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The King and The Clown |
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A taboo-shattering film thatfs been called
Koreafs Brokeback Mountain, King and the Clown is a tale of two itinerant
clowns. Under a death sentence for treason, the clowns' ability to make the
King laugh is their last hope for a pardon. The pressure brings the two
entertainers closer to expressing the filmfs homosexual subtext than Korean
audiences are used to seeing depicted on the big screen. When the King takes
to one of the clowns, desire, politics and blood begin to pull them apart. This film was chosen by Korea as its submission for the Oscars in the best foreign film category. |
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119 mins | 2005 | Korea Official Website: www.kingsman.co.kr |
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Getting Home |
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Getting Home is a 2007 Chinese comedy/drama
film directed by Zhang Yang and starring Chinese comedian Zhao Benshan. The
film is episodic in nature and follows two workers in their 50's, Zhao (Zhao
Benshan) and Liu (Hong Qiwen). The film opens when Liu unexpectedly dies
after a night of drinking and Zhao decides to fulfill a promise to his friend
to get him home beginning a long odyssey from Shenzhen to Chongqing with
Liu's corpse on his back. Along the way, Zhao meets a variety of figures,
played by several of China's better known character actors. Getting Home's original title derives from
a Chinese proverb meaning "A falling leaf returns to its roots." It
is apparently based on a true story.
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110 mins | 2007 | China |
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Undoing |
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After a mysterious year-long absence, SAM
returns to Los Angeles determined to find redemption for his past. He soon
becomes intertwined with his old mentor DON, a retired gangster and VERA, the
lover he abandoned. As he tries to balance revenge with reconciliation he is
drawn back into the shadowy world he left behind. A world of impossible desires, loneliness
and isolation. Can Sam undo his mistakes before losing all that he came back
to save? |
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90 mins | 2007 | U.S.A. Official Website: http://www.undoingmovie.com/ |
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Mukhsin |
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The story takes place in Kuala Selangor in
1993, revolving around the first love of a 10-year-old Orked when a
12-year-old boy, Mukhsin, comes with his elder brother and aunt to spend the
school holidays in her village. Around this relatively simple plotline of a
blossoming young romance between the film's two young protagonists, are
interweaved scenes of Malaysian village life and the dynamics of different
types of families. Most of the family scenes revolve around Orked and her
mother (Mak Inom), father (Pak Atam), and the family's close maid who is
almost like a family member (Kak Yam). The other families which are given
attention in the movie are Mukhsin's family (with his elder brother who has
lost his way in life and is trying desperately to find their mother who
abandoned them at a young age, and their Aunty who is trying to take care of
the two boys as though they were her own), and Orked's neighbours (with the
young daughter and pregnant mother who are critical of the western ways of
Orked's family, while they themselves are hurt by the father who wants to
abandon them to take on a second wife). |
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95 mins | 2007 |
Malaysia |
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Miss Chinatown |
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Joining the Miss Chinatown Pageant was the last thing on Katie
Au's mind. She never learned to speak Chinese and didn't fit in with other
Chinese-American girls. Then her mother entered her into the contest, and her father
decided to play pageant coach. "Miss Chinatown, U.S.A." is the story of a young woman
who competes in one of Americafs oldest ethnic beauty pageants. As Katie
travels from her native Seattle to the bustling streets of San Francisco's
Chinatown, we gain unique insight into an individual who is wrestling with
issues of identity as she matures into adulthood. |
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22 mins | 2006 | USA |
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0506 HK |
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Ten years after the handover to China, Hong
Kong remains a society in transition. Part autobiography, part travelogue,
and part cultural criticism, 0506HK documents filmmaker Quentin Leefs visit
to Hong Kong, where he was born and raised. The documentary explores Leefs desire to
relocate to the city from his current home in Los Angeles; in particular, he
questions which place is the best context for him as a filmmaker. The
documentary also examines the state of Hong Kong identity, culture, and
politics through observing and interviewing local artists, filmmakers,
friends, and family. Marked by both humour and insight, 0506HK is a deeply
personal meditation on the effects of migration and displacement. |
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63 mins | 2005 |
USA/Canada/Hong Kong |
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Fortune
Hunters |
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Arthur Yu (Kelvin Yu) has problems. His
girlfriend, Megan (Jessica Skerritt), is leaving to study abroad in China for
a year, leaving him to waste another college vacation working at his dad's
(Gedde Watanabe) fortune cookie factory. Instead of telling Megan that he'll wait
for her, Arthur makes the biggest mistake of his life and dumps the girl of
his dreams. As he suffers through another summer at the factory, Arthur's
fortunes become more and more depressing: You will die alone. Two words:
colon cancer. It doesn't take him long to nearly ruin his father's business. Finally, at wits end, Arthur decides that
the only way to get Megan back is to write her a love letter before she heads
overseas. But when his e-mail gets mixed up with his fortunes, suddenly every
cookie at every restaurant reveals a piece of Arthur's broken heart. |
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20 mins | 2007 | USA |
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