Spring has sprung a festival of 20 films
| • | Spring Fling brings in hot foreign films |
| • | Film review: Following the trying path to be yokozuna |
Advertiser Staff
Here's the lineup of films at the Hawaii International Film Festival's Spring Fling, today through Thursday:
• "A Good Lawyer's Wife" (South Korea, 2003)
From director/writer Im Sang-soo, an erotic portrait of infidelity.
12:45 p.m. Saturday and 8:45 p.m. Wednesday
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• "Bright Future" (Japan, 2003)
Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa blends several genres — science fiction thriller, male bonding melodrama, youth culture piece — to create a portrait of marginalized young men.
3:30 p.m. Sunday
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• "Dogville" (Denmark/USA/Great Britain, 2003)
The reclusive citizens of a Depression-era town, Dogville, are reluctant to accept a young woman, Grace (Nicole Kidman), who seeks refuge among them.
6:30 p.m. Saturday and Tuesday
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• "Dolls" (Japan, 2003)
Director Takeshi Kitano turns from bullet-ridden portraits of men struggling with death to stories of love and devotion.
12:30 p.m. Saturday
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• "Haute Tension" (France, 2003)
Girlfriends Alex and Marie go to Marie's parents' ghostly farm to escape the bustle of Paris.
8:45 p.m. Sunday
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• "Jealousy is My Middle Name" (South Korea, 2002)
The clever but unworldly magazine writer Lee Weon-sang finds that his publisher has managed to steal the hearts of two women Lee has loved. Now Lee considers revenge.
12:30 p.m. Sunday
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• "Kal Ho Naa Ho" (India, 2003)
A Bollywood extravaganza that marks the return of heartthrob actor Shahrukh Khan, this is the story of Naina (Preity Zinta), an all-business, no-play daughter struggling to keep her financially distressed family together, with New York as a backdrop.
3:15 p.m. Sunday and 6:45 p.m. Thursday
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• "The Land Has Eyes" (Fiji/Hawai'i/USA, 2003)
The Hawai'i premiere of a film from Vilsoni Hereniko, playwright, author, filmmaker and professor at the Center for Pacific Islands Studies, University of Hawai'i-Manoa. It's a portrait of life on the Fiji island Rotuma through the eyes of Viki, a young girl coming of age in a changing world.
8:30 p.m. Thursday
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• "Last Life in the Universe" (Thailand, 2003)
Kenji (Tadanobu Asano) the librarian has a secret: a full-back yakuza tattoo.
3:30 p.m. Saturday and 6:30 p.m. Monday
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• "Last Scene" (Japan, 2002)
An ambitious young actor named Ken has a run of bad luck. Twenty years later he returns in a small film role in a changing show biz landscape.
6:45 p.m. Saturday and 8:45 p.m. Monday
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• "Legend of the Evil Lake" (South Korea, 2003)
Set around the year 880, this is the story of a love triangle involving a queen, a general and an ordinary rural woman.
9:45 p.m. Saturday and 9 p.m. Sunday
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"Magic Kitchen," a Hong Kong film about a successful restaurant owner and chef who is haunted by a family curse, is part of the Hawaii International Film Festival's Spring Fling. |
• "Magic Kitchen" (Hong Kong, 2004)
Yau, a successful restaurant owner and chef, has an empty love life, haunted by a family curse.
6:45 p.m. Monday and 6:30 p.m. Wednesday
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• "Purple Butterfly" (China, 2003)
A tale about the activities of the underground anti-Japanese resistance movement during the 1930s.
6:30 p.m. Sunday and 6:45 p.m. Wednesday
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• "Singles" (South Korea, 2003)
A romantic comedy set around the lives of four late-twentysomething professionals.
8:45 p.m. today and 3:45 p.m. Saturday
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• "Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and ... Spring" (South Korea, 2003)
A serene rumination on the cycles of life, following the spiritual evolution of one man from boyhood to old age.
6:45 p.m. Tuesday
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• "Sumo East and West" (Hawai'i/USA, 2003)
A look at the ancient Japanese sport. See review.
6:30 p.m. Thursday and at Saturday's Sunset on the Beach event at Queen's Surf Beach in Waikiki
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"The Twilight Samurai," a film about a lowly swordsman who earns a meager salary as an office clerk, won the Golden Maile Feature Award at Hawaii International Film Festival 2003. |
• "The Twilight Samurai" (Japan, 2002)
An encore presentation of the Academy Award-nominated and Golden Maile Award-winning film about a low-ranking samurai who earns a meager salary as an office clerk.
12:45 p.m. Sunday
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• "Touching the Void" (Great Britain, 2003)
An epic retelling of one of the most gripping tales in mountain climbing. Review begins on Page 38.
6:30 p.m. today
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• "Undead" (Australia, 2003)
A meteorite shower brings a deadly plague that turns a town's happy citizens into zombies with insatiable appetites for human flesh.
9 p.m. Saturday and 8:45 p.m. Tuesday
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• "Warriors of Heaven and Earth" (China, 2003)
A caravan carries the sacred remains of the Buddha back to the Imperial City during the Tang Dynasty, setting the stage for a battle between good and evil.
9:15 p.m. today
