Friday, April 25th, 6:15pm, Kabuki
Just Like Home

The Danish town of Rudkøbing has its problems. For one thing, the endless construction in the town square makes it look like a bomb site. And when a stuffy lecturer and leading citizen mentions he’s seen a naked man roaming the streets at night, Rudkøbing’s conservative residents break out in a general panic. The construction workers declare a strike until the culprit is identified, and a group of concerned citizens decides to use the town’s hotline service to ferret out the offender.

Note: Wacky, small town comedy! Who doesn't like those? I love them! Especially when they're from Denmark!

Saturday, April 26th, 9:00pm, Kabuki
Water Lilies

Imagine a pubescent Esther Williams shipped overseas to a public school in the suburbs outside Paris, and you’ll have some idea of the alluring blend of teenage athleticism and ennui embodied by Marie (preternaturally perceptive lovestruck loner), Anne (zaftig party-crashing eccentric) and Floriane (sultry swim team tease), the titular water lilies who dive deep into the chilly waters of adolescence with only nose plugs, training bras and each other’s kisses and confessions for protection.

Note: Um, hello, synchronized swimming lesbian teenagers.

Friday, May 2nd, 1:30pm, Kabuki
Secret

Jay Chou plays Lun, a music student at the Tamkang Secondary School (the director’s alma mater), a seemingly timeless place where uniformed students engage in innocent flirtations and heated “piano battles” (Chou faces off against Nan Quan Mama’s Zhan Yuhao for the Chopin title). One day in the old music room, Lun encounters Yu (Kwai Lun-mei) playing an evocative tune. The mysteries of that melody and of Yu herself will come to haunt Lun’s life. When Lun sees a photograph of Yu with his father (the perennially entertaining Anthony Wong), Secret’s delicate teen romance rises to a crescendo of blood-on-the-keys supernatural melodrama.

Note: Jay Chou! And Anthony Wong!! I heart Anthony Wong! Plus it looks pretty and I am way too into Taiwanese piano playing dramas lately. Let the weird streak continue with Secret.

Saturday, May 3rd, 12:45pm, Kabuki
Orz Boyz

The two best buddies in this film are busy taunting girls, imagining ghosts and animate statues and playing pranks on schoolmates. For their crimes they are forced to spend the rest of the hot, humid semester repairing library books after school. But rather than fix anything, the more literate Liar No. 1 reads wild stories to the younger Liar No. 2. The stories inspire the boys to plan a voyage to Orz, a faraway world over the Taiwanese sea that promises endless fun, depicted in several beguiling animation sequences. A scheme to whip up a transporting tornado with ten electric fans ends in a blown fuse. Finally, they settle on a solution: a nearby seaside park’s spiral waterslide is a portal to Orz. The hundredth trip down the slide will trigger a blast into that anti-Neverland where children turn instantly into adults.

Note: It looks both cute and sweet and then also probably depressing. But, you know, mostly endearing. I vote yes.

Thursday, May 8th, 7:45pm, Kabuki
Shadows in the Palace

Half lush historical drama, half mind-bending detective story, this elaborate murder mystery set during Korea’s Chosun era is a tour de force of cinematic entertainment, a non-stop thrill ride full of plot twists, intrigue and power struggles, screaming victims, nail-biting escapes and gruesome acts of torture. And for those who want visual splendor with their thrillers, the film delivers cascades of opulence, with beautiful women in elaborately ornate costumes and art direction so exquisite, so precise in its attention to historical detail that the film could easily be savored for its look alone.

Note: Mmm, pretty! Also looks like an excellent murder mystery story. And South Korean film is really up and coming with delight.

so i'm opening the floor. wanna be put on display in a glass case? your poetic efforts laminated and put up next to some shakespeare, wordsworth, dickinson? now is the time! give me the poems! you can email or post them in the comments. they can be haikus, iambic pentameter, free verse, i'm talking open opps here, people. you can make up a high school persona to write as complete with nom de plume, you can use your real name, you can be anonymous. i promise to take pictures of the display and post them in april.

for inspiration and cheese reasons, i give you these photos of me in the library "working":

so i bring you my top 3 most want to sees and hope that someone might want to see them too.

