this is the voice of re:mote induction.Tuesday, January 06, 2004
welcome to electric shadows
-apparently electic shadows is the literal translation of the chinese word for cinema, and electric shadows is the second year of "glasgow's overseas chinese film festival" - running from 23rd january to 5th february. the two most obvious inclusions would be "in the mood for love" and "balzac and the little chinese seamstress", but there is a whole selection of stuff which hasn't been shown in the UK before:
What's On At 'Electric Shadows'
PROGRAMME
Fri 23 Jan, 9.00pm, GFT
Mon 26 Jan, 6.30pm, GFT
ROBINSON'S CRUSOE
Directed by Lin Cheng-Sheng
Starring: Leon Dai, Yang Kuei Muei
Taiwan 2003. 90 mins. Mandarin with English subtitles
Cert: 12A. Official Selection, Cannes 2003
Rapturously received by international critics at Cannes this year, ROBINSON'S CRUSOE has been described as a companion piece to Edward Yang's magisterial A ONE AND A TWO (Yi Yi). Partly autobiographical, this bittersweet urban drama is the 6th feature by 44-year-old Lin Cheng Sheng, the director of MURMUR OF YOUTH.
Robinson sells luxury homes, complete lifestyles for those who can afford it. Robinson's own life is not so settled; he secretly lives in a hotel having recently returned to Taiwan from the US, can't resolve issues with his girlfriend and dreams of running away to start a new life. He's found the ideal place on the Internet - Crusoe Island in the Caribbean. Surrounded by colleagues with ever deepening romantic crises, Robinson starts to make plans to get away from it all forever.
'There's a wit and warmth here that makes Robinson very much a flesh and blood creation, engaging enough to earn our sympathy as well as our interest.' - Geoff Andrew, Time Out
Sat 24 Jan, 1pm, CCA
FATHER AND SON (Fuzi Qing)
Directed by Allen Fong
Starring: Shek Lui, Lee Yu Tin
Hong Kong 1981. 96 mins. Cantonese with English subtitles
Cert: PG
In a small shanty town in Hong Kong, a young boy is entranced by the magic of cinema and dreams of making films. But his family is poor and the boy constantly clashes with his authoritarian father who wants him to find a more realistic path in life.
One of the first Hong Kong new wave films of the 1980s to gain international recognition, Allen Fong's autobiographical tale remains a warm, funny and deeply moving take on Chinese family values.
Sat 24 Jan, 5.30pm, GFT + On-stage interview with director Clara Law
THE GODDESS OF 1967
Directed by Clara Law
Starring: Rose Byrne, Rikiya Kurokawa.
Australia 2000. 118 mins
Cert: 15
The starting point for Clara's Law's highly stylised and wholly unpredictable film is the Goddess of the title - not a deity but a car, the shapely Citroen DS so desired by car cultists. A young Japanese man searches the Internet looking for this dream car. He finds one for sale in Australia and travels there to buy it, only to find, on his arrival, that the seller is dead. Unable to speak English, he's drawn to a 17 year-old blind girl who tells him she can take him to the real owner.
Law's film then turns into an odyssey across the arid Australian desert, populated by abandoned mining towns - a desolate land and a dark haunting past. Before long, their separate quests become one: a shared desire to transcend the past and find redemption, achieved under the benevolent eye of the Goddess.
By turns erotic, strange and dangerous, Law's film succeeds in breathing new life into the road movie.
Sun 25 Jan, 3.00pm, CCA
IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE (Huayang Nianhua)
Directed by Wong Kar Wai
Starring: Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Maggie Cheung
Hong Kong 2000. 97mins. Mandarin and Cantonese with English subtitles
Cert: PG
Wong Kar Wai's sensuous tale of repressed desire.
Hong Kong 1962. Mr Chan and Mrs Chow are neighbours who discover that their respective spouses are having an affair. The come together in mutual consolation. He finds more excuses to see her. They start to fall in love, then hold back their feelings.
Wong's beautiful compositions, breathtaking production design and a memorable soundtrack capture the ecstasy of falling in love and the agony of unfulfilled passion.
