Presents
At MoMA: RAIN DOGS
Asian CineVision is proud to kick off the Spring 2007 line-up of the Asian Cinevisions monthly film series at the Museum of Modern Art, with films from the US/Philppines (RIGODON), China (TAKING FATHER HOME), Malaysia (RAIN DOGS) and (MONDAY MORNING GLORY), and Canada (EVE AND THE FIRE HORSE). Special discount for ACV members! Show valid membership card and pay only $6 for admission to the screenings.
RAIN DOGS (TAI YANG YUE)
Director: Ho Yuhang
Screenplay: Ho Yuhang, Lim Lay-kuen, Too Set-fing
Malaysia | 2006 | 94 mins | Color | Cantonese, Mandarin w/ES
Cast
: Kuan Choon Wai, Liu Wai Hung, Yasmin Ahmad, Pete Teo
Ho Yuhang is a leading voice on the Malaysian independent cinema scene. His forceful cinematic expression exudes the same melancholic tones - and the same penetrating magnetism - as Deep South blues. Rain Dogs, Ho's latest feature, is a road movie about the journey to adulthood. A mature and sensitive testimony, it revolves around love, loss and failures of communication. Beginning in the familiar turmoil of adolescence, Ho widens his gaze to encompass both the banality of daily life and the majesty of Malaysia's landscapes. He observes his characters from a distance, letting them breathe in an air of authenticity, and achieves a raw narrative honesty.
Nineteen-year-old Tung (Kuan Choon Wai) has been visiting his elder brother Hong (Cheung Wing Hong) in Kuala Lumpur. Returning home, he loses his money in the busy bus station - but he is about to lose something far more important and ephemeral. Hong, a small-time delinquent, dies soon after in a fight at the local pool hall, and what Tung has known as youth vanishes with him.
He is forced to return to Kuala Lumpur, this time for Hong's funeral. On his second trip home, the intoxicating beauty of the countryside - its lush green jungle shining under high skies dense with rain - accompanies his journey. But the road to the little town where he lives with his mother now leads to a mental place where he no longer belongs. Blues legend Odetta sings in the background, "Sometimes I feel like a motherless child / A long, long way from home," expressing Tung's emotions and setting the film's tone with her sad melody.
The inner landscapes of bewildered lives are paired with the impassive beauty of nature and the metaphorical darkness of neon-lit Kuala Lumpur. It is all captured in the passionate cinematography of Teoh Gay Hian, whose work can also be seen this year in Garin Nugroho's Opera Jawa. Simultaneously full of compassion and strength, the particular intensity of Rain Dogs is born of Ho's disarming ability to unlock meaning and mood from the quiet of his meditative bouquet of ideas. - 2006 Toronto International Film Festival
WHEN: Thursday, March 8, 8.30pm; Saturday, March 10, 6.30pm
WHERE: Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd Street.
NY, NY 10019
T: 212-708-9400
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