City of Life and Death was released in 2009 and it is about the aftermath of 2nd Sino-Japanese War (also known as the “The Rape of Nanking”). The movie stars Liu Ye, Gao Yuanyuan, Fan Wei and Hideo Nakaizumi. It stirs controversy upon its released in Mainland China due to the plot sympathetic portrayal of a Japanese soldier named Kadokawa.Despite criticism, the film was a success. It was also shown at the San Sebastian film festival and won the top prize in 2009.

Another film that will be in the SFIAAFF lineup is the classic shocking and disturbing 1960 Korean thriller film The Housemaid directed by Kum Ki-young. Although this is in black-and white, it has been fully restored and movie has been describe as one of the top three Korean films of all time. The movie stars Ju Jeung-nyeo and Kim Jin Kyu.

The 28Th San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival will run from March 11-21, 2010 at different locations in San Francisco, Berkeley, and San Jose. This will also mark the 10th and final season of Chi-hui Yang tenure as the festival director. Over 100 narratives, full length documentaries and shorts will be offered that emphasize mainly on the increasing presence of Korean, Japan, Thailand and Philippines film.

Today’s Special starring Aasif Mandvi will open for the festival along with 11 Indian films such as Love Aaj Kal (Imtiaz Ali), Scene 32 (Shambhavi Kaul), Cooking With Stella (Dilip Mehta), Anjali (Maya Anand), A Days Work (Rajeev Dassani) and more. Filipino filmmaker Lino Brocka will have three films in the lineup including the documentary � Ninoy Aquino and the Rise of People Power as well. Other notable titles that will be included are Agrarian Utopia (Thailand), Missing Elly (Iran),Hana, Dul, Sed (Korea) James T. Hong and Yin-Ju Chen’s Lessons of the Blood, Stephanie Wang-Breal’s Wo Ai Ni Mommy,  Freida Lee Mock Lt. Watada and a US-Philippine co produced The Mountain Thief.

The event will close out with Arvin Chen’s Au Revoir Taipei.

S.F. International Asian American Film Festival participating theater includes San Francisco’s Sundance Kabuki, Landmark Clay, Castro Theater, and Viz Cinema. The ticket is about $12. For more info check out http://festival.asianamericanmedia.org/2010/

The AFAs are a fairly new addition to the HK Film Festival, with its inaugural run taking place in 2007. This year’s will be only the 4th annual AFAs but judging from the list of nominees, they have the selection process down to a perfect science. Many of the films that are raved over in out forums are mentioned as well as some that have been overlooked. The countries are nicely represented with entries from Malaysia, Iran, and Vietnam making the cut this year. Highlights: AMP favorite Yatterman is competing for a production award with the several times nominated Thirst, and the wonderful Du-na Bae is nominated for her outstanding turn in Air Doll. Another AMP favourite City of Life and Death is also competing once again for Best Film.

This year the AFAs have about 35 movies nominated in 14 categories (including the new Best Costume Design) The jury is comprised of 14 various accomplished film aficionados and they range from the director of the Cannes Film Festival to the head of the Korean Academy of Film Arts. Check out the list of nominees below and place your bets!

Best Film

* “Bodyguards and Assassins” (Hong Kong/China)
* “City of Life and Death” (China)
* “Lola” (Philippines)
* “Mother” (South Korea)
* “No puedo vivir sin ti” (Taiwan)
* “Parade” (Japan)

Best Director

* Joon-ho Bong – “Mother” (South Korea)
* Asghar Farhadi – “About Elly” (Iran)
* Chuan Lu – “City of Life and Death” (China)
* Brillante Mendoza – “Lola” (Philippines)
* Sion Sono – “Love Exposure” (Japan)
* Yonfan – “Prince of Tears” (Taiwan)

Best Actor

* Tadanobu Asano – “Villon’s Wife” (Japan)
* Bo Huang – “Cow” (China)
* Hitoshi Matsumoto – “Symbol” (Japan)
* Kang-ho Song – “Thirst” (South Korea)
* Xueqi Wang – “Bodyguards and Assassins” (Hong Kong/China)

Best Actress

* Du-na Bae – “Air Doll” (Japan)
* Hye-ja Kim – “Mother” (South Korea)
* Bingbing Li – “The Message” (China)
* Takako Matsu – “Villon’s Wife” (Japan)
* Yung-yung Chang – “Yang Yang” (Taiwan)

Best Newcomer

* Sonam Kapoor – “Delhi 6″ (India)
* Se-ron Kim – “A Brand New Life” (South Korea)
* Yuchun Li – “Bodyguards and Assassins” (Hong Kong/China)
* Jane Ng Meng Hui – “At the End of Daybreak” (Malaysia / HK/S.Korea)
* Oceane Zhu – “Prince of Tears” (Taiwan)

Best Supporting Actor

* Eita – “Dear Doctor” (Japan)
* Xiaoming Huang – “The Message” (China)
* Chung Hua Tou “The Warrior And The Wolf” (China)
* Nicholas Tse – “Bodyguards and Assassins” (Hong Kong/China)
* Won Bin – “Mother” (South Korea)

