AAIFF ’13: Touch of the Light

Here’s something a little different: a film about college-aged kids, who actually have talent and are not compulsively bedding one another.  Granted, they have confidence issues, but their platonic friendship might just make all the difference in Chang Jung-chi’s Touch of the Light (trailer here), which screens tomorrow during the 2013 Asian American International Film Festival in New York.

Essentially, this is Huang Yu-siang’s real life story, starring the blind piano prodigy as himself, or a namesake very much like him.  The young musician leaves his home in the countryside for the first time ever to enroll in a Taipei music school.  His classmates are mostly stuck-up creeps, but his comic relief roommate Ching is a decent chap. However, Xiao Jie is something else entirely.  A chance meeting with the tea delivery girl nursing a broken heart leads to a deeply rewarding friendship.  Perhaps, she will finally start pursuing her dancing dreams and he will begin entering music competitions again.

Right, you’re probably starting to feel nauseous right now, but Touch is nowhere near as cloying or manipulative as all that probably sounds. Surprisingly, the film takes romance entirely off the table (aside from the unsubtle questions from Huang’s little sister, played by the scene-stealing Wu Ya-jo).  Instead, Chang focuses on the mutual support each gets from the other, while also celebrating the contribution of their dedicated teachers.  Taiwan’s preeminent modern dancer Hsu Fang-yi does the honors for Xiao Jie, absolutely illuminating the screen in the process.

Throughout Touch, Chang’s restraint is admirable.  It has a gauzy, lyrical vibe, but the narrative is pretty well grounded in reality.  The film is more about the daily carrying-on in pursuit of one’s goals than triumphant crescendos.  Obviously, Huang is perfectly believable as himself.  However, the Taiwanese-French Sandrine Pinna is a far more magnetic presence on-screen.  Then again, he is a better pianist than she is a dancer, so maybe it all evens out.  Regardless, their easy, relaxed chemistry together is quite appealing.  Perhaps the official mom of the year’s AAIFF, actress-turned-producer Lee Lieh (previously seen in Together) also gives a wonderfully understating but acutely touching performance as Huang’s protective mother.

“Presented” Oprah-style by Wong Kar-wai and produced by his company, Touch combines art-house quality performances with a mainstream audience-friendly narrative. It is easy to see why Taiwan submitted it as their official Foreign Language Oscar contender last year. Warm and inviting but not quite as by-the-numbers predictable as one might expect, Touch of the Light is recommended for those who enjoy gifted-youth dramas.  It screens tomorrow (8/3) at the Asia Society, as this year’s AAIFF enters the home stretch.

AAIFF ’13: Harana

It was a more innocent time, before texting and “Carlos Danger.”  To woo fair ladies, young Filipino men would sing harana love songs outside their homes, waking up most of the household in the process. Sadly, the practice fell out of favor, but a young guitarist and three old masters recreate the romantic sounds and spirit of old school serenading in Benito Bautista’s Harana (trailer here), which screens during this year’s Asian American International Film Festival.

Returning for his father’s funeral after a long American sojourn, Florante Aguilar suddenly found himself powerfully drawn to traditional forms of Filipino music, especially the harana.  Do not use the word Latin to describe harana—it is a pure product of the Philippines.  Nonetheless, it might sound somewhat akin to the bossa or other Lartin-influenced styles to uncouth ears.  Harana performance might not be quite as rare these days as the documentary suggests.  After all, Filipino jazz singer Charmaine Clamor recorded a lovely set of harana ballads just a few years ago.  Still, like a harana Alan Lomax, Aguilar starts off on a quest for real deal, old school haranistas.

Eventually, he found them in Felipe Alonzo, Celestino Aniel, and Romeo Bergunio.  What begins as a series of informal jams, blossoms Buena Vista Social Club style into more formal performances, a proper tour, a recording session, and this very same documentary.  It was an opportunity none of three gentlemen expected—that came just in time.

