2015 By the Numbers

I saw 336 "films" on a theater screen in 2015. For these purposes, a film is not just a feature length film but also includes programs (typically from film festivals) which consist of multiple short films. If it was categorized as a single program in a festival guide, it counts as one film entry on my list. Conversely, I saw several programs which consisted of a short film and a feature length film. For my counting purposes, those are counted as a single film entry.

My annual film totals for the past few years are:

2010 - 385 films
2011 - 406 films
2012 - 436 films
2013 - 397 films
2014 - 388 films
2015 - 336 films

For the six years listed, 2015 had the largest year-on-year change of 52 films.  2015 was the first year since 2010 that I did not average one film per day.

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The top 10 venues in which I saw films in 2015 were:

1) Castro Theater (88 films) - primarily the result of Noir City (19 films) and the SF Silent Film Festival (21 films over two festivals).  The Castro Theater has been my #1 film-going destination for three years in a row and four of the past five years.

2) Roxie Theater (55 films) - 11 films from A Rare Noir is Good to Find programmed by Elliot Lavine and 21 films between IndieFest & DocFest.  I'm counting the Roxie and Little Roxie as the same for these purposes.  The Roxie Theater has been my #2 film-going destination three years in a row and four of the past five years.

3) Vogue & Balboa (42 films) - 37 films at the Vogue and 5 at the Balboa.  The Vogue count was mainly due to the Mostly British Film Festival (17 films), the San Francisco Film Society's (SFFS) Hong Kong Cinema (6 films), SFFS' French Cinema Now (4 films) and SFFS' New Italian Cinema (4 films).  The Vogue & Balboa are owned and operated by the same people.

4) Camera Cinemas (29 films) - 25 films at the Camera 12, 3 films at the Camera 3 and 1 film at the Camera 7 Pruneyard.  I watched 24 films at the Camera 12 as part of Cinequest.

5) Landmark Theaters (18 films) - 9 films at the Opera Plaza, 8 films at the Clay and 1 film at the Aquarius.  I saw four films at the Clay as part of the 2015 San Francisco International Film Festival.

6) Four Star (15 films) - Mostly foreign films that weren't playing anywhere else or films late in their distribution run.

7) Kabuki Cinemas (14 films) - 9 films from SF International Film Festival (SFIFF) & 4 films at CAAMFest.

8) Crest Theater (11 films) - all films from the Sacramento French Film Festival.

9) California Theater in San Jose (10 films) - all films from Cinequest.

10) Stanford Theater and Viz (9 films each) - at the Viz I saw 8 films from the Japan Film Festival of San Francisco and 1 film at CAAMFest.  The Stanford was all rep house programs from their regular schedule.

The top 10 venues accounted for 89% of the films I saw this year.

Honorable Mentions:  YBCA (6 films) and the Sequoia Theater in Mill Valley (5 films).

I visited the Camera 7 and Alamo Drafthouse for first time in 2015.

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On 208 days in 2015, I saw at least one film. The 2015 breakdown is:

On 157 days, I saw zero films.

On 118 days, I saw one film.

On 67 days, I saw two films.

On 11 days, I saw three films.

On 9 days, I saw four films.

On 3 days, I saw five films.

On both February 27 (Friday) and February 28 (Saturday), I saw five films at Cinequest.  On May 30 (Saturday), I saw five films at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival.

Breaking down the number of films by month:

January - 33 films

February - 46 films

March - 43 films

April - 28 films

May - 35 films

June - 35 films

July - 21 films

August - 29 films

September - 8 films

October - 19 films

November 27 films

December - 12 films

Comparing 2014 vs. 2015 to see when the large decrease occurred:

January (2015 minus 2014):  +1

February:  +5

March:  -11

April:  +2

May:  -10

June:  +10

July:  +1

August:  -1

September:  -13

October:  -7

November:  -11

December:  -17

I was three films behind my 2014 pace as of August 31, 2015.  In addition to being busy at work, September was the month when I decided my father's living situation could not continue and started taking actions to have him put in an assisted living facility.  My father passed away in October and during the last two months of the year, I traveled frequently to Las Vegas to settle his estate.

Breaking down the number of films by day of the week:

Sunday - 67 films

Monday - 41 films

Tuesday - 36 films

Wednesday - 41 films

Thursday - 32 films

Friday - 45 films

Saturday - 74 films

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The PFA closed on August 2, 2015.  I only saw one film at the PFA in 2015.  The PFA reopens at their new location on February 3 with Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal.  The new location is 2155 Center Street in Berkeley.

After a long delay, the Alamo Drafthouse New Mission opened in December 2015.  Only one auditorium has been in use but starting tomorrow the other four auditoriums become operational.

2015 is the first year I missed all screenings of Another Hole in the Head.  It coincided with one of my trips to Las Vegas.

2014 San Francisco International Film Festival

The 2014 San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF) ran from April 24 to May 8.  I saw 19 films but had tickets to 20.  I skipped the screening of Dear White People due to general fatigue.  I was secure in the knowledge that Dear White People was getting a limited/general release.

I saw 16 films at the Kabuki and 3 films at the Viz.  The "Viz" is getting to be an anachronistic term.  Confused about the screening location of one of my films, I asked a SFIFF volunteer "What film is screening at [insert time] at the Viz?"  The young man was perplexed by my location reference.  Eventually, I realized he only knew the location as New People Cinema.

Hellion starring Josh Wiggins & Aaron Paul; directed by Kat Candler; (2014) 
Tip Top starring Isabelle Huppert & Sandrine Kiberlain; directed by Serge Bozon; French with subtitles; (2013) - Official Website
Queen Margot starring Isabelle Adjani & Daniel Auteuil; directed by Patrice Chéreau; French with subtitles; (1994)
Norte, The End of History starring Sid Lucero, Angeli Bayani & Archie Alemania; directed by Lav Diaz; Tagalog with subtitles; (2013) - Official Facebook
Stray Dogs; directed by Ming-liang Tsai; Mandarin with subtitles; (2013)
Young & Beautiful starring Marine Vacth; directed by François Ozon; French with subtitles; (2013) -  Official Website
Blind Dates; directed by Levan Koguashvili; Georgian with subtitles; (2013)
Coherence starring Emily Baldoni; directed by James Ward Byrkit; (2013) - Official Website
Tamako in Moratorium starring Atsuko Maeda; directed by Nobuhiro Yamashita; Japanese with subtitles; (2013)
Abuse of Weakness starring Isabelle Huppert & Kool Shen; directed by Catherine Breillat; French with subtitles; (2013) - Official Facebook
Manila in the Claws of Light starring Hilda Koronel & Bembol Roco; directed by Lino Brocka; Tagalog with subtitles; (1975)
Intruders starring Suk-ho Jun & Tae-kyung Oh; directed by Young-Seok Noh; Korean with subtitles; (2013)
Tonnerre starring Vincent Macaigne & Solène Rigot; directed by Guillaume Brac; French with subtitles; (2013)
Firestorm starring Andy Lau; directed by Alan Yuen; Cantonese & Mandarin with subtitles; (2013)
Club Sandwich starring Lucio Giménez Cacho, María Renée Prudencio & Danae Reynaud; directed by Fernando Eimbcke; Spanish with subtitles; (2013)
Ping Pong Summer starring Marcello Conte; with Lea Thompson, John Hannah, Amy Sedaris & Susan Sarandon; directed by Michael Tully; (2014) - Official Website
No No: A Dockumentary; directed by Official Website
Harmony Lessons starring Timur Aidarbekov; directed by Emir Baigazin; Kazakh & Russian with subtitles; (2013)
Trap Street starring Yulai Lu; directed by Vivian Qu; Mandarin with subtitles; (2013)
Manos Sucias starring Jarlin Martinez & Cristian Abvincula; directed by Josef Wladyka; Spanish with subtitles; (2014)  Official Twitter

I cannot even pretend to give these films the space they deserve on this blog.  I am so far behind.  I have to crank these entries out before I fall one year behind.

François Ozon's Young & Beautiful caused quite a splash upon its release and has stuck in my memory.  Marine Vacth gives a stellar performance as a teenage girl who budding sexuality morphs into prostitution.  Exhibiting a laissez-faire attitude towards underage prostitution and statutory rape, the film presents this extraordinarily nuanced view of this girl's coming of age.  From virgin to hesitant lover to self-confident prostitute, Vacth's Isabelle covers the gamut.  In particularly, she has a special bond with a client old enough to be her grandfather.  When he dies during sex, her life is turned upside down.  Inherently, we know Isabelle is at physical & emotional risk but she pushes the boundaries of social norms in satisfying her sexual needs.  In doing so, it made me question those norms & customs.  Stripping away the social taboos, Young & Beautiful is about a young woman stumbling her way through young adulthood.

