YNOT at the Movies

As the film begins, Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is summoned into the Vatican to the suddenly dead Pope's (Bruno Novelli) bedside. As the dean of the College of Cardinals, Lawrence takes on the daunting task of overseeing the papal election at the conference inside locked doors of the Sistine Chapel.

Cardinals from all over the world arrive at the Vatican, and the not-so-subtle power maneuvers to advance their own agendas quickly begin to unfold. Even though the liberal-minded Cardinal Bellini (Stanley Tucci) of the Vatican encourages Cardinal Lawrence to enter the race, Lawrence faces his own crisis of faith. The conservative Cardinal Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto) of Venice wants to roll back the progress made by the late Pope, while power-hungry Cardinal Tremblay (John Lithgow) of Montreal plays repugnant tricks to bolster his chance. Ambitious Cardinal Adeyemi (Lucian Msamati) of Nigeria hopes to become the first African pope in history. To top it off, the sudden appearance of a secretly appointed Cardinal Benítez (Carlos Diehz) of Kabul shocks the college. These cardinals are not just spiritual leaders, they are also political operators.

Outside the chapel, people anxiously await the white smoke that signals a new Pope's election, while the looming threat of a terrorist attack adds tension. Inside, Cardinal Lawrence uncovers secrets about the dead Pope and his fellow cardinals, as the suspenseful rounds of voting continue, reflecting the outcome of each political battle.

The German director Edward Berger proved himself a master storyteller with last year's Best International Feature Oscar winner "All Quiet on the Western Front" (2023). In "Conclave," he creates a thriller even more intense than a wild murder mystery. This film is sure to be a front-runner in this year's Oscar race.

From the atmospheric sets painstakingly recreated at Cinecittà Studios to the tension-filled scenes in the Vatican, Berger pulls viewers into the cloistered world of the Catholic Church. The majestic halls of the Sistine Chapel are bathed in a somber, golden light, contrasting with the vibrant red robes of the cardinals, creating a visually stunning metaphor for the gravity and secrecy of their deliberations.

At the heart of "Conclave" is Ralph Fiennes's nuanced portrayal of Cardinal Lawrence, a man torn between his duties to the Church and his doubts about its future. His interactions with fellow contenders for the papacy are the emotional and intellectual core of the film.

The composer Volker Bertelmann's score, built around minimal but effective strings and haunting tones, mirrors the rising tension as secrets and alliances are revealed. The music, blending modern soundscapes with the ancient, traditional world of the Vatican, amplifies the film's themes of faith, power, and doubt.

However, as if the spiritual and political drama weren't enough, the story adds a few unnecessary twists that can feel preachy. Despite this, the film offers a rare glimpse into the machinations behind the world's oldest institution, all while keeping the audience on edge with the intense suspense of a papal election—which turns out to be far more gripping than any U.S. presidential race.

"Conclave" opens on Friday, October 25, 2024.

Set in the final 90 minutes before the live broadcast, a nervous young producer Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) struggles to bring his revolutionary vision of comedy to life, despite obstacles that seem designed to ensure its failure. He is surrounded by the sharply witty Chevy Chase (Cory Michael Smith), the laid-back Dan Aykroyd (Dylan O'Brien), the joyful Gilda Radner (Ella Hunt), the classically trained Garrett Morris (Lamorne Morris), and the unpredictable John Belushi (Matt Wood), among a few others. No one, including Lorne, is certain if the show can go live at 11:30pm.

The frantic camera follows Lorne zipping through the unruly casts and crews, intimidating network executives, tripped power cables, misplaced props, and the rewritten cue-cards at the last minute. There is a fire, there is a fight, and there is a malfunctioning sound system. Yet, remarkably, despite the mayhem, the first episode airs, and the rest is history.

The director Jason Reitman's love for SNL shines through the film, stemming from his own experience as a guest writer on the show in 2008, where he experienced the behind-the-scenes pressure firsthand. That adrenaline is palpable in the film, creating an atmosphere thick with uncertainty and excitement, as every department, from costume to set design, races against the clock. Reitman conveys the ticking tension throughout the production, where even a single mishap could derail everything.

The movie's aesthetic choice of filming on 16mm adds to the vintage feel, transporting audiences back to the mid-1970s. The meticulously recreated Studio 8H and the frantic pace of the film gives us a real-time sensation, as if we are rushing alongside Lorne Michaels, who has produced 833 episodes of SNL to date. Jon Batiste's musical score, recorded live on set, adds another layer of authenticity, capturing the jazzy unpredictability of the era.

In portraying a pivotal moment in television history, "Saturday Night" serves not only as a chronicle of the birth of SNL, but also as a tribute to the audacity of youth. It celebrates the ambition and the risks taken by the original cast and crew, making it a nostalgic ride for SNL devotees and a vibrant introduction for those less familiar with its legacy. Despite some underdeveloped character arcs, the film delivers a heart-pounding look at how a scrappy, revolutionary show almost didn't make it on air, yet went on to redefine comedy.

"Saturday Night" opens on Friday, October 11, 2024.

