The Asian Film Series at the UWM

Black Hair (1964)

2012-02-29T23:10:00.002-06:00

Black Hair (1964)

March 1st, 7:00PM in Garland 104 (2441 E. Hartford)

This crime drama from the prolific Director Lee Man Hee paints a picture of the underworld in the mid 1960’s. Black Hair is a stylish tale of a young woman who betrays and is betrayed, finally ending up scarred and along. When she finally has found a degree of redemption her past returns with a vengeance.

With a career somewhat similar in tone to Samuel Fuller in that he specialized in war and crime films, Lee Man Hee operated in a period of South Korean cinema now little known today. Over the last few years his profile has steadily increased with retrospectives in Korea and the West. This particular entry is an ideal introduction to a director might make many rethink early South Korean cinema.

South Korea, Director Lee Man Hee, Cast Moon Jeong-Suk, Lee Dae-Yeob, DokKo Seong, Lee Hae-Ryong, 108 minutes, in Korean with English subtitles.

What on Earth Have I Done Wrong?! (2007)

2012-02-23T17:20:00.002-06:00

What on Earth Have I Done Wrong?! (2007)

February 23rd, 7:00PM in Garland 104 (2441 E. Hartford)

Taiwan, Director Doze Niu Cheng-Tse, Cast Doze Niu Cheng-Tse, Janine Chang Chun-Ning, Christine Ke Huan-Ju and Chan Hei-Sing, 95 minutes, in Mandarin with English subtitles.

Centre Forward (1978)

2012-02-15T21:42:00.003-06:00

Centre Forward (1978)

February 16th, 7:00PM in Garland 104 (2441 E. Hartford)

One of the first things an experienced viewer of North Korean cinema notices when watching a Pak Chong Song film is the technical skill of the director. North Korean cinema was shaped by the Soviet social realist cinema. This was due to the Soviet film advisers and a practice of sending film makers to the USSR to learn about film production. This created a straightforward style with a minimalist approach to cinematography.
Centre Forward is a sports film less about the competition of sport, and more the battle with oneself in a struggle against their own endurance in a story that transcends nationality.
North Korea, Directors Pak Chang Song, Kim Kil In, Cast Kim Chol, Choi Chang Su, Pak Tae Su, 75 minutes, in Korean with English subtitles

The Heavenly Kings (2006)

2012-02-02T10:05:00.001-06:00

The Heavenly Kings (2006)

February 2nd, 7:00PM in Garland 104 (2441 E. Hartford)

Blurring the lines between reality and satire, four Hong Kong B-list celebrities decided to comment on the absurdities of the then recent boy band craze by creating their own fiction band Alive. This film is that story, told in the style of a mockumentary/behind the scenes video.
The band sold tickets, toured around East Asia and created elaborate fan groups to promote their band with at its hart is an amalgamation of all of the excesses of the boy band model. They are joined by a wide range of other major and minor celebrities playing themselves. But not just playing themselves, they are playing to their media image, typically in an exaggerated and self deprecating manor that further blurs fantasy and reality.
The tittle is a reference to a group of four individuals who were known as the Heavenly Kings of Cantopop back in the 1980's and early 90's including Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau, Aaron Kwok and Leon Lai, with the term itself taken from Chinese mythology. And like mythology, the lines between fantasy and reality are tenuous at best.
Hong Kong, Director Daniel Wu Yin-Cho, Cast Daniel Wu Yin-Cho, Terence Yin Chi-Wai, Andrew Lin Hoi and Conroy Chan Chi-Chung, 83 minutes

February Schedule

2012-02-02T10:04:00.000-06:00

-February 2nd

The Heavenly Kings (2006)
In Cantonese with English subtitles

A group of Hong Kong minor celebrities came together to make a documentary style comedy about boy bands. To do so they form their own, Alive. The Heavenly Kings is a biting comedy dealing with celebrity and the creation of pop culture. Various other celebrities make appearances as themselves in exaggerated performances referencing their own pop image including Karen Mok, Nicholas Tse and Jacky Cheung.