In the same vein (albeit less sexualized) is Tamako in Moratorium.  The protagonist is a young woman, feeling her way through life with decidedly less than satisfactory results.  Tamako is a recent college graduate.  Unemployed, she moves back to her small hometown to live with her father who is divorced and runs a sporting good store.  Although an indulgent father, Tamako's many frustrations are taken out on him.  Unsure of what the next phase of her life will be and secretly harboring a desire to in an all-girl pop band.  This is an inside joke as Atsuko Maeda, the actress playing Tamako is famous in Japan for previously being in AKB48.  As Tamako's divorce father begins dating a woman, Tamako feels threatened but is ultimately forced to move on with her life.  A comedy with some poignant moments, Tamako in Moratorium was a surprise film for me.

I also enjoyed Club Sandwich (pun intended), a Mexican film about a single mother who struggles with her adolescent son's budding sexuality as it relates to their relationship (or lack thereof).  As the boy becomes infatuated with a teenage girl while on vacation, the mother feels threatened by the changes it portends for their relationship.  Unable to continue treating him like a young boy and unwilling to treat him like a sexualized young man, Club Sandwich is a coming of age comedy told from the reluctant mother's point of view.

Tonnerre is notable in that it stars a French actor who is becoming one of my favorites.  I have seen Vincent Macaigne in three films - Tonnerre, 2 Autumsn, 3 Winters and Age of Panic.  In Tonnerre (the name of a small town in the Burgundy region of France), Macaigne is a failed musician who returns to his hometown to live with his widower father.  While in town, he begins a relationship with a younger woman.  Mismatched in age, appearance and attitude, the affair is a rebound fling for the woman but for Macaigne's character, it become an all-encompassing obsession which is ratcheted up when he assaults her ex-boyfriend and kidnaps her.  It's a tense story which is highlighted by Macaigne and Bernard Menez's (as the father) performances.

These four films were the cream of the last year's crop at SFIFF for me.

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A cut below were the following films which may have suffered from the extreme delay in writing this post.

Hellion - SFFS funded film about a troubled teenage boy; nice performance by Josh Wiggins in the lead role but the plot bordered on a predictable.

Queen Margot - based on historical events involving French Catholics and Huguenots, I had a hard time keeping the characters straight.  Telling the story of the  St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 1572, the film quickly became a jumble of blood letting and duplicity.  Perhaps more familiarity with the events would helped me sort out the characters.

Norte, The End of History - Lav Diaz's loose but measured adaptation of Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment.  Like the Russian author's novels, Norte, The End of History was long & complex to its own detriment...at least from my perspective.  I felt like I was in high school again, laboring away at some long Russian novel assigned in English class.  At 4+ hours, the film may have benefited from some editing but I can't complain about it too much because the ending tragedy was haunting indeed.

Coherence - a clever science fiction film about quantum mechanics and Schrödinger's Cat Paradox played out at a party on a night when comet flies by.  I remember liking this film when I left the theater but now I recall the plot more than the performances which must be a tacit criticism of the actors.

Abuse of Weakness - semi-autobiographical film about director Catherine Breillat.  Isabelle Huppert portrays a film director who has recently had a stroke.  While recovering, she sees con man Kool Shen on a television talkshow.  Ostensibly interested in making a documentary about him, Huppert/Breillat quickly allows the man into her life.  Although he is able to get several thousand Euros out of her (in real life Breillat alleged she was conned out of nearly  €1 Million).  However, the relationship is more complex than criminal and victim as the power shifts between the couple several times during the film.  Her victimhood seems less a matter of weakness than poor judgment.  This made the film a little too muddy for me; more confusing than ambiguous.

Manila in the Claws of Light - this 1970s film by acclaimed Filipino director Lino Brocka was social commentary dressed up as a tragedy.  Two young lovers from the countryside are reunited in the big city with tragic consequences.  They encounter the whole panoply of marginal characters - pimps, gay hustlers, homeless, etc.  

Intruders - a clever murder mystery/dark comedy about North Korean agents infiltrating a remote South Korean town.

No No: A Dockumentary - a documentary about 1970s MLB pitcher Doc Ellis who allegedly pitched a no-hitter while under the effects of LSD.  The film is replete with anecdotes from the wild 1970s.  This film was preceded by the short film The High Five - a 10 minute film about Glenn Burke, the first openly gay man to play in the MLB.  The film focused on an incident between Burke and former San Francisco Giants manager Dusty Baker.  During his playing days with the Dodgers, Baker hit 30 home runs one year.  As he approached home plate after belting out his 30th, Burke ran onto the field to congratulate him.  He held his hand over his head.  Baker was unsure what the gesture meant but spontaneously decided to slap his hand.  This incident has been credited as the first "high five."

The High Five; documentary; directed by Michael Jacobs; (2014)

Harmony Lessons - a bleak Kazakhi film which showcases the remoteness of the region.  A schoolyard drama about a bully and the boy who stands up to him with dire consequences.  Critical of ingrained corruption with Kazakh society, the film dresses it up with a character study of young men and some horrific prison/detention scenes.

Manos Sucias - this was the last film I saw in the festival and by this time I was exhausted.  I remember Gary Meyer sat a row or two in front of me.  Set in Colombia, two brother mule a drug shipment (in a torpedo?) up river for delivery.  It was a bit like Apocalypse Now in that as they work they way closer to their final destination, they encounter stranger & more dangerous individuals.  I dozed off for a bit but this film left a depressing shadow.

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Everything else left me less than impressed.  Called out for its particularly unwatchable quality is Stray Dogs, a Taiwanese film with limited dialog.  The finale featured a (seemingly) 10 minute shot of a man's and woman's faces as they reacts to artwork on a wall (which the audience has not seen).  The fact that I can even remember that scene a year later gives me pause.

One of the films from last year's festival (Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter) is opening at the Landmark Theaters Opera Plaza in a few weeks.

2014 By the Numbers

I saw 388 "films" on a theater screen in 2014. For these purposes, a film is not just a feature length film but also includes programs (typically from film festivals) which consist of multiple short films. If it was categorized as a single program in a festival guide, it counts as one film entry on my list. Conversely, I saw several programs which consisted of a short film and a feature length film. For my counting purposes, those are counted a single film entry.

My annual film totals for the past few years are:

2010 - 385 films
2011 - 406 films
2012 - 436 films
2013 - 397 films
2014 - 388 films

For two consecutive years, I've seen less films than I did the year before.  With five years of data, it appears that 2012 was the outlier.  The five year average is 402.4 films per year.

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The top 10 venues in which I saw films in 2014 were:

1) Castro Theater (86 films) - primarily the result of Noir City (18 films) and the SF Silent Film Festival (20 films over three festivals).  The Castro Theater has been my #1 film-going destination for three of the past five years.  The Castro was #2 or #3 for the other two years.

2) Roxie Theater (56 films) - 25 films between two series programmed by Elliot Lavine and 16 films at IndieFest.  I'm counting the Roxie and Little Roxie as the same for these purposes.  The Roxie Theater has been my #1 film-going destination for two of the past five years and has been #1 or #2 for each of the past five years.

3) Landmark Theaters (31 films) - 12 films at the Embarcadero Center, 10 films at the Opera Plaza, 3 films at both the Guild and the Aquarius, 2 films at the Shattuck and 1 film at the Clay.  Unlike past years, the San Francisco Film Society (SFFS) did not hold any Fall Film Series at Landmark venues.  Everything I saw at the Landmark Theaters was a new release.  For the 2nd consecutive year, the Landmark Theaters finished at #3 on my list.

3) Vogue & Balboa (31 films) - 27 films at the Vogue and 4 at the Balboa.  The Vogue count was mainly due to the Mostly British Film Festival (12 films), SFFS' French Cinema Now (7 films), SFFS' Hong Kong Cinema (5 films) and SFFS' New Italian Cinema (2 films).  Although I think of them as separate theaters they are owned and operated by the same people.

5) Pacific Film Archive (29 films) - Hou Hsiao-hsien (11 films), Satyajit Ray (5 films) and Kenji Mizoguchi (5 films) series accounted from most of my visits.

6) Camera Cinemas (27 films) - 25 films at the Camera 12 and 2 films at the Camera 3.  I watched 22 films at the Camera 12 as part of Cinequest.

7) Stanford Theater (26 films) - I saw 6 films each at Frank Capra & Barbara Stanwyck series.

8) Kabuki Cinemas (20 films) - 17 films from SF International Film Festival (SFIFF) & 3 films at CAAMFest.

9) Viz (13 films) - 5 films from Another Hole in the Head, 3 films from SFIFF, 4 from the SF Japan Film Festival & 1 film from CAAMFest.

10) YBCA (11 films) - New Filipino Cinema (7 films) and Invasion of the Cinemaniacs (3 films) accounted for most of the activity.

The top 10 venues accounted for 85% of the films I saw this year.

Honorable Mentions:  4 Star (11 films), California Theater in San Jose (9 films), SJ Rep (7 films) and the Smith Rafael Film Center (6 films).

I visited the Los Gatos Theater, Vine Cinema & Alehouse and Magick Lantern for the first time in 2014.  I also saw a film at the Mechanics' Institute (Cinema Lit) for the first time.

In 2014, I did not visit Niles Essanay or Oddball.  

