Prototype Issue
Filmic Pearls of the Pacific Rim
By Robin Menken
(page 2 of 2)The boys get in trouble at school. A victims of language barriers (Mandarin) and cultural stereotypes with his Muslim teacher, Mah Li Ahh steals a figurine of Kwan Yin ( the femaie Buddha) and carts it around in his backpack. They wander the streets and befriend Malay tomboy Atan (Amira Nasuha) . Her doting mother (Mislina Mustaffa) welcomes them and feeds them. Uncomfortable with their names, Atan renames them Muslim names. Her mother’s teasing use of their nicknames make them sound like princes in a fairytale. Atan’s warm family is a glimpse of a life that the boys, latch-key kids in a crumbling project, have never known.
At the factory, Ah Sui’s workers, including sex-mad Mamat (Azman Hassan) try to get him to go out and meet people and restart his life. Mamat suggests he meet his recently widowed sister, offering swimming lessons so he can visit her at the beach where she lives. Liew makes the most of the hanging mannikan parts; discussing swimming, Mamat listlessly makes the dangling arms swim; when Ah Sui carries a mannikin to the van, she ’s wrapped around him like a porn star.
Ah Sui’s in a walled-off funk. Mamat insists he goes to a client’s wedding. When Mamat comes to pick him up at the factory, he turns off the light, working in the dark till Mamat stops banging on the door.
Beaming from ear to ear, relentlessly upbeat Mamat decribes his joy at siring a 10th son. “Aren’t you worried about the cost?” questions Ah Sui. “Why? Schooling is free. All I have to pay for is school uniforms, pencils , books ”...thinking through his list… “food, rent, utilities..” as the list lengthens Murat grows ever more crestfallen, barely able to raise his head . It’s an inspired performance.
James Lee (a noted director of Malaysian independent cinema) is remarkable as Ah Sui, the distant, wounded father who suffers from an ironic medical condition. Asked to function as father and mother, water leaks from his heart. In a hilarious scene with a pompous doctor. Lee’s deadpan, reflective performance underscores the vaudeville nature of the scene.
Near the end of the film Ah Sui finds a wedding picture. we see it from the back, a ghosted image. Tearing off the mother’s picture, he chews it up. Choking, the boys try to save him. When the choking’s over, he’s spit up a crumpled scrap of picture , their mother’s face is just visible.
Writer -director Liew, and cinematographer Albert Hue etablish a lyrical pace and fill the minimal scenes with droll details. Arif Rafhan Othman’s sparse score is wittily effective.
In In-Soo Radstake’s “Made In Korea A One-Way Ticket Seol_Amsterdam?”, Radstake searches for his birth parents. One of the quarter million Korean babies put up for adoption in Europe and the US since the 50’s, Radstake was adopted by a loving Dutch family in 1980. Encouraged by his sturdy supportive folks, Radstake begins his search contacting the other orphans who came to the Amsterdam on the same flight. A laid-back charming Korean-Dutchman, Radstake finds “love at second sight” when he re-meets lovely Ungila va Es. Ungila’s developing relationship with her birth mother, and her experience visiting Korea encourages his search. They travel to Seoul, visit the orphanage and, outwitting the various privacy laws, acquire almost enough information to locate his “mom”. Stymied by Korea’s culture of shame still surrounding unwed mothers and adoption, they appeal to the mawkish Television show “I Miss This Person”. A followup media storm leads to TV news specials in Holland and in Korea. His mother finally contacts him. In deference to her privacy, we never see the meeting but the film is satisfying without it. We’re happy to have spent time with the characters we do meet.
Special programs of note include: THE XIN LU BUS TOUR OF L.A. – teaming up with local filmmaker and longtime festival fave Ming-Yuen S. Ma, the Festival will present his four part series the way it was always intended to be shown: as a mobile bus tour of LA with the director, including site-specific lectures, performances, food and discussions as the screening-room-on-wheels visit sites related to the content of the videos. ( $25.00, including lunch and beverages. )
TOKE 2: THE HAROLD & KUMAR STORY –Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Scholossberg (the writers/directors of HAROLD & KUMAR: ESCAPE FROM GUANTANAMO BAY) and actor John Cho discuss the film franchise which has achieved “classic” status amongst a new generation.
“Up the Yangtze” opens May 16 at the Laemmle’s chain. “Never, Forever” opens at ImagineAsian May 9th
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