Tue 27 Jan, 1.30pm, GFT
Thu 29 Jan, 8.15pm, GFT + Q&A with novelist & director Dai Sijie (in English)
BALZAC AND THE LITTLE CHINESE SEAMSTRESS (Balzac et la Petite Tailleuse Chinoise)
Directed by Dai Sijie
Starring: Zhou Xun, Kun Chen, Liu Ye
France-China 2001. Mandarin with English subtitles
Cert: 12A
Based on his own semi-autobiographical best-selling novel, Dai Sijie's sensitive tale charts the friendship between two students during their banishment to a remote mountain village for re-education during the Cultural Revolution.
The students both fall for the seamstress daughter of the village tailor, and encourage her burgeoning interest in western (decadent) arts of classical music and European literature. Years later, the two students meet up again and reflect on the impact of the seamstress, and of the period on their present day lives.
Tue 27 Jan, 1 evening show, UGC
LITTLE CHEUNG (Xilu Xiang)
Directed by Fruit Chan
Starring: Yiu Yuet-Ming, Mak Wai-Fan
Hong Kong 1999. 115 mins. Cantonese with English subtitles
Cert: 12A
With MADE IN HONG KONG, Fruit Chan established himself at the forefront of Hong Kong's new independent filmmaking, post 1997. His films are vivid portraits of Hong Kong, shot through with authenticity, drawing together non-professional actors and naturalistic stories taken from the teeming streets of the territory.
LITTLE CHEUNG is the compassionate story of a streetwise 9-year old boy who helps out in the family restaurant in the bustling working class Mongkok district just before the reunification with China. His parents are always working at their restaurant, so Little Cheung becomes much closer to his grandmother and her Filipino maid Armi. He befriends Fan, a girl his age who is an illegal immigrant from China. He splits his tips with her when she helps him deliver take-outs for his father. Against his father's will, Little Cheung starts searching for his older brother, whom his father disowned because he became a gangster.
Wed 28 Jan, 6.15pm, CCA + On-stage interview with Yu Lik Wai
Fri 30 Jan, 6.00pm, CCA + Q&A with Yu Lik Wai
ALL TOMORROW'S PARTIES (Mingri Tianya)
Directed by Yu Lik Wai
Starring: Yong Won Cho, Yinan Diao
China/France 2003. 96 mins. Mandarin with English subtitles
Cert: 18. Official Selection. Cannes 2003
In the post-apocalyptic 21st century, an authoritarian sect rules continental Asia. It aims to engineer a new society by confining misfits to re-education camps. Zhuai and his brother Mian are captured and sent to one such camp called Prosperity. They soon discover that life there is more than just propaganda. Some time later, the sect collapses. Suddenly granted freedom, the inmates wonder what to do with it.
It's easy to draw the parallels between Yu Lik Wai's audacious drama and modern Chinese history. ALL TOMORROW'S PARTIES is partly a sly commentary on shifts in China's culture over the last 3 decades. But it's also a dystopian vision of the future, convincingly formed by Yu (the noted cinematographer of realist Chinese films such as Xiao Wu) in high definition digital formats that give the film an unprecedented futuristic look.
'At once intimate and enigmatic... and very beautiful.' - Tony Rayns, Vancouver Film Festival 2003
+ short SHADOW SONGS
Directed by Suki Chan and Dinu Li
UK 2003. 8 mins
A Chinese folksong recedes into the distance. Shadows of the original song reappear alongside the goddesses of nature and nurture.
A dazzling experimental video in which ancient myths and cultures collide with new technology and chaos theory.
Fri 30 Jan, 8.30pm, CCA
Sat 31 Jan, 6.00pm, CCA + INTRO by Gary Needham
A CITY OF SADNESS (Beiqing Chengshi)
Directed by Hou Hsiao Hsien
Starring: Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Xin Xu Fen
Taiwan 1989. 157 mins. Mandarin and Japanese with English subtitles
Cert: 15
Hou Hsiao Hsien's now landmark film follows the fortunes and affairs of one family through a tumultuous period of Taiwan's history, the four years after WWII, which ended with the retreat of Chiang Kai Shek's Nationalists to the island.
An intimate epic, Hou is primarily concerned with the effect of wider politics on the lives of his main characters - an old widower, his three sons and their wives - as they follow different paths through the underworld of a developing society.
'…a masterpiece of small gestures and massive resonance…' - Tony Rayns, Time Out
Sat 31 Jan, 9.00pm, CCA
Sun 1 Feb, 3.00pm, CCA
MILLENNIUM MAMBO (Qianxi Manbo)
Directed by Hou Hsiao Hsien
Starring: Shu Qi, Jack Kao
Taiwan/France 2001. 157 mins. Mandarin with English subtitles
Cert: 15
A rare UK screening of Hou Hsiao Hsien's most recent film. A millennial tango of torn romance underscored by an insistent techno score.
