San Diego Film Festival

yay! 2 more days until the film festival starts ... here's a couple blurbs/synopsis on movies we might watch, but not just limited to these few movies. ahhhhh so many to watch~~ :)

Shanghai Kiss
Liam Liu is a struggling actor who passes time by picking up beautiful, vapid girls in hip Hollywood bars. The closest thing to an emotional connection in Liam's life is a flirtatious friendship with 16 year old Adelaide (Hayden Panettiere, NBC's "Heroes"), a precocious high school girl who is actually more mature than Liam. When Liam learns he has inherited his grandmother's home in Shanghai, China, he travels to the exotic city and discovers a profound connection to his family legacy. Liam meets a sophisticated Chinese woman there named Micki (Kelly Hu, "The Scorpion King" & "X2") and finds himself falling into instant infatuation with her. Liam decides to move to China, leaving behind Adelaide who is quite possibly the only girl who has ever loved him. He suddenly finds himself at a crossroads - does he choose this new exotic world full of wonders or does he go back to America and make an honest attempt to put his life in order?Written and co-directed by David Ren, this inspired Asian American romantic comedy features winning performances by Ken Leung ("X-Men" & "Sopranos") who deftly brings the comedic timing and charm of a younger Billy Crystal to his portrayal of Liam. Hayden Panettiere and Kelly Hu both shine as Liam's romantic interests. SHANGHAI KISS world premiered at the 2007 San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival to rave reviews.

Air Guitar Nation

A battle of naked ambition played out on the national and, ultimately, world stage, AIR GUITAR NATION chronicles the birth of the U.S. Air Guitar Championships. Legions of aspiring rock stars live out their dreams on a quest to become the world champion in a strange world where musical ability plays second fiddle to virtual virtuosity (think "American Idol" meets a Star Trek convention). Two aspiring rock legends strum and strut their way towards glory and the coveted national title. C. Diddy (David Jung), a Korean American samurai warrior clad in a Hello Kitty breast plate and red kimono, emerges as an early favorite. But his arch nemesis, Bjorn Turoque (Dan Crane), is not far behind. While C. Diddy threatens to unleash his self-professed "Asian Fury" on his competitors, Bjorn vows to take Diddy down. As the film reaches its climax, the future of Air hangs in the balance. Will Bjorn's technical prowess, stage presence, and "airness" be enough to take him to the top, or will C. Diddy conquer all to become America's first supreme being of Air Guitar? One contestant says it best, "To err is human; to air guitar is divine.Full of triumph and hilarity, patriotic spirit and competition, AIR GUITAR NATION won the coveted Best Audience Award at the SXSW Film Festival and is quickly spawning a cult following in both the film and the artform.

Hula Girls

Based on a true story, HULA GIRLS is a heartwarming comedy about coal miners' daughters who took a once-in-a-lifetime chance to escape their monotonous lives, only to become unwitting heroes to their depressed mining town as well as the whole of Japan.Iwaki is a remote mining town in northern Japan that would be right at home in America's rust belt, and with its coal mine closing, its future looks grim. In a desperate attempt to save the local economy the town elders decide to cash in on the Polynesian craze that is sweeping the world (the movie is set in 1965) and so they announce they are building a Hawaiian theme park, complete with a hula dancing troupe. The only problem: no one in Iwaki knows how to dance the hula. Also: no one in Iwaki has ever been to Hawaii. Actually, no one in Iwaki has ever really left the city limits. And once they import an alcoholic hula teacher from Tokyo who's on the run from bad debts, things get worse as the respectable local women refuse to participate in "indecent" hula dancing and the only people who sign up for the classes are a handful of misfits.Do these kids get it together and become a crack hula team? You bet! Korean-Japanese director Lee Sang-Il (Scrap Heaven) rewrites the conventions of the "team of underdog" genre (see: The Full Monty) and reminds us of why they worked in the first place. It's not hard to see why this flick rocked the Japanese box office and swept the Japanese Academy Awards: it's managed the neat trick of telling an old story in a new way and reminding its audience that there's nothing to be ashamed of if you come out of a movie feeling good about life and wanting to put on a lei and a tapa and swing your hips to a hula mele.

