2015 Hawaii International Film Festival

FACTORY BOSS (打工老板)
For 20 years, Lin Dalin has worked tirelessly to transform his fledgling toy manufacturing business in Shenzhen, China, into a hugely successful global competitor. However, the current economic squeeze sees China losing its once-impressive manufacturing industry to cheaper Southeast Asian countries, and Lin’s factory suffers upheaval on all fronts. Taking a desperate shot to avoid bankruptcy, Lin begrudgingly accepts an insulting deal just to survive another quarter.
Meanwhile, Ai Jing, an idealistic young investigative journalist, goes undercover at Lin’s factory, intending to expose the company’s worker abuses. The government announces a minimum wage increase, a worker revolt rumbles and the risk of strike looms. Hard pressed to meet demands from all sides, Lin Dalin weighs the risk of a workers’ strike against tremendous losses and ruin of his company. The resulting confrontation brings the entire industry to the brink of collapse, rippling across every aspect of China’s explosive growth and rise to power.
Friday, November 20, 5:45 PM — Regal Dole Cannery
Sunday, November 22, 10:30 AM — Regal Dole Cannery
MONSTER HUNT (捉妖記)
In a mythic kingdom, humans and monsters who once fought each other now stay put in their separate lands. Their uneasy truce is disrupted when a coup in the monster realm forces its pregnant queen to go on the run with her two loyal but inept subjects, Zhugao and his rotund wife, Fat Ying. Foreseeing that pandemonium will spill over to the humans’ realm, monster-hunt bureau chief Ge (Wallace Chung) puts up a handsome bounty for the unborn heir. With the help of a dim-witted soldier and a beautiful bounty hunter, the queen and her subjects embark on a hero’s journey to fulfill the destiny of the baby monster king to re-unite the monster and human worlds again.
MONSTER HUNT, an action fantasy adventure fashioned in the universal “chosen one becomes a hero” story, is also a 3-D computer animation extravaganza that became the highest grossing film of all time in China, grossing close to $400 million (that’s in US dollars), beating the former reigning champions, FURIOUS 7, AVATAR and JURASSIC WORLD. Directed by Hong Kong born and American educated Raman Hui (he co-directed SHREK THE THIRD and other Dreanworks Animation works), MONSTER HUNT is an extravagant action adventure that also can go a little schizophrenic, as our heroes are thrown into one adventure after another (think THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING but with double the situations but in a much shorter running time).
In her review of the film, Variety critic Maggie Lee writes that the film is: “tyke-friendly with a digestible story-arc… Stylistically, the film blends Western demon-slaying elements, and Japanese yokai folklore… into a fanciful Chinese setting, beefing it with up robust martial-arts action with an eye toward holding the attention of adult viewers.”
— Anderson Le
Saturday, November 14, 1:00 PM — Regal Dole Cannery
Saturday, November 21, 12:30 PM — Waimea Theater Kauai
Saturday, November 21, 1:15 PM — Regal Dole Cannery
MOUNTAINS MAY DEPART (山河故人)
Jia Zhang-ke (Filmmaker of the Year Awardee, HIFF 2010), continues his themes on the modernity of China with his latest masterpiece. MOUNTAINS MAY DEPART is an epic tale of one woman and the men in her lives, spanning three decades.
We start in the year 1999 in Fenyang, China — Shen Tao, a school teacher, is in love with Liang, who is a coal miner. But she brings an end to their relationship when Jinsheng, the owner of the coal mine, proposes to her. Heartbroken, Liang leaves his hometown, determined never to return. The story then jumps to 2014. Liang, is diagnosed with a terminal illness and decides to go back to Fenyang with his wife and a daughter to live his remaining days in his hometown. Tao, who has divorced Jinsheng, now lives alone. Meanwhile, her son, Dollar, who lives in Shanghai with her ex-husband, returns to Fenyang to attend his grandfather’s funeral. The film then jumps to 2025, and mostly takes place in Australia, centering on Dollar, who is now college-age and having an affair with an older woman (Sylvia Chang).
