Date: Wednesday 1 February 2012 @ 6:30 PM
Korean Studies Auditorium

Director: Marilou Diaz-Abaya
Writer: Jun Lana
Cast: Jomari Yllana, Elizabeth Oropesa, Chin Chin Gutierrez, Pen Medina, Ronnie Lazaro

Filmmaker Marilou Diaz-Abaya ventures into the realm of instinct andemotion in this unusual story about a male midwife. In a remote fishing village during the American occupation, young Pepito (Jomari Yllana) grows up with no choice but to learn the trade of his mother, despite obvious embarrassment and prejudices. The real test of maturity comes when he ventures from the island (the nest, the navel) to the mainland (the real world). The script won the prestigious PALANCA literary award, and Diaz-Abaya manages to get outstanding performances from her actors with her economical, understated direction. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, Rovi

This film was translated and subtitled by students in the film and translation course of Pia Arboleda, Assistant Professor of Filipino and Philippine Literature, Department of Indo-Pacific Languages and Literatures, University of Hawai’i.

Please note: Bring WARM clothes as the auditorium is heavily air-conditioned!!

Distributor: http://www.kabayancentral.com
Please support the distributor by purchasing all of their films!

Homecoming
Singapore, 2011 (93 min)
Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Director: Lee Thean-Jeen
Cast: Mark Lee, Jack Neo, Karen Neo, Afdlin Shauki, Ah-Niu, Rebecca Lim, Huang Wen Hong

Simple bliss and family harmony is essentially what every local Chinese hopes to experience over the Lunar New Year and Director Lee Thean-Jeen offers just that in this light-hearted comedy. HOMECOMING is a series of stories about family and what it means to go home. The characters in these stories come from a diverse range of generations, races, and social backgrounds and are linked through blood, friendship, and geography. This Singapore-Malaysia team effort stars Mark Lee as a demanding chef who cannot wield the same control over his daughter. Rebecca Lim plays a woman who is about to meet her in-laws from hell. Jack Neo cross-dresses again in the role of Karen Neo, while Ah Niu plays her son, who goes on a hilarious journey across the Causeway for their yearly reunion dinner. Kung hee fat choy!

Distributed by InnoForm Media Pte Ltd. [ enquiry@innoform.com.sg]

Wednesday, 16 November 2011 @6:30pm
Indonesia, 2010 (97 mins)
Indonesian w/ English subtitles

Director: Ari Sihasale
Cast: Alexandra Gottardo, Asrul Dahlan, Griffit Patricia, Lukman Sardi,
Yahuda Rumbindi, Ari Sihasale, Robby Tumewu, Thessa Kaunang

Inspired by the true events following the referendum for independence in East Timor (Timor Leste) in 1999, Tanah Air Beta is about the struggle of displaced people in a time of conflict. Despite the reality of terrifying political conditions following the referendum, Director Ari Sihasale (Denias, Senandung di Atas Awan) chooses to focus this film on the importance of family and friendship in desperate times. The film centers around the struggle of Tatiana (played by Alexandra Gottardo) and her daughter Merry (Griffit Patricia) who try to survive in poverty and an uncertain political situation in a refugee camp in East Nusa Tenggara. The exodus split Tatiana’s family resulting in her having to leave her bitter son behind in East Timor. Merry takes it upon herself to heal family wounds by traveling to the border to meet her brother. With little idea of where or how far the border is, the journey becomes the focal point for this heartwarming story. The opening scene is one that you will not want to miss.

Trailer: Tanah Air Beta (Indonesia) Distributor: Alenia Pictures

Wednesday, 10 November 2011 @6:30pm
Philippines, 1982 (123 mins)
Tagalog with English and Japanese subtitles

Dir: Ishmael Bernal
Screenplay: Ricardo Lee
Cast: Nora Aunor, Veronica Palileo, Spanky Manikan, Gigi Dueñas, Vangie Labalan, Laura Centano, Joel Lamangan

