Hawaii International Film Festival Spring Showcase 2009

After enchanting audiences as a spunky cyborg in CYBORG SHE (2008 LVHIFF), Haruka Ayase is back to win crowds over once again! Ayase is the blind musician Ichi who leads a life of solitude by wandering from town to town. When a village she is in becomes hostage to two opposing clans, Ichi must reveal her deadly sword fighting skills to protect the villagers. Director Fumihiko Sori's film pays tribute to ZATOICHI, but by making the main character a blind swordswoman instead of a blind swordsman, Sori adds his own intriguing twist to the ever popular franchise.

When Vikram arrives in Mumbai from New Delhi hoping to crack the movie business, he soon finds romance with Sona, who is a few years ahead of him in terms of making inroads but is still waiting for her big break. The film gets its digs in early and often by populating the movie-making universe with characters who are vacuous, weaselly or both. It might seem as if Bollywood couldn’t possibly satirize itself — the genre is already so over-the top, but director Zoya Akhtar manages the trick deftly in LUCK BY CHANCE, an appealing tale of two would-be actors looking for movie stardom.

HIFF is partnering with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Honolulu (BBBS) for a special screening of a film created by ten local kids and their BBBS mentors. MAILI LAND'S STORIES OF HOPE are three short films written, directed and produced by children, ages 11-17, who are part of BBBS's Maili Land project, a transitional housing program on Oahu's Leeward side. Moviegoers will see that the stories these children tell ring true. FRIENDSHIP is the story of one boy who moves into Maili Land, a transitional housing program, and struggles to make friends. A PROMISE tells the tale of another Maili Land family and how their son sees promise in the future.

Swimming instructor Cheon-soo loses everything he has to gambling and realizes that he'll be paying off his debts for the rest of his life. His moneylender, Kang, approaches him with the dangerous proposition of becoming a "marine boy," a drug trafficker that swims across the ocean with illegal drugs. Cheon-seo relents and goes on drug-runs, risking his life. Soon, he meets a mysterious beauty, who has been tracking him...

Sung-nam is a 40ish, married painter who is exiled in Paris, on the lam from getting caught smoking pot in Seoul. Feeling trapped in life and blocked in his art, the getaway proves welcome - only now that he's actually settled in the City of Light, what should he do? Director Hong Sang-soo channeling Eric Rhomer, creates a beautifully observed, characteristically wry chronicle of Sung-nam's attempt to savor his wandering year. Not speaking a word of French, Sung-nam joins a floating group of Korean ex-pat bohemians. When he meets art student Hyun-ju and her roommate Yu-jeong, it could be that love is in the air—or is it just Paris?

Vivacious and lovely Taani (Anushka) decides to fulfill her father's last wish and marry his favorite pupil, the geeky and shy Surinder (Shah Rukh Khan). Surinder is devastated when Taani says that she cannot love him, and decides to win his new bride’s affection by secretly transforming himself into a suave and dashing alter ego named Raj. Raj signs up for the same dance lessons as Taani and as they rehearse a growing attraction between the two ensues. Will Surinder come clean about his secret identity, and can Taani learn to love an ordinary "jodi?"

The beautifully drawn anime, SKY CRAWLERS, is a futuristic tale where countries settle their differences with one another through battles in the air rather than participating in full-scale war. The pilots are called "Kildren," and have been genetically altered to never age. Top-notch Japanese fighter pilot Yuichi Kannami has just been assigned to a new air base. He has only vague memories of his past, and knows only how to fly and fight. However, when he meets Suito Kusanagi, the beautiful girl in command at the base, a disturbing new awareness of the meaninglessness of his life starts creeping into his timeless soul. - TIFF

Karim leads a simple and contented life with his family. After losing his job at an ostrich farm, he travels to the city in order to repair his elder daughter’s hearing aid. While in Tehran, Karim is mistaken for a motorcycle taxi driver. Thus begins his new profession: ferrying people and goods through heavy traffic. But the people and material goods that he deals with daily begin to transform Karim’s generous and honest nature, much to the distress of his wife and daughters. It is up to those closest to him to restore the values that he had once cherished…

Helene gathers her children and grandchildren at her French country estate to celebrate her 75th birthday. Their gift of a tricky-to-use mobile phone, however, seems to symbolize the 21st-century pressures that are closing in on her precious way of life. The growing sense the exquisite Helene - the niece of a famous artist - has of her own mortality leads her to bequeath her most valuable artwork and furniture to her closest family: her eldest son Frederic, daughter Adrienne and brother Jeremie. Gradually, Director Assayas shows how family ties, even in affectionate families, inevitably erode over time. SUMMER HOURS is a bittersweet elegy about love and memory and the ways in which we hold them.