Beautiful 2012

Directed by Tae-young Kim, Ming Liang Tsai, Gu Changwei, Ann Hui

CinemAsia / Hong Kong / 2012 / 92 mins / Cantonese, Korean with English subtitles / Color

Beautiful 2012

Sundance Kabuki Cinemas
March 16, 2013 12:40 pm Buy Tickets Buy Tickets

Beautiful 2012

Pacific Film Archive Theater
March 17, 2013 4:00 pm Buy Tickets Buy Tickets

Description

Tamed and packaged on greeting cards and calendars, beauty is often so banal it’s invisible. But this omnibus of four short films, each by an acclaimed Asian director, wrests moments of rapture from unexpected places. In You Are More Than Beautiful (Kim Tae-yong, Late Autumn), a taciturn young man hires an actress to be his fiancée in order to satisfy his dying father.

For Walker, Tsai Ming-Liang (Goodbye, Dragon Inn) followed a scarlet-robed monk through the bustling streets of Hong Kong. With deliberate, incredibly slow steps, the monk’s infinitesimal progress provides a surreal meditation on the simple pleasures of movement. The enigmatic Long Tou (Gu Changwei, Peacock) focuses on three people discussing the vicissitudes of time, life and death as everyday events unfold around them. Finally, in My Way, Ann Hui (A Simple Life) presents a tender portrait of a transsexual woman.

A first-time collaboration between the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society and Youku, China’s leading Internet television company.

Credits

Executive Producer: Victor Koo
Producer: David Cao, Luke Lu, Frank Wei, Wong Yat Ping
Cinematographer: Jason Kwan, Tsai Ming-Liang, Kwon Sang-jun, Dong Zhenye
Writer: Tsai Ming-Liang, Lou Shiu Wa, Kim Tae-yong, Yang Weiwei, Kim Young-hyun
Editor: Lei Cheng-Chin, Seong Su-a, Manda Wai, Yang Zhifeng