The youthful Vicky (Shu Qi) is torn between two men, Hao-Hao and Jack. At night she works as a PR person at a nightclub to support both of them. Hao-Hao is ultra-possessive, keeping watch over her all the time, on or off the job. He checks her bank accounts, telephone bills - everything, in an attempt to track Vicky's activities. She's decided to leave him when her savings run out and has drifted into the arms of Jack. He treats her well but has shady business dealings. When he has a sudden money crisis, he disappears to Japan.
'An exciting demonstration of cinema magic.' - Libération
Sun 1 Feb, 1.00pm, CCA
CRAZY ENGLISH (Fengkuang Yingyu)
Directed by Zhang Yuan
China 1999. 92 mins. Mandarin with English subtitles.
Cert: PG
In 1988, Li Yang was an under-achieving engineering student when he came up with a self-help plan and turned it into a successful business empire. He now tours China, exhorting stadium-sized crowds to learn English by shouting it at the tops of their voices. He charges admission to his mass evangelical teach-ins.
A jaw-dropping documentary from Zhang Yuan, the leading light of China's 'Sixth Generation'. CRAZY ENGLISH simply follows Li Yang in the course of his business, connecting his success to China's open-arms approach to the new enterprise culture.
Mon 2 Feb, 6.45pm, GFT
Tue 3 Feb, 2.00pm, GFT
FIFTEEN (Shiwu)
Directed by Royston Tan
Starring: Melvin Chen, Shaun Tan
Singapore 2003. 94 mins. English, Mandarin and Fujian dialect with English subtitles
Cert: 18. Official Selection, Venice Film Festival 2003
A punky portrait of the Singapore's problem boys, teenage dropouts who hang out in gangs, smuggle drugs, listen to rap and indulge in body piercing, much as we see teenagers everywhere - except Singapore.
Ace short filmmaker Royston Tan has created shockwaves around the world with his debut feature SHIWU, not least in his home territory of Singapore, the world's most renowned nanny state. Tan is just 26 years old, so it's no surprise that his film looks, sounds and feels exactly like a facsimile of teenage experience with its choppy edits, slogans and self-possessed cast.
'I only wanted to make a film of their lives, but in shooting it I've reconnected with a part of myself that I'd forgotten.' - Royston Tan
+ short CHANG AND ENG
Directed by David Cheung
UK 2003. 10 mins
Thanks to David Cheung and the London College of Printing
The extraordinary true story of Chang and Eng, the original Siamese Twins. Born in Siam in 1811, the Twins became an international cause célèbre, fascinating the medical profession and gaining success in spite of the prejudices of Victorian society.
David Cheung's film is an elaborately produced series of thumbnail sketches featuring the key moments of the Twins' lives.
Tue 3 Feb, 1 evening show, UGC
DURIAN DURIAN (Liulian Piaopiao)
Directed by Fruit Chan
Starring: Qin Hailu, Mak Wai-Fan
Hong Kong 2000. Cantonese with English subtitles
Cert: 15
A companion piece to LITTLE CHEUNG.
A little girl from Shenzhen in mainland China named Fan recounts her father's early dawn ritual of dressing in complete darkness, preparing his meal, and rolling his portable cart to the train station, as he makes his daily commute to Hong Kong to buy and sell cigarettes. It is a difficult life of prolonged separation, and Fan waits in eager anticipation for the return of Hong Kong to China, when the family can freely immigrate to Hong Kong to start a new life under better economic conditions.
In the meantime, her parents have decided to take up temporary residence in the poor, working class district of Mongkok. There, everyday, as Fan and her mother wash dishes in the street, she observes a beautiful, well-dressed young prostitute named Yan accompanied by her street tough pimp. The film then shifts focus to follow Yan as she eats a meal, collects a set of towels from a cheap hotel, encourages her client to take a shower and cajoles him into giving her a big tip.
With DURIAN DURIAN, Fruit Chan creates an affectionate, contemplative, and sensitively realized film on disillusionment, economic survival, and nostalgia for a lost Chinese soul.