I haven't visited the Paramount Theater in Oakland since April Fool's Day 2012 (Napoléon)

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On 240 days in 2014, I saw at least one film. The 2014 breakdown is:

On 125 days, I saw zero films.

On 138 days, I saw one film.

On 72 days, I saw two films.

On 20 days, I saw three films.

On 4 days, I saw four films.

On 6 days, I saw five films.

On January 25 (Saturday), I saw five films at Noir City.  On March 8 (Saturday), March 12 (Wednesday), March 15 (Saturday) and March 16 (Sunday), I saw five films at Cinequest.  On June 1 (Sunday), I saw five films at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival.

Breaking down the number of films by month:

January - 32 films

February - 41 films

March - 54 films

April - 26 films

May - 45 films

June - 25 films

July - 20 films

August - 30 films

September - 21 films

October - 26 films

November 38 films

December - 30 films

I'm surprised at how closely the numbers follow the same cyclical pattern as 2013.  July 2014 is noticeably lower than July 2013 but that is because the SF Silent Film Festival moved their festival from July to late May/early June in 2014.  However, I saw 45 films in May 2013 and May 2014 (the exact same number).

Breaking down the number of films by day of the week:

Sunday - 74 films

Monday - 33 films

Tuesday - 37 films

Wednesday - 42 films

Thursday - 62 films

Friday - 57 films

Saturday - 83 films

I would have expected Saturday & Sunday to have the most films but I'm surprised that Thursday came in third.  I'm a little surprised I saw more films on Saturday than Sunday as I am usually running errands on Saturdays.  I was expecting Friday to be the third place day but drop off from 2nd place to 3rd place (23%) is much greater than anticipated.

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The PFA is closing mid-year in 2015 to move to their new location so I don't think the PFA will make my top 10 list for 2015.

The SJ Rep has closed but it appears the building is still vacant.  I wonder if Cinequest will be able to use the space for their festival.

The Magick Lantern has closed but its reopening seems imminent (cross your fingers).

The Alamo Drafthouse is scheduled to open at the New Mission Theater in 2015.  I notice the website has changed the opening from the 2nd quarter of 2015 to just 2015.  They've started hiring staff according to their Facebook page.  

2014 CAAMFest

The 2014 CAAMFest (formerly the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival) ran from March 13 to 23 with screenings at the Sundance Kabuki, New People Cinema, the Castro Theater, the Great Star Theater, PFA and the New Parkway.  I recall there was an announcement for the dates of CAAMFest San Jose this summer but I cannot find any information on their website.  Last year, the San Jose edition ran in mid-August so it should be coming up.

The first four days of the 2014 CAAMFest conflicted with the last four days of the 2014 Cinequest.  I chose to attend Cinequest.  It was a tough choice because many of the CAAMFest films I wanted to see only screened during those first four days of the festival.  As a result, I missed out on several films - Farah Goes Bang, Siddharth and the Run Run Shaw retrospective consisting of The Kingdom and the Beauty, Come Drink With Me and King Boxer (the latter which I saw at the New Parkway last year).

Cold Eyes starring Sol Kyung-gu, Jung Woo-sung & Han Hyo-joo; directed by Jo Ui-seok & Kim Byung-seo; Korean with subtitles; (2013)
Innocent Blood starring Jun Sung Kim & C.S. Lee; directed by D.J. Holloway & Sun Kim; (2013) - Official Website

White Powder and Neon Lights starring Leung Bik-Yuk & Hok Sing Wong; directed by Wong Kam-yan; Cantonese with subtitles; (1947)

Innocents starring Nameera Ashley & Cai Chengyue; directed by Chen-Hsi Wong; English & Malay with subtitles; (2012) - Official Website

Awesome Asian Bad Guys starring Stephen Dypiangco, Patrick Epino & Tamlyn Tomita; directed by Stephen Dypiangco & Patrick Epino; (2014) - Official Website

Provocauteurs (portmanteau of provocative and auteurs) was a short film program consisting of:

H7N3; directed by Iris K. Shim; (2013)
The Hole; directed by Joon Seong Ahn & Min-Seop Lee; Korean with subtitles; (2012)
Kill of the Night; directed by Aya Tanimura; (2013)
Milkyboy; directed by Arnold Arre; Tagalog & English with subtitles; (2013)
Sewing Woman; directed by Woo Jin; Korean with subtitles; (2012)
Sukiyaki with Love; directed by Akiko Izumitani; (2013)
Thinking About Thinking; directed by Adrian David; (2013)
What Remains; directed by Sarita Khurana; (2013)

I saw Cold Eyes at the Castro, White Power and Neon Lights at the Great Star Theater, Provocauteurs at the Viz and everything at the Kabuki.

In general, I was disappointed with the program at this year's CAAMFest.  Cold Eyes was a Centerpiece Presentation so I couldn't use a Festival 6-Pack for it.  I had difficulty finding six other films which interested me.  I used one of the 6-Pack vouchers for Black Market Couple on March 19 but I skipped out on the screening.  Although I was fatigued from having seen films on 22 out of 24 consecutive days prior to March 19, I had enough energy & desire to see Generation War Part 2 at the Landmark Embarcadero & then hightail it to the 4 Star for Special ID on the evening Black Market Couple was screening.

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Cold Eyes is a remake of Eye in the Sky, a 2007 Hong Kong film starring Simon Yam and Tony Leung Ka Fai and produced by Johnnie To.  I saw Eye in the Sky at the 2007 SFIAAFF.  I don't remember Eye in the Sky too well.  Yam and the instantly recognizable Suet Lam are part of To's regular acting troupe.  Leung was very intimidating in his role as the master criminal as I recall.

As I was watching Cold Eyes, I recalled portions of Eye in the Sky.  Like the HK film, Cold Eyes is a little impersonal.  Character development was given perfunctory screen time while much more was devoted to the "hunt" which was overly elaborate, bordering on rococo.  Plot summary - the chief of the surveillance unit in Seoul (I think) hires a rookie female cop into his unit.  Around the same time (during the interview actually), a gang of professional robbers strike.  Using Seoul's surveillance cameras and through highly coordinated actions, the police close in on the gang but not without bloodshed.

Of the seven programs I saw at the 2014 CAAMFest, Cold Eyes was my favorite but frankly it was slightly above average.  It was fun while I was watching but it didn't leave many lasting impressions in my memory.

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Innocent Blood - poorly acted and an uninspired script left my wandering during the screening.  My lasting impression is that during the screening I wanted the film to wrap up.  Not horrible; rather I would call it second rate.

White Powder and Neon Lights - for the second consecutive year, I ventured to the Great Star Theater in Chinatown to see a film at CAAMFest.  CAAM Executive Director Stephen Gong gave an interesting introduction about the filmmaker and how several reels of historically important films were saved from a trash dumpster in Oakland.  WP&NL was made by the Grandview Film Company in San Francisco.  Grandview made Cantonese language films in San Francisco during WWII and afterwards.  It also has the distinction of being the first Cantonese language film shot in color.

WP&NL is a melodrama about a Chinese theater troupe in San Francisco.  A famous HK opera singer is signed to appear in a SF production.  When she arrives she falls for a gangster/lothario which puts the production in jeopardy.  WP&NL had a forgettable plot; I can't remember how it ended.  More of a novelty piece, the film showcased many locations around SF and had the added benefit of Chinese actresses dressed in fashionable, post-WWII outfits.

Black Market Couple, the film I missed was another Grandview production from the same era.  The main difference being it was a comedy.

Innocents - an abstract film which spent too much time luxuriating on composed images and nature scenes.  This film tells the (non)story of two children - one a studious young girl and the other a lackadaisical boy.  The two classmates become friends and spend a lot of time playing near a forest, railroad tracks and storm drains.  The two children had somewhat turbulent home lives but the narrative was underdeveloped which ultimately turned me against this film. I am finding that as I get older, film must capture my interest by the 30 minute or 45 minute mark or I simply lose interest.  When I lose interest, I have a hard time appreciating the remainder of the film.  Innocents lost my attention at some point and it never regained it.

Awesome Asian Bad Guys - the little Asian American film that could.  Funded by a Kickstarter campaign, co-directors Stephen Dypiangco & Patrick Epino also starred in this comedy.  I can't remember all the details.  Tamlyn Tomita is kidanpped by her evil twin sister Pamlyn or something.  Anyway, Dypiangco & Epino are compelled to act so they assemble a team which consists of Al Leong (the Asian bad guy from Die Hard and Lethal Weapon), George Cheung (Rambo: First Blood Part II), a young girl named Jet Li and Randall Park (best remembered by me as the guy with the big penis from The People I've Slept With but apparently better known for Larry Crowne).

At 52 minutes, AABG doesn't delve too deeply into satire or anything.  I think it was a web series compiled to make a "movie."  It had a few laughs.  They milked the Asian angle for everything it was worth and then some.  Much like Nice Girls Crew from previous CAAMFest, I was amused but mostly underwhelmed by the program.