Frida (Naomi Ackie) is a struggling waitress to make ends meet working at corporate extravagant fundraising events. When she and her friend Jess (Alia Shawkat) crash an event hosted by tech billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum), they are thrilled to be invited to his private island for a vacation.

Upon arriving at the island by a private jet with a group of guests, they are pampered with beautiful dresses, exquisite cologne, delicious champagne, candlelight fancy dinners, and endless sunshine by the poolside. Everyone seems to be having a great time. But we can sense that something is fishy. Even though at times Frida and Jess also have some doubt, they choose to believe that Slater is indeed fond of them and offers them a free ride to the fun.

After Jess is bitten by a snake and Frida conveniently digests a little snake's venom, the non-stop party hits the pause button. Instead of being poisoned to death by the venom, they end up waking from the delusion and begin to see the horrific reality.

If that sounds ridiculous, that is actually how the story unfolds. The director Zoë Kravitz doesn't seem to know what kind of story she wants to tell. She also conveniently forgets to explain many details and leave some of the clues loose, such as the chicken and the red gift bags. If she aims to make a horror movie, this film is hardly scary, despite plenty of blood and screaming. If she wants to make a comedy, the film is rarely funny, despite the stupidity often exhibited by the characters. But the root of the problem is that the story doesn't make sense, and it only serves as a setup for those characters to run amok.

It would be a spoiler if I reveal why the guests don't see the danger when they are enjoying the dream vacation on that private island, and the reason is preposterous. However, I choose to omit mentioning other characters because most of them are completely ignorable and none of them are relevant. They just act either crazy or scared under the direction of the director. None of them are slightly convincing.

Slater tells Frida that "forgetting is a gift." That advice certainly fits well for the film's audience. This is a forgettable film to say the least. The guests in the film are also repeatedly asked by their host: "Are you having a good time?" The answer is definitely no if the question is directed to the film's audience.

"Blink Twice" opens on Friday, August 23, 2024.

The story begins on a perpetually dark planet called Jackson Star Mining Colony where the Weyland-Yutani Corporation controls its human workers with an iron grip. After Rain (Cailee Spaeny) is denied a travel permit, she decides to join a daring mission to obtain fuel from an abandoned ship nearby in order to escape this sunless planet. The vessel, ominously named "Romulus," is discovered by Rain's ex-boyfriend Tyler (Archie Renaux) and his friend Bjorn (Spike Fearn). They are joined by Tyler's sister Kay (Isabela Merced), a tech-savvy pilot Navarro (Aileen Wu), and Rain's "brother" Andy (David Jonsson)—who, as it turns out, is actually a synthetic android capable of interfacing with the ship's systems.

Predictably, the seemingly derelict ship is anything but empty. It harbors fast-moving and grotesque Xenomorphs—creatures whose blood is corrosively acidic and whose hunting skills are terrifyingly efficient. What starts as a quest to escape a desolate planet quickly spirals into a desperate fight for survival against these lethal predators.

The film's striking visual of the spaceship rendered a haunting backdrop for the unfolding terror. The acid-bleeding, multi-mouthed Xenomorphs have never looked more terrifying. The practical effects are top-notch, with enough gooey, visceral moments to satisfy fans of the original. The jump scares, while plentiful, are never cheap or predictable.

But it is David Jonsson's portrayal of the android Andy that often steals the show. His performance is mesmerizing, infusing the synthetic character with a quiet empathy and a robotic tone that belies a deep understanding of human emotion. Amid the film's relentless tension and fear, Andy's calm demeanor in the face of unimaginable horror provides a stark contrast to the surrounding chaos. The human characters, by comparison, often seem little more than collateral damage.

Another notable character is the android Rook, portrayed by an AI-generated version of the late Ian Holm, who passed away in 2020. Rook's presence is a respectful nod to the franchise's history, recalling his performance as Ash in the original "Alien." However, this raises questions about the future use of AI in acting.

"Alien: Romulus" is not for the faint of heart, nor for those expecting something radically different from previous entries. But for fans of the franchise, it's a return to form—a continuation of the saga that also beckons younger fans to engage with a horror classic. Dark, terrifying, and exhilarating, it's a hell of a ride. If you're ready to confront your fears of the Xenomorphs once again, this is the movie for you.

"Alien: Romulus" opens on Friday, August 16, 2024.

It's June, it's pride month, then it's time for Frameline, the world's oldest and largest LGBTQ+ film festival. Its 48th edition will take place from Wednesday, June 19 through Saturday, June 29, 2024, in theaters in San Francisco and Oakland, including the Roxie Theater, the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, the Herbst Theatre, the Vogue Theatre, and the New Parkway Theater, with a nationwide streaming encore June 24-30, 2024.

While most of the film festivals in San Francisco have been downsizing to a minimum, Frameline48 programs more films than last year, and officially becomes the largest film festival in the City. It will showcase 42 narrative features, 25 documentary features, and 66 shorts. These films represent 34 countries and regions around the world. And 8 shorts programs and 19 feature films will be available for streaming online from anywhere in the United States June 24-30, 2024.

