Special Programs in Focus

• Ming Zhang
• China
• 2005
• 104min

Before Born is the new film made by director Ming Zhang who won the New Currents Award at the Pusan International Film Festival for his film Rainclouds over Wushan. Arriving at Bei Hai to find a man named Li Chonggao, Huang Guangl...

Special Programs in Focus

• Teguh Karya
• Indonesia
• 2005
• 102min

In Behind the Mosquito Net, Teguh Karya creates the story of tragic wedding. The main character taxi driver, frustrated by his parents-in-law constantly belittling him for his low salary and lack of house-even rented one. The taxi...

Oepn Cinema

• Sturla Gunnarsson
• Iceland,Canada,UK
• 2005
• 120min

The oldest text of recorded English is the classic epic poem of a battle between man and monster. A Norse king, Hrothgar of the Danes, accepts the help of great warrior Beowulf in defeating a monstrous marauding foe, and putting a...

Special Programs in Focus

• Chris Owen
• Australia,Papua New Guinea
• 2005
• 52min

"I′d like to think that my film Betelnut Bisnis is somehow different from mainstream offerings. I hope its sensitivities will contribute to a better understanding of what life is like for many Papua New Guineans living in the real...

New Currents

• Atsushi Funahashi
• Japan
• 2005
• 105min

A road movie where two men and a woman of different nationalities meet and come to a realization, set against the backdrop of the Grand Canyon. Touring the deserts of US, Japanese Teppei accidentally encounters Ali, from Pakistan,...

Korean Cinema Retrospective: Lee Man-hee, the Poet of Night

• LEE Man-hee
• Korea
• 2005
• 115min

The ruthlessness of gangs and the city alley surrounded by light and shadow present the essence of Korean noir. The rules of the gangs are more than just being cruel. The wife of the boss was raped by an opium addict and therefore...

Special Programs in Focus

• R.D. Pestonji
• Thailand
• 2005
• 129min

Black Silk(1961), a crime drama sometimes labeled Thailand′s first film noir, is arguably his best work. In contrast to his previous two films, Pestonji here takes on much more serious subject matters, most significantly Prae′s re...

Korean Cinema

• KIM Daeseung
• Korea
• 2005
• 119min

During the 19th century Chosun dynasty, a remote island of Donghwa-do has seen growth based on its paper manufacturing. A transport ship carrying paper to the palace burns into ashes An investigator Won-kyu is sent to the scene, a...

A Window on Asian Cinema

• Cheng WenTang
• Taiwan
• 2005
• 108min

Delicately and transparently depicting a wandering woman who’s unable to find a place to settle down, is the third film made by Taiwanese film director Wen Tang Cheng. The young woman A Yu has just been released from prison and n...

PIFF‘s Asian Pantheon

• Mani RATNAM
• India
• 2005
• 128min