Provocauteurs - this was the last program I saw at this year's CAAMFest.  By this point in the festival, I had given up on it.  I was disappointed in the quality of the programs I had seen.  I came very close to skipping the screening but having skipped out on Black Market Couple, I felt it was too wasteful to burn another ticket.  I should have skipped out because my attention waned throughout and I dozed off for some of the short films.  It is possible that the films I was asleep for were great but the ones I remember aren't worth the effort to document them here.

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The 2014 CAAMFest was one of the most disappointing film festivals I can recall attending.  The films I saw were disappointing or forgettable.

2013 San Francisco International Film Festival (1 of 2)

The 2013 San Francisco International Film Festival ran from April 25 to May 9.  I saw 26 films although I bought tickets to 27.  I inadvertently bought tickets to two different screenings of Chimeras.

This year's festival was marred by some technical difficulties.  Two screenings were delayed by 20 to 30 minutes.  The April 26 screening of Rosie at the Kabuki was delayed 20 to 30 minutes while they sorted things out.  The April 28 screening of Populaire (also at the Kabuki) was also delayed 20 to 30 minutes due to aspect ratio problems.  The subtitles were being cropped.  They started the film three times before the subtitles were fully visible.  Fortunately, both screenings were during the last time slot of the day.  If they had been earlier, it may have caused audience members to leave early or be late for the next screening.

The April 27 screening of The Mattei Affair at the PFA was the most frustrating film experiences I can recollect.  Prior to the screening, Susan Oxtoby mentioned a new DCP projector had been installed at the PFA a few days earlier and that The Mattei Affair was the first film to be projected on it.  I was tremendously enjoying The Mattei Affair when the subtitles froze about 30 minutes in.  The film continued in Italian but the subtitles were frozen.  This continued for 10 minutes; perhaps longer.  It felt like an eternity.  The projectionist could never rewind the film to point where the subtitles crapped out.  Seemingly giving up on the task, s/he continued the film (with the subtitles working properly) but the 10 or so minutes were lost to the non-Italian speaking members of the audience.

After restarting the film, I began to enjoy it once more.  With about 20 to 30 minutes left, the subtitles froze again (or maybe they stopped appearing).  Once again, people complained but slowly, in ones and twos, the audience left the theater.  I lasted another 10 minutes hoping the subtitles would work but eventually gave up and left.  I was very frustrated because from what I saw, The Mattei Affair was a great film.  The two extended periods of indecipherable Italian left me lost on some of the plot points and I felt I was doing myself a disservice if I watched the film any longer.  However, my greatest frustration is that the festival had a 35 mm print of the film and the PFA didn't use it.  I hope The Mattei Affair screens somewhere in the Bay Area again.

Finally, the Korean film Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time had two watermarks during the May 2 screening at the Kabuki.  Festival Director of Programming Rachel Rosen announced beforehand that the key to the digital lock on the film had not worked so they were screening a standard definition "print" with watermarks on the upper left and lower right corners.  She offered refunds or ticket exchanges.  Interestingly, no one seemed to take her up on the offer; everyone appeared to remain for the entire screening.  Fortunately, the film was very traditional in its visual composition.  Most of the action took place in the center of the frame so the watermarks were not intrusive but I won't say I was able to ignore them completely.  The presence of the watermarks definitely detracted from the viewing experience.

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The 26 films I saw were:

The Kings of Summer starring Nick Robinson & Gabriel Basso; with Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally & Moises Arias; directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts; (2013) - Official Website
Rosie starring Fabian Krüger & Sibylle Brunner; directed by Marcel Gisler; German with subtitles; (2013)
Penance starring Yu Aoi, Eiko Koike, Sakura Ando, Chizuru Ikewai & Kyôko Koizumi; with Teruyuki Kagawa; directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa; Japanese with subtitles; (2012) - Official Website
The Mattei Affair starring Gian Maria Volonté; directed by Franco Rossi; Italian with subtitles; (1972)
The Daughter starring Maria Smolnikova & Igor Mazepa; directed by Alexander Kasatkin & Natalia Nazarova; Russian with subtitles; (2012)
Big Blue Lake starring Leila Tong; directed by Jessey Tsang Tsui-Shan; Cantonese with subtitles; (2011)
Populaire starring Romain Duris & Déborah François; with Bérénice Bejo; directed by Régis Roinsard; French with subtitles;  (2012) - Official Website
Thérèse starring Audrey Tautou & Gilles Lellouche; directed by Claude Miller; French with subtitles; (2012)
Outrage Beyond starring & directed by Takeshi Kitano; Japanese with subtitles; (2012) - Official Website
Big Sur starring Jean-Marc Barr & Kate Bosworth; directed by Michael Polish; (2013)
Pearblossom Hwy starring Atsuko Okatsuka & Cory Zacharia; directed by Mike Ott; some Japanese with subtitles; (2013) - Official Facebook
Key of Life starring Masato Sakai, Teruyuki Kagawa & Ryôko Hirosue; directed by Kenji Uchida; Japanese with subtitles; (2013) - Official Facebook
You're Next starring Sharni Vinson; with Joe Swanberg, Amy Seimetz & Ti West; directed by Adam Wingard; (2011) - Official Website
Cold War starring Aaron Kwok & Tony Leung Ka-fai; directed by Sunny Luk & Longman Leung; Cantonese with subtitles; (2012) - Official Website
Fill The Void starring Hadas Yaron & Yiftach Klein; directed by Rama Burshtein; Hebrew with subtitles; (2012) - Official Website
Our Homeland starring Arata Iura & Sakura Ando; directed by Yang Yong-hi; Japanese & Korean with subtitles; (2012) - Official Website
Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time starring Choi Min-sik & Ha Jung-woo; directed by Yoon Jong-bin; Korean with subtitles; (2012)
Juvenile Offender starring Lee Jung-hyun & Seo Young-ju; directed by Kang Yi-kwan; Korean with subtitles; (2012)
Afternoon Delight starring Kathryn Hahn & Juno Temple; directed by Jill Soloway; (2013) - Official Website
Eight Deadly Shots starring Mikko Niskanen & Tarja-Tuulikki Tarsala; directed by Mikko Niskanen; Finnish with subtitles; (1972)
Dom: A Russian Family starring Sergey Garmash; directed by Oleg Pogodin; Russian with subtitles; (2011)
The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay starring Ricky Jay; directed by Molly Bernstein; documentary; (2012) - Official Website
Memories Look at Me starring & directed by Song Fang; Mandarin with subtitles; (2012)
Chimeras starring Wang Guangyi & Liu Gang; directed by Mika Mattila; documentary; Mandarin with subtitles; (2013) - Official Website
Il Futuro starring Manuela Martelli; with Rutger Hauer; directed by Alicia Scherson; Italian & Spanish with subtitles; (2013)
Byzantium starring Saoirse Ronan & Gemma Arterton; directed by Neil Jordan; (2012) - Official Facebook

I believe the print of Thérèse which was screened was titled Thérèse Desqueyroux which is the original French release title of the film.

There was a gangster themed trio of films which programmer Rod Armstrong mentioned before several of the films.  The three films were Outrage Beyond, Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time and Dom: A Russian Family.

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My enjoyment of this year's films was consistently high.  Most years, there are several films which are not to my liking which I admit is more of a matter of taste than an indictment of the films.  However, this year all the films kept my rapt interest which is amazing in itself.  

The Vagaries of the Kabuki's Admission Prices

In keeping with the renewed focus, CAAMFest seemed to screen fewer films than past years.  At times, I was hard pressed to find a screening I really wanted to see.  I left some gaps in my schedule but can only think of two films I regret missing - Seeking Asian Female and Postcards from the Zoo.  SAF will be airing on PBS' Independent Lens on May 6.

With long stretches of downtime, I squeezed in three non-CAAMFest films during the run of that festival.

Stoker starring Mia Wasikowska, Nicole Kidman & Matthew Goode; directed by Chan-wook Park; (2013) - Official Website
Strange Days starring Ralph Fiennes & Angela Bassett; with Juliette Lewis, Tom Sizemore & Vincent D'Onofrio; directed by Kathryn Bigelow; (1995)
Hitler's Children; documentary; directed by Chanoch Zeevi; German, Hebrew & English with subtitles; (2011) - Official Website

I saw Stoker at the Sundance Kabuki, Strange Days at the Castro and Hitler's Children at the YBCA.

Strange Days was the third film of a Midnites for Maniacs triple bill.  The other two films were Rocky III and Luc Besson's The Professional.  In hindsight, I wish I would have also seen The Professional on the Castro screen as opposed to Nice Girls Crew 2 at CAAMFest.

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I can only recall having seen two films at the Sundance Kabuki which weren't film festival screenings.  Buying tickets through the film festivals' websites saved me the puzzling ordeal of deciphering the Kabuki's amenity fee chart.

My memory is hazy but I recall Sundance closed the Kabuki for an extended period and when it reopened, they instituted the assigned seating and amenity fee policies.  Assigned seating seems a little pretentious for a movie theater although some of my co-workers like it.  The assigned seating doesn't get my goat...the dreaded amenity fees do.  The Sundance Kabuki's admission price and amenity fee tables are a thing of beauty unless you are one paying them.  

