Discoveries
From Asia’s most innovative and thought-provoking filmmakers come new stories and new ways of telling them.
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AFTER SPRING, THE TAMAKI FAMILY…
Huang Yin-Yu / Discoveries / Japan, Taiwan / 2016 / Documentary / 96 mins
Grandma Tamoyo grew up in Taiwan but moved to Japan after WWII. In 2015, she took her family, who she raised as Japanese, to a hometown her descendants only know through family trees. Narrated by Tamoyo’s grandson, this tender documentary embraces forgotten histories and notions of family with the generosity of a favorite grandparent.AFTER SPRING, THE TAMAKI FAMILY…
UCSD Calit2 Atkinson Hall Auditorium
Sunday, November 6, 2016 2:40 pm
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HARMONIUM
Koji Fukada / Discoveries / Japan / 2016 / Drama, Mystery / 118 mins
A mysterious stranger knocks on the door of suburbia in Koji Fukuda’s award-winning HARMONIUM, a grim drama about a family getting a shock to the system. Unsaid words between husband, wife, and the mysterious man in white structure an eerie dance around truths waiting to explode.Preceded by: HO CHI MINH KIM CHI
HARMONIUM
UltraStar Mission Valley
Friday, November 4, 2016 5:45 pmHARMONIUM
UltraStar Mission Valley
Saturday, November 5, 2016 8:55 pm
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THE ISLAND FUNERAL
Pimpaka Towira / Discoveries / Thailand / 2016 / Drama / 105 mins
Laila, her brother, and his friend set out from Bangkok to one of the southernmost provinces of Thailand to visit her aunt. Their road trip reveals a psychic unease about what’s going on in their country, which director Pimpaka Towira plays eerily to a surprising and shimmering finale.THE ISLAND FUNERAL
Digital Gym Cinema
Tuesday, November 8, 2016 6:00 pm
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LE MOULIN
Huang Ya-Li / Discoveries / Taiwan / 2015 / Documentary, Experimental, History / 162 mins
A collage of photography, poetry, film, and painting, this bold and unusual work brings to life the cadence and ruminations of a generation of artists in 1930s Taiwan as they drew from surrealism to make sense of their peculiar positions as literati under Japanese colonization.LE MOULIN
UCSD Calit2 Atkinson Hall Auditorium
Sunday, November 6, 2016 4:40 pm
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LIFE AFTER LIFE
Zhang Hanyi / Discoveries / China / 2016 / Drama, Experimental / 80 mins
Nothing seems strange anymore in the desiccated Shaanxi hinterlands, not even the fact that a young boy has been possessed by the ghost of his mother who returns home to move a tree. The painterly LIFE AFTER LIFE watches with a bemused, distant eye, casting grim clouds over a haunted landscape.LIFE AFTER LIFE
Digital Gym Cinema
Monday, November 7, 2016 6:05 pm
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OLD STONE
Johnny Ma / Discoveries / Canada, China / 2016 / Drama, Noir / 80 mins
When cab driver Lao Shi accidentally injures a motorcyclist on the road, he decides to obey Chinese law and pay for the victim's hospital bills. But his good intentions only invite a wave of stress, deceit, and madness. Compassion is a costly emotion in Johnny Ma's unflinching noir debut.OLD STONE
UltraStar Mission Valley
Sunday, November 6, 2016 3:45 pm
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OUR LOVE STORY
Lee Hyun-ju / Discoveries / South Korea / 2016 / Drama, LGBT, Romance / 99 mins
Art student Yoon-ju is inexperienced in relationships until she meets an alluring girl at a junkyard, and later at a convenience store, and then pivotally, in her apartment. OUR LOVE STORY captures beautifully that bursting feeling of never wanting to be apart, as well as Yoon-ju’s bittersweet discovery of what can come next.OUR LOVE STORY
UltraStar Mission Valley
Friday, November 4, 2016 8:15 pm
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PAMILYA ORDINARYO
Eduardo Roy, Jr. / Discoveries / Philippines / 2016 / Drama / 107 mins
New baby in tow, teenage parents Jane and Aries slash the streets, swiping cell phones and valuables from passerby to feed their love and their addictions. But when their most precious possession is stolen, they're plunged even deeper into the reality of the city.PAMILYA ORDINARYO
UltraStar Mission Valley
Friday, November 4, 2016 7:00 pmPAMILYA ORDINARYO
UltraStar Mission Valley
Monday, November 7, 2016 8:55 pm
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SHORTS: TAIWAN ADRIFT
Discoveries / 79 mins
In these four shorts from Taiwan, economic, cultural, and moral anchors become untethered, stranding its characters on islands unto themselves.In This Program: COIN BOY, ANCHORAGE PROHIBITED, ARNIE, SINGLE BELIEF
SHORTS: TAIWAN ADRIFT
UCSD Calit2 Atkinson Hall Auditorium
Sunday, November 6, 2016 1:00 pm
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A SIMPLE GOODBYE
Degena Yun / Discoveries / China / 2015 / Drama / 100 mins
After dropping out of school in London, Shanshan reluctantly returns home to Beijing when her father, a former luminary of the Mongolian film industry, falls ill. A quietly astonishing portrait of family and youth seeking emotional connection, A SIMPLE GOODBYE unmasks its characters’ fears and capacities for feeling with a tender, striking beauty.A SIMPLE GOODBYE
UltraStar Mission Valley
Tuesday, November 8, 2016 5:45 pm
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WET WOMAN IN THE WIND
Akihiko Shiota / Discoveries / Japan / 2016 / Comedy, Pink Film / 78 mins
Kosuke thinks he can refuse the come-ons of Shiori, the mysterious woman who has penetrated his private wooded lair. Unaccustomed to hearing no, Shiori takes her revenge, a game of come-hither with escalating intensity and a climax that can only come from this ribald mix of comedy and erotica.WET WOMAN IN THE WIND
UltraStar Mission Valley
Friday, November 4, 2016 9:40 pmWET WOMAN IN THE WIND
UltraStar Mission Valley
Wednesday, November 9, 2016 8:55 pm
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THE WORLD OF US
Yoon Ga-eun / Discoveries / South Korea / 2016 / Drama / 95 mins
The littlest hearts break the hardest. In this poignant, naturalistic drama, ten-year-old Sun has always been the outcast at school, but the arrival of a new classmate presents an opportunity for friendship. Still, class differences threaten to further alienate Sun from the hope of happiness.THE WORLD OF US
UltraStar Mission Valley
Saturday, November 5, 2016 6:40 pmTHE WORLD OF US
UltraStar Mission Valley
Sunday, November 6, 2016 3:35 pm