Hong Kong, Director Daniel Wu Yin-Cho, Cast Daniel Wu Yin-Cho, Terence Yin Chi-Wai, Andrew Lin Hoi and Conroy Chan Chi-Chung, 83 minutes

-February 9th

Japan Sinks aka The Sinking of Japan (1973)
In Japanese with English subtitles

Based upon the Sakyo Komatsu novel, Japan sinks is a disaster film that became one of the major hits of the 1970's. The story involves the emanate collapse of the Japanese islands into the continental trench. Similar in concept to the American big budget, effects heavy films of the same era especially 1974's Earthquake.

Japan, Director Shiro Moritani, Cast Keiju Kobayashi, Ayumi Ishida and Hiroshi Fujioka, 143 minutes

-February 16th

Centre Forward (1978)
In Korean with English subtitles

There are few North Korean directors who have been noticed internationally, Pak Chong Song is one of them. This sports film follows a soccer team as they push themselves in a struggle against their own endurance in a story that transcends nationality.

North Korea, Directors Pak Chang Song, Kim Kil In, Cast Kim Chol, Choi Chang Su, Pak Tae Su, 75 minutes

-February 23rd

What on Earth Have I Done Wrong?! (2007)
In Mandarin with English subtitles

As something of a philosophical companion piece to The Heavenly Kings (2006), this Taiwanese comedy is a mockumentary in which director Doze plays a comic version of himself as he encounters scandal and the darker side of celebrity.

Taiwan, Director Doze Niu Cheng-Tse, Cast Doze Niu Cheng-Tse, Janine Chang Chun-Ning, Christine Ke Huan-Ju and Chan Hei-Sing, 95 minutes

Return

2012-01-23T17:53:00.002-06:00

The series is set to resume next week. This will be my final semester as part of the series. Because of this it is my goal to fill this semester with a range of particularly interesting and unexpected films. Hopefully the series will continue after my departure. The complete February schedule will soon be unveiled, both through this BLOG and the weekly email announcements for the series. I have enjoyed running the series and hopefully Spring 2012 will not disappoint.

From Riches to Rags (1979)

2011-12-14T20:50:00.002-06:00

From Riches to Rags (1979)

December 15th, 7:00PM in Garland 104 (2441 E. Hartford)

November 8^th of this year witnessed the passing of a man who became a comic legend throughout East and South East Asia, Ricky Hui 許冠英. Mastering comedy from television to film, he, along with the other Hui brothers, would dominate Hong Kong comedy. This series usually shows a major Hui Brothers film every semester, but because of this death it seems more appropriate to showcase one of his star roles.

Like his other brothers he appeared in a large number of his own projects, although frequently playing second fiddle such as Mr. Vampire (1985) as well as gaining major success for creative efforts behind the camera. His persona was one of the odd, strange looking man who seemed to be out of touch with what was going on, living in his own dream world. He rarely got the girl, saved the day or helped the hero. But his characters always dreamed, usually of power, dignity or wealth.

In From Riches to Rags (1979) he is another working class nobody. Only this time through random chance, he becomes fabulously wealthy. As he begins to live out his fantasies he repeatedly comes face to face with his own limitations as well as the natural variety of freak occurrences, Triad gangs and scheming friends. Directed by John Woo who what then known as a director of Cantonese dialect comedies, the film is a showcase of the kind of comic style that evolved from Hong Kong television of the early 1970’s with all of its energy and inventiveness.