In the Kabuki management's own words,

Why We Have an Amenity Fee

NO ON SCREEN ADVERTISING.  No annoying television ads before the movies, a huge revenue source for all other theatre chains. 

RESERVED SEATING.  All of our seats are reserved for all shows. No waiting in line or running to get a good seat. Sit with your friends. Select your seats and print tickets at home on-line, or come to the theatre and select your seats at the box office or a kiosk. 

 ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY.  In an industry that notoriously ignores "green" ideas, we try to be an evolving conscientious citizen with our extensive building remodel and in our daily practices. 

SUPPORT FOR LOCAL ARTISTS.   Sundance Cinemas supports local artists in keeping with the philosophy of Robert Redford. 

So the amenity fee covers the lost revenue from those ads and previews before films, covers the cost of software & hardware allowing for reserved seating, covers added costs of being green and goes to support local artists.  I'm cynical but I'll accept those words at face value.

What I don't understand is why the fee is semi-hidden.  The posted admission price was $11.50 but they charged me $13.50 and to make it more confusing the receipt was in the amount of $11.50.  I had an inkling the difference was the amenity fee so I didn't challenge the discrepancy with the cashier.  

Also the sheer number of pricing combinations is amazing.  By my estimation, there are about a dozen different prices (admission price + amenity fee) I would be charged depending on the day and time of the film screening I attend.  When you take into account that Seniors and Children have different admission prices and that there are different admission prices for 3D films, there must be 50 or more pricing combinations.  Changing their prices must be a major software update.

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Stoker was directed by Chan-wook Park, the South Korean director of Oldboy, Lady Vengeance and more.  As far as I am aware, Stoker is Park's first English language film.  I remembered stars Mia Wasikowska from That Evening Sun and Matthew Goode from Burning Man.  Curious to see what these actors (plus Nicole Kidman) could do under the helm of Park, I snuck away from CAAMFest long enough to view Stoker.  The title of the film refers to the surname of the family involved - teenager India Stoker (Wasikowska), her mother Evelyn (Kidman) and her paternal uncle Charlie (Goode).  India's father, Evelyn's husband and Charlie's older brother, Richard (Dermot Mulroney) has just passed away.  Long travelling around the world, Charlie returns home for Richard's funeral and promptly begins a cozy relationship with Evelyn who doesn't seem to be grieving much for her husband.

Stoker could also refer to Charlie whose appearance stokes passion in Evelyn and trepidation but eventually passion in India also. It could also refer to Bram Stoker, author of Dracula although vampires are not present in the film.  It's actually India's bloodlust which is really being stoked.

India is a little suspicious of her uncle whom her parents have never told of her about.  She is odd teenager on the verge of womanhood.  However, Kidman is already there and stakes a claim on the handsome Charlie. The sets off a twisted love triangle between mother, daughter & uncle.  Although Evelyn comes off as a cold bitch, she is the most well adjusted of the three.

Stoker picks up steam as India becomes more sexually curious and her passions commingle and converge with Charlie's secret.  I won't give away the secret but let's just say Charlie hasn't been globetrotting.  With some memorable cinematography (a scene where a spray of blood splashes against green grass is memorable), stylish sets and and great performances out of the lead three, Stoker never gets under you skin.  Instead you watch the fevered film with a rapt admiration for Park and the actor's skills.

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Strange Days is a film I don't recall.  However, for the past year (at least), Jesse Hawthorne Ficks has been showing the trailer for the film at his periodic Midnites for Maniacs screenings.  It looked cool and has an impressive pedigree.  Kathryn Bigelow directed and James Cameron wrote the film.  Ralph Fiennes, two years after Schindler's List and one year before The English Patient is the lead actor.  Angela Bassett, two years removed from What's Love Got to Do With It, is the female lead.  Juliette Lewis, Tom Sizemore and Vincent D'Onofrio costar in the film.

The premise of Strange Days is a device called a SQUID (Superconducting Quantum Interference Device).  The SQUID device attaches to one's head and records the memories of the wearer.  The recording can be played back for another person.  Of course, if the user is doing something boring while wearing the device, his memories aren't worth much.  However, if s/he is doing something intense (like robbing a Chinese food restaurant or having sex), the memories are worth more.  SQUIDs are military devices and bootleg copies are illegal so you have to go to a black marketer like ex-LAPD cop Lenny Nero (Fiennes).

The film is set in the final days of 1999 (no mention of Y2K).  LA is a dystopian society which seems under siege.  Wealthy people hire bodyguards.  Lenny's friend Mace (Bassett) is one such bodyguard.  She disapproves of Lenny's SQUID dealing but forgives him because she has feelings of unrequited love towards him.  Lenny still has feelings for his ex (Juliette Lewis).

This synopsis is getting long.  There are two inspired scenes in the film.  In one scene, a rapist/murderer wears a SQUID device during an attack.  In a moment of true perversity, the attacker connects a second SQUID device to his own and puts the 2nd SQUID on the victim.  As the blindfolded victim is being attacked, she can "see" the attack from her assailant's point of view.

The second impressive scene is a massive crowd scene (I think this was pre-CGI).  A crowd is gathered for New Year's Eve and two dirty cops (D'Onofrio and William Fichtner) are chasing Mace in the crowd.  As they attack her, it starts a riot which is quite the spectacle.

Although the technology is hit and miss when compared to where we are at today, Bigelow's direction is exceptional.  I have noticed that she is able to ratchet up and sustain tension at fevered levels in The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty.  She does that again or more accurately, she did it before in Strange Days.

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Hitler's Children is a documentary about the children, grandchildren, nieces & nephews of high ranking Nazi Party members.  Descendant's of Goering, Himmler and others appear on camera.  Although the premise sounded interesting, it appears that most of the subject are fairly well adjusted so there wasn't a lot of fertile ground to cover.  In all cases except one, the subject did not know or barely remembered their Nazi progenitor.  The exception was Niklas Frank, youngest child of Hans Frank, Governor-General of Poland.  The younger Frank was six years old when WWII ended and seven when his father was executed; old enough to recall the man who name is infamous.  Niklas largely repudiates his father's actions which seems like the only sensible thing to do when your father is a high-ranking Nazi.  Still, he recalls paternal moments with the man which humanizes both father & son.

Hermann Goering's daughter lives in New Mexico (near Santa Fe) and bears a strong resemblance.  I think Himmler kids chose to be sterilized and someone's descendants changed their name.

I'm light on details because I didn't learn much new from the film and it was a bit of a slog to get through.  The concept was more interesting than the execution of the film.

2013 CAAMFest

The San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival has rebranded itself as CAAMFest.  What is behind the renaming?  It seems they want to expand the scope of the festival.  "Film. Music. Food" is their new tagline.  CAAM stands for the Center for Asian American Media.  I doubt the typical festival attendee is aware of that acronym.

As I mentioned before, CAAMFest rescheduled itself so as not to conflict with the final weekend of Cinequest.  In addition, CAAMFest dropped San Jose from the lineup.  Typically, the final 3 or 4 days of the festival were held at Camera Cinemas in San Jose.  There were no San Jose screenings this year.  Festival director Masashi Niwano mentioned they were going to have screenings in San Jose later in the year but did not say anything more specific.

I saw 18 programs - one at the Castro, three at the Great Star, six at the Viz and eight at the Kabuki.  The 2013 CAAMFest marked the first time I had been in the Great Star Theater on Jackson St.

The Cheer Ambassadors; documentary; directed by Luke Cassady-Dorion; Thai & English with subtitles; (2012) - Official Website
Graceland starring Arnold Reyes; directed by Ron Morales; Tagalog with subtitles; (2012) - Official Website
High Tech, Low Life; documentary; directed by Stephen Maing; Mandarin with subtitles; (2012) - Official Website
The Land of Hope starring Isao Natsuyagi, Naoko Ohtani, Jun Murakami & Megumi Kagurazaka; directed by Sion Sono; Japanese with subtitles; (2012) - Official Website
When Night Falls starring Nai An; directed by Ying Liang; Mandarin with subtitles; (2012)
Sunset Stories starring Monique Gabriela Curnen & Sung Kang; directed by Ernesto Foronda & Silas Howard; (2012) - Official Website
Abigail Harm starring Amanda Plummer & Tetsuo Kuramochi; with Will Patton & Burt Young; directed by Lee Issac Chung; (2012) - Official Website
Dead Dad starring Kyle Arrington, Jenni Melear & Lucas Kwan Peterson; directed by Ken J. Adachi; (2012) - Official Website
Jiseul starring Sung Min-chul & Yang Jung-Won; directed by Muel O.; Korean with subtitles; (2012) - Official Facebook
15 starring Melvin Chen, Erick Chun & Melvin Lee; directed by Royston Tan; Hokkien & Mandarin with subtitles; (2003) - Official Website
When the Bough Breaks; documentary; directed by Ji Dan; Mandarin with subtitles; (2011)
Nice Girls Crew 2 starring Lynn Chen, Michelle Krusiec & Sheetal Sheth; directed by Tanuj Chopra; (2013) - Official Facebook
Beijing Flickers starring Duan Bowen, Li Xinyun & Shi Shi; directed by Zhang Yuan; Mandarin with subtitles; (2012)
Someone I Used to Know starring West Liang, Brian Yang & Eddie Mui; directed by Nadine Truong; (2012) - Official Website
Comrade Kim Goes Flying starring Han Jong Sim; directed by Kim Gwang Hun, Nicholas Bonner & Anja Daelemans; Korean with subtitles; (2012) - Official Website
Xmas Without China; documentary; directed by Alicia Dwyer & Tom Xia; English & Mandarin with subtitles; (2013) - Official Website

Beijing Flickers was preceded by Shanghai Strangers.

