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NATWA II FilmMakers (Anita Chang and Karen Lin) at the 24th Los Angeles Asian pacific Film Festival
NATWA II will offer discount tickets of $7 per film, please
e-mail natwa2@natwa.com if interested.
The 24th Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival will take place May
1 - 8 at the Directors Guild of America. TUF, TAP and NATWA II are proud to co-present the following two feature films. One of them is a documentary about the endangered Lo-Sheng leprosy colony, the other is a drama played by Jaycee Chan in collaboration with Taiwan's premier percussion group The U Theatre. Screening
of the two films will be from 6 to 9 pm on Saturday, May 3. A TUF Reception will follow immediately the screening of THE DRUMMER.
JOYFUL
LIFE (LE SHENG) (Taiwan, 2007) 50 min.
Dir.: Anita Chang
Film Language(s): Mandarin, Minnan and Taiwanese w/E.S.
SAT, MAY 03 - 06:00 PM | Directors Guild of America, Theater 3
Lo-Sheng ("Joyful Life") leprosy colony was established in 1930 on the Sinjuang hillside in the outskirts of Taipei, Taiwan's capital. In 2002, more than one-third of Lo-Sheng was destroyed due to subway construction and other pending urban development projects. As a result, more than half of the 300 remaining residents moved into the newly constructed hospital nearby. Due to resident, student, and human rights activism, plans for total destruction have stopped. At this point, the sanatorium remains despite continued pressures from the government, private interests, and local civilians to evacuate. Conceived as a collaboration among the residents of Lo-Sheng, a Taiwanese-American filmmaker, documentary students, and cultural workers, filmmaker-lead workshops prepared residents for their own storytelling and filming, creating an intimate portrait of a historically marginalized community and their inspiring determination to protect what they call their home.
Showing in Program 19, on Saturday, May, 03 06:00 PM.
For Program information, Click
here.
THE
DRUMMER (Hong Kong/Taiwan/Germany, 2007) 120 min.
Dir./Scr.: Kenneth Bi
Film Language(s): Mandarin w/E.S.
SAT, MAY 03 - 07:00 PM | Directors Guild of America, Theater 1
A young Hong Kong rebel finds inner peace and a sense of purpose with a group of Zen musicians in the hills of Taiwan in THE DRUMMER, an entertaining blend of genre elements and spiritual content that plays much better than it sounds on paper. The incorrigible Sid (Jaycee Chan, son of Jackie) is caught in the bath with the wife of powerful triad boss Stephen Ma. Cocky Sid insults Ma in front of the latter's men. Ma demands both of Sid's hands on a platter from Sid's father, Kwan, who runs a rival gang, but owes Ma a favor. Kwan tracks down Sid and dispatches him to safety to Taiwan, in the company of deputy gang leader, Chiu. We find Sid and Chiu in a Taiwanese village, above which Sid one day finds a reclusive community of Zen drummers who also practice tai chi and martial arts. Mesmerized by their open-air exercises, Sid asks to join-and is tentatively accepted. By never taking itself too seriously, the film manages to stir a spiritual element-the mystical properties of traditional drumming-into what would have been a basic genre movie.
Showing in Program 20, on Saturday, May, 03 07:00 PM.For Program information, Click
here.
SUBLINGUAL
(United States, 2008) Dir. Karen Lin
Two strangers pass one another in a restaurant booth. But is there something
deeper between them, perhaps a relationship in a parallel life - or just a passing
coincidence? A heartfelt tale of timeless love from the director of Film Festival
2007 selection BYSTANDING.
Showing in Program 23, on Saturday, May, 03 07:45
PM.For Program information, Click
here. |
