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2016 San Diego Asian Film Festival

English

  1. 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


  2. AFTER THE STORM

    Hirokazu Kore-eda / Masters / Japan / 2016 / Comedy, Drama / 117 mins
    A novelist temps as an infidelity detective, partly for research, but mostly to pay alimony so he can see the young son who no longer lives with him. With a typhoon incoming, his hope for reconciliation blows harder than ever. Kore-eda directs a bruised heart with a light and utterly charming touch.
    AFTER THE STORM

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Friday, November 4, 2016 6:30 pm

    AFTER THE STORM

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Saturday, November 5, 2016 6:05 pm

    AFTER THE STORM

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Wednesday, November 9, 2016 8:45 pm


  3. AFTERNOON

    Tsai Ming-liang / Masters / Taiwan / 2015 / Documentary, Experimental / 137 mins
    Every film by director Tsai Ming-liang has starred the laconic, enigmatic Lee Kang-sheng. In this touching documentary, Tsai sits down with his muse in the abandoned Taiwan house they bought together, and they share an afternoon of reminiscence, unprecedented reflection, and a creative bond that is nothing short of love.
    AFTERNOON

    Digital Gym Cinema
    Tuesday, November 8, 2016 8:10 pm


  4. ANTI-PORNO

    Sion Sono / Masters / Japan / 2016 / Experimental, Pink Film / 76 mins
    Sion Sono takes on the roman porno genre with the glee of a sadist and the turns of a post-modern fantasist. Reality and fiction bleed and power and submission do back-flips in this Lynchian snapshot of an actress whose life is a nightmare film set with no exit in sight.
    ANTI-PORNO

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Saturday, November 5, 2016 10:40 pm

    ANTI-PORNO

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Thursday, November 10, 2016 8:55 pm


  5. THE BACCHUS LADY

    E J-Yong / Asia Pop! / South Korea / 2016 / Drama / 110 mins
    "Don't call me granny. My vagina is still young!" Revered actress Youn Yuh-jung plays an elderly prostitute who wanders the parks of Seoul looking for lonely seniors in the racy, funny, and poignant BACCHUS LADY, an incisive look at communities that struggle and survive below the glossy K-pop radar.
    THE BACCHUS LADY

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Tuesday, November 8, 2016 6:20 pm


  6. BEAUTIFUL 2016

    Jia Zhang-ke, Nakata Hideo, Alec Su, Stanley Kwan / Masters / China, Hong Kong, Japan / 2016 / Drama / 95 mins
    The Hong Kong International Film Festival’s annual collection of commissioned shorts includes a story of an 80-year-old in search of her first love, a documentary about middle-aged women in Beijing, a musical comedy about a diva in a recording studio, and a satire about unemployed coal miners trying on new roles.
    BEAUTIFUL 2016

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Thursday, November 10, 2016 6:20 pm

    BEAUTIFUL 2016

    Museum of Contemporary Art, Sherwood Auditorium
    Friday, November 11, 2016 4:15 pm


  7. BITCOIN HEIST

    Ham Tran / Asia Pop! / Vietnam / 2016 / Action, Comedy / 115 mins
    It’s hacker versus thieves in Ham Tran’s high-energy action-comedy about a team of ace tricksters assembled by the authorities to take down a shadowy crypto-criminal. With effects, stunts, and stars, BITCOIN HEIST rewrites the caper for the internet age and a new era of commercial Vietnamese cinema.
    BITCOIN HEIST

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Sunday, November 6, 2016 6:00 pm


  8. BREATHIN’: THE EDDY ZHENG STORY

    Ben Wang / Asian American Panorama / USA / 2016 / Documentary / 61 mins
    At 16, Eddie Zheng went to prison. After serving 20 years, he's emerged as a speaker and figurehead of Asian American activism in the Bay Area. Ben Wang’s documentary, ten years in the making, follows Zheng as he mentors inmates and young immigrants, while facing new legal challenges of his own.

    Preceded by: LAPS

    BREATHIN’: THE EDDY ZHENG STORY

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Saturday, November 5, 2016 8:35 pm


  9. A BRIDE FOR RIP VAN WINKLE

    Shunji Iwai / Masters / Japan / 2016 / Drama, Mystery, Romance / 179 mins
    A junior high school teacher finds love or something like it through an online service and soon finds herself married and as alone as ever. Quickly, layers of deception unfold with a gothic touch and a dizzying dose of soft-focus romanticism as only a Shunji Iwai epic could deliver.
    A BRIDE FOR RIP VAN WINKLE

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Thursday, November 10, 2016 7:05 pm


  10. CALL OF HEROES

    Benny Chan / Asia Pop! / Hong Kong / 2016 / Martial Arts / 119 mins
    In warlord-era China, a small town is terrorized by officials who think they live above the law, killing at will and leaving the town’s sheriff and local militia without options other than defeat. That is, unless they can transcend their fear and fight back. Action choreographed by the legendary Sammo Hung.
    CALL OF HEROES