This year's festival also introduces something entirely new in its 48 years history. Instead of the tradition of showing an opening night film at the under-renovation Castro Theatre, the festival will open with a free outdoor block party on the Juneteenth holiday in the Castro neighborhood. The party will include drag performances from San Francisco's all black Reparations, and a screening of a concert documentary "Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero" (USA 2023 | 95 min.) about the black queer rapper Lil Nas X, directed by Carlos López Estrada and Zac Manuel.

The following are a few samplers in this year's selection. (You may click on each still image or poster for the corresponding screening or event's show time and ticket information.)

• Extremely Unique Dynamic (USA 2024 | 73 min.)

  

  Having just completed its San Francisco premiere at CAAMFest last month, the goofy comedy "Extremely Unique Dynamic" returns to the City at Frameline48. It tells a story of two best friends trying to make a movie about two guys making a movie, and that movie is about two guys making a movie. That loop might have gone deeper if there were more people on the writer-director team. It's written and directed by Katherine Dudas, Ivan Leung, and Harrison Xu, with Ivan Leung and Harrison Xu also as the lead actors. This light-hearted film makes an earnest effort to entertain its audience, with a minimum storyline despite its plot appearing to be super complicated in a meta structure.

  Ryan (Harrison Xu) and Danny (Ivan Leung) are childhood best friends who grew up surrounded by cameras. As Ryan prepares to leave for Canada to be with his finance, they decide to make a movie over the last weekend together to create a lasting memory for themselves.

  These are two hyper energetic and pretty loud guys from Generation Z, so it's understandable that their supposedly memorable movie won't be a montage from their childhood home video clips, which they have plenty of. Instead, they are making a no-budget indie gay fiction about two guys, named Gregg and Tim, making a movie. The movie which Gregg and Tim are making is about two guys, named Jasper and Jake, making a movie. In the quarreling process of making the movie (doesn't matter which one), Danny comes out to Ryan as gay, which echoes the sexual identity of the characters in the movie they are making.

  As if to follow the rationale that Ryan sketches out in the movie, Danny's gay identity is artificially put on him in order for marketing success. In a sense, it worked because it's selected by Frameline! The characters are thin and the script directly follows a classroom writing playbook. However, the acting (except the fake anger) is charming to watch and there are a few humorous moments.

  No one will be able to track at which layer of a Russian doll these two actors-directors are playing, nor to understand how this film is serving as their lasting memory of their friendship. But Ryan's marketing strategy works out perfectly for the directors.

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• All Shall Be Well (從今以後 | China 2023 | in Cantonese | 93 min.)

  

  At the beginning of the director Ray Yeung's quiet, sensitive, and heart-wrenching drama "All Shall Be Well" (從今以後 | China 2023 | in Cantonese | 93 min.), a lesbian couple, Angie (Patra Au) and Pat (Lin-Lin Li), start their morning routine without a single word. Angie adds tea to a tea pot, when she turns around, Pat adds boiling water to the tea pot. That's one of the often wordless yet heartwarming harmonious moments in their daily lives together in their small apartment in Hong Kong, where a train passes by the window every few minutes.

  During a mid-autumn festival gathering, Pat and Angie cook a feast and we are introduced to Pat's delightful extended family. Pat's brother Shing (Tai-Bo) works night-shifts at a parking lot and his wife Mei (So-ying Hui) works at a hotel cleaning rooms. They have two grown children. Their daughter Fanny (Fish Liew) raises two young children in a rat infested cramped apartment and their son Victor (Chung-Hang Leung) is desperately looking for a place he can afford to start his own family. They all love Auntie Pat and Auntie Angie as their own family members, and the two often offer generous help to the working class family.

  But Angie and Pat's happiness is abruptly ended when Pat unexpectedly dies in her sleep at the age of 70 without a will. Based on Hong Kong's law, because Angie's name is not on the deed, Pat and Angie's apartment now goes to Pat's brother Shing. Not only Angie has to deal with the tremendous grief of losing a lifelong partner, but she also faces the reality that she might lose the home she has shared with Pat for over 30 years.

  After telling a story of two elderly gay men in his previous film "Twilight's Kiss" (叔叔 2019), the writer-director Ray Yeung now turns his lens to an elderly lesbian couple. While he reveals the cruel reality under current law in Hong Kong which doesn't provide protection to same-sex couples, he avoids simplifying the issue and instead portrays a few characters that evokes our sympathy and understanding. None of these characters are bad people, but everyone seems to run into a corner and there is no alternative. You can't help but wonder what you would do if you were in the shoes of each character. The mesmerizing performance by the terrific ensemble cast also makes the story even more devastating to watch.

  The film won the well-deserved Best Feature Film of the Teddy Award at this year's Berlin International Film. It also serves as an urgent public announcement: get a living will if you have not done so. The film is not to be missed if you didn't see it during its Bay Area premiere last month at the CAAMFest.

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• Out (Netherlands 2024 | in Dutch | 91 min. | World Premiere)

  

  Gorgeously shot in black and white, the director Dennis Alink's all-queer-crew production "Out" tells a captivating story about queer youth from a small village coming to a big city trying to figure out where they belong in the new world. It features terrific performances by the two lead actors, portraying the young characters who face the exciting and confusing new gay scenes. The film will resonate with the audience, regardless of which country you live in and what language you speak, because quite possibly, you had similar self-discovery experiences as the protagonists have.

