Americans of Asian descent make films here, in Japan, China, France, and Australia. A large number of these films come to the Bay Area next month.
The 26th San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (AKA, the Film Festival with a Very Long Name) opens March 13 for an 11-day run in the City, Berkeley, and San Jose. It opens at the Castro (where else?) with Wayne Wang’s new A Thousand Years Of Good Prayers.
In fact, the festival spotlights Wang this year–hardly surprising since this important Asian-American filmmaker has two new films ready to debut. The other, The Princess of Nebraska, also screens at the festival. So do two of his older works: The Joy Luck Club (his only Hollywood film about Chinese Americans) and a new cut of Life is Cheap… But Toilet Paper is Expensive. (Oddly enough, the festival is touting Life is Cheap as “the first film to be rated X.†An odd designation, since this 1989 thriller came out 20 years after Midnight Cowboy became the only X-rated film to win the Best Picture Oscar. It’s more likely that this was the last X-rated film, as the X rating was replaced with NC-17 the following year.) The festival will also host An Afternoon with Wayne Wang.
A few other promising screenings:
- Whispering Sidewalks: This 1936 Japanese jazz musical stars Betty Inada, a Japanese-American singer and dancer who couldn’t get movie work on this side of the Pacific. This will be the movie’s first screening with English subtitles.
- Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay: That’s right. The stoner comedy’s sequel goes political.
- Colma: The Musical: Why play a film that the festival showed only two years ago, and that has since received a modest theatrical release? Easy. This time it’s a sing-along.
As I write this, the only festival offering I’ve seen (aside fromThe Joy Luck Club, and that was many years ago) is A Thousand Years of Good Prayers. I’ll tell you more about that one when the festival is closer, and even more when the film’s regular release is at hand. Right now, I’ll just say that it’s quiet, calm, funny, thoughtful, and true to life. The sort of wonderful story that Hollywood would just mess up, but that digital technology makes possible outside of Hollywood.
I hope to see a few others before the festival begins. I’ll keep you posted.
Bayflicks 