2010. Addiction to Korean TV drama is not necessary for getting the ubiquitous references to the subject, but it helps.

-Maggie Lee, The Hollywood Reporter

Trailer:

Distributor: GMM Tai Hub (GTH)

Please support the distributor by purchasing all of their films!

Reminder…dress warmly, the auditorium is heavily air-conditioned.

The much anticipated Minangkabau Randai theatre production of The Genteel Sabai was held in Spring 2012 and was attended by nearly 4,000 people during its UHM Kennedy Theatre run. As an outreach component of the Randai experience, K-12 schools on O’ahu and on Hawai’i Island were treated to visiting Randai performers. Teachers at the schools were also provided with lecture and resource guidebooks, teaching modules, and online sources to assist them in introducing their students to Indonesia and Randai. For more info, see the printable pdf educational resource package and official website.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012 @ 6:30 PM
Center for Korean Studies Building, UHM

In support of the conference “Engaging with Viet Nam – An Interdisciplinary Dialogue,” hosted by the East-West Center from November 8-9, 2012, the Center for Southeast Asian Studies presents two films with Vietnamese themes.
DOCUMENTARY
Hanoi Public Market (Đường về cho)

Viet Nam (2012, 27 min)
Vietnamese w/English subtitles

Director: Michael DiGregorio
Producer: Ha Thuc Van
Cinematographer: Henry Mochida

Nguyen Le Hang is one of the fortunate ones. Hanoi’s Hom Market has been spared the wrecking ball – at least for now. Dinh Thuy Hang has not been so lucky. Hang struggles to survive in a temporary market, waiting for relocation in a new commercial center. HANOI PUBLIC MARKET follows these two women, caught in a conflict that is undermining their lives. As they struggle to make sense of their worlds, they come to realize the false promises made by developers. Once edged out, vendors return not to the warm and welcoming markets they left, but rather, the detention center gloom of underground spaces in new commercial centers. As this conversion takes place, fortunes are being made. But what is Hanoi losing?

NOTE: This documentary will be introduced by the director, Michael DiGregorio.

FEATURE FILM

Living in Fear
(Sống trong sợ hãi)

Viet Nam (2005, 110 min)
Vietnamese w/English subtitles

Director: Bui Thac Chuyen
Screenplay: Bui Thac Chuyen, Nguyen Thi Minh Ngoc
Cast: Tran Huu Phuc, Mai Van Thinh, Dang Thuy My Uyen, Mai Ngoc Phuong, Ngo Pham Hanh Thuy

Living in Fear is a touching psychological drama depicting the trauma of survivors who are forced to endure a constant threat from the unexploded bombs left behind by the war.

Set in the aftermath of the war, Living in Fear tells the story of an ex-Saigon regime soldier, Tai (Tran Huu Phuc), who like thousands of others in the south must face recriminations by the communist victors. Tai is punished by being sent to a re-education camp and later to the inhospitable new economic zones in central Vietnam. This area is still littered with unexploded ordnance, yet the government is already building new settlements next to vast minefields.

As a collaborator of the former South Vietnamese regime, the desperate Tai has no option but to learn how to defuse the mines, as this can earn him extra money if he sells the empty shells as scrap metal on the black market.

The film earned Golden Kite 2005 awards for Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Lead Actor from the Viet Nam Cinema Association, and the Asian New Talent Prize at the Shanghai International Film Festival in 2006.

-Dana Healy

Wednesday, October 24, 2012 @ 6:30 PM
Center for Korean Studies Building, UHM
Indonesia (1976, 170 mins)
Dutch and Indonesian w/English subtitles

Director: Fons Rademakers
Screenplay: Gerard Soeteman
Cinematography: Jan de Bont
Cast: Peter Faber (Max Havelaar), Sacha Bulthuis (Tine), Adendu Soesilaningrat Regent (as E.M. Adenan Soesilaningrat), Maruli Sitompul (Demang),
Krijn ter Braak (Verbrugge), Carl van der Plas (Resident), Rima Melati (Mevrouw Slotering), Rutger Hauer (Duclari)

Based on the real life experience of Dutch writer Douwes Dekker (writing under the pen name Multatuli), Max Havelaar is an undisputed classic in the pantheon of Dutch literary canons.

This gorgeous film adaptation was made by Fons Rademakers (1920-2007) in 1976 as a collaborative project of the Indonesian and Dutch film industry [although the film was banned from distribution and exhibition in Indonesia until the 1990s].