Best Supporting Actress

* Sakura Ando – “A Crowd of Three” (Japan)
* Ryoko Hirosue – “Villon’s Wife” (Japan)
* Kkot-bi Kim – “Breathless” (South Korea)
* Kara Hui – “At the End of Daybreak” (Malaysia / Hong Kong / South Korea)
* Ni Yan – “Cow” (China)

Best Screenwriter

* Asghar Farhadi – “About Elly” (Iran)
* Sang-soo Hong – “Like You Know It All” (South Korea)
* Eun-kyo Park – “Mother” (South Korea)
* Dang Di Phan – “Adrift” (Vietnam)
* Ka-Fai Wai – “Written By” (Hong Kong)

Best Cinematographer

* Yu Cao – “City of Life and Death” (China)
* Siu-keung Cheng – “Vengeance” (Hong Kong)
* Chung-hoon Chung – “Thirst” (South Korea)
* Quy Tung La – “Adrift” (Vietnam)
* Jake Pollock – “Yang Yang” (Taiwan)

Best Production Designer

* Yuji Hayashida – “Yatterman” (Japan)
* Alain-Pascal Housiaux / Patrick Dechesne / Tian-Jue Lee – “Face” (Taiwan)
* Kenneth Mak – “Bodyguards and Assassins” (Hong Kong/China)
* Seong-hie Ryu – “Thirst” (South Korea)
* Haiying Shi – “The Message” (China)

Best Composer

* Ngoc Dai Hoang – “Adrift” (Vietnam)
* Yeong-gyu Jang / Byeong-hun Lee – “Running Turtle” (South Korea)
* Tong Liu – “City of Life and Death” (China)
* Ta-yu Lo – “Vengeance” (Hong Kong)
* Kazuyoshi Saito – “Fish Story” (Japan)

Best Editor

* Lee Chatametikool – “Karaoke” (Malaysia)
* Chi-leung Kong / Chi-wai Chan – “Overheard” (Hong Kong
* Sae-kyoung Moon – “Mother” (South Korea)
* Serraon Kats – “Lola” (Philippines)
* Hua Tang / Yifan Zhang / Yuan Du – “Crazy Racer” (China)

Best Visual Effects

* Takuya Fujita / Koji Nozaki – “Goemon” (Japan)
* Zhenyu Lei / Jianquan Guo / Fuzhi Zhang – “Crazy Racer” (China)
* Yuen-fai Ng/Chas Chau Chi-shing /Kai-kwan Tam-The Storm Warriors (HK)
* Hiroyuki Seshita – “Symbol” (Japan)
* Zeon-hyung Yi – “Thirst” (South Korea)

Best Costume Design

* Tina Kalivas / Vaughan Alexander – “Goemon” (Japan)
* Christian Lacroix / Anne Dunsford / Chia-Hui Wang – “Face” (Taiwan)
* Dora Ng – “Bodyguards and Assassins” (Hong Kong/China)
* Hyun-sub Shim – “The Sword With No Name” (South Korea)

source: AsianMediaWiki

Voting is now over

The winning film will be announced on 10th March (to find out early please check our discussion forums).

Or if you would like the know sooner then check our forums

www.asianmoviepulseclub.com

Chinese film director, Lu Chuan

The Golden Shell is awarded to the best film and City of Life and Death winning was a huge shock as many believed that Argentina’s ‘The secret of their eyes’
was a shoe in for the award.

Lu Chuan’s movie tells the horrowing story of the atrocities committed during the Chinese-Japanese conflict in Nanking. The film tellsstory of the conflict from a Chinese and Japanese perspective (A matter of controversy in its native China) .

City of Life and Death tells the story of the rape of thousands of woman during the Japanese occupation of NanKing

I’m personally very pleased that City of Life and Death won this award as for me its easily the best movie I’ve watched in recent years, not only because of the story telling but more importantly because it highlights a very important time in human history which many westerns (such as my selve) simply ignored or knew little about.

For those who have not watched this movie yet we are giving away the DVD version of the movie (with english subtitles) in our latest competitions. Given the recent win we will extent the competition to expire on October 7th 2009.

The DVD is region free.

Details about how to enter the competition are available on our newsletter and via our forums

City of Life and Death is the latest film with its story set during the infamous Nanjing (Nanking) Massacre, also know as the Rape of Nanjing (Nanking). In July of 1937, the Japanese launched a massive attack on China, in hoping the Chinese government would surrender in a few months. The surrender never came and in December, after suffering huge loss, Japanese troops occupied Nanking, the capital city of China fell, with millions of civilian residents, refugees and abandoned soldiers trapped inside the city wall. Immediately after the city was taken, killing, looting and raping started and did not end until spring of 1938.

Unlike the internationally agreed conclusion on the Holocaust, the Rape of Nanking is a controversial topic in today’s world. People who are still remembering it are mainly Chinese and the voice of denying it, either completely or partially, only comes from Japan. Debate over The Rape of Nanking, along with many wars Japan launched against China in the 19th and 20th centuries, is one of the major obstacles, which form mistrust between the Chinese and the Japanese.

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