Hong Kong, Director John Woo, Cast Ricky Hui Koon-Ying, JoJo Chan, Tong Jing and Yik Ga, 98 minutes, in Cantonese with English subtitles

The Flying Man of Ma Lan aka Flight Man (1973)

2011-12-07T22:11:00.003-06:00

The Flying Man of Ma Lan aka Flight Man (1973)

December 8th, 7:00PM in Garland 104 (2441 E. Hartford)

Taiwanese director Ting Shan-Hsi returned home after making his name in Hong Kong to direct an unusual tale of the Japanese era. In 1934 a man falls afoul of a crackdown by the Japanese authorities. Forced to flee he eventually find his way to the aboriginal people who life in the mountainous interior.
This Hong Kong financed Taiwanese film is unusual in sever ways. Firstly it is a rarity for Taiwanese films of this period to showcase, or even acknowledge the aboriginal inhabitants. Secondly it deals with politically sensitive material with respect to the Japanese, again a rarity. Although these elements are handled with a caviler sensibility it is still interesting to watch how viewpoints are portrayed in 1973's look back into the recent past.
Flight man is perhaps most notable for casting Ivy Ling Po as the central aboriginal character. Throughout the 1960's she became wildly popular in a particular kind of opera film literally translated as Yellow Plume opera, mostly for playing male roles. But by this time the genre was on the decline and she was attempting to carve out a career in swordplay and drama films. But this film also sees her return to a musical role, and where better to do it in then Taiwan, arguably the place in which she was best loved in her Opera days.
Taiwan, Director Ting Shan-Hsi, Cast Ivy Ling Po, Wong Yung, Shan Mao and Yee Yuen, 90 minutes, in Mandarin with English subtitles

On the Railway (1960)

2011-11-30T21:49:00.003-06:00

On the Railway (1960)

December 1st, 7:00PM in Garland 104 (2441 E. Hartford)

Probably made in 1960, On the Railway centers upon the events of the Korean War. This is not particularly unusual as this is a constant theme in North Korean cinema. The difference in this case is that it was made relatively close to the actual events, with many of the actors likely having fought in the conflict.
The basic story involves a man who travels south with his train, seemingly to defect. But there is more to the story then that, obviously ending in patriotic sacrifice. This formula has been repeated every year from the 1950's to the present, and will likely go into the not too distant future if not beyond.
One interesting feature involves a focus on American troops in the defection segments.
From the early days of the North and Kim Il-sung comes this look into an idealized view of the war. With so little information available on their cinema, this like almost all North Korean film has a phantasmal quality, and in that sense there is a remarkable continuity running throughout the more then fifty years of a truly strange cinema.
North Korea, Director ?, Cast ?, 90 minutes, in Korean with English subtitles

Tokyo Drifter (1966)

2011-11-17T04:40:00.003-06:00

Tokyo Drifter (1966)

November 17th, 7:00PM in Garland 104 (2441 E. Hartford)

It would be more then fair to label Japanese director Seijun Suzuki as one of the most unusual studio directors in world cinema. That is, he was a director that worked the majority of his career contracted to a studio. As such he was given a wide range of films to direct with little choice in the matter. But although assigned the position primarily of B-movie director, he began to experiment in strange directions.
The majority of films he is best remembered for are his Yakuza gangster works. This is at a time when the prevailing trend was towards films portraying Yakuza in a near godlike light as fearless warriors holding up some degraded ideal of Japanese honor and martial strength. While other notable directors were tackling this trend in other ways, such as Kinji Fukasaku with his gritty tone, portraying a nightmare world of pathetic shadow individuals best showcased in his Battles Without Honor or Humanity series (1973-4), Suzuki made them into manic jokes living insane lives in an insane world and always just inches away from noticing it. It would be this tilted viewpoint that would eventually see the director blacklisted after his studio found it impossible to understand, market or support his unique style.
Decades later and Tokyo Drifter is one of his supreme accomplishments. Its story is simple enough. A gangster is forced into an action through his code of honor which leads to a kind of self imposed exile as he tours the underworld and the dysfunction that dictates his life.