  Tom (Bas Keizer) and Ajani (Jefferson Yaw Frempong-Manson) are boyfriends living in a small rural village in the Netherlands. They both dream about attending the hard-to-get-in film school in Amsterdam and living the exciting new gay lives.

  Their dreams come true when they are accepted and move to Amsterdam. The excitement and temptations are overwhelming for both of them, even though Ajani seems more quickly adapted to the new city while Tom is more reserved and trying to maintain his composure and sanity.

  But soon enough, Tom realizes that the days when he and Ajani make short movies together, by themselves, are long gone. They begin to grow apart, and start their own journeys to build their identities in the intoxicating big city life.

  The director Dennis Alink artfully tells the coming out story of his characters, not just for their sexuality, but also for their places in the gay culture and gay communities. Despite the setting of the film, the story is universal. "Out" is one of the films you will remember from this year's festival.

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• Perfect Endings (13 Sentimentos | Brazil 2024 | in Portuguese | 100 min. | World Premiere)

  

  Ten years ago, the Brazilian writer-director Daniel Ribeiro brought his splendid "The Way He Looks" (Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho | 2014) to Frameline38. That film beautifully captured adolescents' subtle feelings and took a spot in my top ten films of 2014. Ten years later, as if the teenagers have grown up, the writer-director returns to this year's festival with a comedy "Perfect Endings" whose central character João is in his 30s dealing with a recent break-up. Even though the film's original Portuguese title "13 Sentimentos" means "13 feelings," this grown-up character João appears to show fewer feelings than those teenagers in the director's previous film.

  In "Perfect Endings," the handsome 32-year-old filmmaker João (Artur Volpi) returns to the dating scene after he has just ended his 10-year-long relationship with Hugo. His filmmaking career is stalling, and his dates disappoint him, especially when he cannot stop comparing them to Hugo. But he seems to be good at being a cameraman and an editor for the porn movies he makes for other people's OnlyFans contents.

  As if he is constantly re-writing his scripts, the charming João encounters various guys and explores different scenarios of his dating life. In the end, he is able to come out of the fictional world of his movie script, and live, happily, with reality.

  "Perfect Endings" is more like an episode of a sitcom than a dramedy. It's aiming to please the audience more than anything else, including having an overt more than 3-minutes long sex scene as the perfect ending. All the characters in the film are kind, pleasant, understanding, considerate, and some of them get help from shrinks regularly. Surrounded by people like those, how is it possible for João to fail in finding a perfect ending?

  This film can be viewed as an amusing dessert of a dinner the director crafted, but if you want to be reminded by the memorable main course, check out the director's previous film "The Way He Looks" from your local library.

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• Demons at Dawn (Los demonios del amanecer | Mexico 2024 | in Spanish | 136 min. | International Premiere)

  

  Impeccably shot almost in every frame, the Mexican director Julián Hernández's arresting "Demons at Dawn" captures the physical beauty and mental turbulence of two young men in Mexico City.

  Twenty-year-old professional dancer Orlando (Luis Vegas) also dances at the nightclub as a go-go boy. One day on the street, when he spots the adorable Marco (Axel Shuarma), an aspiring nursing student, they madly fall in love at the first sight. But the love affair begins to fall apart when the young minds begin to grow and evolve. The hearts are inevitably broken.

  The director beautifully tells a genuine and captivating story, with the outstanding performances from the lead actors, and a masterful cinematography (Alejandro Cantú). This is one of the films you definitely don't want to miss at this year's festival.

"Furiosa" is set in a dystopian wasteland where it is mostly a vast sand desert. Food and water are scarce. But 10-year-old Furiosa (Alyla Browne) lives in a secret paradise-like place called Green Place of Many Mothers. After she is kidnapped by a group of bikers, her mom (Charlee Fraser) heroically chases after the gang and tries to rescue her. Despite the impressive fight with the bikers, Furiosa becomes a hostage to the ruthless Warlord Dementus (Chris Hemsworth), who rides a hilarious three-motorcycle carriage resembling the chariots in "Ben-Hur" (1959). Dementus asks Furiosa to lead them to her home, which Furiosa will never do.

Even though it's a desolate wasteland, there are several fortresses around, including the Gas Town which produces fuel for those bikers and 18 wheelers, the Bullet Farm where all the ammunition are made, and the Citadel where Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme) rules his faithful fighters who paint their bodies and faces all white. No matter where they are, one thing in common about them is that they are ruthless, barbaric, and terrifyingly cruel.

Dementus negotiates a deal with Immortan Joe to divide the limited resource, and Furiosa is given to Immortan Joe to potentially produce him an offspring. But the brave and resourceful Furiosa escapes the fate and grows up as a skilled worker. Sixteen years later, Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy) takes Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke) as her mentor, and she is ready to take revenge and find her way back home.

