CEAS Film Series

David Desser will deliver a lecture about “5 Fingers of Death” (1972, 104 min.), following the screening. After a number of false starts in the 1950s and 60s, the cinema of Hong Kong shot to international box-office success in 1973 with a poorly dubbed, violent martial arts revenge saga with the intriguing title of “5 Fingers of Death” (a more dramatic, if less accurate title than the original English-language moniker of “King Boxer). Though extremely competent in its direction and martial arts choreography, “5 Fingers of Death” was also fairly typical of the martial arts movies of the early...

12:00 PM Epitaph Directed by Jeong Brothers (2007, 98min) Split between the height of the Japanese colonial period and the last days of Park Chung Hee’s “Yusin” regime, Epitaph screens the horror and violence of the return of repressed personal and political pasts. Intensely haunting but elegantly subdued, the film marks the debut of the Jeong Brothers and gives testament to both their erudition and inventiveness with the horror genre. *Snack available during intermission!* 2:00 PM Save the Green Planet Directed by Jang Joon-whan (2003, 118min) A young worker’s megalomania to save the...

Church Cinema Directed by Gan Xiao’er, 2008 (80 min)A documentary of reactions to watching “Raised from Dust” among ten Church congregations. Created from 80 hours of interviews and discussions, as well as the process of gaining access. A newly finished project, “Church Cinema” will be an informative assessment of “Raised from Dust” and its impact.Film screening will be followed by an open Question and Answer session with filmmaker Gan Xiao’er.

Uncle’s Paradise (Ojisan Tengoku)Directed by Shinji Imaoka (2006, 64 min., 35mm., English Subtitles, Content advisory) Nippon Connection FestivalNippon Connection, the largest showcase of Japanese cinema outside of Japan, comes to Yale! A cornucopian selection of the best works shown at the 2007 edition, held in Frankfurt, Germany, will be screened over two weeks, featuring major studio films, indie features and shorts, and experimental animation. Highlights include Maison de Himiko, the winner of the Nippon Connection Audience Award, a video feature by Sono Shion (Suicide Circle), and an...

By the 1970s, Hong Kong had become a truly global force in international cinema, not only solidifying a trans-Asian audience appeal, but breaking into the coveted Euro-American film market. By the 1990s, Hong Kong was recognized as one of the world’s premier film-producing sites. But there is a history to the efforts of Hong Kong to achieve international appeal and global prominence. This talk will outline the various strategies employed by the two major Mandarin-language film studios, MP&GI (Cathay) and Shaw Bros, to break out of the local and diasporic film circuits, culminating in...

Forget The Last Samurai! Here’s the hard, brutal world of real samurai! Leading the New Wave in samurai cinema in the 1960s, Kudo Eiichi masterfully weaves together multiple tragedies sparked by political intrigue, culminating in a tour de force of mass action and anarchic violence. A ferocious and riveting condemnation of the feudal samurai state. The Great Duel (Daisatsujin)Directed by Eichi Kudo (1964, 35mm, English Subtitles)Prints Courtesy of the Japan Foundation

Raised from Dust Directed by Gan Xiao’er, 2007 (102 min) Film will be introduced by filmmaker Gan Xiao’er. Religious life in the People’s Republic in the post-Mao era is a lively and hotly contested aspect of people’s new sense of life-possibilities outside strict state supervision. Yet is has rarely made it into the vibrant new independent film world. Gan Xiao’er has made a very interesting independent feature set in a rural Chinese Christian community whose plot reflects social and personal crises under current reform policies in China.

OPEN ARTBones Directed by Shinsaku Hidaka (2006, video, 3:51 min.) The Naked ApeDirected by Daihiti Hashimoto (2006, video, 2 min.) The Goblin’s SecretDirected by Yuko Miyahira (2006, video, 7 min.) A Man Who Became an UndertakerDirected by Shuhei Sibue (2006, video, 4:55 min.) Takashi’s SeasonsDirected by Takashi Kawashima (2006, video, 15:45 min.) Deer ModeDirected by Junpei Mizokawa (2006, video, 1:20 min.) Bad Morning.MamaDirected by Daisuke Imai (2006, video, 4:09 min.) Magic By The Line Red And BlueDirected by Dino Sato (2006, video, 3:30 min.) ScraplandDirected by Dino...

Sometimes the biggest events are telegraphed by the merest of harbingers. The scene of the greatest economic and cultural metamorphosis of our time, China is not only at the center of the world’s attention but has arguably the most vital, imaginative, and uncontainable art scene in the world. The Rising Tide investigates China’s meteoric march toward the future through the work of some of its most talented emerging artists, whose work reflects the country’s rising influence as an economic, political and cultural force in the global arena. In recent years, Chinese artists, especially those...