S1: You're listening to KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Jade Hindman. The San Diego Asian Film Festival has been treating audiences to Asian and Asian American films since 2000 , But with too many films to fit into a single festival , organizers decided to add a mini festival in the spring. KPBS Cinema junkie Beth Accomando sits down with the festival's artistic director , Brian Hu , to preview this year's Spring showcase.
S2: Brian The Spring Showcase is the sister festival to the bigger San Diego Asian Film Festival that comes in the fall , and it kicks off its 12th year tonight with an amazing film that is not entirely a documentary. So tell me about starring Jerry as himself.
S3: Yeah , we hesitated to call it a documentary in the description. I mean , it won the best documentary prize at the Slamdance Film Festival in January. But I think that the pleasure of the film is not really knowing where the line between reality ends and documentary picks up. I mean , a Clue is in the title of the film.
S4:
S5: I'm going to America in 70 seconds. I work as an engineer for 40 years. I support my family by working hard and save money.
S3: Maybe we should say a little bit about what it's about. It's based on a true story. This guy named Jerry , he's a retired Chinese immigrants living in Florida , and then he gets a phone call.
S6: He had just a T-Mobile wife.
S3: And it seems that he's been or somebody with his name or his identity is is looped into some kind of money laundering scheme in Shanghai. And the person on the other end says , if you cooperate with the Shanghai police , we can make sure you get off. And that's all I'm going to say. It's based on a true story and Jerry plays himself.
S2: So another , more serious and straightforward documentary is while we watched and this looks to independent news reporting in India and the threats that it's under.
S3: Yeah , it's by this filmmaker who we've shown at our spring showcase before named Vinay Shukla. And he's great at these sort of like high stakes political documentary in India. And as we watch this new one , while we watched you realize how much of it is kind of unique to the Indian situation and the politics in India , but a lot of it seems very familiar to. Right. It's about a culture of talk , news of talking heads of people yelling at each other on on cable news. And audiences are sort of getting off on rooting for their side. And it's a it's a lot sort of like saying like , how do we break out of that and how do we make sure that we don't continue to slip further and further into something that we can never we can no longer escape from ? In other words , how can we hold on to the integrity of journalism ? And so the film follows one journalist named Ravish Kumar who said , you know , I'm sticking to the old school way of reporting based on evidence and not letting any political side dictate the kind of news that we that we deliver. And he gets death threats and it's sort of about his day to day. It's a great sort of like newsroom movie also , but also just an inspiring story of somebody who's going to he's sticking to what he believes in.
S2: Well , I saw the director in an interview and he described it as a love letter to journalism , but also an urgent newsroom horror film. Which.
S7: Which.
S2: Is absolutely true , because there's moments you're watching it and you're just you feel like we've gotten to this point in time where everybody is just so divisive and accusatory and yelling at each other and not listening that it's definitely terrifying on a certain level. Yeah.
S3: And it moves really fast , like moves at a breath , takes like a breath next pace and , and so has like an element of the thriller too , because it's so high stakes and you really want to know what happens. And then the horror part also is like , you don't think that a newsroom movie can lead to people getting hurt , right ? Or anything like that , that people get death threats. And we'd like to think that , you know , this is something that happens in other countries. But of course , there are shades of that in the US as well. And sometimes I think that for us as Americans , it's good to look at journalism from a different perspective. And I think that kind of refreshes us so that we aren't so mired in the specific politics of the United States. And we could just get to the larger question of what is journalism for.
S2: Well , and in watching this , too , I did think of the film RR , which came out recently , which was loads of fun , pop entertainment , really enjoyable. But there was this underlying sense of nationalism in that film , which if you want to look at it in a more serious light , comes up in this documentary , the sense of what is nationalism and how is it beneficial , how can it be manipulated or used ? And like it was an interesting thing to think of the two films together. Yeah.
S3: Yeah. I mean , this this news anchor in while we watched is accused of being an anti nationalist anti patriot and it's like , why must journalism be the opposite of patriotism , right. And yeah and these are fissures that are that run deep in India. And unfortunately , some people , yeah , they they get so hard in their own side that they get they lose sense of what is actually important in institutions like journalism.