Japan, Director Seijun Suzuki, Cast Tetsuya Watari, Chieko Matsubara, Hideaki Nitani and Tamio Kawaji, 83 minutes, in Japanese with English subtitles

Special Taiwanese Event

2011-11-10T01:16:00.003-06:00

Taiwan Day

November 10th

The series will be suspending its normal screening in support of special Taiwan related events and film screening. The events are open to all and should prove an interesting evening.

The series will be suspending its normal screening for this week in support of a special screening of a short Taiwanese documentary film and events at the UWM Golda Meir Library. There will also be a catered reception and a presentation on Democracy in Taiwan.

EcoArk (2010)

Internationally famous architect Arthur Huang created this documentary as a record of the building of an exhibition hall constructed for the Taipei International Floral Exposition. The hall was constructed from a recycled material known as polli-bricks.

Time:
4:00pm-5:00pm　Lecture, Rise of Democracy in Taiwan by Professor David Buck (American Geographical Society Library, 3rd floor)

5:00pm-6:30pm 　Reception and photo exhibition (62 precious photos dated 1911-2011)：4th floor conference room, catered by Jing's Chinese Restaurant

6:30pm-　Presentation/Film Screening with featured speaker: EcoArk Designer Arthur Huang (4th floor conference room)

Location:
Golda Meir Library Conference Center
2311 E. Hartford Ave.

Mekhong Full Moon Party (2002)

2011-11-02T20:30:00.002-05:00

Mekhong Full Moon Party (2002)

November 3rd, 7:00PM in Garland 104 (2441 E. Hartford)

There is something about Thai cinema that seems always to give the impression of a strange quiet, a mellow atmosphere in which things happen almost by themselves. This is no doubt as much a cultural bias as it is a statement of the tone and style of Thai cinema. But even so, the relaxing qualities make a film like Mekong Full Moon Party particularly enjoyable.

The plot involves an annual festival during which strange lights emerge from the water. This phenomenon has made a tiny village into a major tourist destination. Now a young man returns to the village and is faced with a decision regarding the lights and the future of the festival.

Besides sweeping the Thailand National Film Association Awards, the film has enjoyed a moderate level of international attention. Coming at a time when Thai cinema was increasing in both funding and scope, this film is almost a throwback to a time before. The tone is almost that of a documentary film, minimal artifice and character driven.

Thailand, Director Jira Maligool, Cast Anuchyd Sapanphong, Noppadol Duangporn, Boonchai Limathibul and Somlek Sakdikul, 119 minutes, in Thai with English subtitles

The Ghost Story (1979)

2011-10-25T23:41:00.005-05:00

The Ghost Story (1979)

October 27th, 7:00PM in Garland 104 (2441 E. Hartford)

Few directors have had careers as unusual or industry shaping as Li Han Hsiang. He crated popular movements, built national cinemas from the ground up, introduced more than a few new sub-genre and completely reshaped his career no less than four times. Several of his films have been shown in this series before, mostly his Huangmei or Yellow Plum opera films such as The Lover Etern (1963), arguably the most popular film ever released in Taiwan in terms of mass attendance. By the 1970’s he had already become the king of Hong Kong commercial directors, relocated to Taiwan and been run out on imaginary charges of communist sympathies. Back in Hong Kong he would invent another new sub-genre, one that would produce films that would regularly outperform the films of Bruce Lee. This new type was an episodic film, typically operating under an overall theme, if an abstract one. It would be episodic, mix a range of genre including comedy, theater, drama, period film, comedy of manners, exploitation and sexploitation and musical. At their hart, they were about human nature, and the concept of cheating.

The Ghost Story is a good example of this new type. It was one of several dealing lightly with horror elements, although in this case it would be more accurate to say that he uses themes found in traditional Chinese fantasy to satirize the present. In it, a Qing era storyteller takes a group of youngsters on several trips into the paranormal through a variety of eras and locations. One of the films obvious highlights is the actress Hu Chin. She, along with a small group of other actresses, formed the core cast of these films. A gifted comic actress, she followed Li from Taiwan back to Hong Kong. Her most typical role was that of a sadistic madam of a bordello, or some other predatory character. Destroying both men and women with an emotional delight that words do not adequately describe. This would be her last film with the Li before he would make the transition to China, ready to start a new phase in his career. It is a fitting sendoff, with her playing several characters as well as stealing the punch line of the film as it were.