Viewers will eventually pick-up a sense time might be short for at least one haranista, but Bautista bends over backwards to avoid exploiting that fact for dramatic impact.  As a result, Harana has a rather slack narrative structure, basically covering the “let’s get a band together” and “let’s put on a show” bases.

Still, the music is obviously the thing for Harana and the ballads they sing are wonderfully lyrical and evocative.  There is something especially touching about the sight and sound of the three men of advanced years signing songs of young love and eternal fidelity.  By the way, Aguilar certainly holds up his end.  He has loads of technique, but more importantly he has the perfect sensitivity to accompany the haranistas.

Haranas are meant to be sung at night, so all the resulting moonlit performances only enhance the film’s nostalgic vibe.  It is all quite a pleasant trip, gently propelled by the delicate but catchy rhythms of the harana.  Recommended for those who appreciate a good love song, Harana screens this coming Wednesday (7/31) at the Anthology Film Archives, as part of the 2013 AAIFF in New York.

AAIFF ’13: The Trail from Xinjiang (short)

The combination of an authoritarian government and a strict religion ought to make Musa a scrupulously law-abiding citizen. Unfortunately, he is one of many disenfranchised Uyghurs impressed into pickpocket gangs.  Filmmaker Chen Dongnan captures the tragic human stories of those derisively referred to as “Xinjiang thieves” in the documentary short The Trail from Xinjiang (trailer here), which screens during the Enduring Encounters programming block at this year’s Asian American International Film Festival in New York.

Like many youths from Xinjiang, Musa was lured to the big city with false promises.  Instead, he quickly found himself involuntarily immersed in a world of petty thievery and drug dealing (by fellow Xinjiangnese).  His friends Ali and Little Musa seem to have a more natural aptitude for crime, but that is not exactly a blessing.  Between the three of them, they will experience the worst of nearly every imaginable urban pathology, including drug addiction, AIDS, and violent crime—everything that does not exist in China according to government propaganda.

Chen set out to humanize the marginalized Uyghurs, so she largely maintains her focus on Musa and his friends.  Yet, Jiaquan, the founder of the Anyang Anti-Pickpocket League, emerges as the film’s most intriguing figure.  Viewers might initially see him as Anyang’s answer to George Zimmerman, patrolling the streets with his twenty League volunteers.  However, as Jiaquan came to recognize Musa and his accomplices, he started to sympathize with their exploitative circumstances.  It is obviously a heavy commentary on Chinese social services when the Xinjiang thieves’ vigilante-nemesis becomes the closest thing they have to a social worker-advocate, but such is the state of things.  Frankly, his story seems ripe for a full documentary follow-up, particularly in light of the film’s concluding “where are they now” recap.

At thirty-six minutes, Trail has more tragedy and raw, cautionary depictions of vice than scores of full length exposes.  It is a decidedly humane exercise in muckraking, but it is still not for the squeamish.  An unflinching film that puts viewers squarely in Musa’s shoes, The Trail from Xinjiang is highly recommended for China watchers when it screens this coming Thursday (8/1) at the Anthology Film Archives, as part of the 2013 AAIFF’s Enduring Encounters short film program.

AAIFF ’13: Together

The teenaged Xiao Yang is not exactly Cyrano de Bergerac.  Nevertheless, he will do his best to recycle both love letters and lovers.  The course of true love never runs smooth, but he will sometimes help it along in Hsu Chao-jen’s multi-character rom-com, Together (trailer here), which screens this Saturday during the 2013 Asian American International Film Festival.

Scooping up his classmate’s discarded love letter, Xiao Yang is determined to put it to good use.  Perhaps his buddy Ma Chih-hao can re-purpose it.  Having just dumped his girlfriend, Ma pines for the cute cashier working at their favorite bakery, whose manager in turn nurses a crush on Xiao Yang’s older sister.  Of course, she is already involved with a rich jerk, who does not think much of Xiao Yang.

