On day two, there was one decent horror movie, Dorm, and one nearly incomprehensible one, The Victim. Dorm has also already been covered in Twitch, so I’ll leave that one alone. I don’t think I followed The Victim well enough to review it, so I’m not touching that one either. Friday’s winner for me was Heavenly Kings. This was a Daniel Wu directed documentary about his boy band, Alive, which consists of Wu (One Night In Mongkok), Terence Yin (Rob-B-Hood), Conroy Chan (Rob-B-Hood), and Andrew Lin (Rob-B-Hood). This film was a riot. The film charts Alive’s journey from conception to ascension to near breakup to redemption with tongue firmly in cheek. It is basically a very funny indictment of the Hong Kong pop star machine. In addition to some very funny bits about Alive leaking their debut single onto the internet, funny anecdotes about the complete inability of anyone in the group, except Terence, to sing, the film also features some very candid interview footage from HK stars on what the music business in HK has become. This film is far more critical of Hong Kong than most films dare, but I think it gets away with it because it really is jaw droppingly funny. The best scene in the film is probably the stylist scene, in which the members of Alive are dressed in a number of ridiculously garish and inappropriate outfits by “Sandy” each more embarrassing than the last. There is a twist at the end, but I’ll leave that out of the review, because it was only revealed to those of us who stayed through the entirety of the credits. The film succeeds on every level, it is funny, it is interesting, it is scathing, and most of all, very, very entertaining.

Day three was the first marathon, that day I saw Tie A Yellow Ribbon, Vanaja, Hana, The Great Happiness Space: Tale of an Osaka Love Thief, and Ghost Train. Only the last one disappointed, the rest were solid films. The Great Happiness Space was probably a tie for my favorite with Hana, but since Hana has been covered, I’ll give a brief overview of Space. The film is a documentary focusing on the Osaka host club “Stylish Caf‚ Rakkyo”, which is the number one male host club in Osaka. The owner and top “host” is Issei, who explains the ins-and-outs of the host club to the viewer. “Host clubs” are bars that cater to women by having a large selection of men on a “menu” from which they can choose. Once the host is chosen, it is his job to dote on that women and make sure she has a good time, which generally involves a lot of karaoke, jokes, loud talking, oh, and LOTS of alcohol. The film delves into the psyches of the men and women; both sets are represented in interviews throughout the film, often to very funny and sometimes kind of sad effect. The men actually do know what these women really want, and the women all apparently just want these playboys to be their boyfriends. Another somewhat surprising revelation pops up about halfway into the film, most of the female customers are fuzoku (prostitutes) themselves, and believe me, the irony is not lost on either party. All in all, it is a very engaging documentary, which splits the audience along gender lines, and yet, everyone seems to realize the truth when it appears. I definitely will show this film to friends, because it is engaging and looks through a peephole I didn’t even know existed.

Isn’t Sunday supposed to be a day of rest? Not for this intrepid moviegoer! Marathon day number two saw my tail planted firmly in seat for And Thereafter I & II (interesting but THOROUGHLY depressing docs about Korean war brides) and Jump Boys (a very light-hearted and not depressing look at a Taiwanese junior gymnastics team, followed by a trio of amazing films. The last three, all of which got my highest marks, were The Owl and the Sparrow, Hula Girls, and Love & Honor (in its North American theatrical premiere, no less). Since the two latter films have been covered, I’m going to gush over Owl and the Sparrow. This is the directorial debut of Vietnamese-American director Stephane Gauger, who we were lucky enough to have in attendance. The film traces the lives of three orphans, two in spirit and one literal, through the busy streets of Saigon and their weaving in and out of one another. The film was shot on HD, which may have been detrimental to some films, but for this one it lent the sense of immediacy I don’t think shooting on 35mm would have done. The three characters, a caretaker at the Saigon Zoo name Hai, a flight attendant named Lan, and a young runaway named Thuy, each are searching for some kind of new life because their own has gotten unbearable. Whether it is Lan’s sickly love life, Hai’s self-imposed solitude, or Thuy’s miserable existence working in her uncle’s factory they all want something more. Thuy is the one who plays cupid and tries to recreate the family she lost very young by fixing up the two people from disparate worlds. Their love story is wonderful and touching. Even as they flit in and out of each other’s lives, they are bound by their love for Thuy, the little orphan girl who brightens both of their lives, and when they connect, it is a beautiful thing. I didn’t cry, but I came damned close when the climactic scene rolled around, call me a sucker. The story could have been told anywhere, but I think setting it in the tumult of Saigon with the ambient sound roaring around them, it made clear what a miraculous thing was occurring by these two souls connecting. The film is Aces, and I highly recommend that anyone with the opportunity go see it, and take a date.

Monday was a lighter day. I saw A Battle Of Wits, and an Indonesian film (my first!), called Love For Share. A Battle of Wits is covered elsewhere so Love For Share it is. This is my favorite Indonesian polygamy film of all time. It tackles the subject with the serious attention it deserves without becoming preachy. The film, while recognizing the outsider nature of polygamist marriages, treats them as a fact of life and rather than exploiting those relationships, it explores them in a very evenhanded way. We see several different types, from the well off politician who can afford different wives in different cities, to the everyman who has made his household into a harem and his wives who understand and accept it, to the married for profit girl who eventually finds her way out and into her own life. I found the film very interesting, and it used the Tsunami as a point of departure to connect the characters with an event with which people all over the World are familiar. This film is certainly worth checking out.

I’ve got three more days and I’ll probably wrap those up on Thursday or Friday for you. Any Dallas film fans will definitely want to come out the next couple of days, there is some good stuff, including The Taste Of Tea on Tuesday night at 8:30.

Report by Joshua Hurtado.