Wed 4 Feb, 6.45pm, GFT
LIFE IS CHEAP...BUT TOILET PAPER IS EXPENSIVE
Directed by Wayne Wang
Starring: Spencer Nakasako, Chan Kin Wan, Victor Wong
US 1989. 88 mins. Cantonese with English subtitles
Cert: 18.
Somewhere between the charming successes of DIM SUM and THE JOY LUCK CLUB, US-based director Wayne Wang made this in turns shocking, hilarious, surreal, foul-mouthed, hyper-kinetic thriller, an unforgettable postcard from Hong Kong.
The protagonist is a self-styled urban cowboy hired by a group of people he believes to be gangsters to escort a briefcase from America to Hong Kong. When he arrives, however, his contact is nowhere to be found. With no further instructions, he decides to take in the sights of Hong Kong, all whilst wearing the briefcase handcuffed to his arm.
Semi-documentary material is occasionally inserted, giving LIFE IS CHEAP… an intriguing texture. Memorable for possibly the longest foot chase sequence in the history of movies, ending in the infamous and now demolished Walled City near the former Kai Tak Airport.
Wed 4 Feb, 8.30pm, CCA
BRITISH CHINESE SHORT FILMS SESSION
With thanks to the National Film and Television School and to Jane Wong, we are delighted to present a programme of three shorts by Chinese filmmakers in the UK.
1. FAR AND NEAR
Directed by Xiaolu Guo
UK 2002. 22 mins. Mandarin and English with English subtitles
Leaving her country for the first time, a young Chinese writer wanders on a wild mountain in Wales. Through the beautiful, empty landscape and the people she meets, she enters a dreamlike world where memories of her life in a rapidly developing Beijing and a childhood in a poor fishing village return to her.
Xiaolu Guo was a novelist and screenwriter in China, before enrolling on to the Advanced Programme at the National Film and Television School. She has published many books and her latest novel, 'Village of Stone', will be published in English by Random House this year and also in France by Editions Philippe Picquier.
2. CHINESE HONEYMOON
Directed by Xu Shujun
UK 2003. 27 mins. Mandarin with English subtitles.
The film reveals how a former Red Guard deals with the shift from revolutionary musician to manual worker in London and his search for a new wife in China.
Xu Shujun has worked on many Western films shot in mainland China over the past ten years. She enrolled on to the National Film and Television School's Advanced Programme to complete this film.
3. DIM SUM
Directed by Jane Wong
UK 2001. 38 mins. Cantonese with English subtitles.
Liverpool, England, in a Chinese grocery, three Chinese women sit making dumplings. As they chat about traditions, family and men, we discover that although distinctly Chinese, their subjects are universal concerns to which we can all relate.
From the grocery to the cityscape of Liverpool, the women's everyday struggles, and acceptance of fate is revealed through humorous observations.
Thu 5 Feb, 9.00pm, GFT
GOODBYE DRAGON INN (Bu San)
Directed by Tsai Ming Liang
Starring: Li Kang Sheng, Miao Tan
Taiwan. 2003. 82 mins. Mandarin with English subtitles
Cert: U. Winner of the Fipresci Award, Venice Film Festival 2003
An old cinema is screening King Hu's martial arts classic, Dragon Inn. Even with the rain, the audience is thin on the ground and some of those who have turned up are less interested in the movie than in the possibility of meeting a stranger in the dark. This cinema is dying, the roof leaks. Just two people, the box-office girl and the projectionist run it. She has a gammy foot and a crush on the projectionist. He makes a point of avoiding her. Oh, and the place is haunted.
Tsai Ming Liang's latest is a funny and moving elegy to a cinema of the past. At times almost wordless, Tsai's images beautifully depict a fading way of life.
'Tsai Ming-Liang has fashioned what may be his most brilliant metaphor yet: a lament for the death of feelings framed as a valediction to an entire era of Chinese cinema and an obituary to film-going in general. Needless to say, it's cruelly, astringently funny.' - Tony Rayns, London Film Festival 2003
+ short PICNIC AT LOCH LOMOND
Directed by Pamela So
UK 1950s, 6 mins
Cert PG
A Chinese family enjoys a day out by the banks of Loch Lomond in the 1950s, when there were only five Chinese families living in Glasgow. The scenes are captured in elegant Super 8 but a soundtrack of a political demonstration hints that all is not so perfect for these families far from home.
dim sum - this programme was found on this site, which is covering/sponsoring this festival.
