Hell on Frisco Bay (2005-2008 archive)

Ah, the cruelty of riches. I'm so excited about the Hong Sang-soo retrospective being brought by the 25th SF International Asian American Film Festival that I've felt compelled to organize a Virgin Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors Blog-a-Thon. But this seven-film retrospective, which is the first Hong series of that size in the United States, has an opportunity cost. It means I'm not going to be able to fit in many of the other SFIAAFF films I want to see. Any feelings of disappointment over the absence of potentially programmed candidates all but disappear once I sit down with the festival calendar and my day planner. The SFIAAFF only lasts eight days (March 15-22) in Frisco proper, with a few extra days in Berkeley and (frankly inconvenient for car-less me) San Jose, so it's tough to pack in everything that sounds good.

For me, the most astonishing casualty of my scheduling is the 2006 film I've been most longingly anticipating since its premiere in Venice last fall. Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Syndromes and a Century will play just once at the festival, the very same night that Hong Sang-soo appears in person at the Pacific Film Archive with Virgin Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors. That's March 21st, the day of the aforementioned Blog-a-Thon here at Hell on Frisco Bay. I must admit a part of me is tempted to pick the new Apichatpong film over the Hong in-person alongside a film I've seen before, even if I am hosting a Blog-a-Thon on it. After all, Hong is also expected to make an appearance at a screening of Woman on the Beach at the AMC 1000 the previous night. Thankfully, I think I have enough patience to be able to stand waiting until Syndromes and a Century has its theatrical engagement at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts April 13-15. And just before that on April 5th and 6th Apichatpong will be appearing at the PFA for a SFIAAFF-co-presented screening and "shot-by-shot exploration" of his previous Tropical Malady. My personal favorite of his wonderful films so far, Blissfully Yours, will also screen there April 7th.

Another film high on my to-see wish-list also has its only festival screening on March 21st: Exiled by Johnny To. It's expected to be distributed later in the year by Magnolia Pictures. (Tartan will distribute another To film from last year, Triad Election and, in an event unrelated to the SFIAAFF, is letting us sneak a peek this coming Friday -tomorrow- at the Four Star.) SFIAAFF selections Summer Palace and the King and the Clown also have small distribution deals so I may have to de-prioritize them as well. There are simply too many other films I want to squeeze in!

Like In Between Days, So Yong Kim's debut feature which placed #4 on the indieWIRE critics poll of undistributed films (topped by Woman on the Beach, incidentally). Its critical pedigree plus the way it perfectly puts the IAAF in SFIAAFF, with its Toronto setting and its Korean American director, point to it possibly becoming the biggest "buzz" film of the festival. Or It's Only Talk by Japanese auteur Ryuichi Hiroki. Or some of the "Out of the Vaults" and other revivals (especially the recently discovered silent the Curse of Quon Gwon). Of the documentaries being shown, Koryo Saram - the Unreliable People and Kabul Transit look the most fascinating to me, but many of the others sound good too.

My recent trip to Utah didn't help me narrow down much. Though I saw several features there I thought might get picked to play the SFIAAFF, none of them did. Instead, four Sundance features I didn't see there are set to play, including Justin Lin's opening night film Finishing the Game, Nick Broomfield's Ghosts, the rotoscoped Year of the Fish and closing night gala film Dark Matter. I'd tagged the latter as the least-interesting film at Sundance based solely on its write-up in that festival's program guide, but SFIAAFF Director Chi-hui Yang's write-up makes it sound far better. I have to admit I didn't hear much Park City buzz, positive or negative, on these films. But I did hear a steady roar of excitement about Slamdance entry American Zombie, directed by Grace Lee of the Grace Lee Project. A fake documentary on "high functioning zombies"? Shot by the guy who shot Mutual Appreciation? I'm so there.

And now for a few notes on upcoming screenings not (as far as I know) directly connected to the 25th SFIAAFF:

Tonight is the last night to see Tears of the Black Tiger in its gorgeous, faux-Technicolor glory on the Lumiere or Shattuck screens. I did last Friday and found the film even better than I'd even remembered it to be. But if you can't make it, be sure to mark your calendar (with a florescent pink pen, naturally) to catch it at the Red Vic on April 15th.

In preparation for the Frisco release of Bong Joon-ho's the Host, that director will be in town screening both of his two previous films, Memories of Murder and Barking Dogs Never Bite at the Clay Theatre March 5th.

That theatre will also host screenings of the Rocky Horror Picture Show in Frisco March 31st and May 12th, after a very long absence on this side of the Bay. At midnight, of course. Did you really have to ask? It's part of a midnight movie series that also includes Cannibal Holocaust March 23-24, Dead Man April 27, and Naked Lunch May 18-19. The Shattuck in Berkeley has its spring midnight series schedule out too now. The Guild in Menlo Park will also be starting up the Rocky Horror Picture Show each first and third Saturday, but that appears to be Landmark's only South Bay midnight series this season. Of course the East Bay Rocky fans are covered by the long-running weekly screenings at the Parkway in Oakland.