The 2005 Los Angeles Film Festival (June 16-26) is proud to present this year's line up, which features a diverse selection of Asian and Asian-American films.  Represented in our new program, Cinema East, are films from China, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, and the US.

Cinema East

2046
Directed by: Wong Kar-Wai
China/129 Minutes

To call 2046 a sequel does not capture its own distinctive idiosyncrasies, but the latest from beloved filmmaker Wong Kar Wai does pick up with actor Tony Leung reprising his role from In the Mood for Love a few tough, lonely years further down the line. Leung's frustrated writer becomes involved with a series of women as he struggles to write a sci-fi novel based on his own memories. A stunning series of Asia's biggest female stars—Ziyi Zhang, Gong Li, Faye Wong, Carina Lau, Maggie Cheung—bring gauzy, sexy life to Wong's meditation on how our past writes our future.

Saturday, June 25, 9:30, DGA1
Sunday, June 26, 2:30, Laemmle Sunset 5

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1977)
Shaolin Sanshiliu Fang
Directed by: Lau Kar-leung
Hong Kong/118 Minutes
If one film can encapsulate an entire genre, then this Shaw Brothers outing must be the choice for martial arts films. With masterfully choreographed fights, a classic revenge storyline, and an iconic performance by Gordon Liu, this remains the kung fu classic that all others are judged by. On the run from the Manchu forces that slaughtered his family, a young man is granted asylum at the Shaolin Temple. Initially studying to become a monk, he eventually begins training in the martial arts. Working his way through 36 mental and physical challenges, each one more difficult than the last, the novice slowly becomes a master, ready to face his enemies, both old and new.

Tuesday, June 21, 10:00 pm, DGA 1
Friday, June 24, 11:45 pm, Laemmle Sunset 5

The Beautiful Country
Directed by: Hans Petter Moland
Norway/USA/125 Minutes

Based on an idea by producer Terrence Malick, Hans Petter Moland's The Beautiful Country is a tender and straightforward tale of a young Vietnamese man's struggle to find the parents he's never known, a Vietnamese mother and an American G.I. father. From a serene fishing village to the depraved underbelly of a tanker to the dusty expansiveness of a Texas ranch, Moland unfurls an incredible physical and emotional journey and elicits nearly flawless performances from newcomer Damien Nguyen and heavy hitters Bai Ling, Tim Roth, and Nick Nolte.

Sunday, June 19, 4:00, DGA 1
Monday, June 20, 2:00, Laemmle Sunset 5

Beauty Remains
Mei Ren Yi Jiu
Directed by: Ann Hu
China/USA/89 Minutes

Ann Hu's gorgeous, moody period melodrama humanizes the social schism of 1949 China—when the poor reached for Communism and the wealthy for their passports—in her tale of two half-sisters fragilely linked by wealth and family. The illegitimate, abandoned schoolgirl Fei is an unwilling Cinderella, pressured to help her spoiled, seductive older half-sister Lady Ying cash in on their father's estate. Lady Ying is planning to flee the country, and Fei is determined not to compromise her hard-earned independence, but long-simmering grudges and attractions complicate both sisters' plans.

Thursday, June 23, 7:00, Laemmle Sunset 5
Saturday, June 25, 3:15, Laemmle Sunset 5

Before Anime: Japanese Animation- 1925-1946
Long before anime became a multi-billion dollar industry, Japanese animation was already a thriving artform. From early attempts through the introduction of sound and culminating in propaganda from World War II, this program charts twenty years of work from some of the most influential artists of their times.

Tuesday, June 21, 9:30, DGA 2
Saturday, June 25, 5:00 DGA 2

Before the Flood
Yan Mo
Directed by: Li Yifan and Yan Yu
China/147 Minutes

When the Three Gorges Dam is completed, it will be the largest hydroelectric dam in the world. It will also have caused the displacement of millions of Chinese by submerging their homes—and heritages—under water. This intimate documentary captures the plight of Fengjie, a 2,000-year-old village that finds itself with only a few years to relocate to higher ground. It's a daunting process the local officials tackle with a deft combination of civic boosterism and total denial, leaving residents with no choice but to watch as their lives are dismantled, brick by brick, to make way for the modern world.

Saturday, June 18, 1:30, DGA 2
Wednesday, June 22, 1:30, Laemmle Sunset 5

Cavite
Directed by: Ian Gamazon and Neill Dela Llana
USA/80 Minutes
A young man (played by co-director Ian Gamazon) is going through tough times of his own in San Diego when his family calls him back to the Philippines. Upon arrival, he finds out his mother and sister have been kidnapped, and his only hope of getting them back is a shaky cell-phone connection to criminals who don't want a ransom, but instead use him as a pawn in a series of increasingly high-stakes activities and mind games. Gamazon and Neill Dela Llana's tightly wound thriller combines the personal and political in a way that feels searingly alive.