-apparently electic shadows is the literal translation of the chinese word for cinema, and electric shadows is the second year of "glasgow's overseas chinese film festival" - running from 23rd january to 5th february. the two most obvious inclusions would be "in the mood for love" and "balzac and the little chinese seamstress", but there is a whole selection of stuff which hasn't been shown in the UK before:
What's On At 'Electric Shadows'
PROGRAMME
Fri 23 Jan, 9.00pm, GFT
Mon 26 Jan, 6.30pm, GFT
ROBINSON'S CRUSOE
Directed by Lin Cheng-Sheng
Starring: Leon Dai, Yang Kuei Muei
Taiwan 2003. 90 mins. Mandarin with English subtitles
Cert: 12A. Official Selection, Cannes 2003
Rapturously received by international critics at Cannes this year, ROBINSON'S CRUSOE has been described as a companion piece to Edward Yang's magisterial A ONE AND A TWO (Yi Yi). Partly autobiographical, this bittersweet urban drama is the 6th feature by 44-year-old Lin Cheng Sheng, the director of MURMUR OF YOUTH.
Robinson sells luxury homes, complete lifestyles for those who can afford it. Robinson's own life is not so settled; he secretly lives in a hotel having recently returned to Taiwan from the US, can't resolve issues with his girlfriend and dreams of running away to start a new life. He's found the ideal place on the Internet - Crusoe Island in the Caribbean. Surrounded by colleagues with ever deepening romantic crises, Robinson starts to make plans to get away from it all forever.
'There's a wit and warmth here that makes Robinson very much a flesh and blood creation, engaging enough to earn our sympathy as well as our interest.' - Geoff Andrew, Time Out
Sat 24 Jan, 1pm, CCA
FATHER AND SON (Fuzi Qing)
Directed by Allen Fong
Starring: Shek Lui, Lee Yu Tin
Hong Kong 1981. 96 mins. Cantonese with English subtitles
Cert: PG
In a small shanty town in Hong Kong, a young boy is entranced by the magic of cinema and dreams of making films. But his family is poor and the boy constantly clashes with his authoritarian father who wants him to find a more realistic path in life.
One of the first Hong Kong new wave films of the 1980s to gain international recognition, Allen Fong's autobiographical tale remains a warm, funny and deeply moving take on Chinese family values.
Sat 24 Jan, 5.30pm, GFT + On-stage interview with director Clara Law
THE GODDESS OF 1967
Directed by Clara Law
Starring: Rose Byrne, Rikiya Kurokawa.
Australia 2000. 118 mins
Cert: 15
The starting point for Clara's Law's highly stylised and wholly unpredictable film is the Goddess of the title - not a deity but a car, the shapely Citroen DS so desired by car cultists. A young Japanese man searches the Internet looking for this dream car. He finds one for sale in Australia and travels there to buy it, only to find, on his arrival, that the seller is dead. Unable to speak English, he's drawn to a 17 year-old blind girl who tells him she can take him to the real owner.
Law's film then turns into an odyssey across the arid Australian desert, populated by abandoned mining towns - a desolate land and a dark haunting past. Before long, their separate quests become one: a shared desire to transcend the past and find redemption, achieved under the benevolent eye of the Goddess.
By turns erotic, strange and dangerous, Law's film succeeds in breathing new life into the road movie.
Sun 25 Jan, 3.00pm, CCA
IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE (Huayang Nianhua)
Directed by Wong Kar Wai
Starring: Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Maggie Cheung
Hong Kong 2000. 97mins. Mandarin and Cantonese with English subtitles
Cert: PG
Wong Kar Wai's sensuous tale of repressed desire.
Hong Kong 1962. Mr Chan and Mrs Chow are neighbours who discover that their respective spouses are having an affair. The come together in mutual consolation. He finds more excuses to see her. They start to fall in love, then hold back their feelings.
Wong's beautiful compositions, breathtaking production design and a memorable soundtrack capture the ecstasy of falling in love and the agony of unfulfilled passion.