The story revolves around Max Havelaar, an Assistant-Resident of the Dutch East Indies colonial government in West Java, who is sent to manage the extraction of resources in the region only to be shocked at the conditions he finds at his new post.

The 1860 book caused a political uproar by shining a light on the abuse of the native population of the Dutch East Indies; what noted Indonesian author Pramoedya Ananta Toer called “the book that killed colonialism.”

As Alphonse Nahuÿs writes in his preface to the first English translation of Max Havelaar, “Max Havelaar is immortal, not because of literary art or talent, but because of the cause he advocates.” And this filmic adaptation enriches the immortality of the original work, because if there is any meaning to be distilled out of Max Havelaar at all, it is a question that is just as relevant today as it was in 1860: Who is more corruptive? The colonizer or the colonized? Or are both just as bad?

- Acknowledgement: Ari Purnama

For a fascinating article on the film and the times, click here: Pramoedya Ananta Toer

Please support the distributor by purchasing all of their films!

Distributor: A-Film Distribution

FOURTEEN FILMS FROM/FEATURING SOUTHEAST ASIA TO BE SCREENED

32nd Hawai’i International Film Festival
Various Venues Across O’ahu
October 11-21

Established in 1981, the Hawaii International Film Festival (HIFF) is dedicated to the advancement of understanding and cultural exchange among the peoples of Asia, the Pacific and North America through the medium of film. This year’s festival features no less than 14 films from or with content relating to Southeast Asia. For your reference we’ve put together a quick list of these films. You can search the list on our website: CSEAS Film Listings or for more information about HIFF and how to purchase tickets, click here: HIFF.

REGULAR WEDNESDAY NIGHT FILM FANS PLEASE NOTE THAT WE WILL NOT BE SCREENING FILMS ON OCTOBER 11 & 18 IN SUPPORT OF HIFF. WE WILL RETURN TO OUR REGULAR SCHEDULE ON OCTOBER 24.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012 @ 6:30 PM
Center for Korean Studies Building, UHM
Indonesia (2004, 87 mins)
Indonesia w/English subtitles
Co-sponsored by Muslim Societies of Asia and the Pacific

Director: Garin Nugroho
Stars: Fauzi Baadila, Nova Eliza and Jaja Mihardja

Top Indonesian helmer Garin Nugroho crafts a simple ensemble piece geared to showing the humane side of a religion more often demonized than embraced. “Of Love and Eggs” uses a gentle, slightly bumbling Imam (Didi Petet) as the paternal face of Islam, a benevolent figure doling out love with warmth and humor to assorted working-class types around a Jakarta market. Shot entirely on a crowded set, the pic begins shortly before the Lebaran holiday, when most return to their native villages. Those left in town include Asih (Putri Mulia), an angry young girl unwilling to accept that her mother may have abandoned the family; Bimo (Sakurtha H. Ginting), a mischievous boy selling eggs at the market; and Rindu (Raisa Pramesi), a deaf girl impatiently awaiting her brother’s return. Five different dialects and multiple ethnicities are used to turn the market into a national microcosm, united by their faith. -Jay Weissber

Please support the distributor by purchasing all of their films!

Distributor: The Global Film Initiative

Wednesday, September 26, 2012 @ 6:30 PM
Center for Korean Studies Building, UHM
Thailand (2012, 123 mins)
Thai w/English subtitles

Director: Mez Tharatorn
Cast: Chantavit Dhanasevi, Preechaya Pongthananikorn

Sua (Ter – Chantavit Dhnasevi) and Jib (Ice – Preechaya Pongthananikorn) are just like any other couple except for one thing: for the past 5 years they have kept their relationship a secret because the bank where they work has a strict “no fraternization” policy. Their problems really start when they decide to get married. Which one of these Type-A, overachievers will put marriage before their career and resign from the bank? Neither seems willing to make the sacrifice, so they turn an incident at the bank-an ATM glitch in Chonburi Province gives out over 130,000 baht (over $4,000 USD)-into an opportunity. The terms are simple: whoever can recover the money first gets to keep their job. Turning them into no-holds-barred competitors. Who will “go big” in their career or “go home” in this romantic comedy about what two people won’t do for each other in the name of love?

Please support the distributor by purchasing all of their films!

Distributor: Gmm Tai Hub Co., Ltd.