HIFF eNews

Here are some updates! The Festival Box Office is now open to members and the general public for advance ticket sales: in-person, on-line and by fax! The Box Office is open from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., seven days a week, and open 24 hours a day for fax and on-line orders.

We've added an additional screening of Fruit Chan's horror omnibus DUMPLINGS on Sat, Oct 22! The film's star, the lovely and talented Bai Ling, will attend Oct 22 only!

We've got ten great events scheduled at the Pride of the Pacific, the Hawaii Theatre Center located at 1130 Bethel Street in downtown Honolulu! Tickets are available for all shows on-line or by fax or phone. Click on the movie's title for more ordering information!

Oct 24, 6:00 PM. BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, winner of the coveted Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, is Ang Lee's "great American love story." Adapted from a story by E. Annie Proulx, the film stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger as cowboys whose secret love affair spans 20 years. Watch the trailer!

Sponsored by Cades Schutte

Oct 24, 9:00 PM. A BITTERSWEET LIFE, starring hearthrob Lee Byung-hun (JSA), is this year's hottest Korean title: "a tour de force of noir-ish style and Korean ultra-violence."

Lee Byung-hun will attend the screening!

Oct 25, 6:15 PM. THE HIDDEN BLADE, from master director Yoji Yamada, is a small, quiet film about a samurai's solitary struggle to survive in the changing world of the 19th century. Director Yamada, creator of the Tora san film series, is the current master of the jidai geki or samurai period drama.

Sponsored by the Hawaiiana Group

WELCOME TO DONGMAGKOL

THREE DOLLARS

MATADOR

Oct 25, 8:45 PM. The Korean wave of film is unstoppable! WELCOME TO DONGMAGKOL is one of only seven movies ever to sell over five million tickets in South Korea! Set during the Korean War, DONGMAGKOL, based on the stage play, is an anti-war fable of South Korean, North Korean, and American soldiers. It combines elements of brotherhood from JSA with the enchantment and inventiveness of AMELIE. Recently selected as Korea's nominee for Best Foriegn Film for the 2006 Academy Awards ®

Oct 26, 6:15 PM. THREE DOLLARS is the third collaboration between actor David Wenham ('04 LVHIFF Golden Maile Juror, LORD OF THE RINGS) and director Robert Connolly. Eddie (David Wenham) is not having an easy life. His wife is depressed, his daughter is sick, his boss hates him and he has exactly three dollars in his bank account. To further complicate matters, his childhood sweetheart, who mysteriously re-enters his life every nine-and-a-half years, has reappeared.

“THREE DOLLARS is easily the best Australian film this year.”
--Rod Chester, The Daily Telegraph

"You'd laugh aloud if it wasn't for the lump in your throat."
--Adelaide Advertise

Watch the trailer or read the director's blog!

Sponsored by the Australian Consulate-General, the
Australian American Chamber of Commerce and Lincolne Scott

Oct 26, 8:45 PM. THE MATADOR follows the unusual friendship between two very different men. Peirce Brosnan, a hitman who has a breakdown while on assignment in Mexico City, crosses paths with Greg Kinnear, an ordinary, married businessman from Denver with problems of his own. Described as one of the most satisfying guy movie duos since MIDNIGHT RUN! Watch the trailer!

Sponsored by Honolulu Star Bulletin/MidWeek

HAWAII NIGHT

ROUNDING FIRST

RIVER QUEEN

Oct 27, 6:15 PM Hawaii Night: An Evening of Hawaiian Films and Music featured KEEPERS OF THE FLAME, directed by Eddie Kamae and Heather Giugni's ALOHA LIVE: ON THE ROAD WITH WILLIE K. & AMY. Amy Hanaliaii Gillom (listen on iTunes or here) and the Sons of Hawaii will perform after the screenings! Tickets are $12, $10 for members, no flash passes for this special event.

Sponsored by Unity House

Oct 29, 3:30 PM Rounding First is the world premiere of Director Jim Fleigner's touching bildungsroman set in the summer of 1980, telling the story of twelve-year old boys who break out of baseball camp! Director Fleigner and Hawaii's own world-champion West Oahu Little Leaguers will attend!

Sponsored by Bank of Hawaii Private Client Services

Oct 29, 6:00 PM Direct from the Toronto International Film Festival, RIVER QUEEN, set during the New Zealand Wars of the mid-19th Century, gives an uncanny sense of the grandeur and madness of a contested frontier. It stars British actress Samantha Morton as Sarah, a young Irishwoman who finds herself caught up on both sides of the conflict between Maori and British forces. Also in the cast are New Zealand actors Cliff Curtis (WHALE RIDER, THREE KINGS, THE PIANO) and Temuera Morrison (ONCE WERE WARRIORS), and Kiefer Sutherland (24).

Sponsored by Commercial Data Systems

Oct 29, 8:30 PM Closing Night Concert with the Yoshida Brothers. "Picture this: Two young men, clad in traditional kimonos and formal hakama pants, are playing — nay, thrashing — their three-stringed lutes (shamisen). Dating back to the 16th century in various forms, these particular lutes, or shamisen, The music of the Yoshida Brothers – mixing Japanese tradition with Western pop – shows how music, though it can bend, does not break with tradition.Hear samples on iTunes and from Domo Records. Tickets are $20, no flash passes for this special event.

Official Website