Kudos goes to Jia’s muse and wife, Tao Zhao, who is simply phenomenal portraying a woman who is able to find happiness in unexpected solitude. Plus, for all you New Wave fans out there, Jia may have found the best use of the Pet Shop Boys’ “Go West” in any film ever. Jia’s three decade spanning story illustrates the changing socio-economic tides of today’s China, as well as to speculate where it is heading in the near future, addressing China’s cultural identity during rapid globalization. — Anderson Le
Tuesday, November 17, 5:45 PM — Regal Dole Cannery
Sunday, November 22, 1:15 PM — Regal Dole Cannery
ROBBERY (老笠)
An anarcho-absurdist blood-soaked grand guignol indie flick with attitude to burn, ROBBERY is the pitch perfect youth movie from Hong Kong. A twenty-something punk fancies himself a total player, but the best job he can find is overnight clerk at a convenience store. The other clerk is a cute chick and you’re thinking “rom com,” but then there’s a robbery, a gangster, a shoot-out, and by the time a neighbor is pulling out a homemade bomb, you realize this young punk is in for the night of his life, that is if he survives it!
ROBBERY is a violent and also highly comedic farce about the current situation in Hong Kong where nothing makes sense, the heartless wipe their feet on the hopeless, and you might as well burn it all down because there are no more better tomorrows. In his directorial debut, Fire Lee presents one of the most original, progressive films to come out of Hong Kong in recent years, effortlessly blending comedy, action, and violent thrills to form a biting satire on the plight of Hong Kong’s youth of today. Featuring both some of Hong Kong’s most recognizable stars (including Lam Suet, KUNG FU HUSTLE as the surly store owner), and some soon-to-be rising stars, ROBBERY is edge of your seat fun!
This film is nominated for the Halekulani Golden Orchid Award for Best Narrative. Director Fire Lee will be in attendance for the first screening of the film.
Saturday, November 14, 6:30 PM — Regal Dole Cannery
Wednesday, November 18, 8:45 PM — Regal Dole Cannery
SPL2 – A TIME FOR CONSEQUENCES (殺破狼2)
A Hong Kong cop named Kit (Wu Jing) busts a major gangster only to find his cover blown and his main witness gone. The gangster (Louis Khoo, played with just the right amount of eccentric and billionaire crazy), in retaliation, has him kidnapped and put in a Thai jail with a false criminal identity. A lowly prison guard, Chai (Thai martial arts superstar Tony Jaa), with extraordinary fighting skills guards Kit and prevents his escape from prison. But the prison guard’s daughter suffers from a rare form of leukemia and Kit is the only donor who can save her. When the guard discovers Kit’s real identity he helps him to escape in return for his agreeing to save his daughter. Together, Kit and Chai must face the gangster and his minions and take them down.
SPL 2: A TIME FOR CONSEQUENCES may sound like a sequel, and by title it is to the seminal SPL (KILL ZONE in the United States) starring Donnie Yen, Sammo Hung, Simon Yam (who with Wu Jing, both return playing entirely different characters) and a swath of other iconic Hong Kong stars. But it has no real connection to the first film, which is fine, because what it does share is high octane tension, amazing fighting scenes (most of the credit goes to Jaa and his amazing prowess and athleticism), and just the right amount of cross-cultural nonsense that only a Hong Kong action film can let slide (the Thai girl and a Hong Kong mentally challenged boy text each other entirely in emoticons and they 100% understand each other). In the end, sit back and enjoy the beautiful violence. — Anderson Le
Friday, November 20, 8:30 PM — Regal Dole Cannery
Saturday, November 21, 8:45 PM — Regal Dole Cannery
CHEN JIA LING
Born in 1937 in Hangzhou, famous Chinese painter Chen Jialing now resides in Shanghai. He has lived through World War II, the socialist transformation, the Cultural Revolution and the reform and opening up of China on the global stage. Social change and political unrest has had a profound influence on his life and creation. Facing the camera, he recalls his life, talks about his teachers, those old intellectuals in 1949. Behind this film, is a Chinese artist’s secret, and also a Chinese intellectual’s spiritual course. CHEN JIALING unfolds the life and art of this remarkable, renowned, and influential artist.
Monday, November 16, 5:30 PM — Regal Dole Cannery
Filled with insight and discovery, HIFF (Hawaii International Film Festival)  is dedicated to advancing understanding and cultural exchange among the peoples of Asia, the Pacific and North America by presenting films from around the world. Each year, more than 60,000 attendees the cultural exchange of ideas, presented through the powerful medium of film, raises the awareness of our similarities and differences alike.


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