Dim Sum and Then Some

Ai Ya! We’ve got all your Chinese flavor, a few portions of humor, intrigue, and family drama.
Shorts playing within this program:
CHINESE DUMPLINGSDirector: Michelle Hung Producer: Lillian Wang 8 min. 35mm 2006Two young sisters will do anything to skip violin practice.
SILENCEDirector: Allen Ho Producer: Allen Ho 5 min. Video 2007An Asian-American student attempts to shatter the silence formed by language barriers with his parents.
MISS CHINATOWN, U.S.A.Director: Kathy Huang Producer: Kathy Huang 25 min. Video 2006Competing in one of America's oldest ethnic beauty pageants, a high school student from Seattle wrestles with issues of identity.
YEAR OF THE DOGDirector: Kevin Lau Producer: Weiko Lin 18 min. Video 2007On New Year’s Eve, a mysterious stranger holds a restaurant owner and his family hostage, exacting a long-sought vengeance.
PANDAMANIADirector: Chris Tsou Producer: Chris Tsou, Jess Chung 6 min. Video 2006E! True Zoo Story: The Rise and Fall of Tai Shan the Panda
GUA ZIDirector: MiQi Huang Producer: Yimin Chen, MiQi Huang 10 min. Video 2006The pain of a teenage girl's secret abortion is seen through the eyes of an inadvertant observer – her eight-year-old sister.
MY FATHER'S CHINESE WIFEDirector: Franklin Peterson Producer: Ben Wilkins & Avital Levy 18 min. Video 2007A decade after her German mother passes away, Sandra’s Chinese father decides to get a mail order bride.

Crazysexyfunny!

Warning: You must be willing to laugh out loud to watch this group of comical shorts.
PANDAMANIADirector: Chris Tsou Producer: Chris Tsou, Jess Chung 6 min. Video 2006E! True Zoo Story: The Rise and Fall of Tai Shan the Panda
THE TRAINEEDirector: Craig Rosenthal Producer: Adriane Lee 9 min. Video 2006A newbie robber holding up his first convenience store is met with strange surprise.
Shorts playing within this program:
POTLUCKDirector: Louis R. Sweeney Producer: Louis R. Sweeney, Anthonette Sweeney, Dan Desantes 13 min. Video 2007After eloping in Las Vegas, Sean and his Filipino girlfriend try to hide their marriage from her parents.
EQUAL OPPORTUNITYDirector: Howard Duy Vu Producer: Camille Mana 6 min. Video 2006Political correctness flies out the window as a group of diverse co-workers have it out in the break room.
EPISODE VIIDirector: Dylan O'neil Producer: Dylan O'neil And John Fukuda 5 min. Video 2007Darth Vader's light saber falls out of the sky, plunking a young man on the head, and wreaking havoc in the modern world.
COLE NEEDS WOMENDirector: David Chai Producer: Aletta Wenas 8 min. Video 2006What happens if your wildest dreams of acquring every woman on Earth were to come true?medium: Traditional & Digital
AN UNBEARABLE DAYDirector: Miqi Huang Producer: MiQi Huang 2 min. Video 2006The mundane life of a human being is explored through the eyes of a bear.
CHANCES AREDirector: Joshua Kameyer Producer: Matthew Witt, Henry Lowenfels 13 min. Video 2007Randy is a whiz at math, but when probability fails him, he has to risk the odds if he wants a shot at true love.
SIGNERZDirector: Roman Cortez Producer: Joseph H. Shim 14 min. Video 2007The life and times of those crazy sign spinners on the street.

Silence

An Asian-American student attempts to shatter the silence formed by language barriers with his parents.

5 centimeters per second

Achingly beautiful, 5CM PER SECOND, breaks new ground in anime in both artistry and storytelling. Named for the speed at which cherry blossom petals fall, 5CM PER SECOND consists of three segments and follows a boy named Takaki through his life, first as a middle school student, through high school, and as an adult working as a computer programmer. Delicate, powerful, and heartrending, each segment explores the complex nature of human beings, giving viewers a familiar and real world perspective of the struggles we face against time, space, people, and love. Masterfully crafted with every second counting, this is a film that will certainly stay with you for days.Director Makoto Shinkai has been called the new Hayao Miyazaki in several reviews including Anime Advocates and ActiveAnime.
Preceded by: VOICES OF A DISTANT STARDirectors: Makoto Shinkai, Steven Foster 30 min. Video 2003When the alien Tarsians attack, Mikako volunteers to be a pilot in the UN space force that will protect mankind. Seperated from his girlfirend, the two try to remain in contact using by sending text messages, but as each battle takes Mikako further from the Earth, each message takes longer to arrive. Will their love stand the tests of time and distance?