Friday, June 17, 7:30, Laemmle Sunset 5
Monday, June 20, 9:30, Laemmle Sunset 5

The Grace Lee Project
Directed by: Grace Lee
USA/68 Minutes

Filmmaker Grace Lee thought she had a unique name until she discovered that everyone else seemed to know another Grace Lee—and they were all quiet, petite, piano-playing overachievers. Wondering if she was the only one not living up to her Grace Lee-ness, Lee set out on a trek to find other Grace Lees. The result is a witty, insightful, and moving exploration of identity and Asian female stereotypes, revealing that one deceptively simple name can cover a range of personalities from newscasters and violinists to an ex-Black Panther activist.

Sunday, June 19, 3:00, Laemmle Sunset 5
Tuesday, June 21, 9:30, Laemmle Sunset 5

Kamikaze Girls
Shimotsuma Monogatari
Directed by: Tetsuya Nakashima
Japan/107 Minutes

Stylized, popsicle-bright, and a little delirious, this adaptation of Novala Takemoto's best-selling cult novel plunges into Japan's underground "Lolita" subculture, whose adolescent devotees parade around Tokyo costumed like Victorian dolls with bonnets, frocks, and frilly lace parasols. Momoko is a rococo Lolita whose idyllic dreams of Versailles clash sharply with her isolated existence in the Ibaraki hinterlands. When a chance encounter brings Momoko together with head-butting biker chick Ichiko, the quest for a mysterious embroiderer sets the unlikely friends, played by J-Pop stars Kyoko Fukada and Anna Tsuchiya, off on an explosive, pachinko-studded adventure.

Saturday, June 18, 9:45 pm, Laemmle Sunset 5
Monday, June 20, 4:45, Laemmle Sunset 5

R-Point
Directed by:  Kong Su-Chang
South Korea/106 South Korea
A huge hit in Korea, this supernatural chiller casts an otherworldly pall over the horrors of war. The year is 1972, and a mysterious distress call has summoned Lieutenant Choi and his men to a remote area of Vietnam. Finding nothing but gravesites and ominous warnings etched in stone, the platoon makes camp in a decrepit French villa where, as nighttime falls, they begin to fear that something far more terrifying than the Viet Cong is lurking in the shadows. War is indeed hell, and no place is that truer than R-Point, where the ground is soaked in blood and the dead refuse to stay down.

Saturday, June 18, 11:30 pm, Laemmle Sunset 5
Sunday, June 19, 9:45 pm, Laemmle Sunset 5

Spying Cam
Frakchi
Directed by: Whang Cheol Mean
South Korea/100 Minutes

Two men, locked in a cheap hotel room together with little else but a video camera, struggle to pass the time. Nobody knows who they are or why they're there. The maid thinks they're lovers. The party girl next door thinks they're filmmakers. The truth is far more provocative. As questions of power, politics, and intertwining identities emerge, just who is controlling whom is thrown increasingly into doubt. Whang Cheol Mean, a veteran of the Korean independent film scene, has crafted an intensely engaging film that seems deceptively simple, unfolding to reveal a world of unfathomable complexities.

Wednesday, June 22, 4:30, Laemmle Sunset 5
Saturday, June 25, 7:45, Laemmle Sunset 5

Tony Takitani
Directed by: Jun Ichikawa
Japan/ 75 Minutes

A single man living a spare lifestyle, Tony is perfectly content with his solitary existence. He's not lonely; he's simply alone. Everything changes the day he meets Eiko, a young woman with a taste for designer labels. But the culture of couture doesn't come cheap in this film based on a short story by Haruki Murakami. Writer/director Jun Ichikawa adapts the original story with the utmost fidelity, exploring—and expanding—Murakami's tale of true love and the allure of a perfect Size 7.

Friday, June 17, 9:45, DGA 2
Monday, June 20, 7:15 Laemmle Sunset 5

All screenings take place at
Laemmles' Sunset 5, (8000 Sunset Blvd. @ Crescent Heights)
The DGA, (7920 Sunset Blvd.)
The Ford Amphitheatre, (2580 Cahuenga Blvd.)

Passholders can reserve and buy tickets starting today.
Tickets go on sale June 1.

To purchase passes and for more information about the films, call
1-866-FilmFest or visit www.lafilmfest.com

www.lafilmfest.com