I've got five pairs of tickets to give away to Royston Tan's 881, playing this Sunday, March 16, 3:15pm at the Castro Theatre. I have not yet seen the film, but I'm told that it's a very fun, campy musical melodrama about two young female singers. Straight outta Singapore. Here's the description from the festival website:
If ABBA could sing in Hokkien, they might have auditioned for Royston Tan's 881, an exuberant re-creation of the campy and uniquely Singaporean musical performance genre of getai. 881 (pronounced ba ba yao in Mandarin) is a pun on the band name adopted by the heroines, the Papaya Girls. Despite their passion for getai, the best friends are frustrated with the lack of "feel" in their singing, and beg their manager (and wardrobe consultant) Aunt Ling to introduce them to her estranged twin sister, the Goddess of Getai. She bestows magic powers on the girls after they agree to abide by five rules, which among other things forbid loving or being loved by a man.To enter for your chance to win, email me your name, email address and phone number, with "SFIAAFF 881" clearly written in the subject line, by noon on Friday, March 14. I'll throw all the entries into a hat and pick five lucky winners, who will each score a pair of tickets to see 881. Entries that do not follow these directions will be thrown out. Please, only one entry per person. Can you dig it? Winners will be notified by the end of Friday. Get your entries in.
They become an overnight sensation, but soon are assailed by obstacles. Big Papaya is ostracized by her mother, while Little Papaya futilely hides her deteriorating health. However, the sisters’ most dangerous threat comes in the form of rival Durian Sisters, who resort to the ugliest trickery to sabotage their careers. Sexy, bitchy and dressed to kill (literally), they are as prickly and pungent as their name suggests.
881 is not mere self-conscious parody, but Tan’s heartfelt love song to a nostalgic folk culture with roots all over Asia. Each frame is a carnival of untamed colors and textures; watching it is like having to eat all 31 flavors of Baskin-Robbins in one sitting. If you see it in the same mood as watching a Bollywood musical, 881 is a hugely enjoyable experience.
I'm also giving away three pairs of tickets to see Park Chan-wook's I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK, playing this Sunday, March 16, 12:45pm at the Castro Theatre. You might be familiar with Park's previous work, with films like JSA: Joint Security Area, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy and Lady Vengeance. Great movies. Here, he takes another weird turn with a reality-bending tale of a cyborg and a kleptomaniac. Here's the description:
From acclaimed director Park Chan-wook comes I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK, a playful, macabre tale of an existentially insecure cyborg and a kleptomaniac terrified of disappearing into a dot.
Lim Soo-jung (also starring in Happiness) is Young-goon, a troubled girl who, after a traumatic separation from her grandmother, believes herself to be a cyborg. Committed to a mental institution, Young-goon forgoes food, convinced she must recharge through electrical devices. Ultimately, Young-goon is determined to gain enough strength to reunite with her grandmother--and mercilessly kill anyone who stands in her way. Enter Il-soon, played by pop icon Rain, a sensitive but unstable kleptomaniac with a penchant for stealing people's characteristics. Through their budding romance, the two keep each other from literally and metaphorically vanishing into nothing.
Told through alternating realities, the film creates a zany, bouncy world where patients share in overlapping delusions. Despite this exaggeration of perceptions, I'm a Cyborg ultimately plays up the human emotions of its protagonists and stabs at the institutions at fault. Indeed, many of the ward’s patients are impossibly scarred as a result of dysfunctional family life. As in his previous films (Oldboy, SFIAAFF '05; Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance), Park drenches his characters with feelings of guilt and fear. Unlike those more violent works, Park here keeps acts of rage to an imagined realm, finally using violence as a path to personal healing and growth.
To enter for your chance to win, email me your name, email address and phone number, with "SFIAAFF CYBORG" clearly written in the subject line, by noon on Friday, March 14. I'll throw all the entries into a bowl and pick three lucky winners, who will each score a pair of tickets to see I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK. Entries that do not follow these directions will be thrown out. Only one entry per person, please. Winners will be notified by the end of Friday. Send in your entries now! To learn more about the 26th SFIAAFF, go here.