Film Festival

[Anonymous]

Note: Wednesday, 2 June 2004 The UCLA Film and Television Archive is having a special Sneak Preview screening:

Wednesday, June 2 @ 7:30PM (Free Admission, Open to the Public)

THE STORY OF THE WEEPING CAMEL
(Die Geschichte vom Weinenden Kamel)
Directed by Byambasuren Davaa and Luigi Falorni (2003, Germany)

Inspired by Flaherty's NANOOK OF THE NORTH, an international group of
Film students at the Munich Film School decided to bring to the screen a world and a culture that predate modernity while persisting in the modern age. Their collaborators are a nomadic family in southern Mongolia who recreate the drama of their life, and that of their camels. And high drama it is, when the difficult birth of a rare white camel causes the mother to reject the odd specimen. Even the camera seems to be asking: Will the mare come around, or will her baby die for want of love? Eventually the parents send their boys to town - a picaresque adventure in itself - to bring back something so beautiful, so haunting as to make a grown camel cry.

-adapted from a note written by Judy Bloch for the San Francisco
International Film Festival

Presented in Mongolian and Russian dialogue with English subtitles.
35mm, 93 min.

This event takes place at the James Bridges Theater at the UCLA
campus.
For more information, visit the UCLA Film and Television Archive
Website at: http://www.cinema.ucla.edu

[Anonymous]

I rented The Story of Qiu Ju da. I have to admit I was not excited to watch a movie with subtitles, so i was already turned off by the assignment. This movie is about a pretty,young, very pregnant girl who fights for justice after her husband was kicked between the legs during an argument with the leader of their village. The movie starts off right after the kick between the legs happened, so you are not able to see the incident that the whole movie is dealing with. To start you watch for a painful amount of time watching the pregnant wife and her friend haul around the husband in a barrel as they are on their way for a long journey to see a doctor for help on his recovery from the kick. When they finally get to the doctor his advice is of course "plenty of rest".

Next, we get to watch them walk back to the village. Really exciting stuff! This is where I started to fall asleep. "sorry".
The wife decides that she wants justice. She goes to the police to tell her side of the story and of course he is friends with the chief of the village. He says the chief will have to pay and give an apology but all she really wants is for the chief to say he's sorry. Right about now I'm really zoning out. This whole thing seems to go on for the whole movie and if you feel the need to find out what happens in probably the last two minutes of the movie I dare you to go ahead and rent it. "GOOD LUCK".

The story of Qiu Ju Da was made in 1992. It is a drama and the length is 100 minutes. The language is Mandarin and was filmed in china/Hong kong. The movie was directed by Yimou Zhang

The movie was given a pretty good rating and supposedly won awards. Maybe you will enjoy more than I did.

[Anonymous]

Kwaidan (1965)
Also know as Kaidan (1964), Ghost Stories (1965), Hoichi the Earless, (1964) and Weird Tails (1964).
Available on DVD from Criterion Collection for $26.98. It is also part of the Los Angeles County Library collection on VHS.

Directed by Masaki Kobayashi

Story written by Lafcadio Hearn (June 27, 1850-September 26, 1904) and Yoko Mizuki. Lufcadio Hearn was born in Greece of a Greek mother and an Irish father, educated in France and England, worked in the United States, traveled to Japan in 1890, married Setsu Koizumi in 1881, became a Japanese citizen and took the name, Koizumi Yakumo. More information on his biography is found at:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0372499/bio

Rich source on the film, Kwaidan is found at:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058279/

Kwaidan includes four separate and engaging Japanese ghost stories, "Black Hair", “The Woman in the Snow”, “Hoichi the Earless”, and “In a Cup of Tea”. “Hoichi” is a stunning, rich episode that combines elements of traditional music, history, spirituality, religion, humor, terror, brutality, and heroics. Hoichi serves in a lonely, rural temple near the sea as a storyteller of ancient Japanese history accompanying himself on the biwa (a kind of Japanese lute). True to the tradition of biwa players, he is blind. The ghosts of the Heike clan learn that he is the foremost exponent of their tragic story and they demand that he recite for them so that they may relive their sad demise. Unfortunately, for Hoichi his efforts progressively poison him and the temple monks seek his protection by completely covering his body with the scriptures of the Buddha. The scriptures written in Chinese characters render Hoichi invisible to the ghosts, but, as in the Greek story of Achilles, they forget one part of his body, hence the title, “Hoichi the Earless”. The film becomes brutal when the commander ghost rips off Hoichi’s ears attempting to take him back for yet one more recitation-- my middle school students loved-hated the gore in their imagination because you never see the ears actually come off. By the way, even if I did not mention “earless” at least one student was able to discern which part of Hoichi’s body was left unprotected. While his ears are being forcefully removed Hoichi remains stoically silent and is saved to participate in the future phenomenal prosperity at the temple.