1. A Gentle Breeze

From slacker comedies like No One’s Ark (SFIAAFF ’03) to the hit school­girl rock band film Linda Linda Linda (SFIAAFF ’06), Nobuhiro Yamashita has demonstrated a knack for offbeat humor and for finding poetry in the mundane. With his seventh feature, A Gentle Breeze in the Village, Yamashita turns his perceptive eye to the emotional world of a teenage girl living in the bucolic countryside of Japan.

Adapting Fusako Kuramochi’s popular manga series Tennen Kokekko, Yamashita tells the story of Soyo, the oldest of six students in a combined elementary and middle school, and the only student in eighth grade—until Osawa, a handsome city-boy, transfers from Tokyo. His arrival sets off tremors in Soyo’s halcyon life, and soon she must ponder the difference between a kiss and a handshake, and learn to listen to the growing feeling in her heart the same way she listens to the whispers of the surrounding mountains.

This is a film not of dramatic fireworks, but of finely observed details in the world of an adolescent girl, where the smallest of gestures and revelations can carry the weight of the universe. Those details take on a warm, magical glimmer as Yamashita effortlessly evokes the gentle rhythms of rural life. The resulting portrait of a simpler life—whether seen as pastoral fantasy or nostalgia for a disappearing era—is sure to leave the most refreshing and blissful aftertaste of any film this year.

2. The Unseeable

Steeped in traditional Thai folklore and with an eerie period setting, Wisit Sasanatieng’s (Citizen Dog, SFIAAFF ‘06) new feature takes a departure from his earlier flamboyant, distinctly modern films to serve up an elegant classic ghost story. Set in 1930’s Siam, the story centers on a young pregnant woman named Nualjan who travels to Bangkok in search of her missing husband. On the way, she takes refuge in a dilapidated mansion whose odd inhabitants include an elderly woman who stalks the grounds at night, the talkative and superstitious boarder Choy, and the severe house manager Miss Somjit, who treats Nualjan to a cold welcome and warns her against snooping. Most mysterious of all is the reclusive Madame Run Juan, the beautiful mistress of the house, who never leaves her second floor lair and is said to pine for a lost love. As Nualjan’s curiosity about the mansion’s secrets grows, she is drawn deeper into the ghostly world of this sinister place, and the mysteries of its lonely inhabitants.

The Unseeable unfolds like the most chilling of folktales, made all the more gripping by Sasanatieng’s skillful use of sound effects, camera work and ominous lighting. Inspired by the pulp illustrations of Thai artist Hem Vejakorn, the film’s lush landscape and gorgeous period details create a haunting world where the supernatural lurks around every corner. Using no digital special effects and instead relying on traditional filmmaking techniques to create suspense, The Unseeable is a stunning homage to classic Hollywood thrillers like The Haunting and Rebecca.

NOTE: those of you who saw 'citizen dog' with me in 2006 (gene and christine) will hopefully be as excited about this one by the same director.

3. Always Be Boyz

Korean b-boy culture gets a vibrant look in talented new filmmaker John Kwon’s debut feature, Always Be Boyz. Employing a cast of real-life breakdancers to enact a narrative inspired by a true story, Kwon has crafted a stylish hip hop dance musical brimming with visual flair and youthful heart.

For Seven, b-boying is not a hobby, but a lifestyle. With his father unable to return from North Korea and his older brother in mandatory military service, the restless Seven reads Socrates and Plato, yearning to make sense of the world through art. The one real and tangible goal for him and his crew is the Battle of the Year tournament, where they can pit their skills against the best and earn respect. But as injuries and defection deplete his team, and Seven struggles to secure corporate sponsorship for his crew, he finds artistic inspiration in ballet—and a budding romance with a ballerina. And with his own military service looming, Seven must decide what his life will stand for.

Always Be Boyz fits comfortably into the familiar genre of underdog dancer films, but here the cast of non-professional actors deliver surprisingly natural and heartfelt performances, lending what is at times a documentary-like persuasiveness to this portrait of b-boy culture. Yet every shot is completely malleable in Kwon’s hands, as he stops, slows, speeds up and refracts the images like a DJ into a thoroughly stylized presentation. The film marks the arrival of a fresh and promising new voice.

NOTE: it's a Korean 'save the last dance'!! I can't pass that up!

I'm fund-raising for ARF and looking for sponsors in a planned dog walk in May. So if you want to donate to the cause, go view my fund-raising page here. Or to learn more about the Paws on Parade walk, go here.