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Friday, November 4, 2016 8:30 pm

    CALL OF HEROES

    La Paloma Theatre
    Saturday, November 12, 2016 8:10 pm


  11. CHEERFUL WIND

    Hou Hsiao-hsien / Masters / Taiwan / 1981 / Comedy, Music, Romance / 91 mins
    Pop stars Feng Fei-fei and Kenny Bee meet-cute on the Penghu set of a detergent commercial: she a photographer hanging out with her uncool fiancé, he the bumbling local enlisted to swill for soap. Sparks and songs fly, all composed with the gentle, inchoate rigor of a young director named Hou Hsiao-hsien.
    CHEERFUL WIND

    UCSD Calit2 Atkinson Hall Auditorium
    Saturday, November 5, 2016 1:00 pm


  12. CREEPY

    Kiyoshi Kurosawa / Masters / Japan / 2016 / Thriller / 130 mins
    A disgraced Japanese detective tries to forget his traumatic past by changing professions, but an unsolved cold case that may involve his suspicious next-door neighbor pulls him back into the cop game. Kiyoshi Kurosawa's gripping, macabre serial killer yarn lives up to its title and then some.
    CREEPY

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Sunday, November 6, 2016 8:25 pm

    CREEPY

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Wednesday, November 9, 2016 7:55 pm


  13. DAZE OF JUSTICE

    Michael Siv / Asian American Panorama / Cambodia, USA / 2016 / Documentary, History / 69 mins
    With cameras, a group of seniors, and a tooth-and-nail-fighting law professor, documentarian Michael Siv returns to his native Cambodia to wring an honest apology out the calloused hands of the worst offenders of Pol Pot’s genocidal regime, in the names of justice and healing alike.
    DAZE OF JUSTICE

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Sunday, November 6, 2016 1:20 pm


  14. EAT A BOWL OF TEA

    Wayne Wang / Special Presentations / USA / 1989 / Comedy, History, Romance / 86 mins
    Wayne Wang’s adaptation of Louis Chu’s classic novel is a charming, spirited comedy about a Chinese American man (Russell Wong), whose father finds him a wife from China, leading to a crisis in the young husband’s manhood. Shown in a new director’s cut.
    EAT A BOWL OF TEA

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Saturday, November 5, 2016 1:25 pm Buy Tickets


  15. FAMILYHOOD

    Kim Tae-gon / Asia Pop! / South Korea / 2016 / Comedy / 119 mins
    A middle-aged, cradle-robbing movie star has a new plan to remake her public image: fill her cradle with an actual baby, so as to flaunt her tender, maternal side. Neither her cheating young boyfriend nor the threat of scandal – hell, not even menopause itself – will keep her from the glamour of familyhood.
    FAMILYHOOD

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Tuesday, November 8, 2016 5:55 pm

    FAMILYHOOD

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Thursday, November 10, 2016 6:05 pm


  16. HANG IN THERE, KIDS!

    Laha Mebow / Asia Pop! / Taiwan / 2016 / Drama / 90 mins
    Three playful country boys pass the time causing trouble, hawking vegetables in town, navigating family drama, and sometimes going to school with the few other kids in their tribe. A chance field trip to the city gives them an opportunity for adventure and for growing up.
    HANG IN THERE, KIDS!

    UCSD Calit2 Atkinson Hall Auditorium
    Friday, November 4, 2016 7:00 pm


  17. 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 pm

    HARMONIUM

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Saturday, November 5, 2016 8:55 pm


  18. HIME-ANOLE

    Keisuke Yoshida / Asia Pop! / Japan / 2016 / Thriller / 99 mins
    A sad-looking window washer and his even sadder-looking buddy fall for the same girl. But lurking in the corners is a competitor with a backstory neither of them can fathom. What starts out as an exceedingly adorable rom-com takes a deranged turn in this genre-slashing tale of breaches of friendship and humanity.
    HIME-ANOLE

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Monday, November 7, 2016 8:25 pm

    HIME-ANOLE

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Tuesday, November 8, 2016 8:35 pm


  19. IN PURSUIT OF SILENCE

    Patrick Shen / Asian American Panorama / USA / 2015 / Documentary, Music / 81 mins
    A stunning and expansive meditation on the sounds that envelop us and the certain solace that is the bath of silence. Documentarian Patrick Shen follows artists, wanderers, and scientists for whom silence is not a void, but the purest state of being.

    Preceded by: IF I WERE ANY FURTHER AWAY I’D BE CLOSER TO HOME

    IN PURSUIT OF SILENCE

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Wednesday, November 9, 2016 6:35 pm


  20. 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