S2: So while these films have a serious bent , you have one film , Polite Society , which unleashes a lot of fun. Yeah.
S8: I am the Fury.
S2: Because it looks to a young woman who wants to be a stunt performer , which is not exactly something that her Pakistani family wants her to become.
S3: No , they do not. It's one of those like we didn't move to to the UK for you to be a stunt performer and for you to make YouTube videos. But what do they have in mind for her and her sister ? Right. It's like to marry a rich Pakistani boy and she's going to literally fight her way out of that. And then for us , it's like we know our audiences love martial arts films because we love martial arts films , but we know that there's a sense in which a lot of people expect Asian films to be martial art films. So but I don't think they expect Pakistani British films to be martial art films. So like so we're embracing it all the way with this , with this film. And there's also a way in which this film is also inspired. Visually or story wise by South Asian cinema , including Bollywood , famously. And so why don't we just bring together the favorite styles of filmmaking in Asian cinema into one ? And yeah , this one is a utter delight.
S2: And this is one of three films that focus on Pakistani families or from Pakistan.
S3: Yeah , and this wasn't by design. It's just this is a moment that I think Pakistani filmmakers or like in the diaspora , that this story suddenly becomes important. So for instance , we have a film from Hong Kong called The Sunny Side of the Street , instructed started by a malaysian director , but it has a South Asian producer who's interested in telling the story of Pakistani refugees in Hong Kong. And so it stars sort of a Hong Kong legend , Anthony Wong from Infernal Affairs. And it's about his a friendship he strikes up with a young Pakistani refugee. And , you know , like when I was watching it thinking when I go to Hong Kong , you see people from all over the world. First of all , you see a lot of folks from South Asia. Why don't they ever show up in Hong Kong movies ? And so when we think about diversity in cinema , like we should expect filmmakers all over the world to care about such issues. And here's a film from Hong Kong where they're thinking about the overlooked populations in their own city.
S2: All right. And I don't want to sound like a narcissist or anything , but I do feel like you programmed Sunday , especially for me , because you have a tribute to Leslie Chung and Anita Mui , showing some classic Hong Kong new Wave films , rounding out the day with mystery Kung Fu Theater. So I am so grateful for this day. But talk a little bit about what inspired you to do this.
S3: I've been wanting to do this for at least ten years and let me explain that. So some of the audiences might know of Leslie Cheung , Anita Mui. These are the two of the biggest stars in in Hong Kong in the 1980s and 90s. And by stars , I mean not just in the movies , but also in pop music. I mean , in Hong Kong you don't it's rare is the superstar that only does singing or acting like you do both. And yeah , these are just two legends who happen to be really close friends and also happened to do several films together. Well , in 2003 , both very prematurely passed away. Leslie Chung in April of 2003. So ten years ago , I wanted to do a tribute to Leslie Chung at our Spring Showcase would have been the 10th anniversary to the month of his passing for multiple reasons. That didn't work out , but mostly because of rights issues of certain films that just were not figured out yet. But ten years later , some of these films are a little bit easier to get and partly because of digital technologies. So this year we're able to do the 20th anniversary of Leslie Chung's passing , and we realized , Wait , Anita Mui , this is also 20th anniversary of her passing. And because of their very special connection , let's let's talk about both of them. And so we've put together four films , two of which they co-star in. It's uncanny. It's kind of ghostly to see both of them in the films , but it's also just a reminder of how back , back in Hong Kong cinema was. Hong Kong cinema , including a film like Rouge , which is hands down one of my favorite movies of all time. And to see that both both of them at their peak is is really incredible. But so we're showing that one. We're showing another one that he together called who's the woman Who's the man , which is sort of a gender bending romcom that I mean , when it came out in the late 90s , it was way ahead of its time for thinking about queer representation in Hong Kong. And Leslie Chung was kind of like a it was an open secret maybe that he was that he was gay , but he hadn't officially come out at this point. But everyone was wondering. And so a film like this just kind of. Makes the gossip factory work even harder. It makes the audiences kind of it feels like it's winking at the audience. And I need a movie to also sort of this kind of gender bending actress of her time. We're also showing Wong Kar Wai's Days of Being Wild is just one of Leslie Chung's greatest films , but it has a theme song , but you need a movie in it. So I was like , Let's throw that one into. And then of course , Bride with the White hair. The. Starring Leslie Chung. Anita moore is not in it. But any excuse I can get to play one of the wildest and like stylistically rich action movies that have ever been made , period. Not just in Hong Kong and not just in the 1990s. It just wows you with just how audacious style can be. The costumes are by Emmy , who did a lot of Akira Kurosawa's films like Ron. The cinematography is by Peter Powell , who shot Crouching Tiger , Hidden Dragon. And so this is these are some of the great filmmakers of Asia working together again in this jaw dropping classic.