And, seriously, how can you resist that puppy face?

i think he should be like the ben folds song about stephen. it's his last night in town but then it's ALWAYS his last night in town. if we could have a going away party for jacob every saturday i think that would be pretty sweet. there's delicious food, baldercorn to play, and calendar prizes with jacob's head on the shoulder's of fireman beefcakes.

not jacob's actual head.

pictures are posted here of the day:
kristen's photos
my photos

p.s. i know this looks staged, but it's really, really not.

gah! how cute are we?

like, for example, kim:

or nuala:

but now i am presented with this:

and i'm finding it difficult to deny the absolute cuteness. kim and nuala, my hat's off to you. you had it right all along.

the man in charge of the peer tutors (who i am friends with too) was standing at the desk and he looked at us blankly for a minute and then demanded to know what language we were speaking. later when the teenager was gone he asked me what i knew about anime porn. ha ha ha! i love my job.

but this is just ONE of the films i want to see this year, so i thought i would give a little run down of my three top picks.

(obviously) raiders of the lost ark: the adaptataion
victoria theatre, 2/9, 7:15pm

the stars and makers are 3 childhood friends who started making the movie when they were 12 and finished when they were 18. to anyone who knows me or my friends, we also sometimes make movies. nothing that takes 6 years, but still we've run the gamut of super powers, nordic countries, and old people. so THIS is something i've obviously got to see. not only do i love indiana jones but i also love delightful friends sharing their love for cinematic wonders.

sexina: popstar, p.i.
roxie, 2/16, 9:30pm

mmm, hello she is a popstar and a private eye. plus it's got adam west. i am intrigued and vaguely titilated. i think it's her name.

(and finally) sleepwalking through the mekong
victoria, 2/16, 12:30pm

it's sort of a documentary following the band 'dengue fever' around in cambodia. i've been happily garbling my way through their songs since jason introduced me to them. once he told me that he loves her voice because she sings like she's eating peanut butter. i love peanut butter. so here again, two things that i am fascinated by: southeast asia and singing Khmer through peanut butter.

let me know if any of you want to be movie friends! or 2/16 friends in SF between approximately 3pm and 9pm. 'jumper'? 'step up 2'? books? dinner?

though kristen's daydream about giving me a kitten was also pretty sweet. but i don't want a kitten so much as i want a mini jungle cat.

let me state though that i'm really, really not expecting presents from very many of you. especially not from those of you who are joining me for birthday festivities in winery-land, golf-land, and indiana jones remake-land.

but...you know...just in case...i like gifts!

a delightful mass of people packed my reconfigured living room to watch and harass the tv screen. the interesting thing (and not apparent by winner choice) of this year's miss america was the promise that it would be updated and modernized. to this end, they had a 4 episode reality show where they made all 52 contestants live together for a month and had challenges (like trivia quiz, national song knowledge contest, and balance beam/water barrel filling tag-team race).

what i learned from the reality show:

1. Pennsylvania didn't know her state flag by sight

2. Washington didn't know all the lines in the Star Spangled Banner but did have a mom, a step-dad, a dad, and a step-dad.

3. Vermont also believed in gay marriage

4. Rhode Island's new haircut was hot but her brain was not

5. District of Columbia dad's was addicted to crack-cocaine

6. Nebraska was MUCH cuter with brown hair

7. Florida's face was blown off in an explosion

8. Michigan was utterly unremarkable but sang 'somewhere over the rainbow' for her talent and probably won for this unmodernity and behind the scenes politics

miss michigan/miss america 2008 in her non-modern evening gown

luckily i made cupcakes, little sausages, and had kittens. these things saw us through the tough times even though washington (2nd runner up--stuck in asian third place as always) should have won. or texas (1st runner up).

the one "modern" part of the pageant this year was that the Q&A section was done by people on the street. favorite question was by a bitter, middle-aged man in glasses who asked, "if your fiancee has an STD is she obligated to tell you?"

this was genius on so many levels. not least of which was that some people misheard "beyonce" for "fiancee".

(title contributed unknowingly by matt's gmail status quote)

so, i'm probably going to submit (along with some group members) my paper from last semester on the university in kenya for one of the programs. sweet, right? but what am i thinking submitting things to conferences? am i crazy? the whole submitting part seems easy (once you come up with a title) but i think i'm forgetting the payoff part wherein i'll actually have to stand in front of an audience and speak.

ANNNND, the SAA (sociey of american archivists) conference is in san francisco this summer too so that one's easy to go to. but i have nothing to submit to them. YET.