Something for Everyone at L.A. Film Fest
May 25, 2000
By Jeff Liu
If you were looking for something to make you laugh or cry, the annual Visual Communications Asian Pacific Film and Video Festiva film fest, which opened last Thursday in Los Angeles, was it.
Celebrating its 15th edition, the L.A. film fest is a showcase of some of the best films and video from Asia and the United States. Included in the line-up were nearly 80 features and shorts by both up and coming and veteran filmmakers; a VC retrospective; as well as seminars on everything from film distribution and digital filmmaking to broadband Internet streaming.
Dedicated this year to Duane Ebata, Japan America Theatre Program Director and longtime community arts supporter who passed away a week prior to the opening, this year’s film festival also marks 30 years of achievement for one of the nation’s premier Asian Pacific American media arts organizations.
Among the notable accomplishments by APIs this year at the festival: a record number of film and video projects from Korean American and gay and lesbian filmmakers, not to mention the world premiere of Pilipino America’s first ‘peature pilm’
Aptly titled, The Debut kicked off the film fest with all the flavorings of a down-home gathering.
Starring Dante Basco, who plays Ben Mercado, a high school senior who has sacrificed his savings to attend a prestigious art school, The Debut is a an entertaining story of a teenager who not only learns to accept himself, but also finds love in the process.
The film takes credit for its honest portrayals and hilarious takes on Asian American pop culture, covering the gamut: speed bump-challenged Acura Integras; dance crew battles; not to mention pagers blowing up on every hip.
And Basco supported by outstanding performances from Joy Bisco, Tirso Cruz III, Bernadette Balagtas and brother Darionis.
Eight years in the making, director Gene Cajayon, co-screenwriter John Manal Castro and the rest of the cast and crew have created a masterful film that has definite mass appeal.
From across the Pacific, a number of Asian films also made their debut at the VC film festival, including Injong Sajong Polkot Opta (Nowhere to Hide), an action-packed cop vs. killer flick that can single-handedly change the reputation of Korean imports.
Director Lee Myung-Se crosses boundaries with a unique style of animated cinematography, combined with scenes reminiscing of Velveeta-poetic Asian music videos. And Park Joong-Hoon, who plays Woo, a tenacious and intensely driven detective, is a superb physical actor who, in his part, comes across as noble as any Hong Kong/John Woo lead.
From Taiwan came Nui Tang (Woman Soup), a Formosan answer to the question, “Where are all the good men at?”
Enter: Faye, Jade, Yen and Lotus; four friends who are down on their luck with men. Under pressure by family members and nosy people alike, these four educated and successful women struggle with traditional Chinese values. In the end, they find that the only thing that is constant in their lives is their friendship.
Woman Soup is as much a film about relationships and familial pressure as it is a sista-to-sista movie.
A number of short films also deserve praise, including Jennifer Phang’s Love Ltd., a quirky take on how members of an Asian American family deal with homosexuality.
Turbans, directed by Erika Surat Andersen, is a story about one of the first Sikh families who settled in Oregon during the early 1900s. Based on the experiences of Kartar Dhillon, the filmmaker’s grandmother, it recounts the struggles Sikh children faced in school and the difficult decisions their parents had to make in order to make life easier for their kids.
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