Considered by many to be one of the greatest films in Philippine cinema history, frame for frame, HIMALA may also be the most beautifully shot Philippine film I’ve ever seen. With a photographer’s eye, director Ishmael Bernal (City After Dark, Relasyon) turns an arid, non-descript countryside Philippine town into a mystical place with real people. The Superstar of Philippine Cinema, Nora Aunor, playing the lead role, works with the visual setting as much as it works with her. She’s the ever-sad Elsa, an illegitimate child who one day claims, like many of us Filipinos like to do, to have seen the Virgin Mary, who has endowed her with super healing powers. A battle between her and a doubtful, sometimes vengeful, Catholic church ensues, and she starts winning. Throngs of peasant folk travel from afar to get their miracle on, and the once-filled church dwindles to a measly ten people. Is she real, or is it a hoax? For a suffering people short on hope in the faith they were given, and seeking it elsewhere, anywhere – does it even matter? Acting with just her eyes for most of the film, Aunor is mesmerizing. HIMALA makes a potent, poignant statement on Filipinos’ faith, making a subtle connection between the colonial legacy of the church and the suffering that drives us toward and away from it. -Prometheus Brown

Distributor: Kabayan Central

The Center for Southeast Asian Studies in cooperation with the Institute for Vietnamese Culture and Education (IVCE) invites you to a special Hawai‘i premiere screening

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2011

CENTER FOR KOREAN STUDIES AUDITORIUM

6:30 PM

Viet Nam, 2011 (95 mins)

Vietnamese with English subtitles

Dir: Phạm Nhuệ Giang

Cast: Hong Anh, Phung Hoa Hoai Linh, Nguyen Bach Tung Lam, Truong Minh Quoc Thai

Lan (Hong Anh) and her daughter Thu (Phung Hoa Hoai Linh) live in a lowland area in the middle of the Red River. Their typical day includes going to the Long Bien Market very early in the morning to buy wholesale groceries and resell them at a local market later in the day. Thu’s mother falls in love with a driver (Truong Minh Quoc Thai), a relationship that has no future. As Thu suffers from the loneliness of her own mother’s neglect, she unwittingly becomes a mother to her orphaned best friend (Nguyen Bach Tung Lam )—until an accident changes their lives forever. The Mother’s Heart was produced with assistance from the Global Film Initiative in their effort to promote cross-cultural understanding through the medium of cinema.

The Director:

Ms. Phạm Nhuệ Giang, a graduate of Hanoi University of Cinematography and Hanoi University of Architecture, is a well-known multi-award winning director in Vietnam. Since her debut film, “Le Petit Culi”, made in 1992, she has directed many TV series and feature films, which have won her several national and international awards. Among them are the Silver Lotus Prize at the 13th National Film Festival, the First Prize at the 52st FIPRESCI Melbourne International Film Festival, and Second Prize from the Vietnam Association of Cinematography for her film titled “The Deserted Valley” in 2001. She also won second prize from the Vietnam Association of Cinematography and the Complimentary Award from the 12th Vietnam National Film Festival for “Fled” in 1996, the Silver Prize for “Waiting for Tet” from the National Television Film Festival in 2007, the Golden Kite Award from the Vietnam Association of Filmmakers and the Gold Prize at the Vietnam National Television Film Festival in 2007 for her 25-episode series named “Hau Hoa”. Most recently, she won the Golden Kite Award again from the Vietnam Association of Filmmakers for her film “The Real and the Ideal” in 2009.

For more information on the Institute for Vietnamese Culture and Education (IVCE), go here: http://www.ivce.org/index.php

[NOTE: NO TRAILER]

Wednesday, 26 October 2011 @6:30pm
Indonesia, 2010 (104 min)
Indonesian with English subtitles

Director: Lucky Kuswandi
Screenplay: Agasyah Karim, Khalid Kashogi, Kuswandi, based on a character created by Amink
Cast: Amink, Marcell Siahaan, Shanty, Titi DJ, Sarah Sechan, Vincent Rompies, Fitri Tropica, Joko Anwar, Ria Irawan, Robby Tumewu, Saira Zihan, Ikhsan Khimawan, Marcell

Fabulous is the only word to describe “Madame X,” a candy-colored, fast-paced tale of a pre-op transsexual superhero from Indonesia who fights intolerance. After a prologue and an animated title sequence clearly inspired by 007, the pic proper kicks off on the birthday of epicene hairdresser Adam (mono-monikered entertainer Amink), who’s best friends with his zaftig colleague, Aline (filmmaker Joko Anwar). Things go haywire when the gay disco where Adam and Aline are celebrating is raided by the black-clad members of Bogem, a league of moral order run by a man who looks suspiciously like the (fictitious) National Morality Front politician Mr. Storm (singer Marcell).

