The 2008 Chinese American Film Festival is organized by EDI Media Inc. The Asian American and Pacific Islanders Faculty and Staff Association and the Association for Chinese Students of Cal State University, Fullerton are the venue sponsors. We hope that you come to this festival and enjoy free movies.

Brief Description of the Four Films

2008 Marriage Trap
婚禮 2008
(Sunday, November 9 @ 5:30 pm)

導演 / 編劇： 張 承（《瘋狂的石頭》編劇）
演員： 陶 虹、郭 濤

影片簡介

老郭（郭濤飾）是一名婚禮主持，為人風趣、可靠，卻愛上了詭計多端的職業“婚托” --- 小桃（陶虹飾）。因為他的熱烈追求女人，誤打誤撞多次破壞了小桃好事，把小桃的富商獵物全都嚇走。為免夜長夢多，她坦白向癡心的老郭說出自己的騙子身份，怎料愈是說出真話，愈能打動老郭，令他愛得更深，不忍放棄。

哪想這一切全是騙局！原來盡在小桃掌握之中，她深明以一貫舊有手法，難以騙走老郭的房子與現金，無奈苦無對策，只好欲擒故縱。可是，在來來往往地爾虞我詐之間，小桃竟又對老郭發生了真情感。到最後，老郭終得美人歸，但披上羊皮的老郭也不是省油燈！真言謊話背後，其實有另一種的盤算。這場婚禮，究竟誰在騙誰？哪個是真正大老千？最後，真正有情人只歎一句：甘心被你騙一輩子。

The Brief Introduction

Lao Guo (Guo, Tao), a professional MC specialized in Wedding services, is famous for his bright character and for that he is a trustworthy friend to all. Unexpectedly, he finds himself having a crush on Xiao Tao (Tao, Hong) whose real profession is to cheat by using fake relationships with men in a dating agency for money.

Lao Guo, in pursuing the woman of his dream scares away many of Xiao Tao's rich targets. So, before her business gets further interfered, Xiao Tao has to cut the unwanted pursuer of hers off her tail, and for that she one day confesses to him about the real herself, a cheater. More unexpectedly, her heartfelt confession only helps worsen the situation; Lao Guo tells her that he is touched by her candidness and for that his pursuance is even enhance.

However, Lao Guo has no way of knowing that he, his house and his money are the real targets of Xiao Tao, only her way of pursuing is opposite to his, she has to make her approach to her target by trying to cut it off at first.

Back and forth, the chase and the cutting off continue until finally Lao Guo wins the professional cheater and ends up marrying her. This time, it is Xiao Tao's turn to get surprised because Lao Guo has had his own plan in the first place.

Who is the cheater? Who is the cheated? Or should one say “willing to be cheated for a lifetime” as the true lovers often say?

 

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A Thousand Years of Good Prayers
(Sunday, November 9 @ 7:30 pm)

Director: Wayne Wang

A Brief Introduction

In ' A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, ' elderly Mr. Shi ( Henry O ) arrives from China to spend time with his divorced daughter, Yilan (Faye Yu), hoping to help her sort out her life in this strange new country. That, after all, is his duty as a parent. Yilan, although polite, doesn't feel like being the dutiful daughter. Unlike Geraldine in Dim Sum, Yilan can't wait to be rid of her parent, whose need to pry into and control her like becomes a nuisance-even if he does lovingly cook up multi-course meals for her at the end of the workday. Where sharing meals served as familial and cultural bonding in Dim Sum, it is seen as an intrusion for Yilan, who longs to have her own private life back again.

Despite going through Yilan's things while she's at work and trying to pry information from her, Mr. Shi cannot understand his daughter or the rift between them. The only person he shares some connection with in this cold new universe is Madam ( Vida Ghahremani ), an elderly but vivacious Iranian woman living with her son and his family. They begin to meet regularly on a local park bench. Without a common language, they resort to expressing themselves to one another in a mix of their respective languages and broken English. While they seem to communicate with each other easily, Mr. Shi and his daughter find themselves at an impasse. The problem is generational and geographical; it is also in the language, as one day Yilan reveals to her father that expressing herself in English is far easier than in Chinese.

There is wry humor in Mr. Shi trying to understand his daughter, as well as this country she has adopted as her own. There is also a sense of seeking clues to a mystery. As Wang explains, "I wanted it to be a mystery that Shi comes to solve. Arriving in a strange land to visit a strange daughter he hasn't seen in many years, Shi begins to peel back the layers of the life like he takes apart the Russian nesting dolls on her dressing table."

 

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The Treatment
刮痧
(Monday, November 10 @ 5:30 pm)

導演：鄭曉龍

編劇：王小平

演員：梁家輝 蔣雯麗 朱旭

影片簡介

做電腦動畫設計的許大同和妻子簡甯是一對赴美 8 年、事業有成的華人，原本諸事順遂，卻因為一件刮痧小事而身逢訴訟。事原很偶然的事情。他們給孩子洗澡，不小心把孩子給摔到了。去醫院檢查時，醫生意外發現孩子身上有傷。其實是爺爺（朱旭飾）給孫子刮痧後留下的印跡。在聖路易斯這座城市裏，刮痧不被理解，這種行為等同于虐待孩子，於是孩子被兒童福利院收養，許大同為了討回孩子，一家人不得不走上法庭……

The Brief Introduction

THE TREATMENT is the compelling tale of a young Chinese couple who immigrate to the United States from Beijing seeking all of the benefits of the American Dream they have heard so much about.

They settle into Middle America , have a son, and begin building their dream . But on the way they are wrongfully accused of child abuse and find themselves caught up in a legal system they don't understand.

The pressures brought to bear force them to reevaluate their way of life and the reasons they left their homeland in the first place and reaffirm the supreme value of family , regardless of culture or nationality.

 

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Up the Yangtze River
(Monday, November 10 @ 7:30 pm)

(Documentary)

A Brief Introduction

In China , it is simply known as "The River." But the Yangtze--and all of the life that surrounds it--is undergoing a truly astonishing transformation wrought by the largest hydroelectric project in history, the Three Gorges Dam. A "farewell cruise" traverses the gargantuan waterway, and below deck a bewildered young girl trains as a dishwasher--sent to work by her peasant family, who is on the verge of relocation from the encroaching floodwaters. Above deck, a phalanx of wealthy international tourists set sail to catch a last glance of a country in dramatic flux. The teenaged employees who serve and entertain them--now tagged with new Westernized names like Cindy and Jerry by upper management--warily grasp at the prospect of a more prosperous future.