Asian Pop-up Cinema film festival to kick off in Chicago
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E-mail Xinhua, March 16, 2021
by Jian Ping
CHICAGO, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Asian Pop-Up Cinema's Season 12 film festival is scheduled to kick off in U.S. city of Chicago Monday night.
The opening night will feature "The Town of Headcounts," a Japanese thriller directed by Shinji Araki. Channeling sci-fi dystopian classics, the film is "a politically astute allegory of Japanese society, surveillance, election interference and terrorism."
This season will screen more than 33 films, including 8 North American and 12 U.S. premieres. The diverse lineups will be presented either virtually or through drive-in screenings. Selected films are from Japan, China, South Korea, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Mongolia.
For the first time, the selection will include co-productions directed by non-Asian filmmakers from France/China, France/Cambodia, Canada/Vietnam, and U.S./the Philippines.
"We are continuously excited with the impressive new directors' works," said Sophia Wong Boccio, festival director and founder.
"This season especially, bringing in four non-Asian directors' works in the West Meets East Showcase, is an excellent example of bridging cultures across continents by the creative storytellers," Boccio added.
Two films from China will be featured at the festival. One is "Changfeng Town" directed by Wang Jing. The film is a coming-of-age story, an ode to rural life that "contains sketches centering around the lives of five characters and their interconnected yet disparate lives over the course of one summer."
The other one is "Wisdom Tooth" by Liang Ming, an award-winning film that tells the story of young adults, a young woman and her half-brother in a fishing village, and the complexity of tension and emotions among them when an oil spill threatens their income, the brother seeks a new job and meets an attractive young woman.
"Wisdom Tooth" is Liang Ming's directorial debut and was premiered at the Third Pingyao International Film Festival in 2019. The film won both Fei Mu Awards for Best Director and Roberto Rossellini Awards for Jury Award at the film festival.
Four Oscar contenders from Asia will also be screened, including "True Mothers" from Japan, "Better Days" from Chinese Hong Kong, 'The Man Standing Next" from South Korea, and "Roh" (Soul) from Malaysia.
Pre-recorded "Filmmakers' Talks" will be included in the majority feature presentations.
The Asian Pop-up Cinema film festival, initiated in 2015, will run through May 1 this year, the longest run ever. Enditem
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