Though not directly credited for the screenplay, which was inspired by a character created by Amink and written by the helmer with Agasyah Karim and Khalid Kashogi, the fingerprints of producer and occasional helmer Nia Dinata (“A Courtesan,” “Love for Share”) are all over this production, from its appropriation of popular mainstream formats in service of a strong pro-minority, pro-LGBT message to its use of humor to tackle wider sociopolitical issues and its careful attention to local details, such as the slang used in the dialogue or the clever sendup of the dual lives of contempo Indonesian celebrities. Boyd van Hoeij – Variety

Wednesday, 5 October 2011
Philippines, 2005
Tagalog with English subtitles

Director Auraeus Solito departs from the Filipino urban jungle of his lauded debut “The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros” and explores life in the wilder jungle of “Tuli,” in which a strong-willed daughter upsets every arrangement her alcoholic father (Bembol Roco) tries to impose on her. With dad being the village’s official circumciser, and daughter Daisy (Desiree del Valle) expected to follow in his footsteps, the film sets up a heady brew of daring sexuality and ancient rituals. As the years pass, Daisy is of marrying age, and though the circumcised lads romantically serenade her outside her window, Daisy’s heart is for girlfriend Botchok (Vanna Garcia). “Tuli” won “Best Film” at the Philippines indie fest Cinemalaya, only to be banned in its home country. The film went on to screen at Sundance and in Berlin (where it won the NETPAC prize for best Asian film).
-Robert Koehler, Variety

Facebook | IMDB | Lilok Pelikula: Sculpting Cinema

31st Hawaii International Film Festival
Various Venues across Honolulu, HI
13 – 23 October 2011

Established in 1981, 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. The Center for Southeast Asian Studies is proud to sponsor the following films at the 31st HIFF:

THE GAME KISS
Part of SHORTS PROGRAM #2
Dir. Paul Agusta
Indonesia 2011
9:15 PM | Saturday, October 15 | Dole Cannery E

BUSONG
Dir. Auraeus Solito 2011
Philippines 2011
8:00 PM | Monday, October 17 | Dole Cannery F
1:00 PM | Tuesday, October 18 | Dole Cannery B

LIVING IN SEDUCED CIRCUMSTANCES
Dir. Ian Gamazon 2011
United States/Vietnam 2011
8:45 PM | Tuesday, October 18 | Dole Cannery C

THE DANCE OF TWO LEFT FEET (ANG SAYAW NG DALAWANG KALIWANG PAA)
Dir. Alvin Yapan
Philippines 2011
6:00 PM | Saturday, October 15 | Dole Cannery D
4:30 PM | Monday, October 17 | Dole Cannery E

RAKENROL
Dir. Quark Henares
Philippines 2011
6:15 PM | Saturday, October 15 | Dole Cannery E

STAR-CROSSED LOVE
Dir. Erick Salud
Philippines 2011
9:30 PM | Friday, October 21 | Dole Cannery E
8:15 PM | Sunday, October 23 | Dole Cannery E

THELMA
Dir. Paul Soriano
Philippines 2011
2:45 PM | Saturday, October 15 | Dole Cannery B

THE WOMAN IN THE SEPTIC TANK
(ANG BABAE SA SEPTIC TANK )
Dir. Marlon Rivera
Philippines 2011
5:00 PM | Thursday, October 20 | Dole Cannery E

BREAKFAST LUNCH DINNER
Dir. Kaz Cai, Wang Jing, Anocha Suwichakornpong
Singapore 2011
3:30 PM | Wednesday, October 19 | Dole Cannery C
11:30 AM | Saturday, October 22 | Dole Cannery A

ETERNITY
Dir. Sivaroj Kongsakul
Thailand 2010
1:00 PM | Sunday, October 16 | Dole Cannery C
3:30 PM | Tuesday, October 18 | Dole Cannery F

SAIGON ELECTRIC
Dir. Stephane Gauger
United States, Viet Nam 2011
4:30 PM | Saturday, October 22 | Dole Cannery A