The 12th Shanghai International Film Festival Asian New Talent Award

Title: Days with You

Country : Japan

Year : 2008

Director: Amiy Mori

Running time: 103 

Synopsis

Two childhood friends who grew up in a town that used to be called "Town of Falling Stars" are reunited after an 11 year interval. While an old landmark planetarium is about to be demolished and the star lights about to be replaced with neon lights in their hometown, the two confront their harsh fate. Believing in the miracle of the constellation meteor shower... 

Title: Prince of cockfighting

Country : Philippine

Year : 2008

Director: Yeng Grande

Running time: 115 

Synopsis 

This is the story of Joey...The prodigal son who came back home. Only this time , he overstayed his welcome.

Joey, an Actor who was very passionate in cockfighting (Cockfighting is the most popular national pastime in the Philippines). When Joey’s best gamecock lost to a unknown breed of gamecock named “prinsipe sabong”, he was frantic and livid. Joey could not work and lost appetite as an actor. He was obsessed with the identity of prinsipe sabong and its whereabouts. He then quit showbiz. He decided to go back home to his province & look for that gamecock . It was rumoured to be bred in his Hometown. But no one could be sure.

Upon return, he was surprised to find out their house became like an orphange! His Father decided to adopt children. He was very much against it, but his brother was fine with it. The ruckus started. What made it worst is the pressence of Celine. Celine is the girlfriend of his brother, whom Joey later fell in love with… 

Title: vacation

Country : Japan

Year : 2008

Director: Kadoi Hajime

Running time: 115 

Synopsis

Hirai, a middle-aged prison guard, is getting married to Mika, a single mother. Hirai has not been able to spend enough time with her son due to busy work, and the child has not opened up his mind to Hirai yet. In the prison, those who volunteer to support the execution of an inmate receive a vacation for a week leading up to the date of the execution. No guard likes to do the job because of its closeness to the death of inmates who they spend a long time with. Finding in need of time with his new family, Hirai decides to take up the position and go on a trip. 

Title: A Wednesday

Country : India

Year : 2008

Director: NEERAJ PANDEY

Running time: 103 

Synopsis

A Wednesday is a thriller set almost in real time in this city. It tells the story of certain events that unfold between 2 & 6 pm on a particular Wednesday. Events which do not exist in any record but which deeply affected the lives of those involved.

Prakash Rathod is the Commissioner of Police, Mumbai. He was in his office just like any other day till the time he gets a call from a Man. What and why is the crux of the story that has been kept a closely guarded secret. The Case is not supposed to be a precedent. 

Title: Be calm and count to 7

Country : Iran

Year : 2008

Director: Ramtin lavafipour

 Synopsis

On an island in the south of Iran, the lives of several people are unintentionally tied to each other: the father of a thirteen-year old boy named Moto has smuggled few people out of Iran, and has not yet returned home; Moto, involved in goods smuggling, is looking for signs of his father; another, a man who is an intermediary in goods smuggling has a wife and child living in Tehran. The man is not satisfied with wife’s intention for emigrating abroad, and feels helpless as he is losing his last hope for a better life. And, finally, a bride, whose groom has left her on the first night of their marriage! 

Title: Scandal Makers

Country : South Korean

Year : 2008

Director: Hyeong-Cheol Kang

Running time: 108 

Synopsis

Mid 30\'s Nam Hyeon-su is a popular radio DJ and entertainer (who was even more popular in his younger days as a teen idol).
One day, Hwang Jeong-nam suddenly appears and tells Hyeon-su that he is her father. Furthermore, she informs him that he is now a grandfather to her young son, Ki-dong. Jeong-nam then follows Hyeon-su everywhere he goes. This causes the media to take notice and mistakenly identify Hyeon-su and Jeong-nam as a couple. A complicated scandal then erupts. 

English Title: The days

Country : Singapore

Year : 2008

Director: Boi Kwong

Running time: 92 

Synopsis

Based on a true story – “THE DAYS” tells a cautionary tale between two brothers, set between 1989 and 1990. In a misguided effort to teach BABY independence, and to make him feel protected, ZI LONG brings him into his own gang of delinquents, introducing him to his group nicknamed “The 4 Heavenly Kings” – DOG, the silent fighter; COCKROACH, the loudmouth and TAUPER, the motorbike riding free soul together with their surrogate leader JEREMY TAN. Unknowingly, his decision has thrown them both into a tumultuous and violent world that will, in different ways, imprison them both. 

Title: JALAINUR

Country : China

Year : 2008

Director: Zhao Ye

Running time: 92 

Synopsis

Jalainur, near the border of China and Russia, is an open-pit colliery with over-100-years of history and the unusual sight of steam trains in service. Now the huge pit is almost empty, the steam trains will be retired and a large number of colliery workers are facing the crisis of being laid off. The idea of this film comes from an old Chinese saying, “Even if I accompany you for thousands of miles, finally we must bid farewell.”

The two protagonists, Old Zhu and Zhizhong, have worked closely together. One day Zhizhong finds that Old Zhu is not at the colliery where he has worked for over 30 years and he left to be with his daughter who lives near the border. Zhizhong gets on the road and manages to follow Old Zhu all the way and finally decided to leaves him when Old Zhu’s daughter shows up. Zhizhong wanders around at the border, he misses the train to go back to work that day.

The entire film is shot on actual location in Jalainur. 

Title: Walk to School

Country: China

Year: 2008

Director: Peng Jia Huang, Peng Chen

Running time: 90 

Synopsis

Wawa is a 7-year-old, living the mountain area. He envies his sister, Naxiang, for she can go to school every day. To go to school, Wawa must use the tramline. However, his mother never allowed him to do so. She promised to let him play the tramline only if his father is back from work in the “big city”.

Yet, Wawa was so curious about the other side of the mountain that he secretly went across the valley by the tramline. What happened in school deeply impressed him. With the coming of a new teacher from the “big city”, Wawa’s life was changed…