FILM AUTHORS IN CONTEMPORARY ASIA

Screening List：

CURE

SHALL WE DANCE?

SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY

TRAVELLERS AND MAGICIANS

SMALLER AND SMALLER CIRCLES

VIVE L'AMOUR

WEEKEND PLOT

CURE

Directed by: Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Written by: Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Starring: Kôji Yakusho / Masato Hagiwara / Tsuyoshi Ujiki / Anna Nakagawa

Country/Region: Japan

Plot:

A wave of gruesome murders is sweeping Tokyo. The only connection is a bloody X carved into the neck of each victim. In each case, the murderer is found near the victim and remembers nothing of the crime. Detective Takabe and psychologist Sakuma are called in to figure out the connection, but their investigation goes nowhere. An odd young man is arrested near the scene of the latest murder, who has a strange effect on everyone who comes into contact with him. Detective Takabe starts a series of interrogations to determine the man's connection with the killings.

SHALL WE DANCE?

Directed by: Masayuki Suo

Written by: Masayuki Suo

Starring: Koji Yakusho / Tamiyo Kusakari / Naoto Takenaka

Country/Region: Japan

Plot:

Shohei Sugiyama is an awkward and painfully shy middle-aged workaholic until the day he catches a glimpse of a beautiful instructor, Mai Kishikawa, in the window of a shabby ballroom dancing school. Once he finally gets the nerve to sign up for the lessons, he was assigned to an older instructor and her eccentric class of beginners. But this is just the first in a series of hilarious missteps he takes while trying to impress the elegant young beauty and keeps the embarrassing details from his family and friends. After being rebuffed by Mai, Sugiyama discovers to his surprise that his passion for ballroom dance outweighs his infatuation with her. Indeed, dancing, rather than Mai, gives Sugiyama the meaning in life that he was looking for.

SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY

Directed by: Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Written by: Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Starring: Nantarat Sawaddikul / Jaruchai Iamaram / Sophon Pukanok / Nu Nimsomboon

Country/Region: Thailand / Austria / France

Plot:

The film is made up of two parts which sometimes echo each other. The two central characters are inspired by the filmmaker’s parents, in the years before they became lovers. The first part focuses on a woman doctor, and is set in a space reminiscent of the world in which the filmmaker was born and raised. The second part focuses on a male doctor, and is set in a more contemporary space much like the world the filmmaker lives in.

TRAVELLERS AND MAGICIANS

Directed by: Khyentse Norbu

Written by: Khyentse Norbu

Starring: Tshewang Dendup / Sonam Lhamo / Lhakpa Dorji / Deki Yangzom

Country/Region: Australia / Bhutan / UK

Plot:

In the Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan, two men seek to escape their mundane lives. Dondup, an educated university graduate believes that he will be better off picking grapes in the US than working as a government officer in a remote rural village. Tashi, a restless farm youth studying magic, cannot bear the thought of a life consigned to his village. Through a trick of his brother, he is delivered into a dream world of seduction and intrigue. The two men embark on parallel, if separate, journeys. Their yearning is in common – for a better and different life. Dondup, delayed by the timeless pace of his village, is forced to hitchhike through the beautiful wild countryside of Bhutan to reach his goal. He shares the road with a monk, an apple seller, a papermaker and his beautiful young daughter, Sonam. Throughout the journey the monk relates the story of Tashi. The cataclysmic conclusion of the monk’s tale leaves Dondup with a dilemma.

SMALLER AND SMALLER CIRCLES

Directed by: Raya Martin

Written by: Raymond Lee / Ria Limjap

Starring: Nonie Buencamino / Sid Lucero / Carla Humphries / Bembol Roco

Country/Region: The Philippines

Plot:

When the eviscerated body of a boy is found in the trash heaps of a thirteen-hectare dumpsite, nobody cares enough to notice. A news report might pick up the story, but when the victim is a nameless, faceless kid from a poor community - is anybody watching? Father Gus Saenz, a forensic anthropologist and a Jesuit, finds himself caught up in the case as an alarming number of dead preteen boys turn up in the dumpsite. Father Gus and his colleague Father Jerome have the help of Joanna Bonifacio, a young reporter, as they investigate the murders through the cramped urban landscape of Manila. Based on the award-winning novel by Filipino author F.H. Batacan, SMALLER AND SMALLER CIRCLES illustrates the best and worst of human nature: the antiseptic and the dirty, the sublime and the rotten, the hellish and the divine.

VIVE L'AMOUR

Directed by: Ming-liang TSAI

Written by: Ming-liang TSAI / Yi-chun TSAI / Pi-ying YANG

Starring: Chao-jung CHEN / Kang-sheng LEE / Kuei-mei YANG

Country/Region: Taiwan, China

Plot:

The film focuses on three city folks who unknowingly share the same apartment: Mei, a real estate agent who uses it for her sexual affairs; Ah-jung, her current lover; and Hsiao-ang, who steals the key and uses the apartment as a retreat. Mei who is entering middle age lives alone. She is desperate to be loved. While Hsiao-ang is desperate to love someone. And Ah-jung, a footloose young man, loves no one and feels no need for the love of another. Mei sells real estate. Hsiao-ang sells burial plots. Ahjung sells women's clothing on the street. The empty apartment soon becomes a crossroads for these seemingly disparate lives, and eventually, unlikely liaisons develop...

WEEKEND PLOT

Directed by: ZHANG Ming

Written by: ZHANG Ming

Starring: ZHANG Yalin / GUO Xiaodong / HUANG Zhizhong / LI Na / WANG Kuen

Country/Region: China

Plot:

In a summer weekend, JIN Xiaobei, ZHANG Jianli, HOU Hong take their friends ZHAO Chen and MA Yang from Beijing to tour along the Yangtze River. Their high school classmate YU Dong still lives in the small county town, works as a policeman and is glad to welcome his old schoolmates. JIN Xiaobei in a tense relationship with her boyfriend, feels lost about the future; meanwhile, YU's daily life with his wife tends to become dreary and tedious. Things changed when YU's high school crush JIN arrives, and an anonymous note saying "Love to die" triggers something deep down in their hearts. YU has to go back to the county ahead of his schedule for a mission, but the idea of picking JIN up from the tourist spot is all in his head, which later led to a fierce fight with his wife LIU Yan. Struggling in the dilemma, YU has to make his choice...