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Friday, March 2nd, 6:30PM Running Time 121 minutes Country South Korea Director Choi Kook-hee Starring Jung Sung-hwa, Lee David, Lee Jung-hyun, Yoo Ji-tae |
COLORADO PREMIERE!
Chul-Jong (Yoo Ji-tae) was once a star bowler until a crippling accident cut his career short and left him a washed-up hustler with a leg brace. He "works" at a junkyard but earns his living from low-stakes singles matches. His sponsor is Hee-jin (Lee Jung-hyun), a fast-talking beauty trying to pay off a hefty debt in order to keep her family’s bowling alley from being turned over to a group of high-rolling thugs. Things start to look up when Chul-jong notices an autistic savant able to consistently get strikes despite, or because of, some eccentric methods. Both he and Hee-jin immediately see dollar bill signs; they only have to find a way to convince him to roll with them. Despite their sleazy beginnings, over time they start to see Young-hoon (David Lee, Poetry) as something more than a meal ticket. They find ways to accommodate his special needs while getting themselves into doubles matches with increasingly higher stakes. Rain Man meets Kingpin but injected with a Korean sensibility where a disregard for genre and a cool irreverence make for a highly crowd-pleasing mix. A quick-witted and stylish tale of an odd trio, all of them underdogs. |
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Saturday, March 3rd, 11:00AM Running Time 70-80 minutes Country Various Director Annalotta Pauly, Annlin Chao, Eden Chan, Han Zhang, Janice Chun, Jeremy Teo Jia Ming, Margaret To, Mei Li, Senri Iida, Tai Murayama, Tomoki Misato, Tsuneo Goda, Yan Dan Wong, Yuta Sukegawa A grab bag of animated works from a new generation of artists. Comedy, Fantasia-esque dreamscapes, and the experimental, there is something for the whole family (yes, this is an all ages show). BLOOM (Margaret To, 2016, US, 3 min) Embark on a musical journey as we follow the heartbeat of an awakening forest in Spring. THE BLUE BUTTERFLY (Mei Li, 2016, US, 5 min) An old man that travels around the world capturing butterflies in order to relive the moments spent with his wife. CANDY.ZIP (Tomoki Misato, 2017, Japan, 4 min) An underappreciated office worker must escape her prison as a zipped file on a computer in order to stop a coworker from taking the credit for her work. CAPTAIN OCTOPUS & TREASURE (Senri Iida, 2016, Japan, 7 min) The adventure of an octopus looking for a treasure box to obtain the light of treasures, not the contents of the box. The retro feel of animation and texture portrays a phantasmal world. CRUSHED IN SPACE (Janice Chun, 2017, US, 6 min) The Asteroid Belt. An unrequited romance. They are coworkers. DRIFTING CLOUD (Yuta Sukegawa, 2014, Japan, 7 min) A lost cloud wanders the sky making new friendships, experiencing heartbreak and soaking in the wonders of life. EAT, PRAY, BIRD (Jeremy Teo Jia Ming, 2016, Singapore, 6 min) An apprentice monk plans to cheat on his final test of monkhood, but finds enlightenment in the most unexpected way. |
MEAT OR DIE (Tai Murayama, 2009, Japan, 6 min)
Yans and Gan are two carnivore dinosaurs looking for their next meal. A frenetic and absurd update on the Wile E. Coyote/Road Runner films. SEMBLANCE (Yan Dan Wong/Annalotta Pauly, 2017, Malaysia/Sweden, 3 min) When the feeling of loss engulfs you; how do you find your way back? STARS (Han Zhang, 2016, US, 5 min) A grandfather and his grandson furnish an entire coastal town with starlight. One night, their supplies run out, and they have to rely on their creativity in order to keep their business going. TO & KYO (Tsuneo Goda, 2017, Japan, 4 min) Downtown Tokyo. Two petit-demons “To” and “Kyo” are doing tags in the narrow alley with full speed. TRAVELING THROUGH BRUSH AND INK (Annlin Chao, 2017, Taiwan, 3 min) A stop-motion animation of a little modern man traveling through four significant ancient Chinese paintings, transforming himself into animals and plants, and becomes part of the nature. Each painting represents four important stages of landscape art in Chinese history. WHAT A PEACEFUL DAY (Eden Chan, 2016 Taiwan, 5 min) An old lady headed for the woods seeking peace. Accidently, she meets a hunter collecting antlers, triggering an epic battle to save a cute deer. |
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COLORADO PREMIERE!