West 32nd

Director Michael Kang returns to the SDAFF with his latest feature, WEST 32ND, a thriller set in New York's Korea Town, starring an impressive cast of Korean American and international stars. This feature marks the first American production of CJ Entertainment, Korea's largest entertainment company. After hustling his way onto a pro-bono homicide case, an ambitious young lawyer John Kim (John Cho) infiltrates the gritty Korean underworld of New York, searching for clues. The murder suspect is a teenager charged with gunning down the manager of a Korean "saloon room" club. The boy's sister, Lila Lee (Grace Park) is sure of his innocence and will sacrifice anything to save him. John feels connected to Lila and is determined to help. Though Korean American, John barely knows how to speak Korean and finds himself a foreigner in K-town's exciting nightlife. He befriends Mike Juhn, a well-dressed, ruthless gangster newly in charge of the Korean club where the murder took place. Before he knows it, John is neck-deep in the gang-related politics of K-town, and his dangerous search for answers often gets lost in translation. Having premiered at this year's Tribeca Film Festival to sold-out audiences, Kang and his cowriter Edmund Lee, expose the darker side of Koreatown with twists and turns that leave the audience wondering who to trust.

Dark Matter

New York based Chinese opera director Chen Shi-zheng makes his first feature film debut with DARK MATTER which follows a Chinese science student pursuing a PhD studying the origins of the universe in the US during the early 90s. The Mid-Western Valley State University cosmology student, Liu Xing, dreams of winning the Nobel Prize by attempting to unravel the secrets of dark matter, that mysterious substance that governs the universe. Liu finds a remarkable amount of freedom in the US and initially finds it exciting, but as time passes he finds himself struggling as an alien in a new environment. He develops a connection with a generous socialite played by Meryl Streep who helps him in his transition into American society. Liu becomes protege to head of the cosmology department Jacob Reiser, played by Aidan Quinn, who threatens to thwart Liu's aspirations with campus politics when it becomes clear that Liu's developing theories oppose Reiser's models. Eventually Liu gets pushed to the margins of academia and society after he goes behind Reiser's back to publish his discoveries. Alone and unsupported, Liu finally explodes with vengeful hostility in a final and chilling act of violence.DARK MATTER is based on the true story of a disgruntled physics student from China who killed 6 people at the Iowa University of Iowa in 1991. It is a remarkable surprise that any filmmaker would even approach the subject of a tragic campus shooting from the gunman's point of view, but even more surprising that it is executed so well, with a certain elegance and sense of honesty. Add to that an outstanding performance by newcomer Ye Liu, DARK MATTER proves to be as mesmerizing a film as the universe itself.

Beta

Walter is a man lost in a sea of confusion, headaches and strange visions of fish.

I'm a Cyborg But That's OK

Young-goon (Lim Su-jeong, TALE OF TWO SISTERS) is girl who believes that she is a cyborg who must avenge her grandmother. When she is admitted to a psychiatric ward, Young-goon meets Il-soon (Korean pop star Rain), a handsome young man who thinks that he can steal people's souls. Young-goon and Il-soon immediately connect emotionally, and become drawn into a romantic relationship. However, Young-goon refuses to eat food because she believes that as a cyborg, she needs only electrical charges from a transistor radio to survive. As Young-goon's physical condition continues to deteriorate due to malnutrition and electric shock treatments, Il-soon enlists the help his fellow patients to save her life.Not since ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, has a films so engrossingly taken viewers deep into the minds of the mentally ill, without an ounce of condescendence. Director Park Chan-wook (OLDBOY, JSA) affirms his place among the world's greatest filmmakers, by straying far from his ultra-violence image to create a world that is at the same time breathtaking in its visual brilliance and humorously quirky. Rain, Time Magazine's most influential person of 2007, is spectacular in his feature film debut and his co-star Lim Su-jeong demonstrates why she is one of the top young actresses in Asia. The winner of the Alfred Bauer Award at the 57th Berlin International Film Festival is a film filled with unforgettable moments and should not be missed by any person who loves films.