The writer-director George Miller expands our imagination with his dazzling visual and outrageous action sequences in this extravaganza of violence featuring soaring motorcycles and bizarre costumes. Following the example of "Mad Max: Fury Road" (2015), the technical achievement in "Furiosa" is extraordinary. As if you are surveying sets at Burning Man, or costumes at Folsom Street, or action scenes in the Fast & Furious franchise, you will be impressed by what you see throughout the film.

I regard the noise from motorcycles as one of the most annoying sounds in this world, but that soaring noise in this film serves its purpose and fits those often sadistic characters. When motorcycles become tripled in Dementus's chariot, they make him even more silly and outlandishly comical. This is an extremely loud film, mostly from the explosions and motorcycles. The film's characters don't speak much, and when they do, they don't always make sense. It's the thrilling actions that will awe you.

So there it is, you finally know where Furiosa comes from, and why she has an artificial arm in the previous films.

"Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga" opens on Friday, May 24, 2024.

Formerly known as the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, CAAMFest 2024 will take place this year May 9-19 with films, food, music, and ideas during the Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. Presented by the Center for Asian American Media, the festival has provided a platform to tell stories that convey the richness and diversity of Asian American experiences for more than four decades, even though it's now on a much smaller scale than it used to be.

This year's festival has 14 documentary features and 12 narrative features, in addition to 6 shorts programs, a slight increase from last year's 40th anniversary edition.

The festival's film selections will be screened over two weekends, at SFMOMA, the Roxie and the Great Star Theater in San Francisco, then the last Sunday at the New Parkway Theater in Oakland.

The festival opens with a well-balanced, in-depth, and even philosophical documentary "Admissions Granted" (USA 2024 | 90 min. | Documentary), about the Supreme Court Case: Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard. The film is co-directed by Hao Wu and Miao Wang, and tackles an extremely difficult subject matter—affirmative action. With eloquent interviews, archival footage, and intuitive illustrations, the film chronicles the events leading up to the Supreme Court decision. The film evenly lays out arguments from both sides over Harvard's admission policy toward Asian applicants, which boils down to the validity of affirmative action. Like a well-structured essay, the film terrifically illustrates the core issue, which is precisely articulated by Harvard Law Professor Jeannie Suk Gersen who was featured in the film:

"The division over affirmative action reflects a really deep and old conflict about what equality means that everyone is treated the same, or equality demands that people be treated differently in order to produce equality."

That division will surely remain unresolved in the foreseeable future.

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The festival closes with another documentary "And So It Begins" (USA/Philippines 2023 | in English/Filipino | 113 min.), about the 2022 presidential election in the Philippines, directed by the renowned Filipino documentarian Ramona Diaz.

Even though people already know the results of that election, which marks the return to power of the Marcos family, the film follows the Vice President Leni Robredo's campaign with a high hope. In the Philippines, the President and the Vice President are elected separately, and the Vice President Leni Robredo has been the opposition to the President Duterte who has been regarded by the West as an autocrat.

With the Nobel Peace Prize winner, journalist Maria Ressa often appearing in front of the camera, the film underlines the urgency to fight the misinformation, and it portrays Leni Robredo to be the hope for respecting free press and the truth. However, the film did little to establish the why, and by the end of the film, we still know little about Leni as a politician, and even less about her opposition. It doesn't explain why the election is at such a high stake instead of being a routine election.

The film does capture the energetic grassroots campaign by Leni's working-class supporters, but it fails to allow us to know any individual supporter, and why they were so enthusiastically campaigning for Leni. Compared to the director Ramona Diaz's impressive previous work, this film is a little disappointing, even though not as much as the election result.

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One powerful documentary showing at the festival is the director Tarek Albaba's feature directorial debut "36 Seconds: Portrait of a Hate Crime" (USA 2023 | 99 min. | Documentary). It tells the shocking story about the devastating murder of three young Muslim students at UNC Chapel Hill in 2015. Through interviewing family and friends of the victims, police and prosecutors, and legal experts, as well as presenting archive footage, the film unequivocally makes the argument that the horrific execution style murder was a hate crime, not a parking dispute as the police investigation reported.

The three victims are 23-year-old Deah Barakat, Deah's newlywed wife, 21-year-old Yusor Abu-Salha, and Yusor's 19-year-old sister Razan Abu-Salha. On February 10, 2015, the property owner Craig Hicks came to their door and shot the three promising young students to death in cold blood, then he calmly told the police during the investigation that because of his hot temper, he killed the three because of an ongoing parking space dispute.

The killing shocked the nation and the world, and devastated the Muslim community. Four years later, the shooter was sentenced to life in prison for murder, but he was not charged with a hate crime by either the federal or the state government.

The film clearly establishes the nature of the murder to be a hate crime, but even more movingly, it tells us who these three victims were and how terrible their beautiful lives were senselessly cut short. It demonstrates how important as a society, we need to unite to fight against hate crimes and intolerance.

Given the current war in Gaza and the widespread protests in universities against the indifference toward the suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza, this timely film reminds us how important it is to stand up against Islamophobia.

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Every family has a story, but it's not an easy task for someone to tell that family story. The filmmaker Vicky Du takes up that challenge and tells her family's story in her feature directorial debut "Light of the Setting Sun" (迴光返照 | USA 2023 | 73 min. | in Chinese/English | Documentary). As she goes through old photographs, letters, and home videos, she digs deep in her family's history and shares her very personal story in this absorbing documentary.