Hong Kong, Director Li Han Hsiang, Cast Chan Shen, Lisa Chiao Chiao, Hu Chin and Lee Kwan, 102 minutes, in Mandarin with English subtitles

Seven Days in Heaven (2010)

2011-10-18T21:02:00.005-05:00

Seven Days in Heaven (2010)

October 20th, 7:00PM in Garland 104 (2441 E. Hartford)

After the death of their father, a group of his adult children come back to their home village for the seven day death ritual. During the week that follows, relationships of the different characters are explored through flashbacks in a journey of grief and human relationships that is sometimes amusing, sometime heartrending but always compelling.

This very personal film has silently been making its way through film festivals for about a year now. One reason for this is the relatively low profile of the films two directors and principal stars. But where it may lack the shadow of established international careers, it does have the strength of its concise vision. Mixing harsh emotion with sly comedy, it is a film that hopefully will become increasingly well known in the future.

Taiwan, Directors Wang Yu-lin and Essay Liu, Cast Wang Li-Wen, Wu Peng-Fong, Tai Bo, Chen Chia-Hsiang and Chen Tai-Hua, 94 minutes, in Mandarin with English subtitles

Bad Guy (2001)

2011-10-12T21:51:00.003-05:00

Bad Guy (2001)

October 13th, 7:00PM in Garland 104 (2441 E. Hartford)

Director Kim Ki-Duk has a kind of monstrous power. His films disturb the viewer on both a level of primordial emotion, and on an intellectual plain. The subject is almost always a study of emotional isolation and uncontrollable human impulse that would guide and pervert even the best intentions. Somehow he has found a way into the viewer’s mind in a very rare and profound way. You rarely see a Kim Ki-Duk film without feeling dirty, depressed and in awe. If I am particularly concentrating on emotional experiences, then it is because that is what his films are.

In Bad Guy a young woman happens to encounter a gang member one day. Just a random encounter, but for the offhand tone of a single moment. Now the film asks the question, what would happen if one human being decided to systematically destroy and pervert the existence of another without the second party every being aware of it?

Kim has become something of a pariah in South Korean cinema. Endlessly railing at what he sees as popcorn films with no real weight. But despite this stance, he continues to be one of the most internationally popular film makers in the region. Probably best known in the United States for his uncharacteristically upbeat Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (2003.)

South Korea, Director Kim Ki-Duk, Cast Cho Jae-hyun, Kim Yun-Tae and Seo Won, 100 minutes, in Korean with English subtitles.

Swordsman in Double Flag Town (1991)

2011-10-05T16:10:00.002-05:00

Swordsman in Double Flag Town (1991)

October 6th, 7:00PM in Garland 104 (2441 E. Hartford)

While a major Chinese director, He Ping has only been exposed to most American audiences through the swordplay drama Warriors of Heaven and Earth (2003,) China’s official submission for the foreign language academy award for that year. Despite not making it as a final nominee, the film with its vast prairies and bitter sweet drama found a relatively wide release on DVD. This week brings his first film as a director, another entry into the period swordplay genre, but with a very different and immensely more individualistic style then Warriors.

Swordsman in Double-Flag Town is typically categorized as a swordplay Western, and it is difficult to not to do so. In it a young man travels to a desert town in the North West to fulfill an arranged marriage. After befriending a local outlaw he finds that Double-Flag Town is a harsh place where bandits are more numerous then ideals. The esthetic of the film is full of dusty, dirty locations that attempt to bring forth the feel of a chaotic place without the glamorization normally found in swordplay cinema.