Tue 27 Jan, 1.30pm, GFT
Thu 29 Jan, 8.15pm, GFT + Q&A with novelist & director Dai Sijie (in English)
BALZAC AND THE LITTLE CHINESE SEAMSTRESS (Balzac et la Petite Tailleuse Chinoise)
Directed by Dai Sijie
Starring: Zhou Xun, Kun Chen, Liu Ye
France-China 2001. Mandarin with English subtitles
Cert: 12A
Based on his own semi-autobiographical best-selling novel, Dai Sijie's sensitive tale charts the friendship between two students during their banishment to a remote mountain village for re-education during the Cultural Revolution.
The students both fall for the seamstress daughter of the village tailor, and encourage her burgeoning interest in western (decadent) arts of classical music and European literature. Years later, the two students meet up again and reflect on the impact of the seamstress, and of the period on their present day lives.
Tue 27 Jan, 1 evening show, UGC
LITTLE CHEUNG (Xilu Xiang)
Directed by Fruit Chan
Starring: Yiu Yuet-Ming, Mak Wai-Fan
Hong Kong 1999. 115 mins. Cantonese with English subtitles
Cert: 12A
With MADE IN HONG KONG, Fruit Chan established himself at the forefront of Hong Kong's new independent filmmaking, post 1997. His films are vivid portraits of Hong Kong, shot through with authenticity, drawing together non-professional actors and naturalistic stories taken from the teeming streets of the territory.
LITTLE CHEUNG is the compassionate story of a streetwise 9-year old boy who helps out in the family restaurant in the bustling working class Mongkok district just before the reunification with China. His parents are always working at their restaurant, so Little Cheung becomes much closer to his grandmother and her Filipino maid Armi. He befriends Fan, a girl his age who is an illegal immigrant from China. He splits his tips with her when she helps him deliver take-outs for his father. Against his father's will, Little Cheung starts searching for his older brother, whom his father disowned because he became a gangster.
Wed 28 Jan, 6.15pm, CCA + On-stage interview with Yu Lik Wai
Fri 30 Jan, 6.00pm, CCA + Q&A with Yu Lik Wai
ALL TOMORROW'S PARTIES (Mingri Tianya)
Directed by Yu Lik Wai
Starring: Yong Won Cho, Yinan Diao
China/France 2003. 96 mins. Mandarin with English subtitles
Cert: 18. Official Selection. Cannes 2003
In the post-apocalyptic 21st century, an authoritarian sect rules continental Asia. It aims to engineer a new society by confining misfits to re-education camps. Zhuai and his brother Mian are captured and sent to one such camp called Prosperity. They soon discover that life there is more than just propaganda. Some time later, the sect collapses. Suddenly granted freedom, the inmates wonder what to do with it.
It's easy to draw the parallels between Yu Lik Wai's audacious drama and modern Chinese history. ALL TOMORROW'S PARTIES is partly a sly commentary on shifts in China's culture over the last 3 decades. But it's also a dystopian vision of the future, convincingly formed by Yu (the noted cinematographer of realist Chinese films such as Xiao Wu) in high definition digital formats that give the film an unprecedented futuristic look.
'At once intimate and enigmatic... and very beautiful.' - Tony Rayns, Vancouver Film Festival 2003
+ short SHADOW SONGS
Directed by Suki Chan and Dinu Li
UK 2003. 8 mins
A Chinese folksong recedes into the distance. Shadows of the original song reappear alongside the goddesses of nature and nurture.
A dazzling experimental video in which ancient myths and cultures collide with new technology and chaos theory.
Fri 30 Jan, 8.30pm, CCA
Sat 31 Jan, 6.00pm, CCA + INTRO by Gary Needham
A CITY OF SADNESS (Beiqing Chengshi)
Directed by Hou Hsiao Hsien
Starring: Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Xin Xu Fen
Taiwan 1989. 157 mins. Mandarin and Japanese with English subtitles
Cert: 15
Hou Hsiao Hsien's now landmark film follows the fortunes and affairs of one family through a tumultuous period of Taiwan's history, the four years after WWII, which ended with the retreat of Chiang Kai Shek's Nationalists to the island.
An intimate epic, Hou is primarily concerned with the effect of wider politics on the lives of his main characters - an old widower, his three sons and their wives - as they follow different paths through the underworld of a developing society.
'…a masterpiece of small gestures and massive resonance…' - Tony Rayns, Time Out
Sat 31 Jan, 9.00pm, CCA
Sun 1 Feb, 3.00pm, CCA
MILLENNIUM MAMBO (Qianxi Manbo)
Directed by Hou Hsiao Hsien
Starring: Shu Qi, Jack Kao
Taiwan/France 2001. 157 mins. Mandarin with English subtitles
Cert: 15
A rare UK screening of Hou Hsiao Hsien's most recent film. A millennial tango of torn romance underscored by an insistent techno score.