Shanghai Strangers starring Yiyan Jiang; directed by Joan Chen; Mandarin with subtitles; (2012)

A program titled Beautiful 2012 consisted of three short films.

You Are More Than Beautiful starring Gong Hyo-jin & Lee Kang-Sheng; directed by Kim Tae-yong; Korean with subtitles; (2012)
Walker starring Yan Lianke; directed by Tsai Ming-Liang; (2012)
My Way starring Francis Ng; directed by Ann Hui; Cantonese with subtitles; (2012)

I saw one short films program titled A Wrench in the Works which consisted of:

The Anti-Versary starring Colin Foo, Greg Chan, Jasmine Dring & Phillip Tsui; directed by Aaron Au; Cantonese & English with subtitles; 6 minutes; (2011)
Banzai Rising; documentary; directed by Pedro Gomez; Mandarin & English with subtitles; 15 minutes; (2013)
Born to Dance This Way starring Russell Argenal; directed by Jerell Rosales; 12 minutes; (2012) - Official Website
Dawn starring Scott Manuel Johnson, Warren Burke & Jeff Manabat; directed by Leon Le; 11 minutes; (2012)
Footsteps starring Jinho Kim, Taek-Hyeon Jeong, Ji-sung Kim & Suk-Joon Hyun; directed by Thomas Hyungkyun Kim; Korean with subtitles; 23 minutes; (2012)
Little Mao starring Kevin Wang; directed by Allen Tong; 7 minutes; (2012)
Shaya starring Laikh Tewari; directed by Amir Noorani; Urdu & English with subtitles; 18 minutes; (2013) - Official Website

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My favorite film of the festival was Graceland, a US/Filipino film, which is being released by Drafthouse Films.  According to the film's official website, it will play at the Roxie from April 26 to May 1.  Graceland reminded me of a film I saw at YBCA a couple years ago called Kinatay by the prolific Filipino director Brillante Mendoza.

Graceland features Arnold Reyes as Marlon, the driver to Changho (Menggie Cobarrubias) a pedophile politician.  Part of his duties include paying off the girls and driving them home.  It takes a heavy toll on Marlon but no more than the health of his wife who is in need of an organ transplant.  Marlon & Chango's daughters have become friends despite objections.  While driving the two girls home, Marlon is stopped by a police officer who kills the Changho girl and kidnaps Marlon's daughter. The two girls had switched school uniforms earlier in the day.  The Changho receive a ransom demand for their daughter but are unaware that the girl being held is Marlon's daughter.

This leads to a tense situation where Marlon must navigate between the kidnappers, the police & Changho.  Director Ron Morales skillfully navigates the plot while showing the desperation of Marlon's situation and Changho's corruption.  Dido De La Paz as the tough cop suspicious of Marlon, Leon Miguel as the vicious kidnapper and Ella Guevara as Marlon's daughter round out a strong cast.  Violence against children, depictions of slums and disturbing scene involving a child prostitute elevate Graceland to the grittiest of crime dramas.

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With The Land of Hope, I have now seen three Sion Sono films.  The other two films being Love Exposure and Cold Fish.  Sono does not seem to edit his films to achieve a certain length.  Love Exposure was nearly 4 hours, Cold Fish almost 2.5 hours and The Land of Hope clocked in at 2 hours, 15 minutes.  I am beginning to see  that Sono can keep the audience's interest for extended periods.

Set in Japan in the near future with the aftermath of the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster mentioned multiple times throughout the film, The Land of Hope repeats a nuclear reactor leak with the focus on one family.  The Ono family are dairy farmers.  Yasuhiko (Isao Natsuyagi) is the patriarch.  Chieko (Naoko Ohtani) is his wife whose dementia or senility progresses throughout the film.  Their son Yoichi (Jun Murakami) and his wife Izumi (Megumi Kagurazaka) live with his parents and work on the farm.

When the nuclear reactor accident occurs, a 50 KM evacuation radius is established.  The boundary happens to fall between the Ono's farm and the rest of the town with the Ono's outside the evacuation zone.  Barricades are set up and the Onos find themselves isolated as everyone else evacuates.  The absurdity of the situation is apparent to all.

Yasuhiko urges his son and daughter-in-law to evacuate while he and his wife will stay.  Throughout the film, he stubbornly refuses to leave his home.  Reluctantly, the younger couple agree to leave on a temporary basis.  This sets up dual story lines as Yoichi and Izumi's temporary relocation appears to be permanent and Yasuhiko clings to his farm while his wife's condition worsens.  I'm not sure if The Land of Hope is a comedy with dramatic moments or a drama with comedic moments.

The four lead actors are excellent with Ohtani having the juciest role given her character's erratic behavior.  Izumi becomes obsessed with nuclear radiation and begins constantly wearing a full hazmat suit.  Chieko thinks she is young girl and dances in a kimono with the blighted and abandoned townscape behind her.  Sono has an eye for visually memorable scenes.  Unlike his other two films that I have seen, there are no religious cults, perverts and yakuza gangsters in Sono's latest offering.  The absurdity in The Land of Hope is rooted in the reality the Japanese government's response to Fukushima and the lingering psychological and societal responses to a nuclear disaster.  Funny, thought provoking and emotionally touching, The Land of Hope is a tremendous film.

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Speaking of long films, When the Bough Breaks is a 2.5 hour Chinese documentary.  However, it kept my attention throughout.  The film follows a real family who live in a shanty in what appears to be a Beijing junkyard.  The father could very well be mentally unstable.  The two daughters, Xia & Ling, and a son, Gang, go to school on a scholarship or exemptions of sorts.  They don't have Beijing residency permits so are not allowed to go to public school.  I didn't the full details of their schooling but the daughters (particularly Xia) want desperately to educate themselves to live a better life.  The son is more lackadaisical about his studies.

As their enrollment becomes threatened, the two girls put all their efforts (and dreams) into Gang's education to both Gang & their father's disapproval.  Gang doesn't want to be the receptacle of all his sisters' hopes & dream.  He predicts they will come to resent him.  The father doesn't seem to concerned about his children's education and would prefer them all to live in the junkyard.  The film culminates in a tense & explosive New Year's Eve celebration in which acrimonious words are exchanged.

Inspiring, intense, raw, heartbreaking & infuriating are some words which come to mind when describing the film.  One of the CAAMFest programmers read a note from the director who mentioned her original intent was to document the fate of the third and eldest daughter who has gone missing and likely sold into sexual slavery.  Her absence and missing status casts a pall over the family even if it is only mentioned in passing.  Although a documentary, there is enough narrative lines to be worthy of Dickens novel.  The drunken father's self-delusions makes him and his family miserable.  The kindly benefactor offers to pay for the girls schooling except he wants to have sex with them.  The grinding poverty is destroying the family.  When the Bough Breaks is one of the most powerful documentaries I have seen in a long time.

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Graceland, The Land of Hope & When the Bough Breaks are the only films from the festival I can enthusiastically recommend.  There were a number of other films which, while enjoyable, did not rise to the level those three films.

The Cheer Ambassadors - light hearted documentary about the Bangkok University cheerleading squad and their preparation for the 2011 World Cheerleading Championships.

Sunset Stories - Monique Gabriela Curnen is a Boston nurse visiting LA, her hometown, to courier a cooler with an organ transplant.  The cooler is stolen and she enlist her ex-boyfriend (Sung Kang) to help her get it back.  The two travel through LA and encounter many different people as they track down the cooler.  Nice ensemble cast.

Dead Dad - three estranged siblings gather for the funeral of their father.  The reunion and mourning bring up family tensions.  It's a modest film that exceeded my expectations.

15 - the 2013 CAAMFest had a 3 film Royston Tan retrospective.  I had seen Tan's 881 a few years ago so I was interested in seeming more.  My expectations were high since Tan was called the "bad boy of Singporean cinema" in the festival guide.  15 featured teenage nonactors playing, presumably, exaggerated versions of themselves.  It reminded me of low-budget, juvenile delinquent version of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.

Beijing Flickers - some down and out young people in Beijing from a friendship they navigate through life.  Han Wenwen turns in a nice performance as the band singer who is kicked out of the band when they get a recording contract.