S2: I was so desperate to show bride with white hair last year , and it was in a rights limbo at that time. So I'm so grateful you're showing it. And it was one of those films that absolutely hooked me on Hong Kong cinema because your jaw drops and you're like , Where are they making films like.
S3: This in Hong Kong ? It's insane.
UU: Follow me on.
S2: And people are flying and.
S3: Yeah , and it's newly restored , I'll just put it that way. And it's going to look spectacular on the big screen.
S2: Well , and the other thing about the films you chose is it really shows the breadth of the acting that both Anita Mui and Leslie Cheung in and a lot of those Hong Kong actors where they would do serious drama , wild martial arts and then absolutely goofball comedy. Yeah.
S3: Yeah. And and the best actors are the ones who can do them all. And because at some point it's , it's about your magnetism. It's about your charm and and maybe that's where the pop star ness comes out , where it's like you just know how to command the stage. And Leslie Chung and Nimoy are both that way. And they were.
S2: So beautiful in some of those films. Oh , yeah. And your closing night film is going to be a story that deals with fathers and sons as well as rap music.
UU: But it's a whole lot shots and making everybody wish all well. I'm not. But now I'm the captain big attraction go paperback but.
S3: Yeah , It's a film called. Directed by Justin Chon , whose work we've shown in the past and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival just a couple of months ago. I'm just going to say , like Asian Americans under the age of 30 , oh , probably when they find out that we're showing this movie are going to be very delighted. It stars a rapper that goes by the name Rich Brian Rich. Brian is part of a collective and a label known as 88 Rising. And they're like one of the more interesting phenomenons of Asian American and Asian international pop music , putting together a roster of folks from all over the world , from all throughout Asia , becoming hits all around the world. And so Rich Brian comes from Indonesia , and this is a film that's kind of about someone just like him , a rapper from Indonesia , trying to make it in the United States. But his dad is always lurking in the background. And I find it kind of a there are moments in the song that feel like horror also because it's like , why can't I get rid of my dad , who's just sort of he's this old Indonesian guy who doesn't really understand the world of hip hop and and like hip hop record label parties and just the sort of culture that goes around it. So you have the son who's trying to assimilate into that world because that's the world that's going to help him succeed. And yet the same time , there's a part of him that's like , I can't just shed my family as incongruous as they are , perhaps to my future success. And and his dad becomes a reminder to him of like , well , who am I actually what matters to me ? And so it's a great sort of drama about father and son , but also just , you know , like a pop a pop idol in the making kind of movie.
S2: Well , Brian , I want to thank you very much for talking about the San Diego Asian Film Festival Spring Showcase. And thank you very much for programming Bride with White Hair.
S3: I did think about you when I was booking it , so I wouldn't say I did it for you , but I did it kind of with you in spirit.
S2: Well , thank you.
S3: Can't wait to see you there.
S1: That was Beth Accomando speaking with Brian , who Pacific Arts Movement's Spring Showcase runs tonight through April 27th at the Ultra Star Cinemas in Mission Valley.