The youthful Vicky (Shu Qi) is torn between two men, Hao-Hao and Jack. At night she works as a PR person at a nightclub to support both of them. Hao-Hao is ultra-possessive, keeping watch over her all the time, on or off the job. He checks her bank accounts, telephone bills - everything, in an attempt to track Vicky's activities. She's decided to leave him when her savings run out and has drifted into the arms of Jack. He treats her well but has shady business dealings. When he has a sudden money crisis, he disappears to Japan.
'An exciting demonstration of cinema magic.' - Libération
Sun 1 Feb, 1.00pm, CCA
CRAZY ENGLISH (Fengkuang Yingyu)
Directed by Zhang Yuan
China 1999. 92 mins. Mandarin with English subtitles.
Cert: PG
In 1988, Li Yang was an under-achieving engineering student when he came up with a self-help plan and turned it into a successful business empire. He now tours China, exhorting stadium-sized crowds to learn English by shouting it at the tops of their voices. He charges admission to his mass evangelical teach-ins.
A jaw-dropping documentary from Zhang Yuan, the leading light of China's 'Sixth Generation'. CRAZY ENGLISH simply follows Li Yang in the course of his business, connecting his success to China's open-arms approach to the new enterprise culture.
Mon 2 Feb, 6.45pm, GFT
Tue 3 Feb, 2.00pm, GFT
FIFTEEN (Shiwu)
Directed by Royston Tan
Starring: Melvin Chen, Shaun Tan
Singapore 2003. 94 mins. English, Mandarin and Fujian dialect with English subtitles
Cert: 18. Official Selection, Venice Film Festival 2003
A punky portrait of the Singapore's problem boys, teenage dropouts who hang out in gangs, smuggle drugs, listen to rap and indulge in body piercing, much as we see teenagers everywhere - except Singapore.
Ace short filmmaker Royston Tan has created shockwaves around the world with his debut feature SHIWU, not least in his home territory of Singapore, the world's most renowned nanny state. Tan is just 26 years old, so it's no surprise that his film looks, sounds and feels exactly like a facsimile of teenage experience with its choppy edits, slogans and self-possessed cast.
'I only wanted to make a film of their lives, but in shooting it I've reconnected with a part of myself that I'd forgotten.' - Royston Tan
+ short CHANG AND ENG
Directed by David Cheung
UK 2003. 10 mins
Thanks to David Cheung and the London College of Printing
The extraordinary true story of Chang and Eng, the original Siamese Twins. Born in Siam in 1811, the Twins became an international cause célèbre, fascinating the medical profession and gaining success in spite of the prejudices of Victorian society.
David Cheung's film is an elaborately produced series of thumbnail sketches featuring the key moments of the Twins' lives.
Tue 3 Feb, 1 evening show, UGC
DURIAN DURIAN (Liulian Piaopiao)
Directed by Fruit Chan
Starring: Qin Hailu, Mak Wai-Fan
Hong Kong 2000. Cantonese with English subtitles
Cert: 15
A companion piece to LITTLE CHEUNG.
A little girl from Shenzhen in mainland China named Fan recounts her father's early dawn ritual of dressing in complete darkness, preparing his meal, and rolling his portable cart to the train station, as he makes his daily commute to Hong Kong to buy and sell cigarettes. It is a difficult life of prolonged separation, and Fan waits in eager anticipation for the return of Hong Kong to China, when the family can freely immigrate to Hong Kong to start a new life under better economic conditions.
In the meantime, her parents have decided to take up temporary residence in the poor, working class district of Mongkok. There, everyday, as Fan and her mother wash dishes in the street, she observes a beautiful, well-dressed young prostitute named Yan accompanied by her street tough pimp. The film then shifts focus to follow Yan as she eats a meal, collects a set of towels from a cheap hotel, encourages her client to take a shower and cajoles him into giving her a big tip.
With DURIAN DURIAN, Fruit Chan creates an affectionate, contemplative, and sensitively realized film on disillusionment, economic survival, and nostalgia for a lost Chinese soul.
