Secret Pleasures: Four Asian Films about Love, Longing and Fishhooks Isle, The — A Film by Kim Ki-Duk The erotic arthouse thriller that caused a sensation at the Sundance, Toronto, and Venice Film Festivals, The Isle ... more »tells the tale of a beautiful woman who lives on an eerie, remote lake selling food to fisherman by day, and her body by night. When the woman becomes obsessed with a former police officer who is haunted by the murder of his unfaithful girlfriend, what develops is "a perversely intriguing (and intriguingly perverse) love story." (San Francisco Examiner) "A beautifully realized meditation on pain, pleasure and devotion, with a subtle dark sense of humor." IndieWire Korean with English subtitles
Starring: Suh Jung, Kim Yoo-suk, Park , Cho Jae-hyung, Jang Hang-Sun Ghosted
A film by Monika Treut German artist Sophie is trying to come to terms with the unsolved murder of her Taiwanese lover Ai-Ling. After a run-in with the seductive Mei-Li, a journalist investigating Ai-Ling's death, Sophie flees back to Germany. But when Mei-Li turns up on her Hamburg doorstep, the mystery deepens. "Thoughtful storytelling and a refreshingly matter-of-fact view of lesbian relationships." - The New York Times English, German and Mandarin w/English subtitles
Starring: Inga Busch, Huan-Ru Ke, Ting-Ting Hu Electric Shadows
A Film by Xiao Jiang {Special Jury Award, Marakesh International Film Festival 2004}
{Lotus Premiere Award at 7th Deauville Asian Film Festival} From one of China's newest cinematic voices comes a charming tale set into motion by a disastrous encounter: delivery man Dabing crashes his bike into the mysterious Ling Ling. From her hospital bed, Ling Ling asks Dabing to go to her home and feed her fish; while there, Dabing discovers an astonishing diary. In its pages he reads stories of a little girl's passion for the movies, which re-ignites his own longing for the days when the cinema enchanted China's masses, and audiences breathed and dreamed as one. "Movie love was never so engulfing, and rarely so sweet, as in this petite, elevating heart-warmer." - Richard Corliss, Time Magazine Mandarin w/English Subtitles
Starring: Jiang Yihong, Xia Yu, Li Haibin, Guan Xiaotong, Zhang Yijing, Qi Zhongyang, Wang Zhengjia, Zhang Haoqi, Xia Yuqing Personals, The
A Film by Chen Kuo-fu {Nominated, Best Actress, 35th Golden Horse Awards, 1998}
{Winner, Special Jury Award, 1999 Asia-Pacific Film Festival}
{Winner, Press Award, Best Actress, 2000 Paris Film Festival}
{Winner, Festival Prize, Best Actress, 1998 Taipei Film Festival} An attractive and successful doctor places a personal ad in a newspaper to try to meet (and eventually marry) Mr. Right. From a tightfisted businessman to a shy writer who brings his mother to a shoe fetishist and a pimp looking for call girls, she meets them all and patiently listens to their stories. What they don't know is that she has a mysterious ex-lover who may (or may not) be the man she truly seeks. Honored at the Cannes Film Festival, The Personals' Rene Liu gives a lustrous performance as the complicated, strong-willed woman navigating through a world of thwarted dreams and endless longing. "Witty and poignant, Rene Liu is a delight!" - New York Post Starring: Rene Liu, Wu Bai, Chin Shih-chieh, Chen Chao-jung, Gu Bao-ming