Quieter

I saw just a few films this year. [SFIAAFF 2005 festival website]

Here's a listing of what I saw.

Friday 3/11 @ Castro:

The Green Hat: very good. loved the subject matter. There are a lot more films on adultery than there are on cuckoldry.

Swades: I had a ticket for swades but was tired and decided I couldn't make it through a 3 hour movie.

Sat 3/12 @ Kabuki:

Monkey Dance: a very good documentary about 3 kids in suburban Mass. who participate in a Vietnamese cultural dance club.

Yasmin: Great movie about Muslim woman in the U.K. Westernized, but still dealing with her traditional family, she has to decide who she is in the face of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Sun 3/12 @ Castro:

Baytong: Yasmin and Baytong would have made a great double feature. Terrorism strikes again, this time in Thailand, and a young monk leaves the monastery to care for his niece, after his sister's death in a bombing attack. At times extremely funny, but honest and unflinching look at what it means to be Buddhist in the face of terror, and if it is possible to deal with Muslims in the same culture.

Sorceress of the New Piano: Greatshow about a brilliant woman who found a way to make a life in music outside of the traditional concert pianist. Margaret Leng Tan plays John Cage and toy pianos. Brilliant!

And, she was there at the Castro and did a performance and answered questions. So awesome.

Cutie Honey: Guilty pleasure. Live action anime. funny, over the top, as only a cartoon can be. The costumes and visual style was so Japanese. I'm definitely getting better at giving myself breaks at festivals these days.

Monday 3/14 @Kabuki:

Hana and Alice: Love Iwai Shunji's latest. Loved it. He's good, so good, and portraying love, young girls, and adolescence. I forgive him for 'All About Lily ChouChou', which I loved, but scarred me for life. Bought the DVD. See this charmer.

Music Video Asia: Not as good as in the past, but the videos from Machi, L'Arc en Ciel, and Notorious MSG made it worthwhile.

Wed 3/16 @ Kabuki:

A Fond Kiss: Ken Loach's film. JD's dad thought it was predictable--"How many ways does [interracial couple against parent's will] story go?". Still, I thought it quite good. Mostly because I identified so strongly.

Living On Tokyo Time: A pretty funny film. Okazaki is famous for his documentaries but I wanted to see more fiction. Funny film about a Japanese american guy who hooks up with a Japanese student, and gets married. It doesn'twork out of course, and watching just how foreign they are to each other is pretty hilarious. Also, footage of SF, Geary St. in the 60's *so fun to watch*.

I snuck into another screening of Hana and Alice after to catch the ending again.

And that was it for this year!