“The world of mental illness is hidden behind a curtain,” says Kazuhiro Soda. The Japanese filmmaker’s second feature documentary, MENTAL, is a fascinating peek behind that curtain. Mental illness is terrifying for anyone who suffers from it. But mental patients in Japan have even more to contend with, as society shuns them and the government politicizes their care. Sit in on my talk with Soda, and have your consciousness raised.

Mental recently won Best Documentary at Pusan Film Festival and Dubai Film Festival, and is slated to play at Berlin Film Festival the first week in February. Mental is cinema verite—a filmmaking method whereby the director finds and records actual events, without prompting or scripting the participants. It was the ideal means to meet the variegated personalities of Chorale Okayama, an outpatient mental clinic in Japan. Soda interspersed observation and interviews of mental patients, staff, volunteers, and home mental health aides. He elaborated on his process in the Director’s Statement:
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Tags: Berlin Film Festival, Dubai Film Festival, film, Japan, Kazuhiro Soda, Kiyoko Kashiwagi, Mental, mental illness, Pusan Film Festival

With Children of Invention, Tze Chun gives a whole new meaning to “Sundance Kid.” His first feature, premiering at Sundance Film Festival this week, is a unique Asian-American story that draws on his own life. But it’s carried by Michael Chen and Crystal Chiu, its two child stars. Whether you’re kicking it in Utah or not, check out my convo with writer/director Tze Chun.
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Tags: Children of Invention, Cindy Cheung, Crystal Chiu, Filmmaker Magazine, Lucy Liu, Michael Chen, pyramid schemes, Sundance, Tze Chun

Amid all the New Year’s Eve options out there, my husband and I picked a good one. While the ball was droppin’, our eyes were poppin’—at the final, climactic scene of the modern Korean classic Oldboy. Wow. We were so into it, we forgot to switch over to the TV countdown as we had planned. Will the real Asian film geek please stand up? And does this auspicious beginning to 2009 foretell a great year for Asian film?
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Tags: Addicted, Ang Lee, asian, Asian film, Free Food for Millionaires, Geling Yan, Joan Chen, justin lin, Korean, Min Jin Lee, Never Forever, Oldboy, Stephen Chow, sung kang, Tian yu