In this slow-burn thriller a girl’s coming of age is cross-referenced with a rookie cop’s moral dilemma regarding recently discovered corruption within his department. Farm girl Maya does not go to school. Instead of a traditional education her father is her teacher, educating her on the use of a hunting rifle, preparing her for the inevitable day when he is gone and she is on her own. Domingo is married, has a newborn, and is the only officer left in his unit to abstain from cynicism and misconduct. Venturing out on her own, Maya mistakenly shoots and kills an endangered Philippine Eagle. Maya’s crime becomes the scapegoat for something larger as Domingo finds a lead on a more horrific crime during the manhunt for the eagle’s killer. |
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Saturday, March 3rd, 1:10PM Running Time 116 minutes Country Philippines Director Mikhail Red Starring John Arcilla, Ku Aquino, Mary Joy Apostol Mikhail Red distinguishes himself as one of the most exciting new voices in Asian cinema with this carefully paced social commentary. Selected as the Filipino entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards. Preceded by “JOSEPHINE” (Avid Liongoren, 2016, Philippines, 4 min) |
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It’s been far too long since Naoko Ogigami’s last feature, and with CLOSE-KNIT she has returned to form with the genre she has excelled at time and again: the makeshift family picture. 11-year-old Tomo is used to her single mother skipping town without notice. For Tomo it’s become second nature to turn to her uncle Makio (Kenta Kiritani) when left to her own devices. This time Makio introduces her to his new girlfriend Rinko (idol pretty boy Toma Ikuta) and almost immediately the three form a familial bond, Rinko proving to be a better mother figure than Tomo’s biological mom. CLOSE-KNIT features Ogigami’s usual brand of deadpan humor and bittersweet storytelling, but that she incorporates a transgendered character presents a milestone for her career. This is subject matter rarely seen in Japanese cinema and she explores the finer points of these relationships without bias.
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Saturday, March 3rd, 4:15PM Running Time 127 minutes Country Japan Director Naoko Ogigami Starring Eiko Koike, Noriko Eguchi, Tôma Ikuta COLORADO PREMIERE! Followed by a Q&A with The Japan Times film critic and historian Mark Schilling! |
COLORADO PREMIERE!
In a small seaside town, a giant statue of Marilyn Monroe stands by the beach. Her skirt blown up by the wind, it becomes a monument of objectification. Mia is working reception the night a man, a high-ranking commissioner, barges his way into the room of two 12-year-old schoolgirls, the same ones who accompanied him as he drunkenly checked into the seedy love hotel. Instinctively, Mia uses her phone to record the security camera footage of the incident. |
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Saturday, March 3rd, 7:00PM Running Time 107 minutes Country China Director Vivian Qu Starring Ke Shi, Meijun Zhou, Vicky Chen Simultaneously Mia and Wen, one of the victims, must traverse a situation that becomes increasingly incendiary as more parties involve themselves, everyone looking for a way to turn a profit from the assault. Director Qu lets no one off easy as even the girls and their parents are looking for things other than justice. ANGELS WEAR WHITE, Vivian Qu’s follow up to her 2013 directorial debut Trap Street, is a bleak, unflinching look at rampant social injustice. Her female leads providing a fragile core to the proceedings. Between the two films Qu worked as producer on another socially biting neo-noir Black Coal, Thin Ice.
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The film opens up once their friend/producer is put on trial for violation of the National Security Law. It is here the voices of students, professors, and government officials get involved, adding more conjecture to the story of two guys who wanted to have fun making music and ruffle some feathers in the process. Features the hit single “All Hail Kim Jung-il,” not about the North Korean leader but others who share the same name including a composer and a dentist.
Preceded by Dead Cross’ “OBEDIENCE SCHOOL” (Dennis Bersales, 2017, Philippines, 3 min) |
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Saturday, March 3rd, 9:15PM Running Time 120 minutes Country South Korea Director Jung Yoon-suk COLORADO PREMIERE! If you were asked to name the country that sent a man to jail over an ironic retweet, South Korea most likely wouldn’t be the first to come to mind. That is the surprise of Jung Yoon-suk’s documentary, which started as a portrait of the experimental punk band Bamseom Pirates and quickly became a larger look at what is taboo in Korean society and what happens when satire confronts national security. With only a bassist, a drummer, and PowerPoint accompaniment, the “mastermind” Kwon Yong-man and “minion” Jang Sung-geon put on shows best described as “punk performance art.” A mixture of music (think if Ornette Coleman was into grindcore), hilarious banter, and destruction of objects, their shows quickly became the stuff of legend with college students and young protestors. At their first gig they played 100 songs in 10 minutes. |
COLORADO PREMIERE!