Comrade Kim Goes Flying - I could not have imagined a film about a North Korean coal miner dreaming of being a trapeze artist would have been so enjoyable.  Han Jong Sim is appealing as the winsome heroine of the film.  Pyongyang never looked so beautiful.

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I had much better luck with the short films.

Beautiful 2012, a Hong Kong International Film Festival production, consisted of three short films; each one approximately 30 minutes.

You Are More Than Beautiful was my favorite short film of the festival.  A man hires an actress (was she a porn actress?) to pretend to be his wife for his dying father's benefit.  It turns out the man is comatose when she arrives but she continues to pretend in case he can still understand.  The film is funny & touching with nice performances from the two lead actors (Gong Hyo-jin & Lee Kang-Sheng).

Ann Hui's My Way gives a complex portrait of a man (Francis Ng) about to undergo a sex change operation.

Tsai Ming-Liang's Walker features a monk navigating Hong Kong at a glacial pace.  It put me to sleep after 10 minutes.

A Wrench in the Works had two outstanding short films.

Born to Dance This Way follows Joo-Si (pronounced Juicy), an overweight dancer as he defies the odds and becomes the fourth member of an all-girl band.  This short film was on the program of SF Indiefest and had one of the best trailers.  Russell Argenal delivers an over-the-top performance in a hilarious short film.

Shaya is a Pakistani boy who immigrates to Los Angeles.  He discovers he has left one war zone for another as he, his mother and younger sister encounter culture shock, gangbangas & immigrants who still hold a grudge from the old country.

There three other short films which were quite good in the Wrench program.

Down - racial stereotypes of blacks and Asians are confirmed and refuted.

Footsteps - a simple minded North Korean peasant boy become a tragic pawn between the two countries when he ventures into the DMZ.

Little Mao - a ball to the head of Little Leaguer inspires him to apply Chairman Mao's principles to the baseball diamond.

Joan Chen's Shanghai Strangers preceded Beijing Flickers and seemed to be her love letter to her native Shanghai.  Some of the exterior shots of the Shanghai skyline and the old parts of the city were spectacular.  I wonder if they were stock footage?  The film tells two stories - a Chinese woman admitting to a marital affair to a complete stranger (and foreigner) at that and a flashback to the actual affair.  It was a well made film.  Chen took questions form the Great Star stage after both films had screened.  She looked fantastic.  I wish she would make more films (as an actress or director) in the US.  My impartiality may be questioned.  I have to admit that I had a huge Joan Chen crush when The Last Emperor came out in 1987 so she reminds me of my youth.

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I wasn't a huge fan of Nice Girls Crew at last year's festival so I wasn't sure about Nice Girls Crew 2.  For the uninitated, NGC follows three "frenemies" who form a book club - Sophie (Lynn Chen), Geraldine (Michelle Krusiec) & Lina (Sheetal Sheth).  NGC consisted of five 10 minute episodes as does NGC2.  The book club plot device is dispensed with and the girls engage in more slapstick comedy in NGC2 as opposed to one-line zingers in NGC.  Although moderately amusing, I thought the actresses' talents were largely wasted.  Considering I chose this screening over Luc Besson's The Professional, I was doubly disappointed.

Xmas Without China was a documentary about the Jones family who accept the challenge of trying to not use or buy any products made in China during the month leading up to Christmas.  It's a contrived but intriguing idea.  Not only is the Caucasian Jones family documented but the Chinese family of the filmmaker also receives considerable screen time.  Co-director Tom Xia's family and his own ambivalence about his Chinese citizenship distracted from the more Spurlockesque aspects of the film.

I did not enjoy any of the other 2013 CAAMFest films I have not previously mentioned in this post.  Given the relentless pace and size of the blog entries so far this month, I see no reason to document the reasons why I didn't like them.

The 3rd Coming of the Viz?

Just when I was beginning to call it the Film Society Cinema (FSC), they shut it down.  I am referring to the New People World Cinema which I still refer to as the Viz which was the film distribution arm of New People World.  The FSC is what the San Francisco Film Society called the Viz when they leased it out...an arrangement which lasted one year.  I can't say I'm surprised given the sparse attendance at the screenings I attended.  I can only wonder what this means for the direction of SFFS.  Prior to the FSC, SFFS programmed a screen at the Kabuki.  The long term plan is for SFFS to have two dedicated screens in the Presidio.  If they couldn't make a go of one screen a block off the heavily trafficked Geary Blvd. corridor, I'm not sure how successful two screens in the comparatively isolated Presidio are going to be.

I don't know what will become of the Viz either.  This is the second time the Viz has faced dire circumstances.  At the end of 2010, it appeared the Viz was closing but after a brief shutdown for "maintenance," the Viz reopened to weekly programming and festivals.  This schedule continued until SFFS began daily programming in September 2011.

Once again, the Viz's future seems imperiled.  That's too bad because the programming (both under New People and SFFS) has been to my liking.  We'll have to wait and see what happens.

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Armed with the knowledge of its impending end, I watched quite a few of the final SFFS programs at the Viz.  In addition to Pelotero, I saw the following films at the FSC in July and August.

Sacrifice starring You Ge, Xueqi Wang & Xiaoming Huang; directed by Kaige Chen; Mandarin with subtitles; (2010)
The Devil, Probably; directed by Robert Bresson; French with subtitles; (1977)
The Moth Diaries starring Lily Cole & Sarah Bolger; directed by Mary Harron; (2011) - Official Website
Battle Royale starring Chiaki Kuriyama & Takeshi Kitano; directed by Kinji Fukasaku; Japanese with subtitles; (2000)
Love in the City; directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini, Alberto Lattuada, Carlo Lizzani, Francesco Maselli, Dino Risi & Cesare Zavattini; Italian with subtitles; (1953)

Battle Royale is the same film I saw in April at Midnites for Maniacs.  There was an epilogue set during a basketball game which I don't recall from the April screening.  The scene nicely encapsulated the social dynamics of the students prior to the Battle Royale.  The film more than held up to a second viewing.  The classical music soundtrack was more noticeable on the second viewing and enhanced the film.

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In the interest in time, I'm going to gloss over Sacrifice and The Devil, Probably.  I didn't really enjoy either.  Sacrifice was a big budget, Chinese historical epic.  I'm always hoping for another Hero or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon but I'm repeatedly disappointed.  Director Kaige Chen made Farewell My Concubine 20 years ago, but Sacrifice is no Concubine.  Sacrifice is a variation of the familiar "babies switched at birth" plot device.  Not a terrible film, just a little rambling at just over 2 hours.  There wasn't much to distinguish Sacrifice from any number of other Chinese films I've seen in the past few years.  The "switched at birth" premise may well have more powerful resonance in modern, Chinese, society with its one-child policy but it seemed tired and unimaginative to me.

Director Robert Bresson cast non-actors as the leads in The Devil, Probably.  I'm rarely a fan of this technique but my issue with The Devil was the languid (if not soporific) pacing of the film.  I thought the characters' musings were inane and the film was definitely a product of its time - 1970s Paris.  A young man is found dead with a gunshot wound.  Murder, suicide, political statement?  The rest of the film retraces his life in his final days.  Disenchanted the young man tries religion, drugs, sex, psychoanalysis, etc. with no improvement of his bleak outlook on the moral decay of society.  As much a political statement in the politically supercharged 1970s, the film lost my attention several times which wasn't too bad because the narrative structure was episodic.

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The Moth Diaries was a surprisingly effective vampire tale set among an upscale girls boarding school.  Fashion model Lily Cole plays Ernessa, the vampire.  Sarah Bolger plays Rebecca, the only person at the school who suspects the true nature of Ernessa.  Sarah Gadon plays Lucie, Rebecca's best friend and the object of Ernessa's bloodlust.

Director Mary Harron (American Psycho) does a nice job melding the angst and intense emotions of teenagers with the vampire story.  All the actresses played their roles well.  The Moth Diaries is not a great film but it achieved the necessary mood for a vampire film without resorting to gratuitous scenes involving the young women's sexuality.  The song that played over the credits (Marina and The Diamonds' Numb) is still in my memory two months later.

Love in the City was allegedly the Italian Neorealists response to William Wyler's Roman Holiday.  Unable to recognize the hardscrabble streets of Rome that Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn tooled around on with that Vespa, a group of Italian directors decided to make Love, Italian Style.  They pulled the anti-Bresson.  Instead of casting non-actors in fictitious roles, the Italians cast actors as real people and called their film a documentary.  The result was impressive.

Love in the City consists of six unrelated vignettes.  Paid Love (directed by Lizzani), Attempted Suicide (Antonioni), Paradise for Three Hours (Risi), Marriage Agency (Fellini), Story of Caterina (Zavattini and Maselli) & Italians Stare (Lattuada).