Yes, this is the sort of film where viewers could use a flowchart to keep track of who like whom.  However, his parents’ relationship is easy to pick-up on. The magic has left the easy going Bin’s marriage to more assertive Min-min.  Ironically, the print shop proprietor soon finds himself producing wedding invitations as his own marriage takes a chilly turn.  The free-spirited Lily has recently returned to their Taipei neighborhood to marry Haru, the staid owner of the local Japanese bookstore.  Yet, the strangely ambiguous chemistry between her and Bin is still there.

Despite all the romantic confusion, the tone of Together is much more bittersweet than cutesy.  In fact, for domestic audiences, it is downright nostalgic, given the casting of Kenny Bee and Lee Lieh as Xiao Yang’s parents, who were amongst the break-out co-stars of the classic melodrama The Story of a Small Town. Of course, it is all headed towards a happy place, but there are more surprises and less sentimentality in the third act than one might expect.

Happily, Huang Shao-yang’s Xiao Yang grows on viewers over time, as his character starts using his brattiness for good rather than ill.  His presence somewhat suggests a young Taiwanese Leonardo DiCaprio, except he is already considerably more manly (as is everyone else in the cast).  Bee remains charismatic in middle age, nicely crooning the film’s signature love song. Supermodel-actress Sonia Sui lights up the screen as Lily, while developing some reasonably believable chemistry with the significantly older Bee.  Lee Lieh also does her best to punch-up Min-min, despite her somewhat problematic scoldiness.

Indeed, Hsu definitely favors Bee’s Bin over the rest of the large ensemble. Still, he invests the film with a forgiving vibe that is rather endearing.  His unhurried pace might be a bit too languid for slavishly conventional viewers, but Hsu has a good eye for composition and Blaire Ko’s slightly latin-ish score helps it all go down quite smoothly.  Recommended with a fair degree of affection for those who enjoy slightly offbeat love stories and family dramas, Together screens this Saturday (7/27) at the New York Institute of Technology, as part of this year’s AAIFF.

AAIFF ’13: Innocent Blood

James Park ought to know [in]famous undercover detectives never just retire, especially when their biggest case holds some decidedly ugly secrets.  The cop-turned-professor will have to revert to his old ways when his young son is kidnapped by a mystery man with revenge on his unhinged mind in DJ Holloway & Sun W. Kim’s Innocent Blood (trailer here), which screens this Saturday during the 2013 Asian American International Film Festival in New York.

Park knows crime, but with his limited academic credentials he can only land a community college teaching gig.  He plans to go back for the right degrees, once his wife Susan finishes law school.  It has been hard on their son Cody, who does not see his mother nearly as much as they both would like.  As a result, when her husband’s nemesis abducts the young boy, she suffers from an acute attack of guilt.

Prohibited from contacting the authorities, Park will have to figure out just what the kidnapper wants on his own.  It all seems to revolve around Brad Lee, a human trafficker framed for a crime he technically did not exactly commit.  Park’s first clue will be the trail of dead bodies he cannot explain to Carl Grierr and Jim Collins, the odd couple detectives doggedly tailing him.

While the harsh realities of human trafficking remain off-camera throughout Blood, it is an issue the filmmakers feel strongly about.  Like the T.O.M. Film Festival co-founded by screenwriter-co-director Kim, Blood was envisioned as a vehicle to raise funds and awareness.  It is well intentioned, but the on-screen business does not always withstand the common sense test.  (Park really drops his son off on the very urban looking street around the corner from his school, without watching to see if he makes it inside okay?)

Still, Jun-seong Kim’s not quite retired James Kim is a genuinely compellingly angst-ridden everyman.  Alexandra Chun is also entirely believable and sympathetic as the distraught mother.  Although still a relatively young thesp, Lance Lim makes a strong return appearance at AAIFF, following up his solid turn in Il Cho’s accomplished short Jin with his engaging work as Cody Park. 

However, for most genre fans, the main attraction in Blood will be Doug Jones (the Silver Surfer, etc), somewhat playing against type as Grierr, the acerbic but honest copper. He earns a fair number of sarcastic chuckles, which are truly appreciated, considering the film’s grim and gritty tone.  In contrast, C.S. Lee’s villain is rather problematically bland.