Gaku Hamada, the ubiquitous lovable loser of Japanese cinema, plays another nobody with a heart of gold in this adaptation of the cult manga by Minoru Furuya (Ping-Pong). Susumu (Hamada) gets suckered into becoming his coworker Yuji’s wingman. Yuji is head over heels for Yuka (Aimi Satsukawa), the cute café waitress who he can’t muster the courage to speak with beyond placing his order. Susumu is given the mission to speak on Yuji’s behalf and before you know it he and Yuka become an item. Fearing this might be his only shot at love, Susumu decides to hide his betrayal and keep seeing Yuka. But there’s more to this quirky rom-com than might be expected as the flip-side to puppy love is brutal, graphic rage. Yuka’s old stalker (Go Morita) is back in the picture, leaving a trail of butchered and defiled bodies as he looms closer to Yuka and her new, oblivious squeeze. If HIME-ANOLE is two films in one, a romance and a slasher, director Keisuke Yoshida sends each half hurtling towards the other in a head-on collision meant to shock and linger in your thoughts long after the lights go up. CONTAINS GRAPHIC VIOLENCE, SOME OF A SEXUAL NATURE. |
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Saturday, March 3rd, 11:50PM Running Time 90 minutes Country Japan Director Keisuke Yoshida Starring Aimi Satsukawa |, Gaku Hamada, Gô Morita |
EMPATHY (A DIGITAL LOVE LETTER) (Qiyue Q Sun, US, 2017, 8 min)
A short essay documentary, a heartbreaking comedy about a break-up, an attempt to concretize emotion and evoke empathy from a writer’s approach. After getting her heart crushed in a relationship, a woman writes a letter to the man she loves for a simple reason—to evoke his empathy towards her. THE LEGEND OF RUBY PASHA (Sabah Haider, Canada/Pakistan/Lebanon, 2016, 15 min) Ruby Pasha, an aspiring entomologist from a village in Pakistan, disappears after killing her fiancé and his evil family who threatened to kill her for breaking off the engagement. As news of the killings spreads globally, Ruby is turned into a revolutionary icon. SUPERPOWER GIRL (Kim Su-young, South Korea, 2017, 24 min) “Superpower girl” Mina is in the top of her class, the center of attention and the envy of everyone. “No-power girl” Juri is the total opposite, as her classmates sometimes forget she even exists. One day, Mina can’t seem to close her eyelids, while Juri discovers her hidden powers. A weird series of events to these teen girls shock the world! |
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Sunday, March 4th, 1:45PM Running Time 106 minutes Country Various Director Kim Su-young, Qiyue Q Sun, Sabah Haider, Sorayos Prapapan, Yeo Joon-han A program of inventive and daring short films from off the beaten path. Coming from all over the world these shorts range from the personal to the political. Something for the whole family (but not really). All Colorado premieres.
BEDSIDE MANNERS (Yeo Joon-han, Malaysia, 2016, 31 min) A man lies in bed, paralyzed. He can still see and hear and in turn must listen to the back and forth between a series of idiots. Malaysia is put under the satirical microscope; politicians and lost aircrafts and everything in between. DEATH OF THE SOUND MAN (Sorayos Prapapan, Thailand/Myanmar, 2017, 16 min) The voice of the people is often neglected, as is sound in film, which the audience doesn’t care about. Two sound recordists are working on the final mix of a short film. Will their sound be heard by someone? |
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COLORADO PREMIERE!
There is still poetry in India. So says Hari’s father, who along with his mother is a filmmaker with an optimistic streak. Hari views the world with an openness and curiosity passed down from his parents. But when financial troubles arise they are forced to move from their house into an apartment in Mumbai. That his father is Muslim and his mother Hindu creates problems wherever they go, despite neither of them being particularly observant. Hari watches his father’s love for his country tested as they encounter religious intolerance from both sides. These threats of violence increase as the family struggles to finish their film. |
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Sunday, March 4th, 4:30PM Running Time 104 minutes Country India Director Padmakumar Narasimhamurthy Starring Dhruva Padmakumar, Gaurav Sharma, Umar Raza Khan Padmakurmar’s film believes that there is still poetry not just in India but the world, even though few are still able to see this beauty; a concept wonderfully evoked with its black and white cinematography. Art, specifically film in this case, can cut past bigotry. A much needed naiveté in modern times.
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The high school heist where instead of jewels or bundles of cash the loot is the answers to exam questions. Based on actual cases of students cheating on college-entrance multiple choice exams, BAD GENIUS became the highest grossing Thai film of 2017. Lynn (Chutimon Cheungcharoensukying) attends an elite high school on a full scholarship and has her sights already on equally elite universities. Almost immediately she is befriended by Grace, the pretty girl who is scholastically challenged but shares the all-too common obsession with academic achievement. After passing Grace some answers during a test, Lynn discovers that there’s good money to be made through cheating on exams and soon is in charge of a racket that utilizes increasingly creative methods to get the answers to more and more paying customers. Her business and her scholarship are stopped once she is ratted out by fellow genius Bank. With nothing to lose Lynn assembles a team, including Bank, to take on U.S. university entrance exams, making them millionaires in the process. A relentlessly entertaining and energetic satire on education and class discrepancy, the climactic big score is a palm-sweating sequence that doesn't let up for a solid half-hour.
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Sunday, March 4th, 7:15PM Running Time 130 minutes Country Thailand Director Nattawut Poonpiriya Starring Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying, Eisaya Hosuwan, Teeradon Supapunpinyo COLORADO PREMIERE! |
