Every Monday starting at 6pm in the Small Cinema (Richard Hoggart Building), ASA (Alternative Studies for Asias) presents films from different regions in Asia with music as a theme plus a special screening and Q&A of Ananya Chatterjee's "Understanding Trafficking." Supported by The Centre for Cultural Studies.
Location: Small Cinema, Richard Hoggart Building, Goldsmiths, New Cross
Time: Mondays (Oct. 5-Nov. 23) starting at 6pm
All welcome. Free
The Burmese Harp (1956). Directed by Kon Ichikawa and written by Takeyama Michio.
Based on a children’s novel written by Michio Takeyama, The Burmese Harp is a tale of the Japanese Imperial Army regiment in Burma finding spiritual harmony through song despite harsh circumstances at the close of WWII. The film methodically presents music as a symbol of peace, highlighting its ability to transcend cultural and linguistic boundaries. Although the songs featured in the film represent uniquely Japanese sentiments, they were not originally written in Japanese. They are in fact European folk songs (“Dreaming of Home and Mother”, “Home, Sweet Home” and “Auld Lang Syne”) re-written and adapted by the Imperial Japanese government for educational purposes. This film captures the strong de/territorializing force of music and its power to assemble a milieu upon chaotic disjuncture (between feudal societies and the imperial nation-state).
Summary by Masa Kosugi
October 12
Together (2002). Directed by Chen Kaige and written by Xue Xiaolu and Chen Kaige.
This is a story is about a thirteen-year-old violin prodigy Liu Xiaochun who moves to Beijing from a small town with his father, Liu Cheng, to participate in a music competition. After winning fifth prize, Liu Xiaochun begins to take lessons from Professor Jiang while his father works as a delivery man in the city. As Liu Xiaochun develops a crush on his neighbour, an urban young lady, and gains a second music teacher, the film implicitly shows the lives of young women in the big city, the father-son relationship between Liu Xiaochun and Liu Cheng, as well as the economic and educational gaps regarding class and commercialisation around arts and music.
Summary by Apple Cho
All About Lily Chou-Chou (2001). Written and directed by Shunji Iwai
This film portrays juvenile problems (bullying, shoplifting, rape, etc.) in Japanese society by describing the real/virtual ambiguous relationships between a particular group of youths. While struggling socially, they turn to the music of the singer Lily Chou-Chou, and unwittingly connect with one another virtually on an Internet fan site. The original story for the film was based on an experimental site managed by Shunji Iwai to produce a participatory novel. In addition, the music of Lily Chou-Chou originally made for the film (performed by Japanese singer, Salyu) became popular among the fans of the film and Salyu. The film incorporates the real and the virtual on multiple levels while obscuring the borders of our real life and virtual worlds.
Summary by Kumiko Yamada
October 26
Sleepwalking Through The Mekong (2007). Directed by John Pirozzi
Sleepwalking Through The Mekong, the documentary film featuring Dengue Fever, chronicles the journey taken by Los Angeles-based Khmer rock band Dengue Fever to lead singer, Chhom Nimol’s native Cambodia during the 2005 Water Festival. On arrival to Phnom Penh, the band performs on a TV program, as well as putting on gigs, recording new songs with Khmer master musicians, interacting with schoolchildren. The culmination is an open-air show in a shantytown. The band’s performances there marked the first time a Western band had performed classic 1960s and ‘70s Cambodian rock’n’roll in the country where it was created and nearly erased from existence by the brutal Pol Pot regime. At once a homecoming for Nimol and a reversal of roles for the other band members who have to depend on Nimol to navigate Cambodia, this documentary is a cross-cultural reflection and portrait of Cambodia’s music scene.
Summary by Karen Tam
November 02- (VENUE CHANGE- Room 309, Richard Hoggart Building)
Waikiki Brothers (2001). Directed by Soonrye Yim
Waikiki had been regarded as one of the places most worth visiting among traditional Koreans who experienced the rapid Americanization of Korean society since the end of the Korean War. Now, any word associated with "Waikiki" is regarded as a symbol of the unenlightened due to its strong connection to the generation of old-timers. This quiet South Korean film is about the slow demise of a nightclub band, Waikiki Brothers. Set in the late 1980's in rural Corea, this is primarily a character piece centered on the band leader, the quiet and enduring Hae-il. Over the course of the film, there is a lengthy flashback to the Hae-il’s youth, which sets up and explains further events over the course of the film. The collapse of Waikiki Brothers is anticipated in the first scene, and the plot is about how each band member compromises with modernized and contemporary Korean society. The basic emotion of this film is nostalgia through an archaeological review of ancient cultural icons, rarely witnessed now. Nostalgia for the past can serve as a powerful resource for preparing for the future.
Summary by Sung Woo Park
November 09
Platform (2000). Directed by Jia Zhang-Ke.
Platform as a movie in some ways offers another ‘’platform” to tell the stories of the 1980s in China. Under the economic boom and massive changes of society, Platform focuses on two rural couples, showing their desires to the change and loss of love. The use of pop songs in the film also crystallises bittersweet memories of the country during that period. This film was banned by the Chinese government in 2000.
Director Jia Zhang-Ke's films always focus on the social fabric of daily life in present-day China. He is the most important 6th-generation director in China and is the winner of the Venice Film Festival Golden Lion (2006) and numerous international film awards.
Summary by Ben Chiahung Lu
November 16
Understanding Trafficking (2009). Directed by Ananya Chatterjee Chakraborti.
Legend goes, there is a magical line that Laxman drew around Sita, which no woman is supposed to cross. If any woman dared to cross the magical line, she would risk being kidnapped by Ravan the demon. Women have for centuries been discouraged to cross the line, to remain indoors, and within limits. The lines and limits of their existence have always been defined by patriarchy. So what happens if a woman does cross the line? By circumstances, through need, or just by a desire to dare the magical line?
November 23- End of series discussion