The film presents stunning visuals inspired by the “Tale of the Heike”, which we read in “Anthology of Japanese Literature”. It shows the remorse of the warrior, Kumagai in “The Death of Atsumori” and we meet the tragic Lady Nii in “The fight at Dan No Ura”. It also relates to the Noh play, “Atsumori” by Seami Motokiyo. The film provides insight into the governing hierarchy at a temple with the head priest in charge of lesser priests, and temple servants who provide comic relief. Finally, students can hear the unusual sounds of epic chant accompanied by the biwa, which date from the 9th or 10th century. The late Toru Takemitsu, one of Japan’s more famous contemporary composers, wrote the original musical score. If the students read from the “Tale of the Heike”, learn about Japanese religion and beliefs and experience writing Chinese characters this film would serve as a brilliant summary of these activities.

[Anonymous]

Chunhyang - A film by Im Kwon Taek
This is a Korean film with English subtitles.
The story is set in the 18th Century. And it is told by a story teller and drummer performing before a Korean audience in a theater. It is the voice of the story teller that one hears throughout the movie, even more than the voices of the actors.
The jacket calls it "a classic tale of lovers torn apart by two different worlds...." It got rave reviews from the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Reader, The New Yorker and the Los Angeles Times. Frankly, I was most impressed by the cinematography directed by Jung Il Sung and the screen play, which seemed more like a work of literature than a screen play.
I must warn you, it has a slow start with only two characters (the storyteller and the drummer) on screen for about the first five minutes and there are no subtitles at that point. But it is worth the wait.
In the last analysis, it's all about loyalty, and the different types of loyalty that people have.
Unfortunately, there's no rating on the box, and there are some tastefully done nude scenes. In middle school a film must be rated G or PG to be shown. And to show anything else, you must get each individual parents permission, and students who do not get permission must be taken to another classroom during the film's screening. Therefore, films that require this process are seldom used, unless they are a critical part of the unit.

[Anonymous]

I've found Zhang Yi Mou's Hero for a very reasonable price via EBay at http://www.edaymovie.com/
They have a full catalog of Asian movies and ship from Indiana. The DVD I ordered played on both my computer and regular player. The only trouble I had with HERO was I can't read Chinese characters so it took me about 5 minutes to find the right button to click for subtitles.

[Anonymous]

This movie starring Tom Cruise, although historically inaccurate in many respects, was pleasantly entertaining. I think that clips from this movie could be used to draw out discussion and research projects about bushido, seppuku, the Tokugawa and Meiji periods, period clothing, armor, swords, and much more. Most of my students have heard about the samurai and are interested in learning more.

I came across an informative article on seppuku at http://www.artelino.com/articles/seppuku.asp.

[Anonymous]

I was wondering what grade-level the person teaches who is thinking about using clips from "The Last Samurai" in the classroom? The DVD version I have says the movie is rated "R". In middle school that is totally not permissible. How do you plan to get your clips approved for classroom showing or are you going to send home the notices to parents?

[Anonymous]

I have been meaning to post on "Mulan" since we discussed it in class breifly. But closing out the school year has really kept me busy. However, I showed "Mulan" - Rated "G" after the students studied China, and they really seemed to get more out of it. We had a discussion after the video, and I was quite pleasantly surprised at their ability to question and discern fact from fiction.

I use the showing of videos not only for content, but as practice in note taking, as well as looking at plot, setting and characters. In other words, they have a real assignment that must be turned in, within 24-hours of seeing the film.

If anyone can identify more "G" rated films, I certainly would appreciate it. I should ad, I'm looking for subject matter that is either literature turned into film, or film that deals in some way with ancient cilivilizations. Also, Science Fiction can be useful, as long as the science has some basis in fact.[Edit by="lshifflett on Jun 29, 10:09:22 AM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

This is in response to Lynne Shifflett's post about approval for "R" rated films. I teach high school English and I once asked the department chair about showing "The Lord of the Flies," an "R" rated film. She told me that I could send out notices to parents asking them to contact me if they had a problem with their child's viewing of the film; I would probably follow the same procedure to show clips of "The Last Samurai." (The department chair said that the notes seldom make it home.)

[Anonymous]

Asoka is one film I would like to preview. It discusses a leader who is important enough to be included in my lectures. It also appears to cover serveral impotant topics.
Many of these films seem more appropriate to lit classes. I find it hard to justify using the little time we have covering obscure or literary individuals, when it is difficult evough to cover a topic as broad as world civilizations.

[Anonymous]

I'm a big Kung Fu movie fan and could talk about those for a few pages. Iron Monkey is a fun film, great fight scenes. It contains some Chinese legend and follows the traditional sort of Zorro format. It has the cyphers well known in Kung Fu movies which I'm currentlt at a loss to explain. If broken down into it's heroic and story telling components I think it would be a great viewing for a classroom. What makes a hero or heroine- attributes, actions, etc. What makes a good villain? Every culture has mythologies and their heroes are imbued with what they think human perfection would be and what they would aspire to. Obviuosly there are fight scenes, but no death or dismemberment. I say, "Go for it!"
DEAN

[Anonymous]

Happy Together is one of those movies you see and feel it for days after. There is something very true about it. the film itself is hard to describe accruately. It is a love story, kinda. One of the most interesting things is that it takes place not at the beginning of the relationship where the two meet, are struck by a powerful feeling and overcme obstacles to be together. In this movie we don't see that. It is the middle of the relationship- maybe the end, and though thuings are not smooth love and need are obvious in the two male leads. The lead characters are Chinese, I think, but the film takes place in South America. The cinematography is startling and stark. It's unlike any movie I'd seen before. At the end I wasn't sure how I felt about it, but I was sure I felt something and, as I said it was on my mind for days afterward.