The director Vicky Du starts from the generation of her grandparents. Her grandma tells her how she was forced into a marriage with a soldier who fled mainland China to Taiwan in 1949. Du then makes her mom reflect on her own marriage on camera. She also talks to her brother about his mental health issue. As if no one can be spared in her extended family, even if some just appear in the film only through the letters they wrote, she paints an impressive family portrait with deep emotions and detailed closeups.

Du travels between Taiwan and her parents' home in New Jersey, and tries to sort out the cultural difference and its impact on each generation, and how it affects her own queer identity. Even though the stories she candidly shares are deeply personal, they are also quite universal in many ways for a lot of immigrants. Having seen the film, you may begin to wonder what your own family story is behind each photo in your parents' albums.

At the beginning of the director Ray Yeung's quiet, sensitive, and heart-wrenching drama "All Shall Be Well" (從今以後 | China 2023 | in Cantonese | 93 min.), a lesbian couple, Angie (Patra Au) and Pat (Lin-Lin Li), start their morning routine without a single word. Angie adds tea to a tea pot, when she turns around, Pat adds boiling water to the tea pot. That's one of the often wordless yet heartwarming harmonious moments in their daily lives together in their small apartment in Hong Kong, where a train passes by the window every few minutes.

During a mid-autumn festival gathering, Pat and Angie cook a feast and we are introduced to Pat's delightful extended family. Pat's brother Shing (Tai-Bo) works night-shifts at a parking lot and his wife Mei (So-ying Hui) works at a hotel cleaning rooms. They have two grown children. Their daughter Fanny (Fish Liew) raises two young children in a rat infested cramped apartment and their son Victor (Chung-Hang Leung) is desperately looking for a place he can afford to start his own family. They all love Auntie Pat and Auntie Angie as their own family members, and the two often offer generous help to the working class family.

But Angie and Pat's happiness is abruptly ended when Pat unexpectedly dies in her sleep at the age of 70 without a will. Based on Hong Kong's law, because Angie's name is not on the deed, Pat and Angie's apartment now goes to Pat's brother Shing. Not only Angie has to deal with the tremendous grief of losing a lifelong partner, but she also faces the reality that she might lose the home she has shared with Pat for over 30 years.

After telling a story of two elderly gay men in his previous film "Twilight's Kiss" (叔叔 2019), the writer-director Ray Yeung now turns his lens to an elderly lesbian couple. While he reveals the cruel reality under current law in Hong Kong which doesn't provide protection to same-sex couples, he avoids simplifying the issue and instead portrays a few characters that evokes our sympathy and understanding. None of these characters are bad people, but everyone seems to run into a corner and there is no alternative. You can't help but wonder what you would do if you were in the shoes of each character. The mesmerizing performance by the terrific ensemble cast also makes the story even more devastating to watch.

The film won the well-deserved Best Feature Film of the Teddy Award at this year's Berlin International Film. It also serves as an urgent public announcement: get a living will if you have not done so.

Founded in 1957, the San Francisco International Film Festival is the longest running film festival in the Americas. Even though in 2016, the festival adopted a new name, SFFILM Festival, the original title remains as most people's reference point.

This year marks the 67th edition of the festival, and it continues a striking trend of downsizing its programming and duration. This year, the festival only has 22 narrative features and 14 documentary features, notably a handful of the selected feature films were also part of this year's Sundance Film Festival. The festival's duration is also cut almost by half compared to the past, and only lasts five days, April 24-28, 2024.

Over the past decades, the festival always opened and held screenings at the historic Castro Theatre, which is now under renovation. So this year the festival venues have a major shift to the north side of the city, and it will take place at the Premier Theater (the birthplace of "Star Wars"), the Marina Theatre, Vogue Theatre, the Walt Disney Family Museum, and Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) in Berkeley. Following the festival run, May 2-4, at the Roxie Theater, the SFFILM Festival Encore Days program will screen award winners and a selection of films from the main program.

On Wednesday, April 24, the festival opens with the Bay Area filmmaker Sean Wang's semi-autobiographical directorial feature debut "Didi" (弟弟 | USA 2023 | in English/Mandarin | 90 min.), which won the Audience Award at this year's Sundance Film Festival. It tells a coming-of-age story of a 13-year-old boy's first happenings while growing up in a loving family in Fremont, CA.

The festival closes on Sunday, April 28, with another directorial feature debut but featuring a 93-year-old lady—Josh Margolin's comedy "Thelma" (USA 2024 | 94 min.). It tells the story of its titular character who fights back against a phone scammer.

(You may click on each still image for the corresponding screening or event's show time and ticket information.)

This year, the festival has two tribute programs to celebrate two outstanding artists—Oscar-nominated filmmaker Chiwetel Ejiofor and award-winning San Franciscan Joan Chen. On Saturday, April 27, after an on-stage conversation, Chiwetel Ejiofor's new film "Rob Peace" (USA/Brazil 2024 | 119 min.) will have its West Coast premiere. On Sunday, April 28, following an on-stage conversation, Joan Chen's directorial debut feature "Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl" (天浴 | China/USA 1998 | in Mandarin | 99 min.) will be shown on a 35 mm print.