Paid Love was essentially an interview of various prostitutes.  This segment may not have used actors.  Using a detached approach, Lizzani films these women telling their powerful stories.  Attempted Suicide uses a similar documentarian approach in telling the sad stories of three failed suicides.  Story of Caterina is a heartbreaking tale of a young mother forced by circumstances to abandon her baby.  Those three were my favorites

Paradise for Three Hours  is nearly free of dialogue and concerns itself with the rituals and gestures at a weekly Saturday night dance.  Italians Stare essentially follows attractive women around the streets and records their movements and men's response to them.  Playing up the stereotype of Italian men as leering lechers with a jazzy soundtrack.  These two I liked but not as much as the first three.

That leaves Marriage Agency - Fellini's segment.  It has a nice setup.  A man approaches a marriage agency on behalf of his friend who suffers from a rare medical condition which he later reveals to the potential wife as werewolfism (is that a word?).  There are quite a few ways to take this story; none of which seems to fit with the general theme of urban grittiness and Italian masculinity.  Fellini wrote the screenplay for this segment as well.  I guess this can be explained as part of his tendency towards the absurd.  Utlimately, the segment fell flat.  We never see the werewolf and I can't recall how the story ended.

2012 San Francisco International Film Festival

It's been over three weeks since the festival ended so I'm a little late in posting.  Three events have postponed by post.  First, I saw over 20 films at Elliot Lavine's I Wake Up Dreaming at the Roxie earlier this month.  Second, Google changed their Blogspot  user interface.  I find it much harder to compose this post.  Finally, I've been taking a chess class.  Yes, once upon a time I was an avid chess player.  The class has reawakened my interest in chess.

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The San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF) ran from April 19 to May 3.  I saw 25 films but I did something deeply offensive - I wasted money by buying tickets to 28 screening but only saw 25.

I skipped out on the screening to Where Do We Go Now? on April 27 as I needed to go to exercise and was fatigued at the halfway point of the festival.  Too tired to watch films but not too tired to workout.  I was also confident in the knowledge that Where Do We Go Now? was opening at the Landmark Theaters in May.

I also had a ticket to see Wuthering Heights on May 2 but abandoned the screening at the last minute to see Louise Brooks in A Girl In Every Port at the Stanford.

Finally, I made a mistake in reading the schedule and bought tickets to Rebellion and Hysteria on May 3.  The screening of the two films overlapped so I had to make a choice.  I was leaning towards Hysteria but noticed it is also opening at the Landmark Theaters in May so I attended Rebellion.  I was able to donate that ticket to a festival volunteer.

I saw all feature length films and none of them had short films preceding them.  I saw one films at the Castro and PFA each, four at the Viz which is now officially called the Film Society Cinema and 19 at the Sundance Kabuki.  This year, I saw more screenings in Auditoriums 2, 7 and 8 than any previous year.  In past years,  Auditoriums 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 were the mainstays.  Auditoriums 2, 7 and 8 are smaller than the others so I wonder if attendance was down or if the Film Society decided to rent smaller auditoriums this year.

Also, the April 22 screening of Ethel was delayed by nearly an hour due to a fire alarm in the Kabuki.

The 25 films I saw were:

Robot and Frank starring Frank Langella and the voice of Peter Saarsgard; with Susan Sarandon, James Marsden & Liv Tyler; directed by Jake Schreier; (2011)
The Giants starring Zacharie Chasseriaud, Martin Nissen & Paul Bartel; directed by Bouli Lanners; French with subtitles; (2011) - Official Website
Wu Xia starring Donnie Yen & Takeshi Kaneshiro; directed by Peter Chan; Mandarin with subtitles; (2011)
Dreileben - Beats Being Dead starring Jacob Matschenz & Luna Mijovic; directed by Christian Petzold; German with subtitles; (2011)
Dreileben - Don't Follow Me Around starring Jeanette Hain, Susanne Wolff & Misel Maticevic; directed by Dominik Graf; German with subtitles; (2011)
People Mountain People Sea starring Chen Jianbin; directed by Shangjun Cai; Mandarin with subtitles; (2011)
Ethel; directed by Rory Kennedy; documentary (2012)
I Wish starring Koki & Oshiro Maeda; directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda; Japanese with subtitles; (2011) - Official Website
Headhunters starring Aksel Hennie & Nikolaj Coster-Waldau; directed by Morten Tyldum; Norwegian with subtitles; (2011) - Official Website
Polisse starring Joey Starr; directed by Maïwenn; French with subtitles; (2011) - Official Website
Last Screening starring Pascal Cervo; directed by Laurent Achard; French with subtitles (2011) - Official Website
Unfair World; directed by Filippos Tsitos; Greek with subtitles; Greek with subtitles; (2011)  
Mosquita y Mari starring Fenessa Pineda & Venecia Troncoso; directed by Aurora Guerrero; English and Spanish with subtitles; (2012)
Cherry starring Ashley Hinshaw; with James Franco, Heather Graham & Dev Patel; directed by Stephen Elliott; (2012) - Official Website  
Somebody Up There Like Me starring Keith Poulson; with Nick Offerman; directed by Bob Byington; (2012) - Official Website
Quadrophenia starring Phil Daniels; with Sting & Ray Winstone;  directed by Franc Roddam; (1979)
Compliance starring Dreama Walker, Ann Dowd & Pat Healy; directed by Craig Zobel; (2012) - Official Website
Dreileben - One Minute of Darkness; directed by Christoph Hochhäusler; German with subtitles; (2011)
Life Without Principle starring Ching Wan Lau and Denise Ho; Cantonese with subtitles; directed by Johnnie To; (2011)
Luv starring Common & Michael Rainey Jr.; with Dennis Haysbert & Danny Glover; directed by Sheldon Candis; (2012)
The Waiting Room; directed by Peter Nicks; documentary; (2012) - Official Website
Choked; directed by Joong-Hyun Kim; Korean with subtitles; (2011)
Policeman; directed by Nadav Lapid; Hebrew with subtitles; (2011)
Rebellion starring Mathieu Kassovitz & Iabe Lapacas; directed by Mathieu Kassovitz; French with subtitles; (2011) - Official Website
Twixt starring Val Kilmer & Elle Fanning; with Bruce Dern; directed by Francis Ford Coppola; (2011) - Official Website

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Given my SF Indiefest experience, I think I was too ambitious in scheduling 27 (or 28 depending on how you count) films for the festival.

Headhunters and Polisse (along with Where Do We Go Now? and Hysteria) are currently playing at Landmark Theaters.  I always struggle when selecting film screenings at festivals like SFIFF.  I don't want to miss a good film but I also don't want to see a film which will be released later.

Film which I enjoyed were Mosquita y Mari, a story about two teenage Latinas with an intense friendship which also screens at Frameline in June, Somebody Up There Like Me from mumblecore stalwart Bob Byington which feature a tremendous performance from Nick Offerman in a supporting role, the high-octane thriller Headhunters (which has come and gone from local Landmark Theaters), Rebellion, a taut political thriller about an armed insurrection in New Caledonia in the 1980s and I Wish, a sweet-natured film from Kore-eda about two brothers who are separated by the divorce of their parents.

A step below are films which I enjoyed but had some serious plot deficiencies or I just didn't click with - Cherry explores the world of porn (and tacks on a semi-happy ending that seemed out of left field), Johnnie To's Life Without Principle creates an intersection between gangsters, hedge funds and the credit crisis, Ethel was made by Rory Kennedy (RFK's youngest child) spent too much time on RFK and not enough on his widow, Polisse was a slightly too melodramatic depiction of a dysfunctional police unit investigating child sex crime, Luv featured tremendous performances all around as an ex-con tries to go legit while his nephew tags along, Choked was a South Korean import about the sins of the mother being passed onto her son, Policeman, about an Israeli anti-terrorist unit and the radicals they eventually confront, had some uneven performances but was my favorite of the "second-rounders" and finally Dreileben - Beats Being Dead was my favorite of the three Dreileben films screened at the festival because it focused on a complex and ultimately exploitive relationship between a German med student and a Serbian immigrant in Germany.

Robot and Frank was the first film I saw at the festival and I was impressed at the time but after seeing the other films and upon further reflection, the film was a bit predictable and mawkish but did feature a nice performance by Frank Langella and outstanding voice performance by Peter Saarsgard.

Quadrophenia was also interesting but felt too dated to be anything more than a period piece.  It was nice to see Ray Winstone skinny and Sting preening around like a peacock.

The Giants, Compliance and The Waiting Room were difficult films for me to watch; not so much entertaining as interesting in a morbid way.  The Giants was like Stand By Me on crack, Compliance was the factually accurate retelling of a shocking incident demonstrating the pitfalls of blind obedience and The Waiting Room put human faces on the current health care crisis.

Twixt was kind of interesting but not my genre.  ACT Core Acting Company performer Anthony Fusco has a supporting role in the film.

I fell asleep during Wu Xia, People Mountain People Sea and Unfair World.

That leaves the other two Dreileben films.  They weren't bad but compared unfavorably to Beats Being Dead.  My order of preference of the three films (from favorite to least favorite) were Beats Being Dead,  Don't Follow Me Around and One Minute of Darkness.  It's all a matter of taste though.  Chatting with Jason Wiener on the bus ride to BART one evening, he mentioned he preferred the films in the exact opposite order.