Fantastic Fest 2008

The filmmaking team behind last year's FF hit THE BIRD, THE MOUSE AND THE SAUSAGE are back with a new stop-motion food tale that reveals the hidden nature of pescatorial reproduction. Appearing as part of the ANIMATED SHORTS program. CLICK HERE for details. Directors Max Margulies and Naoka Masuda will be in attendance.

Brief Description: After a car accident renders Igarashi free of his short term memory, he abandons his dreams to become a lawyer in favor of becoming a masked wrestler Full Description: That Japanese college students donning wrestling masks and tights to try their hand at flamboyant professional style wrestling would prove entertaining came as no surprise. That it could be touching, heartfelt and emotionally satisfying as it is in GACHI BOY - a very deserving winner of the Audience Award at the Udine Far East Film Festival 2008 - came as a shock of the highest order. Sure to be a huge crowd pleaser as it rolls out on the festival circuit, GACHI BOY is a remarkable piece of work that fully exploits its sublimely ridiculous premise for comic effect while also finding a deeply human heart in the proceedings. Igarashi seems to have it all. He’s young, cheerful, friendly and blazingly intelligent. Though he still has one full year of university remaining, Igarashi has already passed the bar exam and is well on his way to a career as a high-powered lawyer. But Igarashi has one major problem—a serious accident a year before has left him with no short-term memory. He cannot learn anything new and gets by only with the help of detailed notes and photographs taken every day and left for himself to find in the morning. Clearly his dream of becoming a lawyer is impossible now, so what is Igarashi to do? Become a masked wrestler, of course! Yes, kids, GACHI BOY is a film that combines the central plot device of MEMENTO and fuses it into a movie that is equal parts cult comedy, underdog sports movie, and power-of-the-human-spirit inspirational melodrama. It's a bizarre fusion that, bluntly, should never ever have been able to work, but my god it does, each part coming together in ways that surprise despite being familiar and the strengths of each disparate element building up the other parts while cancelling out the typical weakness of each subgenre. Yes, the scenario is goofy as all hell - and riotously fun as a result - but the characters are played with such sincerity and charm that GACHI BOY earns every ounce of the emotional high it hits with its climactic wrestling bout. There's no real need to talk about plot with this film - it hits all the marks you expect any sports film to hit from start to finish - because the charm isn't in the plot, it's in the characters and the young actors who portray them and the equally young director - he's only twenty six - who directs with a confidence well beyond his years. GACHI BOY will draw you in with the wrestling - as it should, the wrestling's a blast - but it'll leave you with the characters you'll want to stand and cheer for for days after seeing it. (Todd Brown) This film is sponsored by Viz Pictures. Director Norihiro Koizumi live in person!

Nacho Vigalondo portrays an interstellar superhero who, along with his sniveling sidekick, fearlessly battles evil throughout the universe!

We don't need no fancy arcade...we got an arcade RIGHT HERE! Mysterious innovative stop-motion wizard(s) PES bring the universal excitement of video games into the real world in bold, unnatural ways. Appearing as part of the ANIMATED SHORTS program. CLICK HERE for details.

During prohibition, Longhorn Caverns held secret speakeasy-style dances in the main chamber of the cave. There was even a dance floor and a permanent bar. For our closing night party, we're teaming up with subterranean adventure film CITY OF EMBER and our energy drink partners-in-fun Red Bull. We are going to dust off this 80 year old tradition and party all-night-long right in the same place. There won't be big band music, but we'll have awesome DJs spinning the best subterranean jams known to man. Buses leave from Alamo South Lamar at 9:30 PMPM and head out to Longhorn Cavern near Burnet, Texas, and will return again at 4:00 AM. Buses will be leaving periodically throughout the night, so even if you don’t think you can make it until dawn, we encourage you to take the bus and don’t even risk driving that far after having a sip to drink. If the party hurts too much, of course, you can always have another Red Bull and make it another hour. We’ll have glow sticks, lasers and light effects changing throughout the night, so wear your best neon outfit, or wear something completely black so that only the lights you carry will let you be seen. Whatever you wear, just make sure you’re ready to get lit.

Brief Summary: Directed by Ji-woon Kim (A BITTERSWEET LIFE, A TALE OF TWO SISTERS) and setting an all-time Korean box office opening weekend record this year, THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE WEIRD, an homage to Leone's similarly named classic, is one of the year's most anticipated genre titles. Full Description: THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE WEIRD, at face value, is a Korean remake of THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY. However, updated with eye-popping colors, fast-paced editing, explosive action and a slightly different twist on the story, it stands on its own two feet quite nicely. Set in 1930's Manchuria, the intricate plot pits three outlaws against the entire Japanese army and a mob of Russian gangsters in a race to find the "treasure" that will define the outcome of the Sino-Japanese war. (The story is complex; expect to read lots of complaints that it makes no sense, but trust me, it's all there.) Jung Woo Sung is "The Good". While not quite as iconic as the unforgettable Clint Eastwood, he is nonetheless handsome as hell and unflappably suave. He stands for the Korean resistance, determined to use every weapon at his disposal against the Japanese invaders. Lee Byung Hun is "The Bad". More widely known from JSA, A BITTERSWEET LIFE and HERO, he's as bad as villains come and also icy smooth. Employed by a treacherous warlord to waylay the treasure, he has no intention of sharing any of the profit with his employer. The stand-out is Song Kang Ho, who won my heart irrevocably in THE HOST and is also well known from JSA, SYMPATHY FOR MR VENGEANCE, MEMORIES OF MURDER and LADY VENGEANCE. His turn as "The Weird", for my money, outstrips Eli Wallach's Tuco for sheer fun quotient and is a stellar three-dimensional performance that provides most of the buoyancy of the film that sustains the 2-hour plus run time. Apparently just a solo bandit out making a living, he stumbles across the prize and fights off all comers to hold on to it. Last but not least, the desert filming location is a major star. This is a fantastic Wild West location, with an Asian flair. Magnificent scenery and set pieces are beautifully shot and squeezed for every ounce of spectacle. (Karrie League)

An elderly groundskeeper clashes with a football team who just don't show enough sensitivity to the wonders of their playing field.

Check out all the films in this year's Pink Retrospective. Click here for a show listing. A young girl, already a jaded sexual veteran, embarks on an odyssey of self-discovery to find out the true reasons for her dissatisfaction and total desensitization. This parable is told in a jagged avant-garde style that must have baffled the target audience of businessmen seeking cheap thrills on their lunch hours. GUSHING PRAYER begins with an extended group sex scene in which the story's young protagonist, Yasuko, is very much the centerpiece. As she lies beneath the thrusts of an enthusiastic adolescent classmate, her friends call on her anxiously from the sidelines "Can you feel it? What does it feel like?" Yasuko however, confesses to feeling nothing, in fact appearing frozen to all feeling. And so, on the threshold of womanhood, with all the weight of adult expectation and responsibility which that entails upon her, upon the goading encouragement of her peers, she sets out on an odyssey of self-exploration in search of complete sexual satiation. (Jasper Sharp) Jasper Sharp, pink film scholar and author of the new Fab Press book "Behind The Pink Curtain - The Complete History of Japanese Sex Cinema" will be in attendance to introduce the film. Expect to learn a lot about this shadow world of Japanese film culture. Very special thanks to Marc Walkow of Outcast Cinema for crucial programming and logistical assistance.

An adult film director coaches his new star on the subtleties of succeeding in the porn industry. Appearing as part of the skull-boiling SHORT FUSE program. CLICK HERE for details.