Even though the festival's program is relatively smaller, this year's Asian films have a remarkable presence. Besides opening night's Asian American film "Didi" and the special screening of Joan Chen's "Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl", there are a few interesting Asian films or films telling stories about Asian Americans or Asia. Here are a few samplers.

• Black Box Diaries (Japan/USA/UK 2024 | in Japanese/English | 99 min. | Documentary)

  

  The #MeToo movement against sexual violence has made some progress in Western countries, but not much so in Asian countries like Japan. Named as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2020, Japanese journalist Shiori Ito (伊藤 詩織) changed that status quo by publishing a book, "Black Box," in 2017 to criticize sexism in Japan's society and institutions based on her own experience as a rape victim. She also turns her courageous fight into a deeply personal and moving documentary, "Black Box Diaries."

  This powerful film chronicles her battle in Japan's criminal justice system, which is still upholding the outdated and unjust 110-year-old law toward rape victims. Instead of keeping silent as most of the sexual assault victims do in Japan, Shiori Ito went public and accused her predator, Noriyuki Yamaguchi, who is a high-profile Japanese journalist and a close personal friend to the prime minister Shinzo Abe. Over several years, she writes diaries to document the emotionally draining journey of seeking justice for herself and for other sexual assault victims, and candidly shares her personal story in this extraordinary documentary.

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• Agent of Happiness (Bhutan/Hungary 2023 | in Dzongkha/Nepali | 94 min. | Documentary)

  

  What might be your answers if you are asked this question, "How happy and satisfied are you with life?" If that sounds like too big of a question to answer, how about answering some simpler questions such as "how many cows do you have?" or "do you have a TV?" or "how much sleep do you get?"

  That's how the Bhutan citizens are surveyed by 75 trained agents roaming the country to conduct the yearly census about happiness. The answers collected then are aggregated into a number, called Gross National Happiness Index, to measure the citizens' happiness.

  The fascinating documentary "Agent of Happiness" follows one of these survey agents, 40-year-old bachelor Amber Kumar Gurung, traveling around the beautiful mountain villages, and samples some of the answers from interviewed individuals. This engrossing film, co-directed by Bhutanese director Arun Bhattarai and Hungarian director Dorottya Zurbó, terrifically captures the daily lives of some of the characters and provokes us to question the credibility of such survey and whether it truthfully reflects the happiness of the nation's citizens.

  Even though happiness is what Amber and his colleague Guna Raj Kuikel talk about with others all the time while traveling around, he almost never smiles and seems very unhappy himself. Amber serves as the only caregiver for his aging mother, he desperately looks for a woman to marry, and he is frustrated of not being granted citizenship which is causing all kinds of hardship for him.

  For others interviewed by them, the results can vary widely. For example, the man who has three wives and 11 children in four years sounds really happy; so does the young couple who don't have much but adore their two young sons. However, a 17-year-old girl who has helped her alcoholic mother since she was twelve has a heavy burden on her young mind; so is the transgender woman who worries about her future and next life.

  The happiness index is calculated based on 148 questions in 9 categories. Some of the questions range from silly to ridiculous, and others should have been only asked by a licensed therapist. The film doesn't explain the details about how the happiness index for each individual is calculated, nor tell us why some are asked one set of questions while others are offered with different ones. More interestingly, some of the answers appear to be randomly determined by Amber and his colleague Guna. Observed from the interviews in the film, I can certainly conclude that the survey is neither statistically valid nor scientifically sound. The claim that 93.6% of Bhutanese are happy this year, an increase of 3.3% from last year, is severely doubted.

  Despite that the happiness index numbers are questionable, the film offers a glimpse of how Bhutanese live on top of the mountains and the unique culture they cherish and embrace. Some of the citizens don't seem to have much material possession, but they are content with what they have and they appear very happy with their lives. That clearly echoes the wisdom from one Chinese proverb: "Happiness lies in contentment" (知足者常乐).

  Even if a number can measure one's happiness, it's probably not the number Amber and other agents are coming up with.

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• Sidonie in Japan (Sidonie au Japon | France/Germany/Switzerland/Japan 2023 | in French/Japanese/English | 95 min.)

  

  Quite often, a movie about ghosts in Japan falls into the horror genre. But there is nothing scary in the director Élise Girard's drama "Sidonie in Japan." It tells a story about a French author going to Japan for a book tour, only to encounter the ghost of her late husband, while developing a bit of affection toward her publisher of her book's Japanese translation.

  Sidonie Perceval (Isabelle Huppert)'s book was just translated and published in Japan. Invited by her publisher Kenzo Mizoguchi (Tsuyoshi Ihara), she comes to Japan for a book tour, accompanied by Kenzo who acts almost like a bodyguard.

  Sidonie appears to have never been to Japan before, nor knows much about Japanese customs. She mimics hotel workers' bows and feels strange by Kenzo's behavior. However, the two quickly find something in common—they are both survivors of personal tragedies. Sidonie has lost not only her parents in a car accident, but also her husband Antoine Percevel (August Diehl) in another car accident, and she survives those accidents unscratched. Kenzo has lost his relatives tracing back multiple generations.