Wed 4 Feb, 6.45pm, GFT
LIFE IS CHEAP...BUT TOILET PAPER IS EXPENSIVE
Directed by Wayne Wang
Starring: Spencer Nakasako, Chan Kin Wan, Victor Wong
US 1989. 88 mins. Cantonese with English subtitles
Cert: 18.
Somewhere between the charming successes of DIM SUM and THE JOY LUCK CLUB, US-based director Wayne Wang made this in turns shocking, hilarious, surreal, foul-mouthed, hyper-kinetic thriller, an unforgettable postcard from Hong Kong.
The protagonist is a self-styled urban cowboy hired by a group of people he believes to be gangsters to escort a briefcase from America to Hong Kong. When he arrives, however, his contact is nowhere to be found. With no further instructions, he decides to take in the sights of Hong Kong, all whilst wearing the briefcase handcuffed to his arm.
Semi-documentary material is occasionally inserted, giving LIFE IS CHEAP… an intriguing texture. Memorable for possibly the longest foot chase sequence in the history of movies, ending in the infamous and now demolished Walled City near the former Kai Tak Airport.
Wed 4 Feb, 8.30pm, CCA
BRITISH CHINESE SHORT FILMS SESSION
With thanks to the National Film and Television School and to Jane Wong, we are delighted to present a programme of three shorts by Chinese filmmakers in the UK.
1. FAR AND NEAR
Directed by Xiaolu Guo
UK 2002. 22 mins. Mandarin and English with English subtitles
Leaving her country for the first time, a young Chinese writer wanders on a wild mountain in Wales. Through the beautiful, empty landscape and the people she meets, she enters a dreamlike world where memories of her life in a rapidly developing Beijing and a childhood in a poor fishing village return to her.
Xiaolu Guo was a novelist and screenwriter in China, before enrolling on to the Advanced Programme at the National Film and Television School. She has published many books and her latest novel, 'Village of Stone', will be published in English by Random House this year and also in France by Editions Philippe Picquier.
2. CHINESE HONEYMOON
Directed by Xu Shujun
UK 2003. 27 mins. Mandarin with English subtitles.
The film reveals how a former Red Guard deals with the shift from revolutionary musician to manual worker in London and his search for a new wife in China.
Xu Shujun has worked on many Western films shot in mainland China over the past ten years. She enrolled on to the National Film and Television School's Advanced Programme to complete this film.
3. DIM SUM
Directed by Jane Wong
UK 2001. 38 mins. Cantonese with English subtitles.
Liverpool, England, in a Chinese grocery, three Chinese women sit making dumplings. As they chat about traditions, family and men, we discover that although distinctly Chinese, their subjects are universal concerns to which we can all relate.
From the grocery to the cityscape of Liverpool, the women's everyday struggles, and acceptance of fate is revealed through humorous observations.
Thu 5 Feb, 9.00pm, GFT
GOODBYE DRAGON INN (Bu San)
Directed by Tsai Ming Liang
Starring: Li Kang Sheng, Miao Tan
Taiwan. 2003. 82 mins. Mandarin with English subtitles
Cert: U. Winner of the Fipresci Award, Venice Film Festival 2003
An old cinema is screening King Hu's martial arts classic, Dragon Inn. Even with the rain, the audience is thin on the ground and some of those who have turned up are less interested in the movie than in the possibility of meeting a stranger in the dark. This cinema is dying, the roof leaks. Just two people, the box-office girl and the projectionist run it. She has a gammy foot and a crush on the projectionist. He makes a point of avoiding her. Oh, and the place is haunted.
Tsai Ming Liang's latest is a funny and moving elegy to a cinema of the past. At times almost wordless, Tsai's images beautifully depict a fading way of life.
'Tsai Ming-Liang has fashioned what may be his most brilliant metaphor yet: a lament for the death of feelings framed as a valediction to an entire era of Chinese cinema and an obituary to film-going in general. Needless to say, it's cruelly, astringently funny.' - Tony Rayns, London Film Festival 2003
+ short PICNIC AT LOCH LOMOND
Directed by Pamela So
UK 1950s, 6 mins
Cert PG
A Chinese family enjoys a day out by the banks of Loch Lomond in the 1950s, when there were only five Chinese families living in Glasgow. The scenes are captured in elegant Super 8 but a soundtrack of a political demonstration hints that all is not so perfect for these families far from home.
dim sum - this programme was found on this site, which is covering/sponsoring this festival.
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