It's not appropriate for classrooms. Drinking, swearing, sex none of it gratuitous. The lead characters are gay, and I think it would be too heavy or just incomprehensible to younger audiences.

DEAN

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone, I am the invisible participant who is in the mountains of new Mexico trying to glean new ideas from fellow Asia-teachers-philes
A couple of films jumped into my mind as I read these postings. The access to them may be problematic, but we can pursue:
Princeton University had a wonderful week long "college" about 15 years ago where a "cinema verite" director had just completed two powerful and insightful pieces. One was "Full Moon Lunch" about a family who owned a "Bento restaurant which delivered all over Tokyp at lunch time. The photography and the tempo were terrific. The cooperation/conflicts and tension/comraderie among the brothers in the busy-ness (intended) was unusually openly presented.
The second film, "Farm Song" was shot on Hokkaido and the director lived with the three generational rural farming family, through the seasons out side and the generational dofferences inside. The treatment of the newest bride by the mother in law, was fascinatingly, politely unkind.
There is a third piece I use, put out by JETRO ( Japanese Educational, Trade something...) called"Katcho", about a suburban (sort of) Tokyo middle management father and his family and the workings not only of the inner office (from demotions to drinking enough to tell the boss of and get away with it) but also looked inside the absentee husband's family and home. It is short and timely. the old saying "RIch Japan, Poor Japanese" rings true in this film.
There is another called "Taxing Woman" which won several awards, and is, by Japanese humor standards funny and very much a statement about gender issues in Japan. Aanother about Ijime, or bullying is in my head but the title evades me...It is about Fireflies, and the one I like is not the animated version, but the other.
While not a family focused film, there is a terrific film called "Budo" whic the kids LOVE about the many different means of self defense developed depending on one's station from 1333- the Meiji.

I surely hope there is some kind soul in this course who is making his/her lecture and other notes available to Clay and Linda for photocopying, and am missing so much by being here.
Thank you and I 'll keep thinking.
Best, Jan Davis
University of San Diego High School

[Anonymous]

"Shall We Dance?" directed by Masayuki Suo is the type of movie that high school students would respond to. Also it is rated PG-13, so teachers wouldn't have to hunt students down for the permission slip.

Whenever I dim the lights to show a movie, I get the following questions:
1. Is it in color?
2. Is it boring?

This movie would work well in a literature class if Asian literature was being studied. This film illustrates the role shame and saving face plays in Japanese society. To briefly summarize, Shohei Sugiyama is a successful accountant who has accomplished buying a house and has a wife and child. His life should be full and happy, but he is lost. He takes the subway train to his job and is enchanted by a woman looking out the window of a dance studio. He gets up the courage to get off the train and decides to take a dance class. He does it at first to get close to Mai Kishikawa, who is reluctantly teaching after her father's dance school. She entered an international dance contest and fell down. She is lost, and rejects his invitation to dinner. As the movie progresses, Shohei’s wife thinks he is having an affair. She even hires a dectective to find out what he is doing. Meanwhile, after being rejected by Mai, Shohei has discovered dancing gives him a sense of self worth. It makes him happy. His wife finds out and he is so ashamed that he gives up dancing. You've got to see it. So, I won't spoil the ending.

I think that this film would keep the attention of my students and they wouldn't mind reading the subtitles. There is enough comedy to keep them interested. This is an extremely important when showing foreign films in the classroom

I am thinking of using this film in a unit I am developing for my seniors. The theme that I am working on is: Personal Identity vs. Family Tradition. This film would provide a great introduction to this theme. I would have my students focus on the character of Shohei.

See the movie. (a)

[Anonymous]

Shower is Chinese movie about a man named Da Ming. He comes back home to Beijing to visit his father and disabled brother. He is a successful business man who lives in the city and comes back to his neighborhood which is in a more rural neighborhood. His father owns a bathhouse which is a big part of this small community. Da Ming struggles to reconnect with old values because he is a part of the changing, contemporary world.

This movie touches mainly upon issues of changing cultural values (traditions vs. modern technology) through Da Ming who has moved on to the more contemporary world. There are other issues which could be showed as clips to students. Some issues to talk about:
- how women are viewed
- disabilities
- family

There is some nudity in this movie because it takes place in a bathhouse. You could use it with older students to talk about how culture is constantly changing. The movie itself is quite humorous, and I would recommend it for anyone who would like some insight into Chinese culture. It's a small taste of how people might struggle with keeping up with the contemporary world while trying to maintain traditions.

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