  Soon after Sidonie arrives in Japan, she starts to see her late husband Antoine showing up around her. Even though Antoine is a ghost figure and doesn't have any physical form other than an image, he is able to communicate with Sidonie and tries to help her to come to a closure. Meanwhile, Sidonie begins to have some feelings toward Kenzo. A productive trip, isn't it?

  Élise Girard unfolds her story in a low-key manner that's quite fitting for some of the scenery locations in Japan, for example, a cemetery or a river bank lined with cherry blossom. However, the story lacks the emotional gravity as in "All of Us Strangers" (2023) which has a similar setup about reconnecting with loved ones in a ghost form.

  The romance between Sidonie and Kenzo also seems to be a little forced, and there is little chemistry between the two on screen. Perhaps the director Élise Girard already realized that, and she chose to use still images to display the intimacy of these two characters, rather than live actions. It makes you wonder if the romance is real after all, like the ghosts.

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• The Cats of Gokogu Shrine (五⾹宮の猫 | Japan/USA 2024 | in Japanese | 119 min.)

  

  Labeled as "Observation Film #10," the director Kazuhiro Sôda's new mesmerizing documentary "The Cats of Gokogu Shrine" is definitely observant and inquisitive about stray cats living at the site of Gokogu Shrine (五⾹宮) in the seaside town of Ushimado (牛窓) in Japan. But his camera, as curious as those cats he filmed, extends beyond the playful cats into the surrounding aging community.

  Apparently, the cats around Gokogu Shrine are quite well-known. People from near and far frequently come to feed, pet, and adore these stray cats. But as complained by the locals, they only come to feed them but don't take care of the poop from these cats. They also create a wrong impression that people can abandon their cats here, because they will be fed often by other people.

  We hardly see any young people in the film. A group of most elderly volunteers maintain the shrine, tend the plants, look after each other, clean after the cats, and even neuter the cats to control the population. They also share their life stories and their candid opinions about these cats.

  In this film, the director Kazuhiro Sôda subtly captures the daily details and slowly assembles them into a complete mosaic that is both fascinating and mesmerizing. His filmmaking style is strikingly similar to how the legendary documentarian Frederick Wiseman makes his films, except Sôda's film is much shorter and he sometimes interacts with the subjects he is filming while on camera, which Frederick Wiseman never doe.s

  Regardless of whether you are a cat lover or not, after watching this documentary, those cats at Gokogu Shrine will stay with you for a long time, as well as those kind elderly people who take care of nature and the living. You wonder what their future will be like.

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• Great Absence (大いなる不在 | Japan 2023 | in Japanese | 152 min.)

  

  As we live longer, dementia has become more and more prevalent, especially in Japan which has about five millions people suffering from this terrible disease. Based on his own experience, the Japanese director Kei Chika-ura's poignant sophomore feature "Great Absence" unfolds a son's quest to reconnect with his estranged father who suffers from dementia. It's heartbreaking to see how an intelligent and romantic mind can completely slip away.

  The film opens with an amusing scene of the police raiding a home after a hostage situation is reported. By the end of the film, that amusing scene has become profoundly somber, because the call is made by the elderly physicist Yohji (Tatsuya Fuji), whose dementia has become so severe that he can no longer make any sense, nor take care of himself.

  After he is admitted to a medical facility, his estranged son Takashi (Mirai Moriyama), an actor playing in a contemporary play, is summoned to sign some legal documents. It turns out that it has been years since the father and son connected. When Takashi was young, Yohji left his family for his first love Naomi (Hideko Hara), and Takashi lost touch with Yohji. Even when Takashi got married to Yuki (Yôko Maki), Yohji was absent.

  Now, when Yohji completely loses his mind, Takashi begins to piece together who his father Yohji really is. It is almost like a detective job for him because it's too late for him to talk to Yohji directly. He can only look for clues from Yohji's love notes attached to Naomi's diary, the sticky-notes posted all over the house to remind himself about daily tasks, and the surviving friends who used to know Yohji. It's a way for Takashi to search for the father he lost, twice.

  In this slow burning film, the director Kei Chika-ura vividly brings the devastation of dementia to the front and center, and develops a moving father-son relationship. Using a structure of going back and forth in time, he carefully reveals some of the mysteries his characters encounter and intentionally leaves the rest unresolved, just like life itself.

  Winning the best actor award at last year's San Sebastian Festival, Tatsuya Fuji gives a calibrated and arresting performance as the aging professor. He was also the fantastic lead actor in Kei Chika-ura's directorial feature debut "Complicity" (コンプリシティ　優しい共犯 | Japan 2018). The rest of the cast are also terrific, especially Mirai Moriyama as Yohji's son, Takashi.

  The film could have been shortened from its two and half hour running time. Takashi's contemporary play scenes seem unnecessary to be included, because they only distract from the main story, and don't add anything to the Takashi character. We already learn so much more about him, and feel his pain and sorrow when we hear him recite Yohji's love notes to Noami.