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2015 San Diego Asian Film Festival

Discoveries

From Asia’s most innovative and thought-provoking filmmakers come new stories and new ways of telling them.


  1. ATOMIC HEART

    Ali Ahmadzadeh / Discoveries / Iran / 2015 / comedy, drama, fantasy / 93 mins
    Decked out in dyed hair and rhapsodizing on life in their twenties, a pair of partiers cruise the Tehran streets and along the way encounter a chic old friend and a charmer with a devilish side. Without a doubt the most surreal new Iranian film is also the coolest.
    ATOMIC HEART

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Tuesday, November 10, 2015 8:55 pm


  2. BEING GOOD

    Mipo O / Discoveries / Japan / 2015 / drama / 121 mins
    A teacher has about had it with his rowdy students. A mother realizes she hasn’t a clue how to discipline her young daughter. Director Mipo O captures the anxiousness of childcare with paralyzing effect, but also a realist’s take on adults’ desires – even inclinations – for doing the right thing.
    BEING GOOD

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Tuesday, November 10, 2015 5:20 pm

    BEING GOOD

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Wednesday, November 11, 2015 8:00 pm


  3. HAPPY HOUR

    Ryusuke Hamaguchi / Discoveries / Japan / 2015 / drama / 317 mins
    The precious balance holding together four best friends is tested when one announces that she will be divorcing her husband. With a grandeur and detail afforded by its running time, HAPPY HOUR explores that balance through a feat of fortitude and the poise of simply “being there” between friends.
    HAPPY HOUR

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Tuesday, November 10, 2015 1:00 pm

    HAPPY HOUR

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Wednesday, November 11, 2015 1:00 pm


  4. THE KIDS

    Wei-Shan Yu / Discoveries / Taiwan / 2015 / drama / 90 mins
    Bao-Li and Jia-Jia meet in middle school and become forever connected in this remarkable debut by Sunny Yu, who structures her document of youth as a mystery with overlapping revelations. As money problems, the pressure of family, and the seduction of redemption mount, so does the film’s willful sympathy.
    THE KIDS

    UCSD Calit2 Atkinson Hall Auditorium
    Saturday, November 7, 2015 3:05 pm


  5. THE MASTER

    Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit / Discoveries / Thailand / 2014 / documentary / 80 mins
    Thai filmmakers and critics reminisce on the neatly-kept corner stall of a bustling market, where in the 1990s, a shadowy entrepreneur sold lovingly-smuggled works of world cinema on VHS, and inadvertently transformed the face of Thai cinema forever.
    THE MASTER

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Sunday, November 8, 2015 6:40 pm

    THE MASTER

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Thursday, November 12, 2015 4:00 pm Buy Tickets


  6. SNAKESKIN

    Daniel Hui / Discoveries / Portugal, Singapore / 2014 / experimental, hybrid documentary / 105 mins
    In 2066, the remaining member of a cult looks back on its history when he discovers film footage of its pre-founding in 2014. Altogether strange and death-defying, this is an alternative history of Singapore told from the future, showing racial and cultural fault lines manifesting as a nation’s ghosts-in-the-making.
    SNAKESKIN

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Thursday, November 12, 2015 8:45 pm


  7. SNOW PATHS

    Kim Hee-jung / Discoveries / South Korea / 2015 / drama / 100 mins
    An alcoholic checks into a forest convent for rehabilitation, but has an icy relationship with the nuns – that is, until he meets one with an other-worldly obligation to him. Their connection is just one of many enigmas in a film blurring religious and secular, burning passion and the cold of winter.
    SNOW PATHS

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Friday, November 6, 2015 8:35 pm


  8. SWAP

    Remton Zuasola / Discoveries / Philippines / 2015 / thriller / 96 mins
    Staged in a magnificent single take while zipping in time and shifting breathlessly across locations, SWAP follows a young couple as they confront the unimaginable: the kidnapping of their son. The film’s theatrics foreground a thrilling game of cat-and-mouse, while the ghosts of social upheaval loom behind the curtains.
    SWAP

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Monday, November 9, 2015 6:20 pm