Blood tackles some big themes, like sacrifice and redemption, while exhibiting a wider social conscience.  However, Sun W. Kim’s screenplay is not good about sharing information, while keeping its cast of characters severely blinkered.  Yet, it effectively taps into some very real emotions that will keep most viewers fully vested in the outcome. 

Recommended for fans of Jones and dark crime dramas, Innocent Blood screens Saturday afternoon (7/26) at the Anthology Film Archives, as part of this year’s AAIFF (The festival officially starts tonight with Linsanity, Evan Jackson Leong’s entertaining documentary record of Jeremy Lin’s dramatic rise to NBA stardom and concludes Saturday, August 3^rd, with Yang Yonghi’s Our Homeland, a deeply compassionate portrait of a Japanese-North Korean family divided by ideology.)

AAIFF ’13: Keye Luke & More Than Face in the Crowd (shorts)

Joe Dante’s Gremlins has a strange significance at this year’s Asian American International Film Festival.  Two docu-shorts profile actors who worked on the film.  In a way, Keye Luke and Jane Chung represent opposite sides of the same coin.  Both did their best to navigate the studio system at a time when Hollywood was not particularly hospitable to Asian American talent.  While Chung worked steadily but anonymously in small roles, Luke became famous as Kato and Charlie Chan’s Number One Son.  Timothy Tau allows Luke to speak for himself in his short docudrama, Keye Luke (trailer here), which screens as part of the Into the Penumbra short film program at the 2013 AAIFF.

Reflecting on his life, Luke addresses the audience in a manner akin to a stage play.  As he reminisces, we see episodes of his life, starting with his early home life, progressing through the double-edged Charlie Chan films, his continuing sidekick gigging as Kato to the Green Hornet, finally reaching his first starring role in the final Mr. Wong film.  Mixing irony and realism, distinctly Anglo actors portray Warner Oland and Sidney Toler, the Swede and the Scot who portrayed Charlie Chan.  However, Tau does not hate on the Honolulu detective, acknowledging the franchise represented an opportunity for Asian actors like Luke and his older brother Edwin, albeit a flawed one.

Essentially, Tau argues Luke did what he could with what the system would give him, eventually becoming a widely respected and recognized character actor, whose credits include quality films like Woody Allen’s Alice.  It is quite a reasonable, pragmatic perspective, under-pinning a film that revels in the goofy idiosyncrasies of 1940’s b-movies and serials (the Secret Agent X-9 scene is particularly inspired).  Keye Luke also boasts a surprisingly big name cast by short film standards, including ER’s Archie Kao and Bang Bang’s Jessika Van, who all clearly enjoy the retro tribute to the late great Luke.

Fame always eluded filmmaker Sami Chan’s great aunt Jane Chung, but she still enjoyed the business according to those who speak fondly of her in More Than a Face in the Crowd, also screening as part of the Penumbra block.  Chung had walk-on or small speaking parts on probably more films and television shows than Michael Caine, but finding her in the frame is usually a challenge.  Supposedly, she had a shouting match with Ricky Ricardo, but her family can never find it during their I Love Lucy marathons.

Again, Chan describes how Chung made lemonade out of lemons, finding extra work much more entertaining and rewarding than the sort of part time jobs available to most homemakers in the 1960’s.  With credits that include Chinatown, Funny Girl, Flower Drum Song, and When Harry Met Sally, she was a small part of many cinematic milestones.

Although still alive during the production of Crowd, the circumstances of old age prevented her from participating.  It is too bad she could not enjoy a taste of wider recognition during her lifetime, but Chan’s short doc is a fitting tribute that also covers some under-examined cinema history with economy and authority.  Clocking in just under half an hour, Crowd would be an appropriate programming choice for PBS sometime down the road.  For now, it is quite a shrewd selection for AAIFF, especially considering the way it speaks in dialogue with Tau’s Keye Luke.  Recommended for movie lovers, More Than a Face in the Crowd and Keye Luke screen this Thursday (7/25) at the Anthology Film Archives during the 2013 AAIFF.