While swordplay cinema had fallen out of favor in China for most of the last century, both under the Nationalists and later PRC, it began to see a resurgence in the 1990’s. Part of this is the success of a wave of such films made in Hong Kong starting with Tsui Hark’s Swordsman in 1990. Early Chinese entries stressed a realist take on the genre, and this gritty feel in Double-Flag Town is an excellent example of this. While other films using this same approach did exist, most notably a decade before with The Enigmatic Case (1980) directed by Johnny To, arguably the first swordplay film to overtly adopt the look and feel of a American Western. As a relatively low budget film with no major stars, Double-Flag Town had the flexibility to try and create something with a very unique look and feel to it, and perhaps influence the development of Chinese swordplay cinema in the process.

Mainland China, Director He Ping, Cast Zhao Ma-Na, Gao Wei, Sun Hai-Ying and Chang Jiang, 91 minutes, in Mandarin with English subtitles.

Jade Tiger (1977)

2011-09-26T19:21:00.006-05:00

Jade Tiger (1977)

September 29th, 7:00PM in Garland 104 (2441 E. Hartford)

Living in the harsh world of clan loyalties and martial solutions, a young man must investigate the murder of a close family member by tracking down the traitor who helped to engineer the death. While known in the 1960’s for his Cantonese dialect films dealing with social issues and the challenges of everyday life such as Young, Pregnant and Unmarried (1968,) Director Chor Yuen is at least as famous for his later Mandarin dialect output at the Shaw Brothers studio. Among this body of work one theme reappears again and again, that is swordplay films based upon the work of the popular writer Gu Long. Jade Tiger is the seventh such adaptation but hardly the final as this collaboration would eventually produce more than fifteen films.

The particular hallmarks of Gu Long’s fiction included a short, punchy style that continually keeps moving the reader along, as well as a love of absurdity and pop cultural conventions from Chinese and international fiction such as trap doors, vast conspiracies, alternate identities and fantastical weapons. A typical Gu Long hero tends to balk at social conventions and cares about brotherhood more than anything. As is typical of the literary swordplay genre, many stories also serve as ancient detective novels, with a mystery at the films center. Jade Tiger faithfully continues nearly all of these themes to one extent or another, but when injected into the studio system of the Shaw Brothers unusual changes begin to appear.

The first of these unique traits is the pure artificiality of the films world. That is, most films made by the studio in this era were shot primarily on indoor stages, although they also had an extensive back lot. The world of Gu Long was always a particularly unreal one, with impossible feats and an internal logic alien to the real world. This character interacts with a painted sky, fabricated trees, colored lights and strategic mists to create a similar kind of unreality that is very suitable to its subject matter. Secondly typical way in which a swordplay novel was adapted was to use one or a series of chapters, take out story elements that would tend to leave loose ends and then construct a new ending that frequently clashed with the tone of the original tale. A particularly good example of this is in the Taiwanese film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). But the novels of Gu Long were usually very short and to the point in terms of a central narrative based around a single character. So little cutting and pasting was every necessary, but at the same time the complex narrative would become almost manic when squeezed into less than two hours of film. But it is this quality that arguably had made these films so popular and unique.
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Hong Kong, Director Chor Yuen, Cast Ti Lung, Ku Feng, Lily Li, Lo Lieh and Yueh Hua, 90 minutes, in Mandarin with English subtitles.

Dariya Dil (1988)

2011-09-21T23:09:00.002-05:00

Dariya Dil (1988)

September 22nd, 7:00PM in Garland 104 (2441 E. Hartford)

Director K. Ravi Shankar and future superstar Govinda team up in this late 80’s hit. Set in modern India, a rich family falls into turmoil and betrayal. While this film is little known in the United States, a fantasy musical sequence in which the films central characters dress as Superman and Spiderman has become a popular internet video.

India, Director K. Ravi Shankar, Cast Govinda, Kimi Katkar, Roshni and Raj Kiran, 150 minutes, in Hindi with English subtitles