HIFF.ORG ASIAN SHOWCASE
NOMINATED FEATURE DIRECTOR AND CAST IN ATTENDANCE
064
THE FOURTH PORTRAIT UNITED STATES PREMIERE
fRIDay, OCTObER 22 6:00 Pm REgal DOlE saTURDay, OCTObER 23 1:45 Pm REgal DOlE TaIWan 2010 | manDaRIn W/ EnglIsh sUbTITlEs | 102 m
DIRECTOR: Mong-Hong Chung sCREEnWRITER: Mong-Hong Chung, Hsiang-Wen Tu PRODUCERs: Shao-Chien Tseng CInEmaTOgRaPhER: Nagao Nakashima CasT: Xiao-Hai Bi, Leon Dai, Lei Hao, Terri Kwan, Na Dow
THE FOURTH PORTRAIT casts a sobering look at the troubling issues of domestic violence, and the difficult family dynamics that are born of marriages of convenience. Defying all genre definitions, the film blends comedic elements with deeply touching moments. The result is a fascinating tale of innocence and maturity that bears the signature of one of Taiwan’s most exciting new talents.
Xiang is trying to adjust to his new life as an orphan, when his estranged mother suddenly reappears in his life. His mother’s home is cold and unwelcoming, with a rancorous stepfather and the mysterious presence of a boy who haunts his dreams. Xiang’s mother married his father in order to obtain citizenship and then abandoned him to follow the man she now lives with. But a much scarier secret hides in the dark past of his family, one he is destined to unveil. —TIFF
RED DRAGONFLIES UNITED STATES PREMIERE WEDnEsDay, OCTObER 20 | 5:30 Pm | REgal DOlE
sIngaPORE 2010 | manDaRIn, malay, jaPanEsE W/ EnglIsh sUbTITlEs | 96 m DIRECTOR: Jiekai Liao sCREEnWRITER: Jiekai Liao PRODUCERs: Lyn-Anne Loy, Tan
Bee Thiam CInEmaTOgRaPhER: Wan Ping Looi CasT: Xuan Ming Ng, Jason Hui, Xin Wei Thow, Yee Jeng Oon, Shang Xuan Ye
A young artist goes back to Singapore from New York. She returns home, to old friends and familiar places. Not everything fits in. Memories and friendships are like roots but also like mysteries, and like such, they’re inexact, slippery, at times revealing, at times mere detours. Two teenage boys and a girl, all in their school uniforms, walk near a train track around an area of abundant vegetation; their gait is an exploratory one, charged with fears, amazements and new things (yes, there’s echoes of Rob Reiner’s STAND BY ME.) One of them gets lost. In that loss, and in the memories of a grown woman, there’s a sense of unease, a search, and the chance of meeting with the past and the people from it.
A film of derivations with a subtle and singular sensibility, Jiekai Liao’s opera prima leads us to discuss the always hard to accomplish –even to mention– idea of cinema as poetry, which in this case is made of soft connections, juxtapositions, rhymes, and bars, that seem as free as necessary. —BAFICI
DOOMAN RIVER / SUMMER PASTURE
THE TIGER FACTORY / SEESAW
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