(South Korea, 2005) Dirs.: Park Kyung-hee, Ryoo Seung-wan, Jung Ji-woo, Jang Jin, Kim Dong-won
IF YOU WERE ME 2 is an omnibus feature film planned and produced by National Human Rights Commission of Korea in which five film directors addressed the theme of human rights. In Park Kyung-hee's SEASIDE FLOWER a girl named Eun-hye lives a life complicated by Down's Syndrome. Ryoo Seung-wan's HEY, MAN observes the outrageous prejudices of a drunken salaryman. A BOY WITH THE KNAPSACK by Jung Ji-woo portrays the life of a young North Korean refugee. SOMEONE GRATEFUL, by Jang Jin, is a black comedy that touches on issues concerning part time employment through a story of an investigator who tortures a campus activist. And in Kim Dong-won's JONGNO, WINTER, a Korean Chinese freezes to death on the wintery streets of Seoul in 2003.
35mm, 112 minutes, color and black & white, narrative, in Korean w/E.S.
PROGRAM 42 - Tribute to Nobu McCarthy
MAY 8 - 7:30 p.m. • Aratani/Japan America Theatre
GAIJIN 2: LOVE ME AS I AM (Ama-Me Como Sou)
(Brazil, 2005) Dir.: Tizuka Yamasaki
In 1908, the young Titoe leaves her village in Japan to work in faraway "Buraziru," promising to return after five years. Once in Brazil, her husband from an arranged marriage dies, and she is left to care for her daughter Shinobu. Landowner and farmer, midwife and respected matriarch, Titoe epitomizes the matrilineal gambare spirit of endurance and female independence, one that blesses and curses the women of her family across this Latin-Asian epic that is equal parts Rushdie, García Márquez, and Allende. A backdrop of world events, back-and-forth flows of government-sponsored immigrant labor, the politics of the Japanese empire, and a century of racial and cultural mixing tears the family apart and re-unites it across generations. Starring Tamlyn Tomita and featuring the final performance by veteran stage and screen actress Nobu McCarthy, GAIJIN 2 updates director Yamasaki's 1981 classic GAIJIN: PATHS TO FREEDOM.
35mm, 131 minutes, color, narrative, in Portuguese and Japanese w/E.S.
PROGRAM 43
MAY 8 - 9:30 p.m. • Laemmle's Sunset 5 Theatre
BE WITH ME
(Singapore, 2005) Dir.: Eric Khoo
BE WITH ME is a tapestry of three stories woven around the themes of love, hope and destiny. Although the main characters come from different backgrounds and lead different lives, they all long to be with their loved one. "Meant To Be" is about an ageing provision shopkeeper grappling with loneliness. Just when he is about to give up hope, he chances upon an autobiography that changes his life. "Finding Love" follows the mundane life of a middle aged security guard who has two loves in life: food and a high flying professional who works in the same building he does. The first he indulges in with great passion, the second, alas, he can only admire from afar. And "So In Love" is the bittersweet chronicles of a teenage love less ordinary. A chain of events spark off a flurry of SMSs which will drastically rewrite the blueprints of their lives.
Unknown to them, these different souls will share the same stage in a play written by Fate, one which involves the themes of love, tragedy and redemption. The characters in the movie are fictitious except for Theresa Chan. Deaf and blind since she was 14, Theresa, now 61, is a remarkable woman who has triumphed over her disabilities to live an amazing life. She is the film's beacon, a symbol of strength and hope.
35mm, 94 minutes, color, narrative, in Mandarin and Hokkein w/E.S.
